Page 24 of The Story We Wrote

“I’m glad you brought it up first. What the fuck was that?” She asked, sitting up in her bed. She laid the phone down to prop it up against something.

“I don’t know!” I squealed, rubbing my face with both my hands. “I didn’t have control over my thoughts. I saw him dressed like that and coming to my rescue, so I guess my libido just took charge.”

“You know that’s going to be the talk of the town this morning. ‘Good girl’ Aspen Westgrove throws herself all over town ‘bad boy’ Boone Cassidy. They totally fucked in the bar!”

“That is not true!” I exclaimed, she was making things worse.

“Yes,weknow that, but this town takes rumors and spreads them like wildfire,” Penny pointed out.

I groaned, tossing my head backwards.

“What happened when you got home? Did he throw you around like a rag doll?” Penny raised her eyebrows up and down, pretty much panting like a dog for the details.

“The opposite,” I mumbled.

“So he made sweet, sweet love to you? That’s not what I expected from Boone,” Penny replied.

“We fought. Well, I saw it as a fight at least. When we were in the bar, he took the hat back and said something like ‘don’t dothat again unless you mean it’ because he won’t hold back ‘next time.’” I used air quotes on the last part.

“Oh fuck…” Penny replied. “He wants to fuck you so bad, Aspen.”

“If that were true, he would’ve taken me up on the offer last night. I pretty much told the whole bar I wanted to ride the cowboy, and he rejected me.”

“Come on!” She screamed, flinching when the volume of her voice was too loud. “You cannot be serious. He didn’t fuck you because you were clearly drunk and he was sober.”

I didn’t believe that. Boone had a standard and a reputation to uphold. He was the town bachelor.

“No way,” I replied, wetting my toothbrush under the sink and adding toothpaste. I went to say more, but there was a knock on my front door. My eyes darted to Penny who mouthedwho is that?I mouthed back,I don’t know.”’\

“Let me call you back,” I whispered, putting my toothbrush down on the ledge of the sink.

“If you need help, send an SOS text. I’ll be there as soon as I can in this condition. Love you!” Penny whispered back.

“Love you too.” I ended the FaceTime and put my phone on the counter. I walked to the front door and I couldn’t see who’s out there without opening it. I slowly turn the door knob, cracking it a bit just to be able to see.

With two cups of hot coffee, Boone stood on my front porch in his pajamas bottoms and a black v neck t-shirt. His hair was disheveled like he just woke up. My mouth watered, and not at the coffee.

“Are you going to let me in or make me stand here while you stare?” Boone asked.

Clearing my throat, I opened the door all the way standing face to face with him. Boone’s eyes tracked down my body. When I followed his gaze, I noticed I was still in my skimpy tank topand shorts that barely qualified as clothing. Now, my nipples were slightly hard from the morning air. “Um, yeah come in. Let me just go grab a sweatshirt.” I crossed my one arm over my chest and let Boone come inside. After I shut the door behind him, I ran down to the bedroom throwing on an oversized sweatshirt that would cover everything. When I returned to the living room, Boone was leaning against my kitchen counter. He held one cup of coffee in his hand, the other rested beside him.

“I brought you coffee.” He nudged his head towards the plain white mug. Coffee sounded amazing. Maybe caffeine was what I needed? Hopefully, it would make this hangover more tolerable.

“Thanks,” I muttered, walking over and grabbing the cup between both of my hands. I took an inhale, smelling fresh ground beans and something else. Cinnamon, possibly? When I took a small sip, I knew I was right. I loved cinnamon in my coffee. I always added a little to the grinds. Swallowing, I closed my eyes as the warmth rushed down my throat. He added cream, no sugar. It was made just how I liked it.

“I’m going to break the ice,” Boone said, which snapped me back to reality. “About last night…”

“Nope. Absolutely not,” I said, walking away from him and towards the living room. I plopped down on the couch. This conversation wasn’t happening already. It was way too early, and the coffee didn’t even kick in yet. I needed time to think about what I was going to say.

“We gotta talk about it. Just hear me out,” He pleaded, coming to sit across from me on the coffee table. He took up most of the space. His knees sat on either side of mine. “Please don’t take me doing what I did as not wanting to hook up with you,” He paused. “Again.”

The asshole added a smirk, but I didn’t return the sentiment. “I would’ve loved to take you to the bed of my truck and have myway with you, just not now. Not last night, when you had enough alcohol in your system to inebriate an elephant.”

He could tell by the look on my face I was confused, again I wasn’t very good at poker.

“What I’m trying to say is, I like having you around. I like spending time with you, and if we go farther than we did last weekend, I’m afraid I will fuck it up. I don’t want you to think all I want is sex. I like our friendship. I like your muffins. If we go past the touching or the kissing, I don’t want you to be like the others,” Boone sighed.

His honesty took me by surprise. Whatever friendship that was forming was worth more than one steamy night.

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