Page 18 of What I Should Have Known

Bernie winked. “You gonna tell me to knock it off?”

“Only if you want to keep your balls. I was the one doing the castrating long before you ever arrived here.”

Stepping directly into me, he placed a calloused hand beneath my chin and tipped my head up. A shiver danced down my spine as his eyes darkened. “I dare you to try, considering that would mean your hand down my pants.”

My eyes flew wide, and I quickly stumbled backward. Bumping into Ace, I slapped a hand against the horse’s side. “Excuse me? Why would I do that?”

Bernie’s brows stitched together, his hand still positioned as if it was against my chin. He opened his mouth, ready to speak but instead exhaled, dropped his hands to his sides and looked away. In a flash, a mask pixelated across his face, hiding every emotion that might have been there.

“I can go wait up by the house for you to put your horse away. Just need my CAC and then I’ll be out of your hair,” he stated as if speaking to a professional colleague.

With the heat of my horse against my back, I wished I could disappear into Ace’s shadow all together. I wasn’t even sure what I was feeling, other than upset he’d said something so crass like that. And in a way that roused this odd warmth deep within my core I was very unaccustomed to.

“Why would you consider that? Don’t you need your testicles?” I asked, trying to decipher what he meant.

Bernie tipped his head, a layer of his mask filtering away. “Yes I do, but…” His voice trailed off and he closed his eyes. A snort shook his shoulders and then he filled his lungs with air. “The offer for a pair of fresh clothes still available?”

“Well, yeah. Obviously. I’ve had dried shit caked to me before and it’s not fun.”

“You are something else, Kit Kat,” Bernie muttered, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and walked forward. “Something else.”

“What the hell does that mean?” I gasped, jogging after him.

“Nothing. Nothing at all,” he replied softly and chuckled to himself as we rounded the bend.

Chapter 7

BERNIE

She had no idea.

I’d thought my game was off, but no. She wasn’t picking up on the fact that I was very much flirting with her. Part of me wondered why, considering how secure in herself she acted. Though I’d known her for only a day or so, and maybe that was it, my assessment was off.

My stomach rumbled, reminding me that we hadn’t stopped for a lunch break, and it was nearing seventeen hundred hours. I hadn’t had a chance to check my phone all day either and wondered how many missed calls and texts were waiting from my mom.

But now was not the time to look as Kat placed her finger over her lips, reminding me to be silent, and then gently swung the front door open. The hinges groaned, but chatter from inside drowned the noise out.

Without a sound, I followed Kat inside her house. She paused in the entryway, beside boots and hats piled to the right in order to keep the shining hardwood floor clean that trailed past the stairs. The conversationsfiltered into the air from what I imagined was the kitchen around the corner past the sitting area at the end of the hallway.

As I crouched beside Kat, she removed her boots, and I copied her, peeling mud and shit-caked tennis shoes from my own feet. With both of us in socks, she placed a hand against the wooden knob at the base of the stairs and craned her neck. Waiting as she tried to peer around the corner past the leather couches and red argyle rug in the sitting room, she finally looked back at me.

“Don’t make a sound,” she whispered and placed a foot on the bottom step.

And the floorboard let out a massive groan.

Biting down on my bottom lip, I wiggled my brows at her as she spun around with wide eyes. The moment her gaze locked onto mine, she exhaled and pursed her lips.

“Don’t say a thing,” she hissed beneath her breath.

“Then get your cute ass moving up the stairs before someone comes to see what that sound was,” I replied as quietly as possible.

She rolled her eyes and then quickly paced up the stairs.

As silent as if I was breaching this house and needed the anonymity, I followed behind. Not a single creak whispered from the wood below me as I made my way after her.

When I emerged at the top, she latched onto my arm and guided me to the right. Down a hallway and past an open living room, we slipped silently into the end bedroom, and she quickly shut the door behind her. With her chest rising and falling rapidly, she placed her back against the wood and tipped her head onto it.

“Twenty-three, you said. Do you never do anything to break the rules, ever?” I asked, keeping my shoes at a distance from my body. Her breathing began to slow.

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