Page 26 of Midnight Surrounds Us

“It would also bring in more money eventually. I’ve trolled the internet till my fingers were sore, and I’ve called so many ranch managers. At this point, they might shoot me on sight ’cause I’ve annoyed ’em all with my questions.”

“How did you become interested in this? I guess I’ve never really thought about how meat production affects the rest of the world.”

“Flippin’ channels. I saw a documentary one night after a big argument with my dad. No matter the subject, he and I don’t see eye to eye on much. I couldn’t sleep that night, and I turned on the TV, and it was like a sign or somethin’.”

“You didn’t go to school for agriculture?”

“No. Didn’t go to college at all. It wasn’t for me. The land teaches me all I need to know. Although, dirt don’t know much about business, so that’s one area I could stand to learn more about.”

“I’m not a business genius,” I said, “obviously, but I might be able to help you with some of that.”

“My dad deals with that side of things now, and he has people on the payroll to help him, but someday, the business will be my responsibility, so I might just take you up on that. In the meantime, there’s some farms up in Oregon I can learn a lot from, but my old man won’t ever allow me to leave the ranch long enough to get it done.”

“What’s he gonna do? Fire you?” I giggled but caught myself and slapped a hand over my mouth. I didn’t giggle. I hadn’t giggled in twenty years.

Gently, Rye tugged on my arm and pulled my hand away. When he slipped his fingers between mine and squeezed, they were as warm and strong as the rest of him. Held within his, my hand looked like a little girl’s.

“This okay?” he asked quietly.

Gathering what little courage I could, even though I was certain I’d lost my mind, I whispered, “It’s okay. For now.”

It felt okay. More than okay. Some kind of buzz seemed to be building between us, and it almost startled me when I realized how much I liked the feeling.

He squeezed again and tucked our hands between our bodies, and then we just lay there, both of us thinking a million things and saying nothing.

Finally, because it was burning a hole in my mind and because I kind of liked it, I asked, “Why do you call me Spitfire?”

He chuckled, and I felt the rumble shake the bed of the truck.

“Well, the fire part ’cause you’re bossy and stubborn. But the spit part… You remember the watermelon-seed contest we had at the ranch? You were probably twenty-two. Twenty-three maybe, but I remember you spittin’ those damn seeds so far, and you got ’em in the bucket too.”

I laughed and nodded. I did remember that. I beat all the cowboys and won a gift card for thirty bucks to a rib joint in Jackson.

“I dunno why, but that day has always stuck with me. I laughed so hard. And the smile on your face when you won? You glowed with pride.”

“Rye, you were just a kid then.”

“Yep.”

“Don’t you think it’s weird that you remember that stuff, but my husband never did? It doesn’t feel weird to you that I’m so much older than you?”

He got serious and became still. “It ain’t like I was pinin’ for you when I was ten. Back then, I just thought you were my brother’s friend’s pretty girlfriend and that you were nice to me. It wasn’t till probably high school that I thought of you differently. But by then, you were livin’ your life.”

Turning on his side, he swiped my hair behind my shoulder with one finger.

“I love your hair,” he said. “The color and the texture. It’s soft but strong, and that’s how I’ve always seen you. But I’m not a kid anymore, Aubrey. There’s a few years between us, sure, but I’m a man now, and you’re one hell of a woman. There ain’t a damnthing wrong with me wantin’ you. And it wouldn’t be wrong if you wanted me too.”

Want? No.

The word didn’t do justice to the feeling taking over every inch of my body. His nearness made me stupid with desire, something I hadn’t felt this strongly in a very long time. Maybe ever. I wasn’t only attracted to him because he was an insanely good-looking man and had the correct body parts to do to me all the things I’d been starved of, and it didn’t hurt that when he looked at me, his eyes quite literally sparkled like the bright night sky.

But it was his goodness, his eagerness, and his hopefulness luring me in deeper than I’d let myself be lured in over twenty years.

Suddenly, Ineededhim like the blood in my veins needed to flow. Sexy me time could be right now if I let it.

A parade of people and neighbors flashed in my head: the perfect moms from the PTA when the boys were in school, whose husbands actually participated in their kids’ lives and who looked down on me because mine hadn’t, my parents, fellow business owners in town. And every single one of those people, in my head at least, disagreed with the indecent things I wanted Rye to do to me. And the surprise and betrayal I knew I’d see on Benji’s and Micah’s faces if I slept with a man who wasn’t their father? All of it had me feeling like I might pass out. My heart had become a jackhammer in my chest.

But just one more kiss. What could that hurt? If there was another reason to explain why I’d found myself in the bed of a ridiculously handsome cowboy’s truck, I’d completely forgotten what it was.

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