Page 56 of My Best Friend's Mardi Gras Wedding

He took a deep breath.“Okay, then there’s just one more thing I want to talk about.”

“I shot a coyote once,” she said.She thought that was pretty badass.“And I took a guy’s fuel pump out of his car so he couldn’t come after me when I let the birds he had caged loose.”

“You can shoot?”That definitely seemed to surprise him.

“Yep.I’ve been hunting all my life.”

“Youhunt?”he asked.

“Yeah.Duck and pheasants mostly, but I’ve gone deer hunting too.”

“But…you love animals.”

“Hunting isn’tnotloving animals.It’s important where we are to control their populations.Starving to death or getting hit by cars isn’t a nice way for them to die either.When I shoot, I know they go instantly.No suffering.”

Josh was looking a little awed now.Or maybe it was confused.“And you know cars?”

She shrugged.“The basics.It’s a lot easier and cheaper to take care of your own stuff when you can, and we have several kinds of vehicles on the farm.Trucks and a tractor and a bobcat.”

Josh shook his head.“Damn.”

“You okay?”She couldn’t describe his expression.

“Yeah, I just had no idea how much hunting and car expertise would make me want to bend someone over the end of the bed and lick her from head to toe.”

That surprised a laugh out of her even as a hot shiver swept through her body.“Maybe because most of the people you know who can do those things are guys?”

“That’s probably part of it,” he agreed.“My mom and sister aren’t really…outdoorsy.”

Tori smiled.She was surprised by how much she wanted to meet Josh’s mom.

“But Ellie hunts alligators,” he added of his grandmother.

Tori felt her eyes widen.“Wow, really?”

“Yep.Claims hers always taste the best.”

Tori didn’t have a lot of trouble picturing Ellie hunting.“Is alligator good?”

“You’d try it?”he asked.

“Of course.Why not?”

He shook his head.“At this point, I have no idea.I think I’m just getting used to the idea of being with a tomboy.Not sure I’ve done that before.”

Tori wasn’t sure she considered herself a tomboy exactly, but no, she wasn’t girlie either.“Your grandma is a tomboy?”

“Definitely.Tough girl.She cusses and she whooped us as often, or more, than our parents did.There’s nothing that makes her squeamish that I know of.And she’s not reckless, but she’s also not scared of much.”

“And you’re not usually attracted to those things?”

“I guess…” He sighed.“Maybe those girls are rarer and I haven’t run across many.”

Tori didn’t think that was it.“Or maybe you don’ttalkto the girls you…spend time with.”That was a nice way to put the fact that she was pretty sure Josh was an obvious playboy.Which had always made him sending him back to her hotel alone last year strange.And now he didn’t seem in any hurry to get up to her bedroom either.“Maybe you just don’t know what things they can and can’t do outside of the bedroom.”

He seemed to think about that and then nodded, slower this time.“That might also be it.”He paused.“Or maybe it’s just that I hadn’t metyouyet.”

She laughed, even as her heart flipped.“You and that sweet talk.”

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