Page 11 of Rope Me In

I bite my lip so hard it stings, the action bringing me back to reality. Shame fills me, and my desire to get the heck out of here comes back. I’m a twenty-eight-year-old woman, and this is my place of work. I should not be standing here watching this. I should not be imagining that a younger man, who is also my coworker, is pinning me against the wall about to have his way with me.

I mean,crap. Am I this starved for attention that I was basically treating this like my own personal porn show? What is wrong with me?!

I quietly step away from my viewing spot and turn my back to the shelf. I need to get out of this room. Maybe I should consider going to live in the mountains somewhere. It will be me, myself,and my fiddle. A semi-pathetic existence to be sure, but at least I wouldn’t have to worry about embarrassing myself or having to deal with people.

“Presley?” Gavin’s voice calls. “I need those limes—” The words die on his lips as he enters the back room. From where he’s standing, he can see both Kade and the woman as well as me between the shelves. Kade’s hookup screeches, and I peer between the open space to find the woman flushing and Kade unbothered. He removes his hands from her body and faces his brother. A wide smile stretches his lips, smeared with pink lipstick. I don’t know how to explain it, but he almost looks as if he’s glad he got caught.

“Can you cover for me, Presley?” Gavin asks.

I jump at my name and remember I’m still here, still standing in between the storage shelves. My entire body burns with embarrassment as I meet Gavin’s eyes, taking several steps toward him until I’m revealed to Kade. I don’t know why, but I dare a quick glance at him. The corner of his lip twitches when we make eye contact, and I know he understands I’ve been here the whole time. Maybe he even knew I’d been watching.

My ears turn pink, and I’m developing pit stains from how much I’m sweating. Thank god this T-shirt is black. When my head turns back to Gavin, he raises one of his light eyebrows at me, and I recall he asked me a question.

“Yes, I’ll, um…” I stumble over my words. “I’ll go do that now.”

“Thanks, Presley,” he says. “And you”—he points at the woman as I walk by his shoulder—“please leave. This isn’t a space for customers.”

I think she whines in protest, but I’m not sure because I’m met with the boisterous sounds of the bar as I hurry through the swinging door. The chaos of the room breaks me out of the bubble I was just in, the one where I’d been imagining Kade between my thighs and his hand pressing into my throat. The one where I’d just watched him make out and feel up anotherwoman when I was supposed to be getting limes. My awkward self has the urge to tell someone “I carried a watermelon,” but I doubt anyone would get myDirty Dancingreference.

Stu walks by with a couple of beers and grins at me then eyes the back door. His bearded jaw clenches like he knows exactly what’s going on behind that door, which has me wondering if he saw Kade take the woman into the back room. They would’ve had to come through the bar area, so maybe Kadedidwant to get caught? But why?

“You good?” Stu asks.

“Yeah,” I lie. “I’m good.” My voice comes out squeaky, but I clear my throat to try to cover it up.

“Hey! We’ve been waiting for like ten minutes here!” a guy behind us yells. Stu’s brown eyes dart to the door then to me, and I know it’s time to step up and get my shit together. I need to prove to Jake that I can handle this job. Gavin showed me the ropes—now it’s time to sink or swim. This is the life I choose now. Or at least it is for the time being.

“I got it, Stu.”

“You sure?”

“I told Gavin I’d cover for him. I’ll be fine,” I say over the twang of Luke Combs singing “Beer Never Broke My Heart,” a song that seems fitting for the place and the people in it. Stu nods his assurance, and I turn toward the man who was just complaining.

I take in his black cowboy hat, the shine of it making it clear he’s not an actual cowboy. He’s also got on an expensive-looking T-shirt and designer jeans. I’ve seen his type all over the country, and I know he’s wearing this getup because he wants to be a cowboy for tonight and thinks it will get him laid.

I paste a saccharine smile on my face, the one I would placate Derek with all the time, and ask, “What can I get you, Cowboy?”

Chapter 5

Kade

I forgot how muchtequila hangovers suck. My head feels like an explosive ready to blow, and I can hear my heartbeat in my ears. My sweat even smells like tequila. And women. Fuck. From now on, I’m sticking to beer and whiskey.

I put the pitchfork down against the side of my horse Willy’s stall and look around to make sure nobody, especially one of my family members or Blake, is lurking, then I take out my flask. Hair of the dog should do the trick. The watered-down whiskey makes the eggs I ate this morning threaten to make a reappearance, but it’s the only thing that will make this hangover end more quickly. My body isn’t used to drinking this much after three months without, and it wants me to pay for it with heartburn and a headache.

I remove my ball cap and wipe sweat from my brow before putting it on backward. It’s too damn hot already, the unbearable heatwave only adding to my ornery mood. I start going through the chores I have to do for today and debate if I can grab a dip in the spring later—not only to cool down but also to help clear my mind after last night.

Once Gavin found me and the girl in the back room, he sent her back to the dance floor then proceeded to lecture me about workplace etiquette. Was I an idiot for bringing her back there in the first place? Sure. It wasn’t my proudest moment, but it’s not the first time I’ve done it, either. I also wasn’t thinking clearly; I drank more than I’d planned. One minute, I was dancing andhaving fun for the first time in a long time, then the next, I was being handed tequila shots in memory of my dad. I’d been trying to forget that the anniversary of his death passed last week, but this dang town won’t let me.

Once that first tequila shot hit my stomach, it was game over. After that, I kept being handed them, and I didn’t decline, wanting to erase the grief of losing my dad from my mind for the evening. Erase any feelings whatsoever.

Eventually, the girl ended up putting my cowboy hat on her head, and then I was sneaking her into the back for a little fun. We never ended up fucking, and I left Night Hawk shortly after, hitching a ride home from a local. The girl, while attractive, wasn’t doing much for me. I was happy when we were found. I was finding it hard to get into, just like I had the previous night. It felt empty. Her touch was…just that. Touch.

The only thing interesting about that whole situation was the fact that the new bartender, Presley, was watching. That surprised me. I felt more seeing her blush and look away from me than I had getting attention on the dance floor all night. It made me think of our time in the alley, of the way she looked like she wanted to kiss me when I stood over her.

I grunt, my head pounding at all this thinking.

I decide I need another little drink of whiskey to help me out. Just as I swallow, I hear Blake’s boisterous laughter from down the barn aisle followed by Gavin’s. I slip the flask in my waistband so it’s hidden from sight, not wanting them to see it and start trying to psychoanalyze me—though I’m sure Gavin already has in the last couple of days.

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