Page 41 of Cold Foot Cash

Cash didn’t say a word as he dressed in his discarded clothes. He kept looking back at her though, checking on her. She knew that’s what he was doing. There was care in his fiery gold eyes.

There was a long feather on the ground. It was white, with little black speckles. She plucked it from the dead leaves and ran her finger down the soft length of it.

Cash approached her with long, confident strides as he settled his shirt into place over his taut torso, and in one smooth movement, he scooped her up and held her against his chest.He yanked his truck door open and moved to set her into the passenger’s seat, but hesitated.

His eyes were locked on hers, and she couldn’t escape the intensity there. Harley slid her arms around his neck and sat in the silence with him, comfortable with this closeness, feeling his heat, breathing his air.

His nostrils flared with his quick breathing, and when his gaze dipped to her lips, she knew he wanted to kiss her. She knew it. She wanted to kiss him too.

“Five days,” he murmured, lifting his attention back to her eyes.

A small, disappointed smile stretched her face at the reminder. “Five days.”

Like she weighed nothing at all, he set her inside of his truck.

Harley wasn’t even shaking from the shock of the flight. She watched him walk around the front of the truck, head down, lost in thought. Handsome man. He grew more attractive to her the more she got to see his layers, and that was how it was supposed to be, right? That chemical attraction was important, but the bond that formed between two people as they really began to see each other was even bigger. That much was clear as she looked forward to the second he settled into the seat near her. Missing him while he was outside of the truck shouldn’t make sense, but somehow, some way, it did make sense to her.

Cash began to drive with his window rolled down, and his arm out there catching wind between his fingers. Harley couldn’t stop staring at him.

He seemed to understand. He didn’t speak, but he kept taking his attention off the road to catch her gaze. Over and over that happened, and she knew what was going on here.

She was falling.

She was falling hard.

Harley gripped her flannel over her chest just to feel how fast her heart was racing.

She was really falling.

Cash grabbed the wheel with his other hand and rested his hand closest to her on the seat between them.

She exhaled slow, and put her hand right by his, their pinkies almost,almosttouching.

It was enough. It had to be enough for now.

Five days.

No it didn’t really matter if she fell for him now. Her ex had moved on a long time ago, but she did want to finish this out exactly how she wanted. She wanted to maintain her composure through the end.

In her other hand, Harley gripped his feather tighter, so it wouldn’t blow away in the wind that drifted in through the open window.

Five more days couldn’t pass fast enough.

Chapter Ten

Cash hadn’t expected that.

His heart was still hammering, and his adrenaline was spiked. He’d meant to take her on a short flight, but she’d relaxed into it so fast, and he hadn’t wanted it to end. He would never forget the sound of her bell-tone laugh. It had filled the sky, and filled his soul.

He’d wanted the Cold Foot Crew to see him giving her flight. He was proud of Harley, and something had driven him to fly her over his home, over his territory, over his woods.

He’d started out all in good fun, but something had happened by the middle of that flight. He’d grown addicted to watching the smile on her face. He’d grown to love the trust she had in him. He’d grown protective of her as he realized he wouldn’t let anything happen to this gorgeous woman, with the sweet laugh, and the joy in her pretty eyes, and the way she could cut right to his faults and understand them.

She’d told him he needed to figure out what had made the hole in him in the first place, and it had rocked him. She’d made absolute sense. With anyone else, he would’ve told them to fuck off and mind their own business, but with Harley? She could see him. She could really and truly see him—the good and the bad, all of it, and without much effort. She was open to him.

He’d never experienced any feeling like this before.

Harley made him want to figure out what had made the hole inside of him.

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