Page 96 of Opposites (Never) Attract
She was laughing at his stern face as she moved her queen into position.
“Check,” she declared.
“Evil,” my dad cried, his white hair standing on end like he’d been running his hands through it. Sunshine was putting him through his paces. “I didn’t see that coming at all.”
My chest loosened. My fatigue fell off me like a blanket I didn’t need anymore. The satisfaction of seeing her in my home was bone deep.
Right. Her in this house, smiling at my dad, all of it just felt…right.
“Hey,” I said, not saying more in case my voice cracked.
It had been a long twenty-four hours and I hadn’t slept. Emotions were on me like flies.
“Hi,” she said, with a gorgeous smile. “I’m kicking your dad’s ass at chess. Hope that’s okay.”
“Kick away,” I said, hanging my hat up on the hook by the door. “You’re not worried about leaving your computer?”
She held up her iPhone. “Things are stable enough I can just check in without being worried about having to take action. Amity dropped off a bunch of food for me and Harmony. She said she’d made plentyenough to share. I took some to the bunkhouse, but there was still plenty leftover, so I brought some for you and your dad.”
My stomach grumbled. “Tell me Amity sent you some of her mac & cheese.”
“She also sent a batch of beef stew, she says it’s your favorite.”
“This night just got so much better,” I said, as I walked over to the table where they were playing. “Father, avert your eyes.”
“Why in hell would I do that?”
“Because I’m about to plant a kiss on Sun’s mouth and she doesn’t want anyone to know we’re messing around.”
“Ah ha! I knew it! Just the way your face lit up when you talked about her. Do I know my son, or do I know my son?”
I kissed Sunshine, properly, but with no tongue, because my dad hadn’t averted his eyes. She didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she curled up into me like yarrow in the sun.
“I’m going to take a shower. You heat up some of that food for me, and stay with me while I eat?”
“Yeah,” she said.
I kissed the side of her neck in gratitude and thought she smelled like sunshine, grass and everything I loved about Wyoming.
I was so happy in that moment I could have hummed.
“We still have a game to finish,” my dad grumbled.
“She’s got you in check,” I told him. “Accept defeat.”
“Never,” my father insisted, as he moved his king out of danger.
As I headed to my room, I heard him curse as Sunshine said, “Checkmate.”
Later that night,we were in my bedroom. After a few episodes of some new Netflix series, I’d put on the third ESPN channel that was featuring a rodeo event down in Texas. One Seth McGraw was competing in.
“I thought he was hurt,” she said, laying back on the other side of the bed.
“He’s always hurt,” I noted. “But there’s hurt, and there’s injured, and right now he’s just hurt.”
“That seems like a crazy way to make a living.”
I wore loose cotton pants in deference to my guest for the evening, but nothing else. Sunshine was still in her jeans and t-shirt, but she’d lost her boots and socks, so her bare feet were tucked under my calf. She was leaning into me, but not in a way that suggested she wanted to play. More like she was just happy to feel me breathe, with her hand on my chest.
