Page 45 of Buck This
“I’m going to wear these to finals,” she told him excitedly. “And my new shorts, and my Buck This t-shirt. I’ll cut the bottom half off and crop it. Or maybe tie it here?” she asked, pointing to her ribs.
“Cut it.”
She was so touched by his gift. “You didn’t have to do this.”
“If we’re playing house, I want to do all the fun stuff.”
“Like boning me in an old church.”
His smile was slow and wicked. “You’ll never forget it though, will you?”
She shook her head. “It’s never been like that for me.”
“Good,” he said softly.
His phone vibrated on the counter, and she glanced over at it on habit. It was Quickdraw. The text just said,Bed?
Buck ran his hand over his hair and nodded tiredly. “All right, old man. You win.” He stood and texted Quickdraw back, then turned and kissed Torrey on the forehead. “I’m going to head to the truck.”
“Or you could stay in here. With me. In a nice comfortable bed.”
He searched her eyes and cocked his head. “You don’t mind?”
“I mean, I would prefer you had a maximum of thirty followers on your social media pages, but I guess I won’t kick you out of bed.”
He snorted. “I would also like thirty followers, and by thirty, I mean zero. I hate social media.”
“Yeah well, I’m pretty sure I saw Annabelle setting your pages up for you tonight.”
“Joy,” he said sarcastically.
His reaction drew a giggle from her lips. “Go get into bed. I’m going to get ready and then I’ll give you a back massage.”
“A back massage, huh?”
“Yeah. I want to make the most of our second to last playing-house night.”
“I bet you were one hell of a wife, once upon a time.”
His words took her by surprise.
“Sorry,” he muttered. “I wasn’t supposed to bring that word up.”
“No. No, it’s okay. I was, actually. I was good at that part of my life. Just because it failed it doesn’t mean I didn’t have good moments. I was proud of that title once upon a time. It’s just not my story anymore.”
“You should wear the boots to bed. Boots and nothing else,” he teased, changing the subject, and bless that man for giving her an out.
“You wish.”
“I do, actually. It’ll probably be my next wish at the fountain if I can figure out how to throw a damn penny backward.”
She belted out a laugh at the vision of his penny landing on the ledge. “I might be C-Team at track and soccer, but I can throw a penny. Look, I found something I am better at than you!”
“Oh, I bet you’re better at a lot of things. You’re a badass, Torrey.”
She paused, rifling through her bag for pajamas, and turned to look at him, to see if he was serious. Buck was lying on his side, watching her with such seriousness swimming in his eyes. “I don’t know if I’ve ever been called that before.”
“Oh, I bet you have. You are a resilient woman. If no one has said it to your face, I bet a million bucks it’s been said in rooms you weren’t in.”
