Page 60 of Buck This
Buck This released her and told her, “I’m following through on my end of the bargain.”
“What bargain?”
He dropped the duffle bag and unzipped it to expose huge bundles of cash.
Torrey blinked slowly. “You’re giving this to me?”
“Half a million dollars. Half of the purse. It’s yours.”
Her mouth fell open. “No. No, I can’t take that.”
“It was the deal.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t do any of that for the money. I only joked about that. Zip that back up.”
“Why?”
“Because people are going to think we are drug dealers or something,” she said, frantically zipping it and looking around the apartment complex.
He laughed. “Okay, okay. I’ll help you take it to your apartment. You can shove it in your closet and never think about it again if you want.”
“No, I’m really not taking it,” she whisper-screamed. “You are the one who bucked the event. You are the number one bucking bull shifter in the world. You earned that money! I was just there to cheer you on.”
He nodded and then began to walk away. “Okay. I’ll call you soon, City Slicker.”
“Wait! Where are you going! Can you stay for dinner?” she rushed out and started to jog toward him before she remembered the half a million freaking dollars on the ground. She circled back and grabbed it, hauled it up to her hip and grumbled at the weight, then staggered toward him.
“I’ve got to get back to work,” he called.
“No, please don’t go! I have a story. Story time. Do you want to meet my cats? One of them will possibly let you pet it! Wait! Buck!”
He had made it to his truck and opened up the passenger’s side door.
“Don’t go yet!”
He turned around and she stopped in her tracks. He held a bouquet of tulips—her favorite. She’d told him they were her favorite flowers on one of their phone calls last week.
“W-what are these for?”
“For you. And by the way you’re the first woman I’ve ever bought flowers for. I didn’t know what I was doing. I had to ask three people for help. I don’t even know what a tulip is. Well…now I do.”
She hefted the bag to him and dropped it at his feet, then took the flowers from him, and smelled them. “You…you like me?”
He chuckled and said, “I just needed you to figure out if you were there for the money or not before I asked my next question.”
“Ask me,” she blurted out. “I don’t care about the money, take it back, it’s not mine. What question?”
“First off you are keeping the money, I have the other half a million dollars, I’m really doing okay. Second…” He looked around and rubbed his short beard with his hand. “Do you want to go on a drive with me?”
“You’re…” Torrey looked around the complex, still in disbelief that he was actually here. “Where did you come from. I thought you were on the road.”
“I just said I was working. I’ve been around here.”
“You’ve been around Billings?”
He nodded. “What do you say? Do you want to go on a drive with me? I want to show you something.”
“Okay,” she said softly. “I’ll take a drive with you.”
