Page 310 of Boots, Bucket Lists & Bad Ideas
I stare at him as he waits for me to clue into whatever he’s talking about.
“And?” I ask.
“Stage and truss guys.” He sips his travel mug of coffee. “Like, everything. Platforms, scaffolds, the whole skeleton. They’re dumping it now.”
Shit.
He’s right.
The Foxes were in charge of music, which they locked in Bronx’s brother, a top-charting country singer. The Wildes are in charge of setting up inside the tent. The days are all mixed up in my head, thanks to the woman sleeping in my tent, soaking her scent into my blanket and pillowcase. I might never wash that pillowcase again.
“And they’re asking where the stage faces, where to unload, how to build it out. If we don’t get over there, they’ll start guessing.”
“Fuck.”
Dean slaps my shoulder. “Yeah. Sucks walking away from your woman, doesn’t it?”
Normally, I’d snarl that she isn’t my woman, but today, I love how it sounds.
“Yeah, it does suck,” I mutter.
“Aw, poor little guy.” Dean’s arm snakes around me. “Here, I got you, bring in the love.”
“Get off me.”
He slaps an extra shirt against my chest. “If we don’t get the setup right now, we’re spending the afternoon redoing everything. We don’t have time for that and operate our booth."
He’s wrong. With Mayor Thomas, the Quylt sisters, and my Ma, there’s plenty of hands to run the booth. But I want the setup to go off without a hitch, so he’s right, I gotta go.
"Come on.” He struts away, meeting up with Wyatt, Levi, and Bronx.
“Give me a minute.” I can’t leave Jade without an explanation, and I’m not waking her.
I scribble a quick note and grab a little surprise out of the bus. I add some wildflowers I picked from beside the tent and set them all on my pillow.
I brush a kiss against the side of her head and duck out before I do something reckless. Like strip naked and crawl back into bed with her.
Walking away from her is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. It leaves this sour ache in my chest. I don’t want to admit it, but I’m scared to let her out of my sight.
Scared it might be forever, like last time.
How long will this feeling last? Will I ever stop fearing that she’ll slip away, just out of my reach?
Levi hands me a travel mug of steaming coffee, and we’re off.
Boots crunch over the ground, all of us walking fast. But we don’t make it twenty steps from the campsite before I hear thembuzzing like flies on fresh gossip. I ain’t gonna be escaping the inevitable.
“Well, well, well.” Wyatt draws out each word like a villain in a bad movie. “Look who didn’t sleep alone last night.”
I don’t say anything.
Just kept walking.
My body still tingles from her warmth.
“Guess your tent was warmer than ours last night?” Bronx says it with a smirk so smug I want to slap it off his face. “You know, since you had a surprise guest and all.”
I keep walking, picking up the pace as if I can outrun this conversation.
