Page 54 of The Auction
“What about me?”
“You must have had a horse. You obviously know what you’re doing with them.”
He leaned back against the spindle chair back and Icould hear it groaning against his weight. He eyed the two remaining slices of pizza and must have decided against it, because he leaned forward on his elbows. “No horse that was mine. But yeah, there were always horses to be cared for on the res. That shit today with the paint, though, we’re trained up on that in the service.”
“You’re trained on how to corral a horse?” I asked, incredulous. “Do they fucking fit that in between blowing shit up with drones and jumping out of planes?”
Creed chuckled. “Something like that. In some hostile territories horses can make for good egress. Some of us have skills with language, with weaponry… I have skills with animals.”
I pulled off another chunk of crust.
“I don’t need an animal.”
He huffed. “No one needs an animal. That’s not the point. You good to clean up?”
I nodded.
He slid his chair back. “I want to check the weather.”
“Okay, but no starting Love is Blind without me,” I told him.
He grimaced. “We’re not watching that shit.”
“It could teach us a lot about relationship building,” I teased him.
He shook his head and left the kitchen. I went about the business of cleaning up. The pizza had been really good so I was careful to preserve the last two slices intact. Without too much clean up, I dried and put our plates away. Then I made my way back into the living room, where he was sprawled out on the couch that was too short for him.
Delivery of our new couch was probably only a few days away.
He was doing that guy thing where he had his hand stuffed down his pants.
“Why do guys do that?”
“Do what?” he asked, without lifting his head away from the Weather Channel. Weather apparently, was his new porn.
“Stuff your hands down your pants like a perv.”
He turned his head in my direction. “I’m creating space between the waistband of my jeans and my stomach.”
“Ohhhh. Because you ate too much pizza.”
“Because I ate too much pizza.”
“Hey. So, I was thinking, do you want to make out?”
Did it come out of left field for him? Absolutely.
Had I been thinking about it since that afternoon when I watched him throw himself onto that horse’s back like it was nothing?
Like he could do anything he wanted. Whenever he wanted to.
Maybe a little like he was Superman.
Yes, yes I had.
“I DON’T WANT TO HAVE SEX!” I shouted it really loud. Like, at the top of my lungs loud so he would get the message. “I just thought…maybe we could kiss or something.”
Any other guy, I might have expected a smirk. Or some comment likeI’ve been waiting for you to say something.
