Page 34 of Rough
Huffing in annoyance, I wave him off. “You don’t drive my baby, right? I got it.” As much shit as my friends give me for going with a Ford, it’s always me that’s hauling them free from wherever they’re broken down. Slipping into the front seat, I check my rearview mirror and grin when I catch Wilder standing just behind my right rear tire.
Shifting into drive, I press the gas a bit harder than need be and cackle when I spray a shot of mud toward him.
“Goddamnit Bets! The hell ya doin’?” he shouts, jumping back from the line of fire.
“My bad!” I call out, then actually make an attempt to pull him free. It only takes a few tries before I’ve got traction, and his truck begins to inch forward onto dry land. I’m halfway up the hill by the time he’s totally free, so I stop and holler, “You good?”
“Yup! Let’s get Lindsey free,” he shouts back. Hopping into his truck, he pulls it forward and to the side to give her room once we pull her free.
The two of us walk side by side back to where his current girlfriend is pouting in what I assume is her daddy’s truck, not looking at either of us. “Hey, Lindsey!” I call out, catching her attention. “Before we hook you up, you try rockin’ yours out?”
“What do you mean?” she asks, clearly confused.
“Puttin’ it in reverse, then drive. Back and forth to gain some traction.” The look on her face tells me she hasn’t done a thing,so I smother my sigh of irritation. “Wild, can you make it to her? Or you want me to get in there? We can probably just drive her out instead of draggin’ her through a hundred feet of mud. It doesn’t look so deep here like where you were at.”
He eyes the space between the dry bank and where her truck is at. “I can just wade through there.”
“Her dad’s a real ass. He’ll get all pissed if the inside gets dirty. Help toss me over there.”
Laughing, he turns to me and sees that I’m dead serious and he stops abruptly. “Are you kiddin’? You want me to actually throw you at her truck? Bets, you’re not light.”
Growling, I square off with him. “I barely weigh a hundred and ten. I’ve seen you throw a shit ton of weight while workin’ and it’s not like I’mnotgonna help. Don’t be an ass. Let’s just get close and I’ll jump over to her foot rail.”
“Whatever,” he grumbles, then links his fingers together to give me a space to put my foot. Once my heel is settled and his face pressed against my lower back, I begin to count silently. We always go on three, so I’m not worried that he’ll try to throw early or late.
As soon as I mutter three, a small smile tilts my lips up at his over exaggerated grunt as he throws me like one would in a pool. Flying over the mud, I smack into the driver’s side, landing without any issues.
Lindsey’s got her mouth hanging open, but I just lift my chin. “Move over. I’m gonna crawl in through the window so the water doesn’t come in any more than it already has.”
I ignore the flair of jealousy over how good she looks, even mud speckled, in her tight jeans and fancy boots. As I crawl through the window, I ignore Wilder’s, “A buck ten my ass!” until I’m settled in the driver’s seat.
Peering out the window, I wink. “Might be closer to a buck thirty, but who’s countin’? Thanks for the lift, buddy!” Wagglingmy fingers at him, I check over the inside of Lindsey’s daddy’s truck. “Lindsey…” I drag out, looking at her from the corner of my eye. “You’ve been in four wheel this whole time, right?”
“Four-wheel?” she asks, clearly dumbfounded by my question.
“Jesus,” I mutter out, then swap the truck into four-wheel drive. Once it’s showing on the display that it is, I pop the truck into reverse and back up, easy as pie. I pay no mind to Wilder’s continuous questions over how I’m moving the truck so easily. I just keep backing up without incident until I’ve got her on dry land at the beginning of the trail.
Shifting to park, I pat the wheel and turn to Wilder’s girlfriend. “Look, if you’re gonna keep doin’ this with Wild, you gotta keep the truck in four-wheel when you’re muddin’. Otherwise, you’ll never make it.”
Pressing her glossed lips together, she glares at me. “It doesn’t matter. I’m done anyway and have no plans on doing it again. Can I get out of here without going back through the trails?”
Jerking my head to the side, I indicate a separate trail from this one veering right through the woods. “If you go on through there, you shouldn’t run into anythin’. Just keep it in four until you’re on the road. You know how to change it?”
Her slow blink makes me want to smack her upside the head. Sighing, I show her how to change it up, then get out of the truck to meet Wilder. He walks past me to the driver’s side window, and I do my best to not listen in on their conversation.
Once she’s gone, he turns to me with a twinkle in his eye. “Wanna keep goin’?”
Barking out a laugh, I nod once. “I got nothin’ to do this afternoon. Let’s not get stuck this time, though. I don’t need to be savin’ you again, princess.”
Wilder smacks my ass and I yelp, jumping forward to jog ahead of him back to our trucks. My smile grows wider when he says, “Lindsey’s got nothin’ on you, country girl. She’ll never compare. Let’s do this thing.”
Chapter Fourteen
Remy
“Remington Landry!” My mother’s screech through the house has me jerking out of bed. She hasn’t yelled at me like that since I was ten when I filled the back of dad’s truck with mud so I could start an earthworm farm to sell fishing bait.
Fumbling for my phone, I curse under my breath when I realize it’s close to eight in the morning. I told her I’d be up to help get things ready since we only have two more days to prepare for my dad’s funeral.
