Page 38 of Sexting the Cowboy
We kiss again. Slower. Warmer. The kind of kiss that could build a house if you gave it a foundation and time. Her palms flatten on my ribs. My mouth learns hers. She steps forward, and we meet in the exact center of the invitation. Her tongue slides against mine, and I’m not sure I have thoughts anymore.
When we break for breath, she keeps her hands on me like she hasn’t decided whether to keep or return this temporary possession. Her eyes are bright and wrecked in the prettiest way. The line between her brows has smoothed a little. I want to tell her she looks more like herself with her guard down than I think she suspects, but I don’t say anything. I kiss the corner of her mouth instead, and she makes that quiet sound again that means I hit something true.
Then it happens—the tilt, the blink, the reappearance of gravity with its clipboard. She inhales sharply and steps back half a step, enough that cool air slides between us, and I know this is over, but I don’t want to believe it.
“I can’t,” she says, and she’s apologizing to someone who isn’t me. “Brick, I—” She shakes her head once, a firm little shake that brings her back to whatever list she keeps. “I’m Reno’s ex.”
“I know.”
She blinks at me. “You knew? This whole time?”
“Not at first, but I put two and two together.” I shrug. “People break up, Annie. When it’s over, it’s over. And it’s over between you two, right?”
“Well, yes, but?—”
“Then I don’t see what the problem is.”
“It’s…it’s wrong.” The word sounds too blunt in her mouth. She’s a finer tool than that. But it’s the one she has handy. “It’s wrong, and it’s messy, and I don’t want to be the person who screws up a family.”
“My family is fine. We all have our own lives. We’re all adults. Hell, Blaze dated Levi’s ex-girlfriend last year. No one cared.”
“I…” Her breasts heave against her shirt as her eyes dart between me and the door.
I want to help her catch her breath, so I can help her lose it again. “I don’t care about whatcouldhappen,” I say, not to erase her, but because my math is different and I want her to know. “I care about what we have right now.”
She squeezes her eyes shut at that, like she’s tasted something too sweet. “You can’t say things like that.”
“I can.” I lean in and press my mouth to hers again, quick and sure, a kiss that says the door is open whether you walk through it or not.
She pushes my chest with both palms, and it rocks me back a half step. The towel survives the nudge with dignity. She looks wrecked again, for a different reason. “I have to go,” she says, breath a little wild. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You gotta do what you can live with.” I’m trying to sound like an adult about this, but damn if it doesn’t sting.
She backs toward the door, fumbles the latch, and gets it on the second try. She looks at me once more with a face I’ll carry undermy hat for a stupid long time, then she slips out and pulls the door shut with a soft click.
11
ANNIE
The door isat my back. I can’t seem to make myself go down the stairs I climbed in the first place. My feet are just stuck. It feels wrong to go back inside, and it feels wrong to take another step. What the hell am I doing?
I haven’t known the answer to that since the night I texted the wrong man.
Or, is it the right man?
My head tips back against the door in frustration. This is stupid.Just take a step away from the trailer. And then another, and another, until you’re in your SUV and driving home. That’s the reasonable thing to do, and you always do the reasonable thing.
Well, that’s a lie.
I don’t come from money, so I had to take loans for school.Medicalschool. But I had to become a doctor. It’s where I felt called.
When my parents died, I used the inheritance to splurge on a vacation in Ireland for me and Mac, instead of paying off my student loans. Sure, I paid them down some, but I could have paid them off entirely.
After graduation, I could have stayed at the hospital on the east side of town, treating sunburns and Botox gone awry. It was a cushy gig, with decent pay on the expensive side of town. Instead of staying put and working my way through the ranks, I opened a low-cost clinic on the west side of town to help people who actually needed it.
I do not always do the reasonable thing, and right now, I want to be perfectly unreasonable.
Brick’s right about one thing—Reno and I are absolutely over.
