Page 57 of Take Me Home

We approached civilization. “Sheetz iced coffee? My treat, birthday girl,” I offered.

“Oooh, yes!” Becca said. “But none of that unsweetened shit you drink. Give me the vanilla and the cream.”

I laughed. “However you like it is fine with me. I don’t judge.”

“You better not, city slicker.”

By the time we were all set up at the market, the heat was sweltering. I was grateful for Jake’s bottle of water. I pulled out my phone to text him, for the first time ever. Usually we were either a) together, or b) didn’t have good signal to text.

Thanks for loading the truck again. You know you don’t have to

I really appreciated the note and giftie. Good luck to Gina’s Gremlins today!

No dots of response, so he must have been busy at the lab or the ballfield. I looked to the baseball diamond behind us, but didn’t see the Gina’s colors or Jake’s long, lean form anywhere. I opened my phone a little later to process a payment and saw his response.

Jake

1. I do it because I want to

2. Get it right or pay the price

He’d sent a picture of him pointing to his Gina’s Angels hat, his eyes covered by the brim but a sweet pout on his lips below. I saved it to my phone immediately.

Y’all playing by the market today?

Nah, different field unfortunately

Wanna do 7 for dinner tonight? BBQ ok? I’ll pick you up

7 and BBQ sound good! And wow, door to door service

Three dots appeared and disappeared several times. My heart fluttered, wondering if this would be a long message or one really short one that he thought hard about. Bless the Apple gods for giving the world the ability to see when someone was typing.

Only the best for my honky tonk woman ;)

Gotta save our energy for some boot scootin

Game time! See you at 7

I grinned shamelessly as I tucked my phone in my back pocket. I was just plain excited about our date.

“What are you wearing tonight, cowgirl?” Becca asked, interrupting me from my fixation.

“Good question. I was going to ask you what I should do. Any ideas?”

“I’m probably wearing little shorts with boots and some kind of top that makes my tits look good,” Becca said, popping out her chest for emphasis.

“Your boyfriend’s not working tonight, is he?”

“Hell no! He took the night off to party with me,” she said. “So come on, what are you going to wear?”

“I guess a sundress and boots or something,” I shrugged.

“Jake will like that. Easy access and all,” Becca winked. “I heard y’all are making it a date.”

“Yeah, nothing fancy, though. Just that barbecue place near Hurricane I think,” I said, trying to act cool when really my stomach was in a permanent state of butterflies over it. I couldn’t get those looks he gave me right before we kissed out of my head.

“A date’s a date,” Becca retorted.

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