What is going on?As the others debated who had the fastest ATV, and what we’d do after we made it back to the camp, I stared at the mountains. I wrapped myself up in my arms.
The instructor from earlier rode up with a trailer attached to his ATV. “You ready for lunch?”
I looked from the guy unloading bags from the trailer to Angelo. “Lunch?” I scrunched my nose. “Out here?”
Angelo shrugged. “Why not?”
I had a few reasons. “The wind whipping dirt in the air,” was the first.
“They have us covered.” He pointed to the tent that was being propped up by the instructor and woman who rode out with him. “Literally.” He winked.
“I’m down for a good meal.” Tatiana was staring at Jared though. Like his legs were chicken wings, and his arms some fries.
The tent went up and the instructors disappeared within. He popped his head out and said, “Lunch is ready.”
I followed behind Angelo, and when we stepped inside I could hardly tell we were in the middle of the desert. “Wow.” I looked to the instructor and lady and said, “This is amazing.”
The woman smiled and said, “We’ll be back to collect this in an hour.”
We sat around the pallet of food set up in the middle of the tent. Each of us staying partnered with our drivers. Angelo seated to my right, and Georgia to my left.
“Sandwiches, fruit, chips, and…” Tatiana lifted tops off the containers, “and dessert.” A little cupcake danced in the air. “This will be mine.” She put it to the side of her plate.
“Not like the cake I should have had today.” I frowned and looked down into my lap.
The others were loading their plates with food. Angelo didn’t move though. His hand rested on my thigh as he said, “Tell me what you hated about dude.”
“Huh?” I gave him a sideways glance. “What I hated about him?” Much different from how I spent the last year, gushing about everything I loved about Shawn.
“Yeah, bash that dude.” He laughed. “It might not make you forget about what this day should have been, but it might make you feel better.”
“Okay,” I said, thinking of the things I hated about Shawn. For a man I was about to marry, I should have said there was nothing I didn’t love about him. That wasn’t the case though. “He hated to floss.” I laughed and shook my head. “Would lie about it even when I was in the bathroom with him.”
Angelo didn’t interrupt my list. He listened as I added, “Never wanted to explore. He loved to cook but hated to clean up after himself.” I contemplated my next words. Not wanting to tell him about anything too intimate. I settled on, “He didn’t like to stay in bed with me.”
“Shit…” the word spilled from his mouth as he shook his head. “I mean, the other shit was bad, I guess. But naw, staying in bed with you?” His hand tightened around my thigh, and he leaned closer to my ear. “And that between your legs.” His breath tickled my neck. “Guess you lucked up today after all.” He kissed my earlobe.
I didn’t know enough about Angelo to know if he did any of the things I hated about Shawn. In two short days, what we had going on could be an extension of the fling we had the first night. Nothing that would last beyond the weekend.
He was absolutely right about lucking up though. I dodged a bullet. Even with my heart bleeding, I could recover. I would eventually recover.
ChapterEight
Angelo
After a few phone calls, I had hours of distraction planned out for Gigi. Something that would keep her from thinking about walking down the aisle with ol’ boy.
At the end of our ATV tour, we still had more of the day left. After having her arms wrapped around me for most of it, I wasn’t ready to separate. On our way to the car, I suggested, “How about we meet up for drinks?”
Cam sighed and tapped Jared’s shoulder. I already knew he was ready to wrap it up with the ladies and move on to some others. He said as much that morning when I suggested the ATV trip. Telling me I was doing too much. About to have him caught up in some shit.
“I’m down for drinks.” Georgia’s smile was big as she stood beside Cam.
Cam tried hard not to look down at her.
I waited for Gigi’s response. Her lips twisted to the side before she said, “Drinks sound nice.”
“Two hours?” I asked.