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I’ve got you.
But then she was the one to pull her hand from mine and I released an exhale and turned away from her before I figured out a way to stay, scooting carefully past her uncle and then jogging for the door. I flung it open and my friends almost fell in, all chattering at once. “Did you stay the night here?” Aidan leaned his head in and I pushed him out, letting the door slam shut behind us. “Details later,” he whispered, holding his hand next to his mouth, and then looking over his shoulder.
“The repair shop’s open and they’re putting on a new tire now,” Grant said.
“My phone is working,” Trent told me, holding his up. “Grant’s and Aidan’s are permanent goners. Check yours.”
Check mine? Check my what?
“It’s a glorious day to golf!” Aidan declared as we walked down the dock.
Golf?
Something about heading out to a day of golf seemed hilarious but I couldn’t figure out why. And I loved to golf.
“We’ll check in to our hotel, take showers, change, and be on the course in a couple of hours. Mud Gulch will be nothing but a bad memory by noon.”
Their chatter faded away. I picked up my pace in order to keep up with the other guys, the dock squeaking beneath our feet.
I looked over my shoulder, just once, but the only one staring back was a huge, black-bearded pirate.
Mud Gulch will be nothing but a bad memory by noon.
Those blue eyes flashed in my mind, the way they’d grown hazy with lust.
Mud Gulch would never be a bad memory for me. I looked out at the gently rolling waves, watching them swell and recede. For one night, I’d been given the opportunity to shrug off all the responsibilities I carried on my shoulders. All the limits and expectations. And though that couldn’t and shouldn’t last, the chance to very temporarily let down my guard had been a blessed relief. Perhaps it had been exactly what I’d needed in order to move forward into this new chapter of my life.
I squinted as I turned my head, looking forward once again, facing what was in front of me, not behind.
CHAPTER SIX
Rory
The restroom door slammed closed behind me, my uncle Cassius turning from where he’d stood at the window watching Gage and his friends walk away.
I’d headed to the restroom not only to clean up and get myself together, but because I couldn’t bear to watch him leave. My uncle interrupting us—or near enough, anyway—had meant that our parting was as brief and uncomplicated as it was ever going to be. No hemming and hawing, no words to search for, no promises that wouldn’t be kept. Only the veiled laughter of a private joke, and the understanding that passed between us that we’d had a very enjoyable interlude that was never going to be anything other than that. And if Gage thought of me as an “experience,” then I hoped it was a positive one, fashioned by the fate of a busted tire and a rainstorm. Just like the wet and the cold would be difficult to conjure someday soon, so too would the texture of my skin beneath his hand and the taste of my nipple—
I shoved those thoughts aside, shivering at the memory of what we’d done on the pool table that I’d never look at the same again. Okay, so it would take some time—at least for me—for the specifics of that memory to fade. And even if my heart squeezed with melancholy at the fact that I wouldn’t see him again, I’d known we were very temporary from the start and made the choice to be intimate with him anyway. I wasn’t in the habit of having random sex with strangers just passing through town, and there would likely be emotional consequences because damn it, I’d liked him. But I was also no stranger to being disappointed when it came to men. At least this time, I’d understood the terms. I sighed as I removed my phone from my pocket to call Ashley and ask her to let the brood out and then feed them their breakfast. I’d tell her I got bogged down at the bar. Which was true in a manner of speaking.
“Who was the guy?” Cassius asked as I rounded the bar a few minutes later and headed for the coffee maker. Caffeine would help soothe the ache.
“What guy?”
He gave me a decidedly snarly look. “The pool table inspector with his shirt on backward.”
I raised my head and looked at him as I filled the pot with water. “He wasn’t really a pool table inspector.”
Cassius grunted. “Gee, you think? You really had me fooled, Rory.”
“Sarcasm doesn’t flatter you,” I said as I poured the water into the machine.
“You’re lucky I didn’t beat him to a pulp, because I sure wanted to.”
I reached for the jar of coffee grounds and removed the scooper. “Nah,” I said. “I propositioned him, practically forced him into that thing he did with his—”
“Rory.”
I laughed. “I’m a big girl, Uncle Cash.” I leaned across the bar and gave him a kiss on his grizzly cheek.
