Something in my chest swelled seeing her so happy with Luke. It made it hard to breathe, like my lungs couldn’t expand fully with this feeling in the way.
“That’s Delilah,” Colt said. “She’s a friend of the family.” Hearing him refer to her as just that felt wrong. She was more than just a friend. More, period.
“Think she’s lookin’ for more friends?” Calvin chuckled. My stomach twisted at his tone, like she was a sure thing. I shouldn’t care that he was eyeing her—I didn’t. Delilah was her own woman. She could do whatever and whomever she wanted.
I just found myself hoping she wouldn’t do him.
“Don’t bother, man,” I said before I could stop it. “She’ll eat you alive.” Calvin looked like he was in his forties and enjoyed too much beer and too many days in the sun; Delilah was so far out of his league that she was on a different planet. It’d be fun to watch her destroy him, but watching another man hit on her also sounded like torture—worse than the kind I’d been trained to withstand.
Calvin looked at me, challenge flashing in his eyes. “I like ‘em feisty.” Then, the fucker had the audacity to give me his drink so he could go shoot his shot.
“This will be interesting,” Levi murmured, all of us watching this nightmare unfold. Every muscle in my body went rigid whenCalvin stepped closer to her with a sleazy smile as she slid out of the bouncy house.
“He’s got balls, that’s for sure,” Beau added. “Don’t know if I could go after a woman taller than me.”
“He’s a fucking idiot, thinking she’d ever be interested in him,” I said through clenched teeth. When no one said anything, I glanced at them. They were watching me with varying degrees of confusion. Heat crawled up my neck. “What? It’s true. She’s not gonna want anything to do with him.” I hated that the words came out like I was trying to convince not only them, but myself.
Calvin said something, and she glanced my way. The smile that spread on her lips as she looked at him again told me she saw that I was furious—jealous, even though I had no right. I had no claim to her since all we had was casual sex, but itfeltlike I did. So I stood here, stewing in silent rage while they talked and laughed and ruined my entire fucking day.
And when Calvin came prancing back over with a shit eating grin on his face and plans to meet at the Bull Pen later, I nearly lost it. If it weren’t for all the kids present, I probably would have.
“Here’s your drink.” I shoved the cup against his chest. “I’m leaving.” I didn’t give anyone a chance to respond and walked off, only stopping to say bye to Luke and Tess.
The drive home was unbearable. My grip on the wheel was so tight that my hands cramped. It was the only thing that stopped me from turning around. What the hell was wrong with me? I was overreacting, acting like a territorial caveman, as if Delilah belonged to me. No. That was ridiculous. This was Delilah. My unexpected jealousy aside, I knew what she was about. She only did situations like ours—easy, casual flings. And even if she did date, I couldn’t date her; she’s best friends with my sisters. They’d never forgive us if they found out about this.
That didn’t stop me from spending the rest of the afternoon doing manual labor around Golden Circle, though. I worked until storm clouds rolled in and forced me into the gym, so I didn’t call her to ask her what the fuck that was about.
It was nine by the time I couldn’t move anymore. And now, I was sitting in my bedroom after a shower, staring at my phone like an idiot. At my texts with Delilah. The last thing she sent me was from last night:still can’t smell horse feed without getting turned on. so thanks for that you hot jerk i’m officially crazy.And I’d replied with:You just now figured out you’re crazy?And when I walked through the door an hour later, she was already in my bed, naked, ready to show me just how crazy she was.
My head hung back towards the ceiling. “Don’t do it,” I murmured. Begged. I just needed to know they weren’t together. Or if they were, that she was having a god-awful time. But the image of her dancing with Calvin at the Bull Pen had me saying, “Fuck it.”
I pulled up her location—a safety measure we all implemented after what happened with the tack room last week. And we all had special access codes to the new automated gate at the end of the driveway. We now had logs of who was coming and going every second of every day, along with cameras hitting every angle of the ranch.
A shaky breath of relief left me when I saw that Delilah was at her apartment. But then my heart sank at the possibility that she took that prick home. I hadn’t even been in her apartment yet; we always came here, and she never stayed the night. If I found him there, I’d probably drag him out by his balls and throw him down the stairs.
I threw on a shirt and left the house, rain pouring in a thick sheet as I jogged to my truck. So much for my shower. I drove faster than I should’ve in the rain, but I didn’t care. I needed toget to her, needed to know he wasn’t there, making her laugh like he had at the party.
When I got to her complex, I was frozen. The thought that she might make me leave made my chest tighten. I wrung my hands on the wheel, my head pounding. This was absurd. I’d been in combat, stared death in the face—I could knock on her damn door.
“Buck the fuck up, Hayes,” I murmured and flung the door open. I ran across the parking lot, rain soaking through my clothes. My heart was racing by the time I reached her door on the third floor, and not from exertion either. Before I could talk myself out of it, I knocked.
The door swung open moments later. Delilah was in skimpy dark green pajamas, with wet spots on her chest from her hair. Those hot-as-fuck piercings in her nipples visible through the thin material. “You’re not pizza,” she stammered, eyes wide and unblinking.
God, I was gonna puke right here on her welcome mat if she was waiting for post-sex pizza after a post-sex shower. A shower she’d refused to have with me after our first time. The thought of him here in her space, having something I hadn’t been allowed to, made me livid. My shoes squeaked on the hardwood as I shoved past her, scanning rooms like this was an op, and he was a target I needed to take out.
“Is he here?”
“What the hell are you doing?!” The door slammed shut, and she stormed after me. “You can’t just barge in here! You’re tracking water everywhere.”
I spun on my heel in her bedroom, and she stopped short directly behind me. “Is. He. Here?”
“Who?”
“Calvin,” I spat. “Heard about your little date.” I looked in her closet—it was a wreck. “Did he need a step stool to kiss you?”
She scoffed. “You can’t be fucking serious. You’ve just bulldozed your way into my apartment, all pissy after you made me watch you flirt with that chick? You are such a hypocrite!” Her eyes were blazing, while white-knuckling a bottle of whiskey like she wanted to hurl it at me.
I froze. If this was supposed to be casual, like she insisted, then why the hell did she care? “I didn’t flirt with Callie, Delilah.”
