“I don’t know if I’d like that.” Obviously she’d seen others driving them around the property since she arrived, including the guy who ended up underneath his, but she hadn’t felt any sudden need to try it herself.
“You might not. Or you might love it. No way to know until you get on one.” He grinned. “Something new to experience this summer.”
“You’re playing dirty now.”
“Oh, I can show you dirty.” He paused and the tops of his ears turned pink. “Uh, mud puddles. ATVs in the mud. You get dirty.”
Laney laughed to let him off the hook, though she knew it was going to be a long time before she could get those words out of her mind. “I’ll think about it.”
“You know where to find me.”
She definitely did, since it seemed like he was there every time she turned around. Or closed her eyes.
“Hey, Laney,” she heard Josh call to her. “Come meet some people.”
While she ate cookies and focused on trying to memorize names and faces and connections to the Northern Star, Laney couldn’t quite shake her awareness of Ben, even in the crowded kitchen. He talked with people and held Jackson for a while. Snuck a cookie to Sarah and got a stern talking-to from Paige. And the one time she dared look directly at him, he caught her looking. And he winked.
Oh, I can show you dirty.
She wondered how many warm, fresh chocolate cookies she could eat and still button her shorts.
