Page 27 of Fall Over You

He chuckles. “’Course you did.”

He cracks the top of his Red Bull and hovers his hand over mine while he raises a brow for the go-ahead. “Thank you. What a gentleman.”

“Don’t tell Miss Kristen,” he jokes as he pops my can open.

This has been such a strange morning. Tyler’s so hot and cold that if he were turning knobs on a sink, I think the thing would just shut off altogether out of protest.

Something in the road makes me gasp and my mouth can’t catch up with my brain.

I put my hand over his chest. “Stop!”

Tyler slams on the brakes, my bike lurching forward in the truck bed.

“What?” he asks. “Should I pull over? Are you about to get sick?”

“No, don’t go any more forward!”

“Why?”

“Park the damn truck!” I demand before jumping onto the gravel road that eventually leads to my house. The gravel is a bitch to ride on with my bike but I make it work.

I run around the front of the truck and catch sight of Tyler trying to peek over the wheel to see what I’m doing.

“Come here, little guy.”

I scoop up a red-eared slider turtle who’s not feeling shy at all, his legs searching for land. I hold it up so Tyler can see and raise my voice so he can hear me in the truck. “Is this one of those degenerates you were talkin’ about?”

I shuffle to the side of the road to let him down and pat the back of his shell. “There you go, buddy. Have a good day!”

Tyler shakes his head when I get back in the truck. “You’re a nut.”

“Would you have rather run that sweet little thing over?”

“Well, no,” Tyler objects. “But you acted like it was an emergency.”

“It was! For him!”

He shakes his head again but his lips twitch. “Now can I go?”

“Yes, driver. Drive on please.”

We bump along the gravel road and approach one of the entries to my farm. “Turn here.”

He turns in and points to my guest cottage. “That place yours too?”

“Yes,” I say. “Supposed to be my money maker but it needs work.”

“How much work?” That quiet, critical eye passes over it, what he does when he’s calculating, figuring something out.

I grimace. It’s more than I care to detail. “New floors. Had a flood last winter that set back the schedule. And then some stuff started happening with the big house too. I’ve got projects coming out my ears.”

“I know something about that,” he agrees.

We arrive at the big house and he parks, but doesn’t turn off his truck. Right. This is my cue to go.

“Well, thanks for the ride. And the treats.” I hold up the paper bag and Red Bull. “If you want to bring Ellie out this weekend, it’s on me. I’ll put you on the list, okay?”

He cuts me an annoyed look. “I can pay admission to your pumpkin patch.”