AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’re the enemy because we used to race against each other,” I said. “Don’t you remember?”
“Yeah,” said Teddy, “and you always won.”
“Oh.” A flash of recognition swept across her face. Then she squinted and tilted her head to the side.
I smiled sheepishly. “I always came in second.”
“Except that time Winston also beat you,” corrected Grayson unsolicited.
I rolled my eyes. “I almost always came in second,” I admitted. “I would have quite a collection of ribbons and trophies if it weren’t for you.”
“We used to race together?” said Ruby in disbelief.
I nodded. “And you were my enemy.” I rubbed her arms lightly. “But you’re not anymore, are you? Now, you’re my friend. Our friend.” I slid my hand down to her elbow and gently ushered her into the group.
“I’m sorry I don’t remember you, Wyatt. You must have changed a lot in four years.”
“That’s okay,” I said.
“Show her the top of your head, looking down at the dust with a look of defeat on your face,” said Grayson. “Maybe that will jog her memory.”
I frowned at him. The others laughed. Ha, ha.
I looked at Ruby and motioned to the food sprawled out on the picnic table. “Are you hungry?”
You’ve got to play it cool. When you meet a nice girl, an exciting girl, you have to show her that you’re interested—slightly. And if you find out she slept with your friends, at the same time, after your first date, you need to play it extra cool. You have to show her that you’re extra interested—still slightly, but extra slightly.
Grayson as well—give credit where credit is due—played it cool. He apologized for his tales of kiss and tell and explained that we were a close-knit group. We didn’t keep secrets from one another. We shared.
At the word ‘shared’, Ruby’s eyes lit up. “Is that right?”
“That’s right,” I said. “Like we share our food.” I plucked a grape from the bunch and dangled it over her lips for her to take.
“And,” said Samuel, “like we share our… our experiences.”
“I just wish I had been there to share in that particular experience,” I said.
Ruby, with her lips puckered around a grape, leaned in and kissed me on the jaw. She ate the grape and said, “I’m very glad to hear you say that. We’ll have to make sure you’re there to share in the next experience.”
This time it was Teddy who missed out. Poor Teddy. But a supervisor has to supervise. After saying hello to Ruby, he left to get back to work, leaving the four of us to plan our ‘next experience’.
Though Samuel and I each had a trailer on site, Grayson didn’t. And we decided it would take too long for us to take turns showering and cleaning up, so we left directly from work smelling of horses and labor to meet Ruby. In any case, we brought soap and shampoo so we could bathe in the lake.
Lake Clark was about a twenty-minute drive from the ranch. We made it in ten. By the end of our workday, none of us was buying the mantra ‘play it cool’. We were going to play it hot. And we were more than ready.
Ruby thought it would be fun to add a little role play to our foul play. She confessed she’d always had a little fantasy about being abducted in the woods.
The plan was for us to find her on the shore, directly across from what we called The Stump—one of the peaks of the Teton Mountain Range that looked like its tip had broken off. One of us would chat her up—we decided on the drive out that that person would be Grayson. They’d pretend they didn’t know each other. Then, when she appeared like she was out of harm’s way, the others—Samuel and I—would come, and we would take her, defenseless and fuck her senseless out on the shore of Lake Clark, where maybe somebody would catch us, but probably not. In any event, we had no intention of letting her call out for help. With the three of us working together, we’d have her pinned down, gagged, and ravaged before she could even react.
I parked my truck in the lot closest to the lake. There was no sign of Ruby’s motorcycle.
“Do you think, maybe, she was putting us on?” I asked.
Samuel shook his head.
“Not a chance,” said Grayson. “She’s looking forward to this as much as we are. Even more, I’d say, given the details she went into about our roles.”
“Yeah, but,” I motioned to the near-empty lot, “where’s her bike?”
“Play it cool, man,” said Grayson, putting a hand on my shoulder. “We got here early. Let’s go wash up at the lake and scope out the territory.”
While we were bathing, we heard the approach of a motorcycle. I looked first at Grayson then at Samuel. “Is that her?”
