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Eighteen
Holden
Only the wild kids changed oil on a Friday night. I was getting the snowblower ready for winter. Stetson had asked if I had plans, but I passed even though he said he was meeting Colt and Remington. I wouldn’t mind a night out shooting the shit with them, but until we were all taken and didn’t attract all the single ladies from twenty to fifty years old, I wanted to avoid the meat market.
I could picture Stetson settling down. He wanted to but was more scared than Emery about it. Remington, maybe. He didn’t talk about his private life much. He joked and he flirted, and we pretended like we didn’t notice that he never seemed to take anyone home. And Colt let out his soft side as often as a blood moon during a leap year. Leading Avery around on his horse was probably his limit.
So, my nights with the guys might be a little limited. The only dipstick I was waving around was the snowblower’s.
Emery had taken the kids to Bismarck. I had anticipated an invite, but she hadn’t asked. I might have been sulking, but I was grown enough to admit it. I wanted to spend all my time with her, but it wasn’t feasible.
The last football game was tomorrow. I’d have to wait to see her until then. I wanted an overnight with her. Desperately. Maybe tomorrow night?
An engine approached. Sally barked and ran outside. Maybe the guys had decided to bring the party here. I wiped my hands off and went to the open shop doors to check. My breath puffed out the farther away I got from the heater.
Emery pulled in.
The grin that stretched my lips had to take up my whole face. I was pathetic, but I didn’t fucking care.
When she got out, she spotted me. “You don’t mind that I dropped in, do you?”
She was at my house. Alone with me. “Not at all. Let me close up the shop.”
“Am I interrupting?”
“Nah. I was just finishing up. Come on in.” She wandered behind me with that black fleece jacket hugging her hips and black yoga pants covering her lower half. “How’d drop-off go?”
“Good. Henry seemed happy you weren’t there, so I didn’t get interrogated.”
“He’s saving up for tomorrow.”
She chuckled. I put my tools away and added the discarded oil to the stash that I’d take to town for disposal. I wanted to pull her into my arms, roll down those leggings of hers, and put the workbench to good use. But I was greasy and didn’t want to ruin her clothes.
She wandered around and stopped to study the tractor I used for cutting hay. That was next to ready for winter. She stopped at the posthole digger and tilted her head. She ran her hand over the backhoe. The nervous energy didn’t leave her. Was it because she thought she was disrupting my night? Or because we were at my place?
I hoped she’d talk to me when she was ready.
When I was done, I turned to her and held my hands out. “I need a shower.”
She nodded but didn’t move.
I closed the distance between us until I towered over her. “I can’t touch you without getting you dirty.”
The tension drained out of her, and she got a playful, flirty look in her eyes. “Oh. That’s too bad.”
“But once I’m done in the shower…” There it was. The tension. I didn’t back off. “I won’t do anything you don’t want me to.”
“Oh, no. I want you to.” She grimaced. “I packed an overnight bag. Is that too presumptuous?”
She’d planned this. To be with me at my place. I must have been wearing the same grin I had when she arrived. “You’re worried I’ll mind that you want to stay here?”
She shifted her stance. “I turned you down last time. I know staying here is still a big deal.”
“Hell yeah, it is. We need to celebrate with sex.” Elated, I reached for her and snapped my hand back. “Shower first.”
I locked up the shop and herded Emery to the house while Sally ran to the barn to bed down for the night.
“Make yourself comfortable.” I almost told her to make herself at home. It would’ve flowed naturally off the tongue, but she was nervous about staying one night.
