AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Mom always said she’d teach me, but she never did.”
“But she showed you some basic chords, right?”
“No. She didn’t like me touching her guitars.”
Jack’s expression grew grim. “My acoustic’s at the cottage. Let’s go get it.”
“Really? You’ll let me play your guitar?”
“I’ll give you the damned thing.”
Riley looked as though he’d dropped a diamond tiara on her head. Jack tossed aside the dish towel. Dean pulled Blue outside, not feeling at all guilty about leaving April to Nita’s mercies.
“I don’t sulk,” Blue said as they stepped off the side porch. “You shouldn’t have said that. And it’s not fair to raise Riley’s hopes about being a bridesmaid.”
“She’ll survive just fine.” He stalked toward the oil drum where they burned trash. It was full. He struck a match from the box April kept in a Ziploc bag and tossed it in. “Why won’t they all go away? Jack’s still around. April’s not going until Riley does. That old witch is the last straw. I want all of them out of here! Everybody but you.”
“Except it’s not that easy, is it?”
No, it wasn’t that easy. As the fire caught, he moved back to sit in the grass and watch the flames. This past week, he’d seen Riley’s confidence grow. Her indoor pallor had faded, and the new clothes April had bought her were already getting loose. He liked working on the porch, too, even if he had to do it with Jack. Every time he drove a nail he felt as though he was putting his own mark on this old farm. Then there was Blue.
She moved behind him. He picked up a cellophane wrapper that had fallen into the grass and tossed it toward the fire.
Blue watched as the wadded cellophane landed at the base of the drum, but Dean didn’t seem to care that he’d missed the shot. His brooding profile stood in perfect silhouette against the twilight. She walked over to sit in the grass next to him. Another bandage had appeared on his hand, this one across his knuckles. She touched it. “Construction accident?”
He propped his elbow on his knee. “I’ve got a fair-size lump on my head, too.”
“How are you getting along with your coworker?”
“He doesn’t talk to me, and I don’t talk to him.”
She crossed her legs and gazed at the fire. “He should at least acknowledge what he did to you.”
“He has.” He turned his head toward her. “So have you had that particular conversation with your own mother?”
She plucked a blade of grass. “It’s different with her.” The fire popped. “She’s sort of like Jesus. Would Jesus’s daughter have the right to complain that he’d ruined her childhood because he was always running off saving people’s souls?”
“Your mother isn’t Jesus, and if people have kids, they should either stick around to raise them or put them up for adoption.”
She wondered if he intended to be around to raise his kids, but the idea of him at home with his family while she was off globe-trotting depressed her.
He slipped his arm around her shoulders, and she didn’t say a thing about it. The flames leaped higher. Her blood hummed. She was sick of settling for second best. Just once in her life, she wanted to indulge in a dangerous extravagance. The night wind caught her hair. She rose up to her knees and kissed him. Later, she’d put him in his place. For now, she wanted to live in the moment.
He didn’t need any encouragement to kiss her back, and before long, they were stumbling behind the barn into the tall grass out of sight of the house.
Dean didn’t know why Blue had changed her mind, but since she had her fingers inside his waistband, he wasn’t going to ask.
“I do not want to do this,” she said as she pulled open the fastener of his jeans.
“Sometimes you have to take one for the team.” He whipped her shorts and panties to her ankles, went to his knees, and nuzzled her. She was sweet, spicy, a heady potion to his senses. Long before he’d had enough of her, she fell apart. He caught her and drew her down, keeping her on top to protect her from the weeds that were jabbing him in the butt. It was a sm
all sacrifice for the reward of finally sinking into that warm, writhing body.
She grabbed his head between her hands, clenched her teeth, and said fiercely, “Don’t you dare rush me!”
He understood her point of view, but she was so tight, so wet, and he’d been pushed too far…He sank his fingers into her hips, pulled her down hard, and let himself go.
Afterward, he was afraid she’d take a swing at him, so he drew her flat on top of him and hooked one of her legs over his hip. Kissing her deeply, he reached between their bodies. She arched and trembled. A surge of protectiveness came over him. He moved his hand and set her free.
