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I grab her around the waist. “Twenty minutes.”
She giggles, throwing her head back, a musical sound that jerks my cock to attention.
“Soon, Sunflower,” I growl, dipping my head to nuzzle her neck. I inhale her strawberry scent. “I can’t get you out of my head. I’ve been without you for less than twenty-four hours and I’m mad. You drive me fucking wild, Ruby.”
I’ve laid all my cards on the table and I couldn’t care less.
She props a hand on my chest to push me away, her face flushed, triumphant. “Don’t you worry, Cowboy. I kinda have a thing for you, too.”
My gaze dips to her plump lips, and I slip a finger under the strap of her sundress. “Baby, I’m already counting the hours.”
Eyes turning dreamy, she kisses me again, grabs the bag of apples, then extricates herself from my grip. “See ya soon.”
Heart thundering, I watch her as she skips up the steps to her cottage and disappears.
Then it’s my turn. I pound up the porch steps to the cabin, my mind already on tonight.
Already on my girl.
“Out,” I growl as soon as I hear the screen door slam.
I glance at the clock on the wall. Any hope of a night alone with Ruby dashed. I need to move to the goddamn moon. Burn off my fingerprints, pack a U-Haul and get my ass living on a mountainside, far, far out of reach. Because the last thing I need is my idiot big brothers chiming in on what Ruby and I have going.
Ford and Davis swagger inside with shit-eating grins on their faces and scour the mess I’ve made of the kitchen.
“Really clocking right out at the end of your shift, huh?” Ford lifts a brow.
I glare. “Had better things to do.”
“That better thing ...she comin’ over or ...”
“She’s coming over for dinner,” I snap. “So y’all gotta get the fuck out.”
I set the one bottle of dusty wine I have in the fridge on the counter. Frowning, I jerk open the freezer, studying the contents. “We still got those steaks from last month?”
Davis crosses his arms and drops onto a stool. He looks every bit the smug bastard. “She still the good-for-a-summer girl?”
I freeze, painfully aware of my words from weeks ago.
I’m a fucking bastard. If Ruby heard me talking like that ...
It would hurt her. And that would break my goddamn heart.
The words don’t sit right with me. Not anymore. She’s more than a summer fling. She’s Ruby. She’s sunshine scorching the darkest pieces of me, a glow filling the cracks in my heart. Cracks I tried to fill with alcohol, with the ranch, with silence and anger. It feels like I’ve had a hangover for ten long years and I’m just getting sober.
“No,” I admit. “She’s more than that.”
Davis looks surprised, and for once in his life, he doesn’t have a know-it-all comeback.
“Sunk. Like a goddamn ship.” Ford hoots, pounding the countertop.
I stare, trying to glower when all I want to do is grin like a sorry son of a bitch.
“Head over boots, brother. Head over boots. You put her name on ‘em yet?” Ford asks, opening a bottle of whiskey and pouring out shots.
Head over boots.It’s what our father always said. When you find the right woman, you fall head over boots, then you write her name on the outsole, a mark she’s yours.
I grunt. “No.”
