AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He was as different from Jace as night and day.He had always been quiet whereas Jace was talkative.He had always been hesitant whereas Jace had charged forward.He had always been intense whereas Jace had always been nonchalant.
About everything but football.
Decker had never played football.He’d never played any sport.And yet, he looked like he had.As he placed the pie on the torn bench seat between them, then put the idling truck into drive and pulled away, she couldn’t help taking in the hard muscles that filled out his western shirt.The solid curves of his chest.The bulge of bicep beneath his sleeve.The strong cords of his forearm hooked over the steering wheel.
A feeling settled in her belly.A feeling she had no business feeling for Jace’s cousin.Trying to distract herself from the sexy, muscled man next to her, she turned on the radio.The stations had been programmed differently than when Jace drove the truck.There was not one country station.Just classic rock stations, one news station, and talk radio.
“Do you have something against country music?”
“No.It’s just not something I enjoy listening to.”
She snorted.“You never said a word when I used to serenade you with the songs I wrote while we were cleaning the barn.”
“Would you have stopped if I had?”
She laughed.“Probably not.”
The smell of warm gooseberry pie had started to fill the cab of the truck and Sweetie’s stomach protested loudly.She hadn’t eaten since the Sausage McMuffin she’d gotten that morning at the McDonald’s in Dallas and she was starving.Since itwasher pie, she lifted the tin foil and broke off a piece of flaky crust.Decker shot her an annoyed look and she sent him a smug smile in return before she popped the piece in her mouth.
He looked back at the road.“I don’t like the crust anyway.”
“Liar.”She broke off another piece and ate it slowly, savoring the buttery flakiness.“You used to beg me to bring you my mama’s cinnamon piecrust cookies.”This time the growl came from his stomach.She laughed as she broke off a piece and held it out.“I can’t let an officer of the law go hungry.So I’m willing to share ...my pie.”
His ocean gaze shifted to her and he hesitated for only a second before he leaned over, opened his mouth, and took the crust from her fingers.The feel of his lips and tongue brushing her fingertips caused her stomach to drop like she was on the downward slide of a roller coaster.All the air whooshed out of her lungs, but thankfully, he didn’t seem to notice.His eyes were closed as he licked a wayward flake of crust from his bottom lip.
Her stomach took another dive and she turned away.What the hell was wrong with her?It had to be the truck.Her hormones were just taking a walk down memory lane without her brain.
And with the wrong Carson.
Except Jace’s touch had never made her feel like she was riding a roller coaster.
“Okay, I lied,” Decker said.“I love your mama’s piecrust.”He reached over and snapped off another edge of the pie.
“Hey!”She grabbed the pie plate and set it on her lap.“I will share when I—” She cut off when she saw her car up ahead.
Mustang Sally had been defiled.
Or maybe not defiled.It wasn’t the first time the Mustang had had its windows shoe polished.But usually the words were something uplifting.Go Wildcats!Juniors Rule!Happy 17th Birthday, Sweetie!Now the words shoe polished across her windshield were just plain mean.
Get Gone, Sweetie!You Ain’t Welcome!!!
She tried to make light of it, but it was hard when a huge lump had formed in her throat.“Well, I guess that answers that question.The townsfolkarestill carrying a grudge.”
Decker muttered something under his breath that sounded likeimmature imbecilesbefore he made a quick U-turn and pulled in behind Mustang Sally.There was no message on the back window ...just a splatter of raw eggs and broken eggshells.
With a muttered curse, he shoved open the door and got out.She followed behind him and watched as he took two red plastic gas containers from the bed of the truck.While he filled her gas tank, she opened her trunk and got an old car wash towel to clean off the windows.The eggs had dried so she had no luck getting them off, but the shoe polish came off with a little elbow grease.
“It was probably just some punky teenagers.This isn’t the first broken-down car that’s been tagged.”
She glanced up to see Decker standing on the other side of the hood.“And all of them were tagged withGet Gone, Sweetie?”She laughed.“Don’t try to make me feel better, Deckster.I know you feel the same way.”
The sun had set and the soft purple of twilight surrounded his tall frame making it hard to read his expression.
“Why’d you do it?”
She could have acted like she didn’t know what he was talking about, but she didn’t.“Jace and I never would have worked.We both had different dreams.”
“And you couldn’t have figured that out sooner?”
