In The Hay (Uninhibited in Apple Trail, Arkansas) (12 page)

Chapter Fifteen

Drew waited until
Lette
said her goodnights and followed her out of the house. He knew she had to have heard him coming. His footsteps weren’t exactly quiet coming down the front porch steps and he wasn’t trying to hide his presence, but she walked on, stubborn chin thrust out. He jogged to her side and caught her elbow to stop her. “
Lette
, please. Wait.”

“Wait for what?” She blinked up to him. Her eyes were cold, dark, and unfeeling. Nothing like the fire in them he knew.

He softened his hold on her and stroked up her arm. “Go for a ride with me.”

“Why?”

“Because I want you too. I want to show you something.”

She sighed. The noise rasped out in irritation. She might as well have said,
fine, if it’ll get you off my back.
He ignored the voice in the back of his head. What they had was short, but it couldn’t be over. Even after everything that had happened, things were not over.

Not even close.

He had pulled his head out of his ass. Saw things a little clearer in the mirror and what he saw, he didn’t like. He saw life and options passing him by. He’d been so driven to please his dad, he’d nearly lost what had become the most important thing ever to him.

If he wasn’t already too late.

He opened the passenger door for her and after she was in, shut it. He hurried around the front side of the truck. Each step filled with a mix of trepidation and hope. He climbed in and started the truck.

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see. I want to surprise you.”

She turned away and crossed her arms over her middle and stared out the side window to nothing but blackness.

He sighed and leaned on his door. “I missed you.”

“I can tell by the way you tried calling me so often.” Her sarcasm added a chilling bite to the otherwise warm night.

He winced. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know what to say.”

“Hello would have been a start.”

He drove in silence the rest of the way, praying that where he was taking her would do the rest. He turned through town and drove the main strip past the old court house. The bumps over the tracks, where’d he’d first started falling for her lurched in his chest. It was that moment when he’d realized she was something interesting, something he really wanted. Everything before then—she was still just another girl.

He turned down a long dirt road and parked at the base of the town’s water tower. “Let’s go up it. Like you wanted.”

She glanced over and shook her head. “I did this a week after you left. Parker and Stephanie came home and I went back to college to pack my things and drop all of my courses. The night I got back into town, I drove here and climbed it by myself and hung around at the top for an hour. Even wrote my name on the tank.”

He leaned over the steering wheel and stared up. “Where? On the other side?”

She flicked hair off her shoulder. “You can’t see it from here. I used pencil and it’s very small, but I know it’s there.” She shrugged a single shoulder. “You were right, Drew. I didn’t need you to have fun.” She looked forward out the windshield. “I still don’t need you. Take me back to my car please.”

He raked his hand through his hair. A mix of frustration, failure, and terror streamed through him so fast, he didn’t know where to start or what to do. He rolled down his window, jerked the keys from the ignition, and tossed them out.

Lette
shrieked. “Why did you do that?”

She shoved the door open and got out of the truck. He stepped out on his side, but he didn’t make a move for the bushes. He leaned on the bed of his truck and watched as she neared the brush.

“Watch out for snakes bedding down over there.”

She stopped and faced him. “Get over here and find those keys.”

“Nope. Don’t believe I will.”

“That was the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen. What was the point?”

He walked to the bed of his truck and dropped the tailgate. “You could talk me into doing whatever it is you wanted, even driving away from this tower and taking you back to your car when we are not finished. It was the only way I knew to stop you.”

“There’s nothing else to say. You don’t want me. When you left, did you ask if you could call me? Get my email? Anything about contact? I told you how I felt and you turned around. I left and saw your back to me in the rearview mirror as I drove out that driveway. You never even looked back.”

God, why did she have to sound that way. Of course he deserved to hear her broken tone, but damn it, he really didn’t want to listen to it. “I was wrong. I was chasing what I thought I wanted. You scare the hell out of me. You had me seeing things and dreaming about things that were different from what I wanted.” He eased up on the tailgate and swung his feet.

“I’m just a girl. I’m not that frightening.”

“You’re so much more than just a girl and that’s what scared me. What you were chasing, the things you were doing, they were contagious. I saw that swimming pool leaned outside Wal-Mart and I had to have it. I told myself it was just for you, but I knew part of it was for me. I haven't had as much fun in my life as I’ve had with you. My entire life has centered around construction. Even when I was kid, everything was about the business. Vacations, meals, family time, all of it included in the construction business.” He looked up at her. “Every other girl I’ve met is, just a girl. You’re not,
Lette
. You made my life exciting. You made me see more than the family business.”

She walked over and slid up on the tailgate next to him. “What do you want from me?”

“I want to know I can hold your hand if I try.”

She sighed. “I want to know if you’re going to stick around if I lean on your shoulder.”

“I’m here and I’m telling you I’m staying. I have an apartment rented in town.”

“Me too. Stephanie recommended one to me in a cute little neighborhood. She said they have barbeques every weekend during the summer.”

“Yeah. Riley said Parker recommended my apartment to me. All my stuff is behind us in the back of the truck.”

She glanced over her shoulder. He followed her gaze to his few bags and boxes. He took a chance and put his arm around her shoulders, pulled her head to him as she’d mentioned. “I’m just asking for a chance,
Lette
. I fucked up before. I shouldn’t have left like I did. I was so focused on trying to please my dad, I lost sight of me and what I needed. I realized that not long after I got back home. I won’t do it again.”

She relaxed against him and the knots twisting inside loosened. She was silent for a long moment, but he didn’t complain. He had her back in his arms again and that was more than what he had five minutes ago.

She sighed. “One condition.”

“Anything.” His fingers curled around her arm, keeping her against his side. “Name it. I don’t care what it is.”

She angled her head up and the sight of her eyes struck him right in his chest. They had a light and glow back in them.

She grinned. “Take me cow tipping.”

“Cow tipping.”

She nodded. “I tried the other night on Riley’s cows, but I wasn’t strong enough to push them over. They just woke up and groaned and I ran like hell out of the field.”

Drew brushed his lips over hers. She didn’t resist, didn’t hesitate. Her arms wound his neck in just that perfect kind of way as he pulled her in his lap. He rested his forehead against hers and stroked his hand down her cheek.

Riley would have his ass, but if that’s what it took, it would be done. “Let’s do it.”

She shook her head. “Not tonight. I want to go home tonight. With you. And get in my kiddie pool. I put it in the middle of my kitchen floor and I fill it up just about every night, but it’s not the same without you.”

That night sprang back in focus. Of her arching on top of that cheap plastic being the hottest thing he’d seen. Except for maybe the shower…or there was the bedroom, too. Hell, it was all hot with
Lette
. He stroked down her arm. “How does tomorrow sound for that?”

“Something else in mind for tonight?”

“I was thinking of spreading my blankets down in the bed of this truck for the night. For all I know my keys landed in the lap of a rattlesnake and I’d rather wait to look until morning.”

She frowned and
hmm
’d
. “It seems I don’t have much choice but to spend all night out away from home.” A grin slid over her face. “Never done that before either.”

“Good.” He pulled her back in the truck and reached for the trash bag with his blankets inside.

She was over him on her hands and knees. “I haven’t ever done it in the back of a truck either.”

He grinned and a more of that warm, feel-good feeling spread through his chest. “I’m glad you told me. That you were a virgin, even though you didn’t mean to.”

She dropped her gaze from him.

He cupped her cheek and sat up enough to leave a quick kiss. “I get to be your first with everything, show you everything.”

“I want you to know the full score, Drew, so I’m going to go ahead and tell you that you’re also the first boy I’ve ever started falling in love with.”

Aw, hell.

More of those warm-melting feelings packed in his chest and pushed until he thought his ribs might explode. “Good to know because you’re the first girl I’ve ever fallen in love with and I don’t plan to let you go.”

She blinked. The cab light on his truck highlighted her face enough that he was able to see tears filling her eyes. But they were the kind of tears he could deal with. He pulled a blanket out, wrapped it around her and held her close, kissing her.

THE END

From the Author…

Thank you for joining me in Apple Trail, Arkansas! I hope you enjoyed your stay and want to visit again. In case you’re new to the series, let me give you a few little hints you may not have realized about the previous stories.

Such as why did Riley proposed by a section of fencing in the middle of a cow pasture? And speaking of that fence, why did Riley leave that one little link of fence when he burned the rest? If you want answers, check out number two in Apple Trail, Arkansas,
On The Fence
. It’s the story of how Riley and Shellie came to be and why that tiny section of fence is sentimental.

Drew and
Lette
are moving into an apartment building. These are not normal apartments and I can tell you exactly who the two previous renters are and why these apartments were suggested, but the story behind it is so much more fun! (not to mention sexy!) Look at
Through The Wall
, first in Apple Trail for details on those thin walls!

Lots of exciting things are coming to this small town, mainly staring with Apple Trail’s man in charge, Chief Deputy Mike Gable. We had the chance to meet Mike at the beginning of
In The Hay
when his hands were filled with a couple of blondes, mostly Tiffany McBride. And let me tell you, that little eavesdropping by Drew and
Lette
is just a peek at the flying sparks these two have together.

Making Her Nights

Uninhibited in Apple Trail, Arkansas series (Book Four)

Available June, 2011

He never loses control and she always tests the rules.

Chief Deputy Mike Gabel is the man in charge in Apple Trail. No one gives him more trouble than a certain blonde. While her stunts are frustrating to deal with, it’s the constant way she keeps him trapped in knots.

Tiffany McBride has a reputation for being a trouble maker. She’s been betting and causing trouble since her parents died when she was a teenager. What looks like a young woman sewing her oats, it’s actually desperate measures to gamble for extra money to put food on the table.

When these two acknowledge their attraction, sparks fly…that is if Mike’s public position can survive Tiffany’s frowned upon reputation.

Excerpt from
Making Her Nights:

“Tiffany.”

She didn’t stop.

No. Surely not. Tiffany stopped at the edge of the woods and dropped a pair of white flip-flops and slipped them on her feet. Feet with matching neon pink paint on her toes. Feet Mike wanted to hold in his hands and massage until she moaned and her muscles puddled. He groaned and followed after.

She walked through a circling of pines just off the sandbar.

He peeked in the little area, thankful she hadn’t stripped down yet. “You can’t just change your clothes on the sandbar. That is illegal. It’s called public nudity.”

“Are you going to arrest me, Chief?”

The bag fell from her hand and flopped to the pine straw covered ground. She hooked her thumbs in the thin strips of her bikini bottoms and didn’t wait a split second before she bent and started shoving them down.

He dropped his gaze immediately. If he saw any more of her creamy skin, he’d lose his mind there on the spot. It wasn’t possible for his blood to pump faster without giving him a heart attack or stroke or whatever the hell it was you got from your heart beating too fast. He couldn’t fucking think with her around, what the hell was he supposed do with her around and
naked.

He closed his eyes and pulled in a breath. He needed to clear his mind. Work. Work always kept him occupied. He surveyed the area of pines. By the bits of litter on the ground, people used this spot a lot. By the used condom two feet away from him, they used it for more than a dressing room. He made a mental note to see about sending someone down here to clean up and to put a sign up warning about trash.

And that was all his mind could come up with. Besides the woman standing in the center of the circle.

He dared a peek, hoping she was done. Big mistake. A huge, mind blowing, cock hardening, lust-creating, monster-sized mistake. Her back was to him, but she was stark naked. Her ass, one he’s seen often enough barely covered in her little swimsuit was bare. It just wasn’t the same at all without the bottoms. The bottoms had been hiding things like the delicate curve of the top of her ass. Disguising the generous swells of her cheeks. Covering the small dimple that matched the one on her cheek—her face cheek. God, he wouldn’t be able to look at her again without remembering this.

He swallowed and tugged at the front of his pants for relief that would not come.

“I’m going to take that as a no on the arresting?”

He blinked and looked away from her ass to see she was staring over her shoulder at him and as she fastened a bra.

Laughter hooted from the sandbar and broke him out of the strongest erotic lust haze he’d ever been in. The people on the sandbar stared at a skier going by. But if Mike could clearly see them down there, then a pretty much naked Tiffany could be seen up here. He jerked her towel from the ground and held it out as a curtain.

He stared at the ground, refusing to become sidetracked. “You can’t just strip like this.”

“If I can’t, then how come I did?”

“You
shouldn’t
.”

“Relax, Mike. No one is looking.” Her voice was soft, but still chiding. Still teasing like always. Tempting him out of his barely held control. “You’re less than a foot away and you’re not even looking.”

He swallowed, refusing to fall for her bait and look. That was, until she moved closer. Her arms wrapped around his neck. The towel,
his
clothes, and her bra were the only things separating them. A brick wall wouldn’t have been enough to block her soft curves pressing along him.

She sighed. “Why do we have to be this way? All this fighting and arguing is exhausting.”

The heat of her skin bled through the few barriers and drew him even deeper under her spell. He swallowed to clear his throat before speaking. “Because I worry about the trouble you get into, since you don’t.”

“Whatever.” Her arms fell from his body like all the hairs in his body being ripped out at once. Clothes rustled and her feet crunched the straw under her. “I’m dressed.

He peeked and saw she thankfully was. He folded the towel up and handed it to her.

“You know what amuses me the most about this situation?” She packed her things in her bag. Her back was to him, the tag of her shirt fluttered in the wind.

“Something other than your shirt is on inside out?”

She looked down and chuckled. Without concern, she stripped it off, flipped it right side out and tugged it back on. She was fast, but not so fast he didn’t get another good look of her pristine white bra cupping her tanned breasts.

She flicked hair off her shoulder. “That wasn’t it. When you’re not harassing me about my behavior, you can be decently fun. Not a whole bunch, but decent enough.”

His eyes narrowed. “I don’t harass you.”

“What do you call all that clucking like a hen?”

His pulse throbbed in his head. This woman. This one woman gave him more of a headache than the rest of the town combined. “I. Do. Not. Cluck. The problem is you’re always borrowing trouble. If it’s not stupid shit like today, it’s hustling drunks in the bar, or whatever else you can come up with. It’s always something with you. You can’t just grow up.”

Her mouth hardened. “I take it back, I don’t think you would know fun if it bit you in the ass.”

“Some of us have responsibilities, Tiffany. We can’t just run around all fun and games all the time.”

She slung her bag over her shoulder. “Oh, yes. That’s what life is to me. Fun and games. You know that sixty bucks you cost me? That was the grocery bill for the next month so Jessie and I could eat more than peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”

God. Her cousin, Jessie McBride, was part of the issue here. Tiffany wasn’t near this wild until her parents died and she moved in with Jessie. Things just feel apart then. “If it was that important, maybe you shouldn’t have risked it in the first place.”

“You just don’t fucking get it. Screw you and screw your ride. I’ll find another way home.”

She started past, but he caught her by the arm. “Why don’t you explain it to me?”

Crossing her arms over her chest, she huffed and a hip kicked out to one side. “I made the sixty dollars last night in a card game. Doubling that money today would have gone toward the electric bill and now you’ve set me back. That’s how we live. All my ‘stunts’ that you find as headache are a means of staying afloat.”

He swallowed, but refused to be moved by her. “Find a job. Something more than loading feed sacks.”

She shook her head. “Oh, yeah. Everyone in Apple Trail is just handing out the offers for work after all the hell Jessie and I caused as teenagers. The only reason I have the part-time job at the feed store is because the man who owns it was friends with my dad. The best he can afford is to only work us both part-time.”

“Things can’t be that bad that you need to resort to all this betting and stunts.”

“When’s the last time you were at the house?” When he didn’t answer, she shook her head. “It’s falling apart. Literally. Every bit of money we’re able to scrap together goes to food or more duct tape and glue to hold the house together.”

“Jessie could sell some of the land for money.”

Tiffany was shaking her again. Her fast drying blonde hair curled around her shoulders and danced against her skin. “That’s her daddy’s land, my parents had helped him buy it. The bank will have to strip it out of both of our cold, dead hands. He bought a last hundred and fifty acres just before…”

They all died.
Her parents and Jessie’s parents had been in a car accident together, leaving the two teenagers to figure things out.

She cleared her throat. “It doesn’t have too much left on it.”

“How much?”

She bit her lip.

“How much, Tiffany?”

“Two and half years.”

“And you plan to keep your behavior going for that much longer.” Over
his
dead body. He couldn’t take this for another two years. It had been going on now for, fuck, eight years? Nine already?

She shrugged. “I’ve been doing it for years now.”

“Not at this level.”

She shook her head. “We had a lot of rain this spring. Most of our garden that we usually sell or trade things for was ruined. Riley Hamilton has been very gracious in giving us beef, even though we don’t have near the fruits and vegetables we normally give him in return. Jessie and I have been helping him where we can to make up for it, but it’s not near the compensation for the amount of meat. Without that, I don’t know what we would be doing right now.”

“You have a lot of acreage that’s loaded in deer.”

She nodded. “We sure do. And pigs. And squirrels. And rabbits and all the meat a person could eat. But the only guns we have were our daddy’s and they kick so hard, Jessie and I both liked to have broke our noses when we tried firing them.”

He raked a hand through his hair. “I’ll find something for you at the station.”

She stared after him for a long moment. “No.”

“There’s something. You can help Mary Sue. She needs the extra hands right now with her pregnancy advancing.”

“No.”

“It’s easy. You can do it.”

“I’m not worried about being able to do it, I’m worried about doing it with you around.”

His brow rose and she released a disgusted sounding noise.

“Not because I can’t work around you, asshole. I’m not going to have you over my shoulder all day telling me how I’m doing something wrong.”

“I won’t.”

“That’s all you ever do.”

“I do no—”

Her look cut him off short. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

“So you’re going to stay in the situation you’re in because you don’t want to be told what to do.”

“I can’t handle you telling me what to do twenty-fours a day. Not like you do. Not with this nagging disapproving tone over every single step I make. Hell, Mike, I think I bent over and checked the ties of my shoes once and you jumped all over me.”

He straightened, the memory jumped to mind in full clarity. Of her white skirt blowing in the sudden strong breeze, the curves her ass right there on display. “That’s cause you were flashing the entire street!” He pulled in a breath. “I won’t be over you all the time. Just for working hours.”

“No. It wouldn’t work anyway. Three-quarters of this town would have a heart-attack if they found out I was working in the Sherriff’s office.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“No it’s not.”

“If you do what I say, the—”

“Uh-huh. There you go again.”

He cursed himself for that slip. “It’s the best I can do.”

She shook her head. “I didn’t tell you all this for your pity. In month and a half, we’ll have melons. We were able to salvage a bit and we planted more things for the fall. Pumpkins and stuff that we’ll sell.”