I fought the urge to laugh. He looked so sad and pathetic. Helpless. Poor guy.
“Is she alright?” he asked.
“She will be, but I think you might want to go in there and talk to her,” I said.
“In there?” he asked.
“Yes in there. She’s scared. She wants to know that you are going to be there. That you are going to listen to her. You can’t just flake out when stuff gets hard, Brandon. She needs you,” I all but shouted it as I poked him in the chest. “You got it?”
There was no room for sympathy when it came to him. Jess was the best friend I had, and I wasn’t going to just let her sit there and be miserable.
“Yes, ma’am.” He nodded and then shirked back.
“Good.” I’d had enough of him. I stepped back and let him walk into the restroom then spotted Wyatt. He was positively gleeful.
“What are you smiling about?” I asked.
“Oh, just no-nonsense Rose. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her before.”
“Well get used to it.” I wasn’t interested in being anyone else. Not tonight.
“I think I can handle that.” He said as he approached me, his body so close to mine all I had to was reach out and I could touch it.
I wanted to. So I leaned into him and looked up at those thick lips of his.
“Do you think they’ll be awhile?” he asked.
“I have a feeling she was just getting started.” She couldn’t stop crying no matter her promise, but I wouldn’t hold that against her. I’d still give him a chance.
“Do you want to get out of here? I can take you home, or anywhere else you’d rather go,” his voice sounded so husky, so perfect as he said it.
“Do you have anywhere in mind?” I asked as I looked up at him. I hated to admit it but I wasn’t ready for the date to end.
“I’ve got somewhere in mind.” It was all he had to say, I’d follow him anywhere in that moment.
Anywhere.
“I should’ve known you’d take me here,” she said as she stared over spring creek.
“Best fishing in all of Montana. But mostly I just come out here to relax.” I shrugged my shoulders and looked out over the creek. It wasn’t wide, but it was part of what I considered to be my home.
I loved it.
“Is work that hard?” she asked.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You said that your father was making your life difficult. Is that true?” she probed, concern on her face.
“What? Oh, I said that to help Brandon get out some of his frustration. I didn’t really mean to say it was that bad,” I explained.
“But yeah, he’s back in town and he is convinced that I can’t do anything right,” I added.
He lit into me this morning, telling me that I wasn’t using his contacts. I preferred to go through proper channels but he insisted that his contacts were hard fought and won.
Kept telling me he was just trying to make it easier for me to be successful.
I wanted it my own way or I didn’t want it at all.
But I couldn’t just tell her that. She wouldn’t understand. Hell, she’d probably judge me for what my father was.
Everyone else did.
I grabbed a flat rock and skipped it across the creek.
“I remember the first time you brought me down here, you told me it was to go fishing. Said you wanted to show me how,” she said.
“I remember too, you’d been a champion fisher, but I didn’t know it. Caught ten to my three. And you grinned the whole time. Fleeced me from the start.”
Her face fell, “I was the one who got fleeced in the end.”
“What do you mean, Rose?’ Was she talking about why she left because I knew that couldn’t the be case. I still had no idea what cased her to run off like that. I was tired of hearing that it was some how this was my fault. That her leaving was all because of me.
The truth was that she decided to run away from me and never look back. That was on her. Not me.
It was a mistake I was desperate to make her see.
“I don’t want to talk about it. Not yet. I made a promise to Jess that I would give you another chance. That I would try to see the man you are now.”
“Do you like what you see?” I asked as I pulled her into me. It was warm for a spring night. Almost like we’d skipped over spring entirely and just jumped right into summer. I could hear the spring peepers croaking up stream.
“I, I think I do,” she said as she looked up into my eyes.
Kiss the girl, my brain shouted. I didn’t hesitate. I bent down and kissed her hard, all of the pent up lust escaping through the meeting of our lips.
She’d been feeling it too, I know she had. I could tell by the way she wet her lips, by the heavy lidded looks she was giving me.