“I could say the same for you,” I swear to god I wanted to wipe that smirk off his face. The same one he used to have on right before he would lean down and kiss me softly. Slowly.
Just another one of his conquests, I was fresh out of high school, and he was right out of college. I knew it was wrong. I knew it wouldn’t last, but I let it happen.
I let myself be one of his many different temporary acquisitions. Knowing he would break my heart, I didn’t let him have that opportunity. I left him before it could happen. At least that was what I told myself.
Still, standing in front of him, I couldn’t help but think, he hasn’t changed a bit. Still a cocky jerk!
“I’m here to see your momma.” That gruff voice sent chills down my spine. Feelings I knew I shouldn’t be having. He was still as sexy as hell, if not even more handsome.
Time had been kind to Wyatt Graves. What was a young man had turned into a fully seasoned one. He was rough and hard around all the right edges.
Can’t blame a girl for looking.
“Let me get her.” I turned to open the screen door and as I did Sadie came bounding out, her bark reduced to high pitch whining as her bottom waggled back and forth running right for him.
He bent down and petted her, scratching her rump.
“Traitor,” I mumbled as I stuck my head in.
“Mom,” I called.
“What in the hell are you doing?” My mom called out to me from my place on the porch. She was in the kitchen, her head in the oven as she pulled out a fresh batch of cookies.
“Just thought I’d let Sadie out for you.” The big dog took her pets from Wyatt then bounded over by the orchard sniffing at the base of the apple trees. No doubt she was taking in the scent of the deer who came to rip the bark off and eat whatever they could find. “We have company.”
Come autumn they would have an veritable feast, but right now they had to subsist on the new growth that was starting to spring up.
In all honestly, I had no idea what I was doing, or why. Was it born from a need to feel my roots, or just to feel the warmth of the dirt between my toes?
“Who?” she asked as she set them down.
I looked back at Wyatt, and then I turned to see her on the front porch of the little cabin, the one I grew up in, smiling at me, wiping her hands on her apron. She was still fast when she wanted to be. My dad always said she was slow as a turtle unless she wanted something. Then she was a speed-racing hare. It was just best not to get in her way.
Shoot. Tears started to well up in my eyes, but I blinked them away. I wasn’t going to be reduced to tears. Not now.
“Wyatt? I thought you were coming at ten,” she said as she wiped her hands on her apron.
“It’s fifteen after ten, momma.” I bit my lip and tried not to look nervous. Wyatt just stood there, as polite as could be. I glanced at him and willed myself not to linger over his body.
It was a boyish handsome that had melted away to a devilishly sexy rock hard man. Like I said, couldn’t blame a girl for looking.
Don’t linger! I yelled at myself. But it was too late. He saw me, noticed what I was doing. And that smile only got wider.
“Oh, hello, Wyatt.” She smiled at him, but I pushed her into the living room, just for a second.
“Well, that’s rude,” she started to chastise me, but I cut her off.
“Mom, bangs?” I said, holding back a chuckle.
“What? Oh! Thank you.” She pulled the curler out and checked her reflection in the long gun cabinet turned into bookshelves in the living room of her cabin. Daddy’s guns were all shoved into one corner, and her bodice rippers were piled high where guns used to be.
It was funny, but not unsurprising. She never did have much use for all the guns.
“One’ll do me just fine if someone comes to thieve,” she always used to say. Thieve. I chuckled at the memory.
Looks like it had worked so far.
“Wyatt! I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize the time. I was too busy getting ready for work.”
She worked down at the Green Rustler, the local bar. She bartended more to get out of the house than anything else, but still, it was something to do.
“That’s okay, ma’am. Sadie here kept me company.” He smiled. The dog was plastered right up to his side.
“Ol’ girl always did like you. You bring the papers?” my mother asked.
“What papers, momma?” I furrowed my brow. What was she talking about?
“Making an offer on your momma’s land. Said she’s looking to sell,” Wyatt explained.
I blanched. She’d never sell all this land. This was daddy’s last little scrap. They’d sold the bulk of it, farm house and all when he’d been diagnosed with cancer. Said that they needed money for treatment. And that they were getting too old to take care of it.