Chute Yeah

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  Chapter 9

  My phone is always on silent. And no, I don’t care if I miss any calls.

  -Banks to Callum

  Banks

  I watched her lick her fork and barely contained the urge to moan.

  And it had nothing to do with the chocolate cake that I was eating, and everything to do with the way she licked the apple pie filling off of her fork like it was the best thing she’d ever tasted. She even moaned and hummed as if the sound effects were completely necessary.

  I took another bite of the chocolate cake, and was bringing it up to my mouth when she said, “Are you going to finish the rest of that cake?”

  I looked down at the cake and saw that it was only about a quarter of the way eaten—by me.

  “Do you want it all or just a bite?” I wondered.

  She bit her lip.

  “The way you’re going to town over there makes me want a bite,” she admitted. “But chocolate cake is my favorite, and I’m worried that if I try some, I’m going to want to eat it all. And I want to try everything on the plate first. I just wanted you to know it’s my favorite and not to eat every bite.”

  I twisted the plate and moved to the brownie.

  She eyed it like I was eating her best friend.

  “Let me guess,” I said. “You like brownies, too?”

  She nodded.

  I twisted the entire plate around so that the apple pie was in front of me, and the brownie and chocolate cake was in front of her.

  She smiled at me.

  It was a small smile. An intimate one that I knew was only meant for me.

  And it made something inside my belly tighten.

  I’d always had a thing for Candy.

  Always.

  It was weird because even though I had something for her, I always wondered if she reciprocated in any way.

  But when I’d try to move in, she’d take a step back, putting even more distance there.

  Then she acted like I was a nuisance rather than a person she wanted to be around, and for a teenage boy, I’d taken that hard.

  I’d also done some shit to her that I should’ve never done.

  But all I could say was that I wasn’t that little kid anymore.

  I did a lot of growing up since then.

  A lot.

  I also had control now. I could do and say things without them coming out the wrong way as they used to when I was younger.

  Plus, I’d done a lot of growing up in our house that night when my father had been aiming his gun at my mother’s head.

  I’d never be the same person that I was when I was younger. No matter how hard I tried.

  But I did have the same feelings about the girl in front of me still.

  After all of these years, I still wanted her.

  I wanted her to be happy. I wanted to see her in the front seat of my truck. I wanted to look up while I was running from a pissed off bull and see her staring at me with worry.

  I wanted it all.

  With her.

  But for now, I’d settle with just a kiss.

  Which I would be collecting tonight.

  I watched out of the corner of my eye as she downed her beer and then ordered another one. I continued to watch as she tried each and every piece of dessert on the plate, but always seemed to return to the chocolate cake and the brownie.

  I ended up gravitating toward the ones that she wasn’t liking as much—and that was okay with me. I didn’t care what kind of sweet it was, as long as it was sweet.

  I also eyed my brother’s steak, wondering if it would take too long to order it after the meal.

  “Excuse me,” I heard Candy’s husky voice call out. I looked up to find her staring at the waitress with a smile. “Can he get a steak?” She turned to me. “Medium rare?”

  I nodded once.

  The waitress smiled, but her face looked strained.

  “Is that it? Just a steak?” she asked.

  I nodded.

  “Okay, it’ll be about another ten minutes,” she apologized.

  “That’s okay,” I said just as Codie raised her hand. “I want to order a piece of the chocolate cake. And Desi wants a brownie sundae.”

  “Hey!” Desi cried.

  Callum pressed his hand over her mouth.

  “Shut up,” he growled. “You know you want it.”

  Candy snickered.

  My attention went back to her.

  That was when Mack’s woman said she’d like a piece of cake as well.

  Her voice was so soft that I almost missed it.

  The waitress for sure did miss it.

  Candy didn’t, though.

  “And another piece of chocolate cake,” Candy said.

  The waitress looked at her skeptically.

  “It’s not for me this time,” she said, pointing at Mack. “It’s for him.”

  Mack grinned at the waitress who looked frazzled.

  “I think this should be a company expense,” Desi said. “I can totally write this off.”

  “I can get the other half,” Candy offered. “We talked about the house, didn’t we?”

  The house being the one that my brothers and I were building to move into, so we didn’t have to stay in the much too small one we were currently occupying anymore.

  “Negative,” I said. “Your dad isn’t paying for this meal.”

  Candy opened her mouth to object, but I held up my credit card. “The reason we were coming here tonight anyway was because of me. I’m supposed to show my face more because they sponsored me. What the sponsorship doesn’t cover, I will.”

  Candy narrowed her eyes.

  I handed the passing waitress my card so there wouldn’t be any more discussion.

  “Rude,” she said, sounding pissed.

  “Not rude,” I corrected her. “Right.”

  Candy rolled her eyes and went back to her cake.

  I went back to the pies, and then to the leftover melted ice cream before snagging one more piece of the cake before she ate it all.

  “Did you want anymore?” she asked, taking a large bite.

  “Yes,” I said. “That one.”

  She looked at the fork that was holding a hunk of brownie that had melted ice cream soaked into it.

  Then she moved until the fork was closer to my face.

  I leaned forward and sucked the piece off, keeping my eyes connected to hers.

  She drew in a deep breath and looked away, but not before I saw the heat in her eyes.

  “That was kind of hot,” I heard someone mutter.

  I turned to see my brother, Darby, staring at me with a look of mischief on his face.

  I rolled my eyes just as Candy said, “What are you talking about?”

  Before Darby could open his fat mouth, though, the waitress came rushing up with a steak and placed it down in front of me.

  “The desserts will be right out,” she exclaimed, then rushed away before we could give her any more orders.

  I laughed at her abrupt departure then looked back at Candy who was staring at me with an odd expression on her face.

  “What?” I asked.

  She took a gulp of her newly refreshed beer.

  “Nothing,” she said. “Just haven’t seen you laugh in a while.”

  ***

  “I’m not sure that I really need a ride home,” she said. “But thank you anyway.”

  I held the passenger side door of my truck open for her and waited for her to climb inside.

  She got about halfway before she got stuck, the truck too tall and her pants too tight.

  “A little help there, Banksy,” she teased.

  I walked over to her and lifted her by the hips, helping her move her butt into the seat.

  When she was settled, I closed the door and prayed for patience as I walked around the truck.

  I also quietly made a list of what I needed to do t
omorrow chore wise before I left for Houston, hoping to keep my brain occupied so I didn’t let my dick get any harder when I thought about how right my hands felt on Candy’s hips.

  “I had the biggest crush on you in high school,” she said.

  I knew she wouldn’t have said these things had she not had four beers. But she was drunk on chocolate and beer. I had no doubt in my mind that she wouldn’t be capable of saying those things without her verbal filter being impaired.

  “I’ve always had a crush on you,” I said. “In high school, I thought you were the most beautiful thing in the world.”

  Still did, as a matter of fact.

  And since she was trading off facts, I didn’t see why I couldn’t, too.

  “I also loved how you always tried to verbally abuse me,” I continued. “How we could spar, and you could say things that nobody else would say because of who I was.”

  She scoffed.

  “Banks Valentine, you weren’t all that awesome,” she teased.

  I liked her like this. In fact, I liked her in all of her Candy forms, but this one was definitely one I hadn’t had the privilege of witnessing before.

  “I was totally hot shit and you know it.” I took a turn that would lead to her house. “All the lights are off.”

  She looked up and studied the house as if it was a jigsaw puzzle she couldn’t quite solve.

  “My dad goes to bed early,” she admitted. “Earlier now that he’s been staying with me and his hand hasn’t been behaving. I think he gets frustrated with not being able to do what he’s used to, so to counteract his boredom, he just goes to bed. He left the back door open for me.”

  “Your dad will be okay,” I found myself trying to soothe her.

  She hadn’t said that she was upset, but I could read it in her words. The way she’d clenched her hands into tiny little fists.

  “I know,” she admitted. “I guess I didn’t give much thought to how much I would be doing on my own.”

  “Owning your own business is a lot of work,” he admitted. “Doing the work of two owners for two separate businesses seems monumental. I don’t even like thinking about what I’m going to do next week, let alone what I’m going to have to do for work.”

  She scoffed. “You make beaucoup money riding bulls,” she said. “And when you’re not doing that, you own a fifth of an up-and-coming cattle ranch and horse farm. You probably do more work than me and Desi combined.”

  Probably.

  “Do you like the coffee shop?” I asked as I pulled around to the back of the house next to her father’s pickup.

  “I… don’t know,” she admitted. “I was so excited about this venture, and I wanted it off the ground so bad that I didn’t give it much thought, I guess. I wanted Desi to go in with me, and I pretty much agreed to do what I didn’t want to do just because I needed her.”

  “You don’t like doing which part?” I asked.

  I didn’t like that she didn’t like it.

  I didn’t like it at all.

  I wanted her to enjoy the hell out of her job. To be happy with life.

  She deserved it.

  “I don’t like the serving the customers coffee and pastries part,” she admitted. “When I was younger, I put this dream as the goal. To own my own coffee house. But I guess that dream was mainly because I didn’t think I could achieve the other one. And now that I’m living one of my dreams, I guess it’s just put my other one so far in the back of a dark closet that I don’t think it’ll ever see the light of day.”

  I turned the truck off and turned in the seat so I could see her.

  “What’s your other dream?” I wondered.

  She didn’t seem like she was going to answer me at first, and when she got out of the truck I thought for sure she wasn’t going to.

  But when I followed her out, meeting her at the back door, she suddenly whirled and said, “I want to have kids. Lots of them. I want to be married. I want to live that life that Laura Ingalls Wilder lived on Little House on the Prairie.”

  My lips twitched. “You want to live a life where there’s no water or power? Where you have no cell phone?”

  She waved it away.

  “No,” she admitted. “At least not all of it. More so, I just want to be at home with my children. I want to have my husband work, then come home to me. I want… a family.”

  I tucked a strand of her hair back behind her ear, then said, “Why can’t you have that?”

  With me.

  “Because life doesn’t work that way, Banks,” she said. “I’m broken. Nobody wants the broken things.”

  I begged to differ.

  I wanted the broken things.

  I wanted her.

  I didn’t stop myself from moving in until I could feel her body heat against me.

  “Says who?”

  The light switch for the back porch turned on, and then the blinds lifted until I could see Candy’s father staring out at us with a twitching lip that showed his amusement.

  “Did I also say that I want my house back to myself again?” she asked. “Because having your father at home so you have to wear pants all the time is getting really old.”

  I snickered.

  “Goodnight, Candy,” I said softly, touching the tip of her nose with one finger. “I’ll see you in the morning, bright and early.”

  She backed up until her heels met the first step that led up to her porch.

  “I wish I didn’t spend so many years hating you,” she said. “Because I was wrong. It wasn’t you I hated. It was me.”

  And it hurt my heart because I hated that she thought so little of herself when I so obviously thought the world of her.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked carefully, feeling something change.

  I squeezed her hand, a hand that I had to reach for and bring close to me, then dropped a single kiss to the soft, delicate skin before saying, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Then I left, but all the while I realized that I might’ve left my heart with her when I did.

  Chapter 10

  It’s funny how my gynecologist leaves the room to allow me to take my pants off in privacy, only to come back inside and shove her fingers into my hoo-ha.

  -Candy’s secret thoughts

  Candy

  I was nervous when I arrived at the Valentine property the next day.

  Something had changed the night before, and I couldn’t tell you what. All I knew was that Banks no longer looked at me like an enemy, and I didn’t want him to.

  I paused once I ran over the front gate entrance and stared at the rather large bull that was taking up the majority of the lane.

  “Ummm,” I said, staring at the bull. “Move, please?”

  The bull didn’t so much as budge.

  Then I remembered a stray comment from one of the brothers last night that was about Scooby and Banks being friends because Banks fed him treats.

  Looking over at the apple on my front seat next to a set of building plans, I picked it up, then held it out the window.

  The bull’s eyes went to it immediately.

  He took one slow step forward after another until he reached my window.

  Then, with care I’d never seen of an animal before, he gently lifted it from my hand and moseyed off into the pasture while he crunched his apple.

  I shook my head and started forward, my eyes taking in the sprawling Valentine ranch with new eyes.

  The house that was being built by Sunshine Construction was going up nicely, and the bones of the house looked great.

  Even better, I didn’t see any trash on the construction site, which was a really big pet peeve of mine.

  Parking close to Banks’ truck, I got out and reached for my phone, leaving the rest of my belongings in the front seat.

  Making my way up the winding path to the front door, I was stopped halfway there by a turkey that clearly didn�
��t look happy to see me.

  I stopped walking when he started to ruffle up his feathers.

  “Thanksgiving,” I heard said.

  I blinked, surprised to hear Banks’ voice, right behind me.

  “What?” I asked, looking at him walking toward me over my shoulder.

  “That’s Thanksgiving,” he repeated.

  I opened my mouth and then closed it. “Is it really?”

  His grin was nothing short of lecherous.

  “Yeah,” he answered. “At least until Codie or Desi realize why we agreed to have the turkey. For now, that’s our plan, anyway.”

  I shook my head and turned so that I could watch him walking up the path.

  “I had to feed the bull my apple to get him to move out of the driveway today,” I said. “Is that normal?”

  Banks started to chuckle as he placed one hand on my hip and guided me up the stairs.

  My eyes were solely focused on him, otherwise I would’ve seen the woman standing in front of me before she scared the crap out of me.

  “He’s spoiling my bull,” Codie said around a mouthful of pancakes, holding the front door open for us. “I’m fairly sure that he’s going to stop performing here soon.”

  I jumped, surprised to find her standing so close.

  Banks shrugged, steadying me on my feet at the same time. “He had no problem throwing me on my ass the other night, despite the treats I gave him.”

  All three of us walked into the kitchen.

  “That was because you forgot to give him one that day, and he wasn’t happy,” Darby quipped as he entered into the kitchen. “Holy shit, why are y’all eating all the pancakes?”

  He looked quite frantic for a few seconds before Desi sighed and walked to the oven where she produced a whole stack of them just as big as the first one they’d already eaten.

  “Don’t worry, Darby Bear,” Desi teased. “There’s plenty for everyone.”

  Darby leveled me with a glare.

  “Next time come after breakfast,” he said.

  Banks slapped him upside his head and said, “Manners, Darby. Learn them.”

  Darby opened his mouth to contradict something his brother had just said, but Ace and Callum entered, both looking quite dusty and dirty for this early in the day and silenced him with a pounding slap on the back.