by Zoe Dawson
“What do you want to do about it?”
“You never said whether you’d take me up on my offer for a date.”
“Sitting in a cold tub with you while you were out of it doesn’t count as a first date?”
He looked down, his thick lashes shadowing his thoughts. “Fuck, no.” He chuckled. “Not even close.”
“I’m on the fence about it,” I said truthfully.
“Why? Is it because I’m an Outlaw?”
I shook my head. “No, I never cared about that.”
“Then why are you hesitating?”
“I’m worried that if I go out with you and spend time with you that I won’t want to leave Suttontowne in the fall. I won’t want to leave you, Boone.”
His breath hitched and his face softened. He bit his bottom lip with those white teeth, looking rumpled and sexy. “You might miss something good.”
“That’s why I’m on the fence.”
“Self-preservation before exploration. You’re the one who started this research thing. Now I’m hooked.” He nodded and let me go, stepping away from me. “Okay, no coercion, even though I want to.”
“You want me to make the decision right now.”
“Do you like torturing sick people who have nothing better to do than sit around and think?”
I knew it was time for me to get back home. I was again supposed to help Lindsay with the kids for the lunch hour.
“No, I don’t enjoy torturing you, Boone. You know, unless you piss me off.”
He chuckled. “I never took you for a tough peach pit.”
“A what?”
“You know, a peach pit. The tough center surrounded with all that delicious softness. Did I mention that I really love peaches?”
“You said no coercion, and yet you just dropped your sexy voice an octave and made a sexual innuendo.”
“That’s because I’m bad, Verity. Hadn’t you heard? Those bad, bad Outlaw boys. Trouble with a capital T.”
“I heard that, Boone. Okay, first date. You choose.”
“No pressure.”
I smiled. “Oh, there’s pressure, bad boy. Come up with something good.”
He tilted his head and gave me that knee-melting, Boone-swoon, Outlaw-patented grin. Could a woman’s knees buckle permanently?
“Count on it, darlin’.”
Chapter Nine
Boone
The next day, as I drove to the rectory, the gazebo sketch and the dimensions I had worked out while I was sick lying next to me on the passenger seat, I was still pissed about the bomb that Verity had dropped on me. We’d had sex. Sex. In the bed of my truck. Fuck. That was not where I would have wanted to make love to Verity.
I took a deep breath.
Make love.
Verity.
Verity.
I still felt like shit, but I couldn’t sit in that house one more minute, and besides, I wanted to see her. I groaned at the thought of touching her skin, kissing her mouth, burying myself into her…and I couldn’t freaking remember. Not to mention the fact that she’d been a virgin.
Fuck me.
That thought penetrated right to the core of me. I’d had my share of sex, and I’d had sex with virgins. After all, I was not a damn saint, but Verity, the girl who had been off limits to me, had made the choice for me. To say that I would have done things differently was a huge understatement. I’m not sure I wouldn’t have participated fully in sex with Verity. But I also recognized the reluctance in me to make our relationship only about that.
I don’t know what it was. It confused me, because it was usually easy for me to be with a girl and then walk away. I’d done it before, especially in high school. I didn’t lack for partners. But the thought that Verity and I had sex and she’d left the following morning, living a whole year without knowing that the only reason I didn’t pursue her was because I couldn’t remember? That bothered me.
I pulled up to the church, grabbed the sketch and the dimensions. As I got out from behind the wheel, Verity came out of her house.
Today she had her hair pulled back off her face and I felt breathless at her beauty. She was wearing a pretty white dress. I think it was called eyelet lace. My ma had something like that, and I think that’s what she called it. It hugged her rib cage, the scalloped hemline just touching the tops of her thighs. She looked pretty. She walked across the open yard and right up to me. She smiled and I smiled back, feeling like my heart would just float out of my chest.
“Hey, Boone.”
“Hey yourself, darlin’.” I held up the gazebo stuff. “I think your daddy wants me to get started on this.”
“Well, it’s actually more my momma and I who really want it.”
“Right, the Christmas lights.”
She nodded. “Are you going to build it?”
“Actually, I’ve got a carpenter who’s going to do that part, but I’ll help to assemble it. I’ve built water installations before and pergolas, but with all the stuff I have going on right now, I couldn’t spare the time. The landscaping is going to take a lot of my time, and I may have a huge job coming up.”
“A lot of digging in the dirt.”
“Yeah, getting my hands dirty.”
“Let me show you where we’d like to have it.”
She passed me and I swallowed at the creamy expanse of her back. She was three steps away from me before she looked back.
“Enjoying the view?”
My eyes popped up to hers and, caught red-handed, I grinned. “Best I’ve ever seen.”
She waited until I came abreast of her. “How are you feeling?”
“Still not great, but better. Do you wanna feel my forehead?”
“As a matter of fact, I do.” She glanced back at the house.
“You worried about your daddy seeing us? I’m guessing he wouldn’t approve of me, Verity.”
Her eyes came back to my face. “No, Boone. I’m not worried about that. I-I want to kiss you. I don’t want to share that with anyone. Just a hello kiss.”
I took her hand and pulled her behind the corner of the rectory. Out of sight of the house and sheltered enough from anyone inside. That soft, honest admission ran through me hard, cutting me, straight to my core. My brain was on fire, but it had nothing to do with a fever and everything to do with Verity. “Feel my forehead. Give me a hello kiss. I’m dying for that.”
She leaned the back of her head against the house and looked up at me. I hadn’t really realized how much taller I was. It made me feel powerful and male the way she was so small and female. She reached out and slid her fingers across my face, across my eyebrows, the lines of my cheekbones above the faint beard stubble I hadn’t bothered to shave off this morning. Along my jaw, across the curve of my lips. Then trailed up to my forehead where she pressed her palm and left it for a split second.
“Seems like your fever is gone.”
She was wrong. My fever was building. Arousal didn’t wash down through me. It had already arrived between my legs, hard, and hot, and heavy.
“Are you sure?” I whispered. “Maybe you need to go all over my face like that again just to double check.
She smiled. “Ah, there’s that bad boy.” She reached up and clasped the back of my neck, her thumb stealing behind my ear and rubbing against my hair and skin. I cupped her face and lowered my mouth to hers.
I took it slow, and for a long, endless minute, I kissed her, my tongue sliding deep, my mouth slanted over hers, just letting the taste and softness of her seep into me.
Breaking off the kiss, she smiled. “You are such an Outlaw. Let’s go rob a train.”
I laughed. “Go all Bonnie and Clyde?”
“I think you’d look much better with a six gun on your hip and spurs. Mmmhmmm. Gunslinger wins over gangster.”
“You trying to corrupt me, Miss Verity, darlin’?”
“It had better wait until after we talk about the gazebo, or my daddy will have your hide.”
�
�I think when he finds out I’m kissing on you and you’re feeling me up for a fever, he’s gonna have my hide anyway.”
I went to pull away from her, but she didn’t let go of my neck. “I’m starting to make up my own mind about things that are important to me, Boone.”
“I kinda got that about you, Verity.”
“So, when it comes to you, I guarantee you, I’ll make my own decision about what I want and don’t want.”
My insides tumbled over themselves, and I got a little scared. Scared that if I got in too far with her I couldn’t get out. She said she was leaving, and what if I fell hard? I was probably halfway there as it was.
What was the alternative here? I could walk away and not ever find out what it was like to know her. I could protect myself from the promise of pain to come, or I could go for it. All the way. Get in too far and drown, drown in the ocean that was Verity.
Like her, I was sitting on the fence.
Just then Billy Joe fucking Freeman came around the rectory. When he saw us, his eyes narrowed and his mouth tightened. Something ugly flashed in his eyes and I immediately felt protective of Verity.
Verity didn’t move. She wasn’t at all upset. She looked him directly in the eyes and slipped her hand from the nape of my neck into my hair.
“Verity,” he bit out. “I need to speak with you.”
I straightened, and my short leash with this guy just got shorter. There was something about him that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. Every protective instinct in me jumped to attention. I didn’t want this situation to turn into a dogfight, but this guy was giving me a bad, bad vibe. Could it be because when I saw him and the way he looked at Verity, I just wanted to deck him? Without explanation. Without any preliminaries. Punch his fucking lights out.
She looked at me. “I’m busy with Boone and the gazebo right now.”
“Fine, I’ll be in the church when you’re done.” His tone was clipped and nasty.
When he walked away, my gut clenched. I didn’t like it that he was always around here. I, on the other hand, wasn’t always here, but I was going to change that. “Really, how is that guy a good choice for preacher training?”
“I don’t know,” Verity said, her eyes were focused on me. “I don’t care about him, Boone.” Her voice was soft and warm. “He should have those rare qualities you possess. And, you? You should be a jerk and a bastard, according to your reputation. Just goes to show you that people in this town don’t know a darn thing about anything.”
“We better get to that gazebo.”
She sighed and let me go.
After she showed me where she wanted the gazebo built, I staked it out so that I could visualize the space. She didn’t say anything while I typed notes to myself into my iPad.
“You look so…responsible, doing that.”
I chuckled, still working on the math in my head, and how much wood I would need. “What?” I said absently.
“Working.”
I took my eyes off the iPad and looked at her. “It fills me up to the top. I love my job. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”
“Of course, not. You belong here, part of the bayou. I see that clearly. The business is doing well?”
“Stellar,” I said, going back to my calculations and notes. “I’ve got a job over in Lafayette to do an English garden. I did one for another lady over there and word’s spread. I’ve had five more inquiries. Not sure I can even take them on. My cousin just asked me to landscape Eula Downs.”
“That’s pretty impressive. I was wrong about you. Did I even apologize for that?”
“I don’t know. Everything since that night has jumbled up in my head. I was getting the fever then.” She stared at me, looking torn up inside. “Ah, Verity. Let’s just put all our past shit into the past.”
She slipped her hands into her pockets, looking like she wanted to touch me again. Geezus, I wanted to get this girl alone. But I wasn’t going to do that. Not yet. Verity and I had some getting acquainted to do before we took that step. I knew we were going to take that step, because I had missed out on remembering what it was like to have her in my arms. I got all pissed off again, just thinking about it. But if I made new memories with her, and she decided to leave, I might wish that I would forget.
“Maybe I’m having a hard time doing that. Not sure I should be let off the hook that easily.”
“I tell you what, darlin’. When I get you alone and we don’t have eyes on us, I’ll let you apologize to me any way you like.”
“I have a feeling you’re going to be a bit more to handle without a fever.”
“Outlaws are never easy,” I said, closing down my iPad. “All done. I’ve got to head out to Lafayette in a few, but I’m going to walk you to the church and kind of hang around while you talk to Freeman.”
“Why?” she said.
“Because I’m a jealous fucker.”
She laughed. “All right.” We turned toward the church. “Outlaws aren’t easy,” she muttered under her breath.
I hung back and checked my messages and returned a few calls. Called Deke and told him to get over to the church. I needed to get his advice on some of the dimensions. That kid was a whiz and would make sure my calculations were correct, then I’d have him pick up the materials we needed. I watched Verity out of the corner of my eye. She was being her peach pit self and I wanted to cheer.
I couldn’t hear their conversation, but all of a sudden it seemed that there was trouble.
I walked closer to the sanctuary. Billy Joe gave me a glaring look. “What do you want?”
“Just checking to see what’s wrong.”
“You couldn’t help even if you wanted to. It’s about hymns. What a joke. What do you know about hymns?” he scoffed.
“I sing all the time with my demon friends in hell. I know something about hymns.”
“Right, Boone. You are just blowing smoke, as usual.”
I knew that was a reference to my drugged-out time in high school. I looked him in the eye and inhaled. The words for “Grace Like Rain” filled my head, the melody clear.
Without music or accompaniment, the first part of the song mimicked “Amazing Grace” which happened to be one of my favorite songs to sing. It was the slow part of the song. When I hit the first verse, Verity’s eyes riveted to mine, and as I hit the bridge and the chorus, I dug in with my voice, getting into the song. My singing voice is deep, with a kind of smoky quality to it. The sound of it echoed throughout the church, the notes resonating and pouring out of me. I had perfect pitch and knew music like I knew plants, both integrated into who I was. All three of us could sing, but I had a much larger range then my two brothers, and the confidence to sing á cappella. As I hit the second verse, I wiped that snotty, skeptical look right off Billy Joe’s face. It was almost as good as decking the fucker.
It was a song about redemption, and I knew about remaking myself and changing my life. I didn’t have to fake the emotion in the song. Singing “Grace Like Rain” made the connection snap into place and was a natural extension of my own transformation. That’s what music was all about, evoking that emotion in others when you let the music in you fill you up. That’s how the magic happened, how you reached out and touched people who listened and, better yet, heard the message in the voice and in the song.
I lost myself in the music in my head as the passion inherent in the song flowed out of me, and I lost myself in the middle part and played my voice like an instrument.
As the last notes died, I gave Verity an Outlaw grin to end all Outlaw grins. Applause had me spinning around. Lindsay and her kids, the people who worked for the reverend, and Deke all stood there.
I bowed with a flourish and Deke laughed.
“Who was just singing?!” Reverend Fairchild stood at the entrance to the church, and I spun to face him as he walked up the aisle.
“It was Boone,” Verity said, breathlessly.
“Boone Outlaw. I had
no idea you could sing like that, and it seems that our prayers have been answered.”
Uh-oh. I thought.
“We need you for the next two Sundays.”
I just stared at him. “You want me to sing…in church?”
“Yes, boy. Our singers are stranded in Arkansas with a washed-out bridge. You shouldn’t keep a voice like that under wraps.”
“I-I-I’m…um…are you sure? Me?”
“Boone, just a straight yes or no is all I require.”
I looked at Verity. She looked a little shell shocked. I had performed often at Outlaws, but the night she was there, Booker did the singing. He wanted to show off for Breebree and Brax and I went along with that. Bro solidarity.
Her eyes softened and she gave me an encouraging look and a quick nod. Freeman just glared at me.
“Yes. I’ll do it.”
“Excellent.”
I walked away from the sanctuary, heading for Deke. When I came up to him, his gaze was riveted on Verity.
“Sweet Jesus,” he said.
His gaze went over her, then went over her again, taking her in from the top of her head to her delicate feet in those innocent-yet-sexy white sandals. Lingering over the shape of her legs, the curves of her breasts, and the wild, out-there beauty of her face.
“She’s incredible, a guaranteed, ball-busting heartbreaker.”
“Mine,” I said.
His blue eyes shifted to me. The second time in one day that I wanted to deck a guy. Deke was lucky I liked him.
“Dammit. No poaching, but man, if I didn’t respect you so much, Boonie, I’d be all over that.”
“It would be good if you shut up now,” I said. I shoved my iPad at him and grabbed him by the arm, shooting Verity a glance over my shoulder. She was still looking at me as if she had never seen me before, like she wanted to melt against me. Keeping myself from lying her down and shoving myself so deep into her that I would lose myself was getting fucking harder by the minute.
Just now, I wanted to get good and lost.