“Pfft,” I scoff. “How old are you?” I tilt my head, truly curious.
“Thirty,” he tugs a strand of my hair and wraps it around his fingers.
“You’re old,” I laugh at him.
“Yeah…” he smiles at me, leans forward and kisses the tip of my nose. “I’m a fossil.”
“Hi, guys. What can I get you to drink?” a super chipper, blonde-with-blue-streaked-hair-Lily asks us.
“Hey, Lily,” I smile at her and pick up the drink menu.
“Hey, Ree. Chief Cole,” there was an odd edge to her voice that makes me look up to see her blushing and not making eye contact with him. I turn back to the menu to hide my smile.
“Hey Lily,” he replies, his deep voice doing such a number on me, I can only imagine what it’s doing to her teenage hormones. “You know what you want, babe?” he asks me, his arm resting on my shoulders and his fingers in my hair.
“Yeah, I’ll have a Corona and lime,” I tell Lily and pass the menu to Grayson.
He doesn’t look at it and orders, “A bud.”
“Got it,” Lily says and walks away to get the drinks.
I pick up the menu and look over it. Grayson reads it over my shoulder, still playing with my hair. His other hand moves and he turns the page on the menu before I’m done reading.
“Hey,” I look at him. He’s looking at the menu, smiling. “I was still reading.”
He points to something on the page, “You’ll like this,” he says.
I glare at him and look at what he pointed out. Leg of lamb with asparagus and roasted potatoes.
Hmm… that does sound really good…
Thirty-four dollars!!!
“Uh… I think I’ll just go with a burger and fries,” I tell him.
“Don’t worry about the price,” he reads my mind.
“How did you…” I begin to ask when Lily returns with our drinks.
“You guys know what you want?” she asks.
“Yeah,” Grayson answers cutting me off, “She’ll have the leg of lamb meal and I’ll have the twelve ounce ribeye meal, rare.”
“Got it,” she says taking the menus with her.
“Uh… Grayson,” I say trying to calm myself down. That’s a lot of freaking money for food!
“Babe,” he smiles, “You thought it looked good, and when you saw the price your eyes about bugged out of your head. It’s fine. I want you to have what you like.”
“Thank you, really, Grayson, but no way in hell would I ever spend that much money on a meal.”
“Good, because you’re not. I am,” he says and takes a drink of his beer.
“Chief, I’ll pay for my half,” I say carefully.
“Babe,” he looks at me and sets his beer down.
I wait for him to continue, but of course he doesn’t.
I let out a frustrated breath, “I hate it when you do that.” He laughs. “Just saying ‘babe’ is not an answer,” I inform him pushing the lime into my beer bottle.
“It is,” he argues, “because you know what I’m going to say and I’m trying to stop an argument before it starts.”
“I do not always know what you’re going to say.”
“Babe,” he smiles.
“Errgh,” I growl and let it drop, deciding to bring up another topic. “Okay, so tell me. Why did you not tell me that Ryder Jacobson was on the department?”
“Why would I?” he asks, clearly not aware that this would mean anything to me (as I suspected).
“Because he broke my best friend’s heart and disappeared from all of our lives nearly ten years ago.”
“I’m not going to talk about Ryder’s past decisions when I’ve been busy trying to get you to even go on a date with me, Ree,” he explains logically. Pfft.
“How well do you even know him?” I squint my eyes, studying him.
“Pretty well,” he shrugs. “We served in the same unit together for years and… he’s the reason I’m here now.”
“He is?” my eyebrows shoot up.
“Yeah, he invited me to come to Belton when we both left the service about three years ago. I didn’t have anything keeping me where I was so I said yes.”
“Where were you?” I ask, tilting my head and loving getting to know him a little better.
“New Mexico.”
“Didn’t like it?” I smile and take another drink from my beer.
“It was fine, but there was nothing there,” he shrugs again and takes a pull from his beer. “I figured I may as well come here with Ryder and set down roots where there is at least one person who means something to me. A couple of the other guys from the unit agreed, so we all came.”
“Okay, so tell me about the department,” I say.
“What do you mean?” his lip quirks up.
“How did it go from Chief Herby and his band of Keystone Cop Rejects to the Special Forces Sex Squad?”
“Special Forces Sex Squad?” he smiles and twirls a strand of my hair in his hand again.
“You know what I mean,” I wave my hand, dismissively. “I saw a few of them at Josie’s the other day.”
“Gonna trade me in for another member of the ‘Special Forces Sex Squad’?”
“Shut up and answer the question,” I shake my head at him trying to smother a smile.
“It started as a joke, really,” he shakes his head.
“How so?” I take another sip from my drink.
“Jacobson started petitioning for me to run for sheriff behind my back,” he laughs and continues. “Well, by the time I found out it had taken on a life of its own in the town. I guess the people of Belton were not a fan of the department so they rallied behind Jacobson and me. I couldn’t stop it even if I tried,” he shakes his head again.
“That’s because they were assholes,” I inform him with a nod of my head.
“Yeah…” he smiles at me, “I have been informed of some of your shenanigans from back in the day.”
“Okay, moving on…” We are so not going to talk about that. “Where did the rest of the guys come from?”
“Well, when I was elected sheriff the rest of the force wasn’t too happy,” he chuckles and shakes his head, “so they all quit and I was the only one left.”
“Ohmigod,” I laugh out.
“Yeah,” he takes a drink, “so I asked some guys I knew if they were interested and then some locals, like your friend Jerald,” he gives me a severe look and I just smile innocently at him, “heard about the overhaul of the department and applied.”
“Huh. Interesting how things can change so quickly isn’t it?” I tip my head to the side.
“Yeah, babe. It is,” he moves his hand and cups my cheek, causing me to lean into his hand, then strokes his thumb back and forth across my face, tenderly.
“So what are some of the other guys’ names that came with you?” I ask and he sits back, dropping his hand.
“There’s Declan Reid, Colt Evans, Chance Hayes, Blaine Owens, and Koby Lewis. As well as about a dozen more guys from around here or surrounding counties.”
“Who did I see at the diner that morning?” “The blonde was Declan, the other three were Colt, Hayes, and Owens,” he explains.
“So I haven’t seen Koby then, right?”
“Correct.”
Dear God, I hope he’s ugly.
Yes, that’s a horrible thing to say, but c’mon! It’s impossible to have so many hot guys in one place all together, which will cause the world’s female population to converge on the town of Belton and take us all out just for a piece of these men.
“And they all know about me?” I raise my brow at him and he replies by smiling. I roll my eyes, “Jesus.”
“You’ll meet them this weekend,” he says.
“I will?”
“Yeah, I’m having a barbeque.”
“And I’m coming?” I smirk at him.
“Yeah, babe, you are.” I roll my eyes and shake my head while smiling at him. “Invite your family, to
o. And your friends.”
“Oh, Jesus, please no,” I beg.
“What?”
“Do you want the whole town at your place?” Does he not realize this? Invite one and they’ll all come.
Grayson looks out into the restaurant, causing me to look as well, just in time to see every person’s head in the place turn away from us.
“Barbeque at my place Saturday!” Grayson announces.
“Grayson Cole! Stop!” I hiss and slap his arm.
“Hell yeah!”
“We’ll be there!”
Everyone RSVP’s while sitting in the Mandore.
“But only if you leave us alone for the rest of the night,” Grayson adds and I laugh out.
Genius!
There’s some groans of complaint but everyone agrees.
He looks back at me smiling, “Good thinking, huh?”
“Yes,” I laugh.
“Here you go guys,” Lily says and sets our plates down. The aroma from the food hits me and my stomach growls.
“Holy shit, this looks amazing…” I breathe out.
Lily laughs and asks, “Another beer for you guys?”
“Yeah,” Grayson answers as I unwrap my silverware and place the black cloth napkin in my lap.
I begin to cut up the lamb; instead it just falls off.
I think I’m going to have a mini-orgasm of excitement.
I look at Grayson, “Thank you,” I smile.
He laughs and says, “Dig in, Ree.”
So I do.
And I have never had anything so freaking good in… my… life!
ChapterNine
Shit Just Got Real
“You guys have a great night!” Carmen calls as we walk out of Mandore.
“You too!” I call back.
Grayson walks me to his truck and helps me in. He gets in and we take off, but not to my house. He heads out of town.
“Where are we going now?” I ask.
“My place,” he answers, reaching over and bringing my hand to his thigh.
Excitement races through my veins at the idea of getting to see his place and my core tightens with anticipation.
Finally!
About ten minutes later off the highway he turns down a gravel road and a couple miles later he pulls into a driveway; at the end of which is a nice one story brick home with a two car garage.
He pulls up to the garage, pushing the opener on his visor and drives in, closing the door. I open the truck door and hop down, coming around the front to meet him. He grabs my hand and pulls me towards a set of stars that lead to a door.
We step into a utility room with a washer and dryer then through to a small kitchen with wood floors and dark gray countertops.
“Want a tour?” he asks me.
“Hell yes,” I answer excitedly.
Every woman loves to see other people’s houses; how clean they are, the layout, the design, it’s just part of our DNA. Not to mention seeing how a guy like Grayson Cole lives. We like to think we can figure out their personality by how someone decorates their house.
“This way,” he smiles and shakes his head.
Attached to the kitchen is a modest dining area. To the left of that, at the front of the house, is the living room with a fireplace against the east side of the room. There is a large door to the front of the house from this room. We walk towards it and turn right down a hallway.
“Two spare rooms and a bathroom,” he tells me as I check them out. They’re pretty bare and clean so not much to see there, but it does tell me that he doesn’t have guests very often.
At least ones that would sleep in a spare room.
I push that thought aside as we walk back out of the hallway into the living room, through to the dining room where he points out a door to the west side of the room.
“My room and bathroom,” he says then leads me to a set of stairs in the dining room that go down. I walk down them and see a pretty impressive man cave.
A large sectional is set up in front of a big screen plasma. There is a bar to the opposite wall with four stools set up in front of it. In the center of the room is a pool table. There are fluorescent beer signs hanging on the wall alongside the pool cues.
“Sweet,” I say. “This room is pretty kickass, Chief.”
He laughs then leads me back upstairs and onto the back deck. It’s almost as big as mine, but he only has a couple chairs and a grill on it.
He leads me to a chair and asks, “Want a beer?”
“That’d be great,” I smile at him as I sit.
About a minute later I hear music and look around, spotting speakers mounted to the house on either side of the sliding doors. Foreigner’s Cold As Ice starts playing and it takes me back.
My mom and I would listen to this album all the time when I was a little girl. I’d jam out and sing at the top of my lungs while we drove somewhere.
Grayson comes out and sits next to me handing me a Fat Tire beer. He moves my chair at an angle and picks my feet up placing them in his lap. He pulls my shoes off letting them drop on the patio and begins to rub my feet.
I drop my head back and moan, “Oh, you’re good…”
“Oh yeah?” I can hear the smile in his eyes and I raise my head back to look at him.
“You’ve certainly got all the right moves, Chief,” I tip my beer to him.
He shakes his head smiling and continues to rub my feet. I look out over his backyard. It’s pretty big and at the back there is a moderate sized pond.
“Do you fish?” I ask him, nodding towards the pond.
“Sometimes, not often,” he says. “Mostly the guys do when they come over. They keep it pretty well stocked.”
The song changes to Waiting For A Girl Like You and Grayson moves my feet off his legs and stands. He holds out a hand to me.
I look at it a bit confused then up to him. “Dance with me?” he elaborates his invitation.
“Seriously?” I ask, with a shocked laugh. “Chief, you’ve got me here. You don’t have to continue to pull out all your best stuff for me.” I shake my head smiling up at him.
“Ree. Jesus, just dance with me,” he says with a hint of exacerbation.
“Okay, okay.” I set my beer down and take his hand, standing up.
He pulls me into his arms and says, “This actually isn’t one of my ‘moves’.”
“Sure…” I say sarcastically, rolling my eyes and winding my arms up around his neck.
He leans back and looks down at me. “Ree, I don’t dance.”
“Well, it sure looks like you are.”
“You misunderstand. I’m not going to ask a woman to dance just to get her in my bed or to get into hers. There’s easier ways.”
This is true. All he needs to do is smile.
“Then why?” I ask with a tilt of my head.
“This song makes me think of you,” he answers, his eyes going lazy and his face going soft.
Um.
Wow.
“Don’t be going all mushy on me now, Chief,” I joke to keep from letting it show how sweet I really thought that was.
“You’re such a goof,” he shakes his head.
“Whatever.” I press closer and rest my head on his chest.
“It’s your turn,” he says.
“To what?”
“Give me some information.”
“About…?”
“You.”
“Oh. What do you want to know?”
“Why the ‘one month’ thing?”
Ah, shit.
I lean back and look at him,
“You really want to know?”
“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t.”
“Heartbreak sucks. I don’t like it. Had it once, didn’t want it again.”
“So you close yourself off and stay alone all the time?” he asks with a furrowed brow.
“Pretty much,” I shrug. “It’s just easier. I keep a distance from guys, don’t let them get to know me and I
don’t get to know them.”
“That plan has gone out the window,” he smiles at me.
“So I’m learning,” I grumble and bite my lip.
How am I going to get through this?
Will I be able to end it after a month?
And when does the month end?
When we first met? Or from tonight?
“Ree,” he calls me and I look back up at him, letting go of my lip. “I’m not letting you go after a month.” My eyes go wide with the shock of his ability to read my mind. He pulls me closer, “I don’t know how long this will last or how it will turn out, I can’t predict the future, but I do know that one month won’t be enough. Hell, a lifetime might not be enough with your crazy ass,” he laughs.
Dear God.
A lifetime?
“Chief…” I breathe out.
“Just let it be what it is.” He moves a hand to my face, tilting my head further back, “Let’s just take it a day at a time, okay?”
God, I really want to see where this goes. Maybe I should just take it a day at a time and try something new… “We’ll see,” I answer, making him smile.
He lowers his head touching his lips to mine. My lips part and his tongue slides in quickly finding mine. My hands travel up his neck into his hair. The kiss is slow. He takes his time exploring my mouth; his hands roaming over my body before settling on my ass.
I press my body closer, my nipples hardening, wanting more. He answers by deepening the kiss and pulling me into his erection. I let out a sigh mixed with a moan and he lifts me up. I wrap my legs around him and he carries us into the house, turning and walking to his bedroom.
He lays me on his bed, following me in. His mouth moves to my neck while his hands work the buttons at my blouse. I reach my hands up the back of his shirt, traveling up and scoring my nails down his back; loving how the muscles flex under my touch.
His mouth works its way around my throat and travels down, tracing the line of my bra just as he opens my blouse completely. I wind my legs around him and lift up, begging for contact. He gives it to me, by pressing hard into me.
“Oh, God…” I moan out. I pull his shirt off of him and my hands travel along his sculpted chest and abs. “Christ you’re so sexy, Chief.”
He smiles wickedly at me before lowering his head and catching my nipple through the lace bra. My back bows off the bed and I cry out in pleasure. He works my nipples with his mouth and hand, while his other hand moves down to unbutton my slacks. I help him by shimmying out of them, laying under him in just my underwear and open blouse.
My Coyote Ugly Life Page 13