by Cathryn Fox
I spend the next half hour digging up potatoes, and I take them to my market to wash, sort, and bag. Tires crunch, and I step outside, expecting to see Cindy coming in for her shift, but instead, it’s Bryce Kent.
He steps from his vehicle, and this time, he’s dressed a little more casually in khaki shorts and a polo shirt. He looks like he’s about to hit the golf course. I instantly tense as he comes my way, and I step from the barn and meet him near the playground.
“What can I help you with?” I ask.
He rocks on his feet. “Have you given any thought to my offer?” He glances around, takes in the new paint on my house. I only managed to paint a small part of it. There’s been no time. “Cleaning the place up for sale, are you? I’ll take it as is. No need to make any changes. That house will be demolished anyway.”
My heart jumps into my throat. “What are you talking about? Why would you do that?”
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that.” He looks a bit cagey as he turns back to me. “How about that offer?”
“My uncle loved this farm. I’m not giving it away,” I say, digging my heels into the ground.
“Sounds to me like you do want to sell. Fine then, I’m willing to go a little higher.”
He pulls a piece of paper from his pocket and puts it in my hand. I read the number. It’s a better offer, but the farm is worth a lot more. A sound comes from behind, a scraping of sorts, and I turn to see Jay standing there, watching the exchange between the two of us. Honest to God, maybe I should just take the offer. How the hell can I stay here and face Jay every day, knowing he can never be mine? He literally just told me he wasn’t into serious relationships, and I came here to get my life in order. Now it’s more chaotic than it’s ever been.
I don’t see an easy solution to any of this.
Chapter Sixteen
Jay
As Alyson drives us out of town in her Tesla, I adjust the radio to a local rock station and angle my head. She’s hugging the steering wheel tight and concentrating on the dark road ahead. With the smell of skunk cleared, she moved her stuff back into her house earlier today, and I hate how lonely my cottage feels without her. Even Capone seems to be missing her.
“How long are you planning on keeping this rental anyway?” I ask.
Beneath the dashboard light, her fingers tighten on the steering wheel. “I’m not sure.”
I nod at that. Yeah, if she was planning on staying longer, she’d have sent the car back already and purchased some beater more appropriate for farm country. It’s not cheap to keep a fancy-ass car so long, so she must be hanging on to it for a reason—like a quick getaway.
I should be happy about that. I should also be happy about the fact that she took the paper Bryce handed her today and didn’t seem too upset by the number. He stepped up his game after she said she wasn’t giving the farm away. Her choice of words alluded to the fact that she’d consider selling it, for the right price.
“So where exactly are we going again?” I ask.
She grins as she looks at me, her hair a bit of a mess after putting my friends and me through the dance routine earlier. I have to say, she’s really helping Colin out, and she knows what she’s doing. She beamed with confidence as we learned the moves. Now she needs to find the confidence in other aspects of her life and accept the consequences if she fails. And goddammit if she doesn’t need just one friend who will catch her if she does.
After the dance routine, all the guys hit the pub for a beer, but Alyson asked if I’d come with her. She has something she wants to show me, apparently. I have something I want to show her, too, but we’re driving away from our farms, not toward them, meaning wherever we’re going, I probably can’t get her naked.
“You’ll see when we get there.” She drives longer, taking this turn and that and glancing around, a little lost.
I stretch my legs out. “If you told me where we were going, I could tell you how to get there.”
“I can figure it out.”
“Always so stubborn,” I grumble, as she takes a right on Fletcher Street. Understanding dawns. “We’re going to the drive-in?”
“Yup.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re all work and no play, and I thought you needed a night out.”
I reach across the seat and touch her leg. “A night in would be just as fun.”
She laughs. “One-track mind much?”
“Pretty much.” But the truth is I can’t seem to get enough of her. Can’t get her out of my thoughts for one single second. I’m consumed by her.
“You know, I’ve never been to a drive-in before,” she informs me.
I sit up a little straighter. “You’ve got to be kidding me?”
“Nope, been to Broadway, off Broadway, opera houses, but never to a drive-in.”
“I guess you can only find them in redneck country now,” I say, and for some reason I want her to vehemently defend that. Need for her to tell me she doesn’t think farmers are all dumb as stumps and that we do important work. In fact, what I really need is for her to prove she’s not like Juanita—despite the fact that my future depends on her following in my ex fiancée’s footsteps and bailing.
I am so fucked.
She doesn’t comment. Instead, her eyes go big when the screen rises up before us. She slows her vehicle as we go down the long, winding road, stopping when we come to a ticket booth.
I reach for my wallet, but she stops me. “Tonight’s on me,” she says and pays for our entrance.
We creep into the viewing area. “There’s not many people here.”
“Saturdays can be packed, but not too many people come on a Sunday night.” I point to a spot away from the two vehicles parked in the middle. “Park over there.”
Darkness surrounds us as she pulls into the spot and fiddles with the radio to find the station broadcasting the show. “This is so cool,” she says, her voice full of excitement.
I grin at her. “If you’ve never been to a drive-in, that must mean you’ve never made out in a car before.”
She blinks at me innocently. “Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that. There was this one time behind the high school.”
“Not the same,” I inform her. “Making out at the drive-in is in a class of its own. It’s like a rite of passage around these parts.”
She makes a face. “Is that true, or are you just trying to get into my panties?”
“Both,” I say, and she laughs.
“It does sound like fun.” She wipes the window and looks out. “First, let’s get some snacks.”
She opens the door, and the cooler night air washes over us as we make our way to the concession stand. We buy drinks, popcorn, and candy, and I swear to God, she’s acting like Tyler on Christmas morning. Full of excitement and enthusiasm. Earlier today, when I caught her down on her knees, digging potatoes, dirt all over her face, I fell a little more for her, and now seeing this childlike wonderment on her face might just be the end of me.
“Do you even know what’s playing?” I ask her.
“Godzilla.”
My head rears back. “You like scary movies?”
“Godzilla isn’t scary.” She tsks. “What are you, a baby?”
“Fine, don’t come sneaking into my cottage for protection when you wake up scared.”
She points a finger at me. “I’m guessing it’s going to be the other way around.”
We climb back into her car, and I dig into the popcorn as a couple more cars fill in, taking up position in the center of the lot, aligning their vehicles for the best view.
“Oh, wait. I brought a bag of freshly picked cherries. I can’t seem to get enough of these.” She opens the bag and plops one into her mouth.
“How many of them have you eaten today, anyway?”
&nbs
p; “I don’t know. I lost count.”
“Alyson, too many can be hard on your digestive system.”
She frowns. “I guess I never thought of that. I’ll just have a couple more. Here, try one.” She hands me one, and I bite into it. Juice drips down my chin as I spit the seed out, and before I can wipe my face, she’s leaning into me, her mouth on mine. Her tongue slides over my bottom lip, and my cock instantly hardens, knocking the bag of popcorn to the floor. It spills, but I don’t give a shit. No, all I care about is getting my hands on Alyson. I shift, take her face in my palms, and deepen the kiss.
The movie lights up the big screen, but we’re not paying attention. Nope, the only thing I want to watch is Alyson bobbing up and down on my lap as I fill her sweet, soft body with my hard-as-steel cock.
“I want you naked,” I say into her mouth, and when I shift the drink in the console, it spills over my thickening dick.
“Oh, shit,” I say and Alyson glances down to see the wet spot spreading in the front of my jeans.
Alyson tries to smother a laugh. “Wow, you really do have a thing for drive-ins.”
“Not funny. I spilled the drink on my balls.”
“You need to get out of those pants.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
She chuckles again. “We can’t.” She glances out the windows and narrows her eyes. “Someone might see.”
“It’s dark. There’s hardly anyone here, and you can’t see into anyone’s car, just like they can’t see into ours.”
She smiles. “You want to pop my drive-in cherry, Jay?”
“Yeah,” I say, my voice husky as my body throbs. God, I haven’t made out at the drive-in since I was a horny teen who thought about nothing but sex. Damn if Alyson doesn’t bring that out in me. Jesus, I haven’t felt this alive in a long time. “What about you? Do you want your drive-in cherry popped?”
She looks at me like I’m dense. “Ah, yeah.”
I pull her until she’s seated on top of me, and I cup the back of her neck, drag her mouth to mine. “Pants off,” I say and tug at her yoga pants. She turns on my lap and shimmies out of them. I unzip quickly, grab a condom, and shove my pants to my knees. I sheathe myself and say, “Ride me.”
She climbs back on top of me, her knees on either side of my thighs. I hold my dick as she slowly lowers herself, and I nearly shoot off when she lets loose a low, slow moan so full of pleasure, I’m not sure how I’ll ever survive without her in my life. Heat curls through me, settles between my legs. I can’t remember the last time I’ve felt this good.
Her head falls to the side, her eyes closed, and she takes deep, gulping breaths as I give her inch after inch. I fill her completely and cup her breasts through her blouse. Sliding my tongue out, I lick that sensitive spot on her neck and grip her hips to move her up and down, up and down, until she’s whimpering and clawing at my shoulders.
“Jay,” she says, and I love hearing my name on her tongue when she climaxes. Her muscles clench around me, and I slide a finger between our bodies to massage her clit. Her whimpers get a little louder, and she rides me a little faster, a little harder.
“That’s it, Alyson. Take what you need.” Why is it that I can’t get enough of her, can’t give her enough in return?
“I need this,” she says, and her eyes are a deeper shade of blue when they open and lock with mine. Her heat pours through me, warming my blood, and my cock thickens even more.
“I need this, too,” I tell her and bite down on my tongue before I really spill all the shit stirring me up inside. As her muscles ripple with climax, they squeeze my orgasm from me, and I hold her still as I release inside her.
“Ohmigod,” she says. “I feel all of that.”
She sags when I stop throbbing and rests her forehead on mine. She stays on my lap, my cock still buried inside her. “I had no idea drive-in sex could be so much fun.”
I brush her mess of hair from her face. “Now you know.”
“We’ll have to come every Sunday night,” she says.
My heart skips a beat. I’d like nothing more than that, which really puts a kink into my future. I thought it would be so easy to get the family’s land back, thought it was a sure thing, but Alyson is turning out to be someone different. Heck, maybe a leopard really can change its spots.
A knock sounds on my window, and we both stiffen.
“Shit,” I say as Allison pulls off me and bends to get her pants off the floor. She hurries back into them, her damp hair a hot mess, tumbling down her shoulders and now covered in popcorn. God, she’s so adorable.
She jumps into the driver’s seat and reaches for her bag of cherries, trying to look nonchalant. She starts munching on them as I dispose of the condom, fix my pants, and roll my window down. I peer into the dark and groan when I find Tyler standing there, a stupid-ass grin on his all-knowing face.
“Can I help you?” I ask.
“Thought that was you guys. Not too many Teslas in Farmington.” He bends. “Hi, Alyson.”
“Hi, Tyler.”
“Enjoying Godzilla?” he asks, and when he snickers, I get that he’s really referring to my dick.
“Goodbye, Tyler.”
“Oh, hey, Alyson. The popcorn goes in your mouth, not in your hair.”
She touches her hair, and a groan of embarrassment crawls out of her throat.
“Well, I’ll let you get back to the movie. Oh, hey, bro. Got a twenty? I want to get some snacks.”
I reach into my wallet and hand over a twenty, and we both know it’s silence money. I roll the window up and turn to Alyson, who looks mortified.
“Don’t worry about it,” I say. “Twenty bucks will shut him up.”
“What if he gets the wrong idea about us?”
I want to say, so what? So what if he does? So what if everyone does because maybe, just maybe I might want more with her? But I don’t say that. Instead, I make two fists and bump them together. “He’s seventeen. He gets exactly what this is.”
“Okay,” she says, relaxing a bit. She stares at the screen and continues to eat the cherries.
“Sorry about the mess,” I say and move the popcorn to the side with my foot.
She waves her hand. “It’s fine. I’ll vacuum it. Here, have some of mine.” She takes hers from the dash and hands it to me. I dig in and sit back, a new kind of contentment settling over me as I watch the movie. Every now and then I steal a glance at Alyson. Every now and then I find her looking back at me, a small smile on her face.
By the time the movie is over, all the snacks are gone. “That was fun,” she says, but then she frowns.
“What’s wrong?”
“I think I ate too much.” She puts her hand over her belly, and it grumbles loudly.
“There is only one thing to do about that.”
“Oh, and what might that be?”
“Very vigorious exercise,” I say with a wink.
Alyson grins. “How has this become my life?”
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
She puts her hand on my lap, and her warmth seeps through me, curls around my heart. “It’s a good thing, Jay. It’s a really good thing.”
She’s right. It is a good thing, which begs the question, How am I ever going to let her go?
Chapter Seventeen
Alyson
With the farm opening up later on Mondays, I take my time preparing the animals for the day, and after a couple of love kisses from Barack, I head to Jay’s place. Nails being pounded into boards echo in the still morning air, and I search for him.
This morning, he opened up his U-Pick, and I’m hoping for a crowd. Farming and sustainability are important to him, and spreading the word is even more important, which means today, something he’s been working on for a while, is a big deal. If I weren’t in the bus
iness, I never would have understood that.
I walk past his cottage and down the hill to the main house to meet with little fanfare. The only vehicles in the driveway belong to his family. Well, damn. I plant my hands on my hips and note the ragged sign nailed to a tree announcing the farm has opened for corn picking.
What kind of welcome is that?
I turn and take pleasure in the sight of the gorgeous crops and the majestic rows of cornfields in the distance. This really is God’s country, as I heard a few people coming into the market say, but if Jay wants to put this place on the map, posting one dinky sign is certainly not the way to go about it.
I spot him coming down the hill, and my damn heart picks up the pace. My God, he is so fine, the mere sight of him alone has the ability to unnerve me and weaken my knees. Although it’s my heart I’m really worried about.
I wave to him as an idea takes hold. Next weekend, this man is going to be in for a big surprise. I might be a farmer now, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know a thing or two, or a hundred, about throwing a successful party.
He picks up his pace when he sees me, like he can’t get to me quick enough, and while I like to think it’s because he’s as drawn to me as I am to him, I still can’t forget the fact that he’s a sworn bachelor for life. Then again, our talk the other night was rather intimate and deep. It opened my eyes in so many ways. Is it possible that it opened his eyes, too? Could he be rethinking what he might want in a relationship? Then again, even if he decides he wants more, something deeper, it doesn’t mean he wants that future with me. Maybe I should just sell the farm and get out of Dodge.
“Hey,” he says, glancing over his shoulder to check for an audience, no doubt, before touching my hair. Warmth and want shiver through me at the contact. “What are you doing over here?” I swallow and nearly lose myself in those soft whiskey-brown eyes that always turn dark chocolate when making love.
Making love?
“Alyson?”
“Yeah?”
“What are you doing over here?”