by Lexie Davis
She pulled back and smiled up at Parker. “We’re beating him, Daddy. I needed to do something to distract him from such a terrible loss.”
“Technically I kissed you first.” Parker brushed his thumb along her chin. “Maybe I’m trying to distract you.”
“Is that what you’re doing?” she asked.
“I don’t discuss my war plans with the enemy.”
Aubree’s hand rested against his chest. “I know your plans. And from the looks of it, I’m hardly the enemy.”
He laughed and pressed his lips against her forehead. “Just stand here a moment while those plans calm down.”
She shook her head. “At a family cookout, no less.”
He gripped her shoulders and leaned in to whisper. “I can’t help it. Everything about you turns me on. Not to mention you’ve been wiggling your ass on my lap all night.”
“Yeah, I’m the problem.” She wrapped her arms around him, laying her head against his chest.
“Aubree, it’s your turn,” her mother called.
She pulled away from him. “Behave.”
Parker watched as she walked toward the rest of the family. He rubbed a hand over his face. The short shorts and the oversized shirt looked good on her. She had her hair pulled back and concentrated on tossing the bean bag.
Jim walked over to him when he’d rejoined the game and sat in the fold out chair next to Parker’s. “You two have come a long way in four days.”
Parker smiled. “We have.”
“I’ve seen that look on your face before. It was the same look you sported the day you came to my house. You stood in my barn, fidgeting as you worked up enough courage to ask me if you could marry my daughter.”
“And you said no.” Parker laughed.
“Yeah, well, you weren’t ready. I knew Aubree wasn’t ready. I don’t know that you could have accomplished what you’ve both achieved if you’d gotten married so young.”
“You think we’re ready now?”
“I don’t know. Are you?”
Parker watched as Aubree laughed about something with Riley. “Marriage is a big step.”
“Precisely.” Jim turned toward him. “And that’s my baby girl.”
Parker didn’t say anything. He knew Aubree and her dad were close. She used to tattle on him to Jim when she wanted her way. Jim always laid down the law and when that didn’t work, he’d get Tom involved. He picked on her a lot and when he finally made the move from friendship to dating, both fathers were happy. For a little while anyway. Jim wasn’t so happy about the rumor of them in the backseat of his Camaro.
“I love that girl more than life itself,” Jim said. “But I’ve come to realize that there are certain things her daddy can’t do for her anymore. You’ve always had a bond with each other that none of us could deny. I’ve watched her tattle on you and get you in trouble, then go sit with you while you were being punished. You picked her up and carried her through five miles of wooded land because she broke her foot in a four wheeling accident. You sat with her in the ER and dried her tears until her momma and I could get there.” Jim turned toward him. “She also told me about the Camaro incident. Said you two were drinking. She begged me not to kill you.”
Parker laughed.
“She took up for you, told me that she’d never forgive me if something happened to you.” Jim stared at Aubree. “I believed her.”
“Was murder really on your mind back then, Jim?”
“You just wait until you have a daughter.”
Parker smiled. “Well for the record, the whole taking her virginity thing didn’t happen in the Camaro. That was just the rumor Phoebe Dunn started because she was jealous and wanted to pay Aubree back about something. We were drinking that night, but sex didn’t happen.”
“Yeah, she told me that too.” Jim rubbed a hand over his face. “She went to Dallas and got her heart broken a few times. She called me in the middle of the night wanting to come home.”
“What happened?”
“Some guy got handsy at work. I asked her if she wanted me to bring my shotgun, but she said no. Tom had my back.”
Parker stared at him.
“I think she missed you. I think Dallas gave her a hard dose of reality that not all men are the same. She’s smart and successful. She worked hard to be where she’s at. I’ve given her so many pep talks at two in the morning I can’t even count them all. Most of them were about you and her.”
Aubree came over to them. “I thought you didn’t fraternize with the enemy.”
“You have to know your enemy if you want to beat them.” Jim stood and kissed Aubree’s cheek. Then he walked back over to the game of cornhole.
She sat in his seat. “You’ve been over here talking for a while. What did he say?”
Parker grinned. “He told me all kinds of secrets about you. Stuff I can blackmail you with later.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t believe you. He wouldn’t turn on me.”
Parker laughed. “I had to clear up the whole losing your virginity in the Camaro thing.”
Her jaw dropped. “Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
Heat tinted her cheeks. “That’s embarrassing.”
“Nah.” He reached for her hand and rubbed the back of it with his thumb. “Nobody knows how it happened but us.”
“Do you remember?”
“Vividly.”
She laid her head on his shoulder. “You didn’t use a condom that night.”
“Oh, I know. You wouldn’t so much as kiss me until you got your period. That’s how you started the very graphic conversation about what it’s like to sneeze while menstruating.”
She moved to sit on his lap. “Please tell me you didn’t tell my dad about that.”
“Your secret is safe with me, no matter how gory.”
“I told my mom that we were fornicating.”
“Back then?”
“No. Now.” She laughed. “In your kitchen. She hit me with a dishtowel.”
He brushed her hair from her cheek. “You are nothing but trouble, Aubree Grace.”
“But you like it.”
“Very much.”
Chapter Ten
Aubree woke up early the next morning with the intent of taking a shower. She left Parker sleeping, thankful that his nightmare last night had been a milder one. He slept a little better though she figured he didn’t get much rest. Anytime he actually dozed off, she didn’t want to disturb him. He needed sleep more than anything.
She grabbed her luggage from the trunk of her car and carried it inside. She didn’t risk taking it to his bedroom, so she unzipped it in the living room and sorted through her belongings for something to wear. After selecting a black off the shoulder romper and a large floppy hat to go with it, she went to the bathroom to get started on her shower.
Claustrophobic didn’t even begin to describe the area. She grabbed a clean towel from the built-in shelf and took a few steps to the shower stall. She stripped her clothes off and bumped her leg against the toilet. Groaning, she turned and her eyes grew wide. A shrill escaped her lips as she batted the spider off her arm. Her leg hit the toilet bowl again as she tried to run.
“What the hell?” Parker opened the door, blinking a few times as her entire body shook. So much for not waking him.
“A spider landed on my arm!” She grabbed the towel and glanced up at the ceiling.
“Awe, did you kill him? He was my pet.”
“A spider is not a pet!” She shook her head. “I’m going to bathe in the kitchen sink.”
Parker laughed. “Did you kill him?”
“I don’t know.” She frowned. “I was more worried about getting him off me.” The amusement on his face annoyed her. “It’s not funny.”
“Yes it is.” He stood in the doorway, taking in her partial nudity. “You can go four wheeling with the best of us, shoot a gun, and cheer on your favorite football team. Yet you still squeal like a girl wh
en you see a spider.”
“He touched me!” She reached out and tapped her fingers against his arm, mimicking the way a spider walks. “Crawled on my arm and everything.”
“He just wanted to see your boobs.” Parker tugged the towel away from her. “Come to think of it, so do I.”
She glared at him as he took in her nudity. “Commit it to memory, because this is the last time you’ll be seeing them if you don’t scope out the shower.”
He sighed and stepped inside the small room. “Stand right there.”
She watched as he looked in the shower and then searched the floor. “He’s gone. No spider. You’re free to bathe.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.” He stared at her breasts and her nipples hardened. “Do you want me to help you? Protect you and whatnot from evil spiders coming back to seek their revenge?”
“Stop being mean to me.”
“That’s not mean. That’s chivalrous.” He turned the shower on. She watched as he pulled his shorts down next. With a grin on his face, he turned. It was undeniable that he had the best ass she’d ever seen. “Go get a condom.”
Sighing, she left the room, walking naked to his bedroom to find what was left of the condom supply. They only had two and she wrinkled her nose because of it. She dug deeper in the drawer and brushed her fingers along something metal. Pulling the drawer out more, she saw his handgun. She bit her lip and lifted it, noting that it was loaded but the safety was on. She didn’t like the idea of it being there.
Putting it back where she found it, she took the condom back to the bathroom where he stood beneath the spray waiting for her.
“Why do you keep a loaded gun beside your bed?”
He wiped the water out of his eyes. “It’s Texas. Everyone keeps a loaded gun beside their bed.”
“I don’t like it.” Aubree handed him the condom and stepped into the shower.
He watched her, confusion marring his face. “You’ve never had a problem with it before.”
“You have nightmares where your thinking is not completely rational. You admitted to pulling a gun on Colton. It’s dangerous.”
“You think I’m going to shoot you?”
“I don’t know,” she said honestly. Their gazes clashed. Aubree moved him slightly so she could get beneath the water.
“Okay. But I am the Sheriff. Having a loaded gun on me is part of the job.”
“I don’t care if you have a gun. I just don’t like it next to your bed. It needs to be in a case and locked.” She reached for the shampoo. “And once the nightmares go away then you can move it back.”
He propped his hand up on the shower stall. “You think they’ll go away?”
“Yeah. I do. Eventually.” She dropped her head back in the warm water. “You did okay last night, right? Was it six hours?”
“Five.” He blew out a breath. “I tried not to wake you.”
She reached for him. “You can wake me up anytime.” Kissing his chest, she glanced up at him. Instead of saying anything, she kissed his scruffy cheek.
“I want you to wake me up.” He glanced away and she grabbed his chin and forced him to look at her. “You’re not alone in this, Parker. I’m right here and you can lean on me. I’m not going to let you fall.”
“You’re going back to Dallas, Aubree.” He pushed her arm away from him.
And the inevitable elephant in the room came up. Aubree stepped back. She’d thought about what they would do when she went back to her life. She didn’t see Parker coming to Dallas very often. She didn’t know when she could get away to Prospect. She thought about talking to her boss about spending some of her time in Dallas and some in Prospect. She thought she could do that.
“You’re still not alone. I’m leaving town. I’m not leaving you.”
“Actually, I am alone.” He stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel from the shelf. “Half of me wants you to go back to Dallas right now. Just rip the bandage off and forget about it. But the other half of me wants to cling to you, to try and make you see what is so great about Prospect so that you’ll stay.”
He tossed the condom on the counter and wrapped the towel around his waist. “I get it. I don’t have anything to offer you. Just please stop saying I’m not alone.”
She watched him leave the bathroom and dropped her head against the stall wall. After doing a quick wash of her body, she turned the shower off and went after him. She wrapped the towel around her, heading toward the bedroom. He stood next to the bed, unloading his gun. She watched as he tossed the bullets in the drawer and carried the gun to his closet. He typed in the code to his gun case and stuck the gun in it, locking it behind him.
“You’re not alone.” She walked over to him. “You’ve got me. You’ve always had me.”
“Kinda hard to have you when you’re three hours away.”
“Maybe.” She reached for his arm. “But you can call me. We can travel back and forth. I think I can telecommute part of the time. I have to clear it with my boss. We can work, if you really want us to work.”
He propped his hands on his hips. “So you want a ring? Everyone can have that wedding they’ve been planning all our fucking lives. Is that what you want? Part-time romance. Part-time lovers. Part-time marriage.”
Pain filled his face as if she were breaking his heart all over again. He’d morphed into that teenage boy. She’d told him all those years ago that she wanted to move to Dallas. She wanted to be something great, and it provoked him into contemplating marriage. He’d wanted to go with her, and Aubree grew desperate in trying to convince him not to. He didn’t like the big city. He liked his privacy. He liked knowing his neighbors and that they had his back if he needed it. Parker would have hated living in Dallas for her dream.
It’d been an act of desperation when she rolled his car into the lake. She wanted to make him mad at her so he didn’t want to go. She wanted him to hate her so she didn’t have to see that look in his eyes. She spent the first month in Dallas crying herself to sleep. Her father stood on stand-by to keep her sane during that time. She loved Parker, and no matter what she did, it never went away.
So she stayed away.
She regretted it now. Looking at the pain on his face, she wished she could take it all away instead of causing more. “What do you want?” she asked him. They’d been down this road before, and she didn’t give him the chance to tell her the last time. There wasn’t a simple answer to their problems. She’d left because she needed to. The same need filled her when she thought about staying in Prospect.
He shook his head. “It’s written all over your face. You’re not quitting your job for me.”
“Why not?”
“You love your job.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to say she loved him more, but a knock at the door halted their conversation. He rolled his eyes and grabbed a pair of shorts from the messy floor and pulled them on.
She let him move past her before she realized her clothes were in the bathroom. And then she remembered the rest of her clothes were all over his living room floor.
She walked around the corner, cringing when he glared at her from down the hall. She grabbed her romper from the bath and escaped to the bedroom, closing the door behind her. She had barely gotten her panties on before he came in, looking more pissed than when he’d left.
“People are stopping by to tell me how great the porch looks.” He scowled. “And what’s with the mess in the living room?”
She pursed her lips. “I didn’t want to wake you by bringing my luggage in here. You were sleeping.”
“So you leave all your crap on my living room floor?”
“I’ll pick it up now.” She pulled her romper in place. “You don’t have to have a fit.” Aubree went to the living room and starting stuffing her clothes back in her suitcase.
He followed her, standing in the kitchen doorway, watching. She didn’t know why, but he held a look of disdain toward her. So many
emotions rolled through her as well. Part of her felt like she was the reason he felt alone. Maybe if he went with her to Dallas, whatever happened to him wouldn’t have. Maybe their life together would have worked out and they would be happily married in the big city.
“Stop.” He walked toward her and held his hand out. “I don’t like fighting with you. I’m not mad. Not even with all your messy girly crap all over my house.”
She took his hand and stood. Wrapping her arms around him, she held him close. “I don’t like fighting with you either.”
“I know.” He kissed her lips and pressed his forehead against hers.
“You’re not alone, Parker. You know you can talk to me anytime about anything.”
He pressed his face against her neck and squeezed her.
Aubree closed her eyes and breathed him in. She loved the way he held her, the way she felt when she was in his arms. It didn’t matter what was going on. The world drifted away when he pulled her close.
When he moved away, he kissed her cheek and rubbed a hand over his face. “I need to get ready for work.”
She reached for his hand. “Did you want me to take on a new project? Or do you want me out of your hair?”
“I don’t want you to leave.” He glanced around. “You can do whatever you want.”
She smiled. “That’s very liberal permission.”
He didn’t smile back. “I trust you.”
When he said those words, she knew they meant more than the simple statement. He let her hand go and turned to get ready for work. Aubree chewed on her lower lip, unsure of what to do next. It would take the least amount of effort to move the furniture in the living room so she could scrape the walls and paint. Parker’s bedroom had the most stuff in it, even though it was essentially bare in comparison to hers.
She knelt and finished stuffing her clothes in the suitcase. After she finally got it closed on the fourth try, she wheeled it to his bedroom. He strapped his belt on, his face still unshaven and his eyes tired.
“I think I’m going to do the living room. Do you have any objection to me inviting some people over to help?”