“We’re going outside to snuggle in the hammock,” Samantha announced.
Her parents looked up from rinsing and loading the dishes. “Thanks for dinner,” said Mrs. Kinsey. “It was really great. And Colton, that grasshopper pie was yummy.”
“I concur,” said Mr. Kinsey. “We’ll have to make that more often.”
Mrs. Kinsey gave his arm a pat. “Sorry, honey, but after tonight it’s back to green beans and spinach for you. Tonight, I made an exception because Sam and Colton cooked.”
“I think it’s okay to make exceptions a little more often.”
“Not until…”
Samantha took the opportunity to pull Colton toward the back door. He followed, thinking, Wow, that was easy.
“Hey,” Mr. Kinsey’s voice called out the moment Samantha slid the door open. “No shenanigans,” he was pointing again, looking directly at Colton.
“No, sir.”
“Have a good night you two,” Mrs. Kinsey called.
Samantha led him to the oversized hammock, and Colton rolled into it, opening his arm to her. She snuggled up beside him, resting her head on his chest. Her hair still smelled like lemons, and Colton combed his fingers through the soft mass of curls.
“I’m really glad you came today,” Samantha said.
“Me too.” Colton wondered what it would be like to spend every day with Samantha. Train horses with her watching from the fence, ride with her, cook with her, clean with her, and end every day like this, with her curled against him.
He could get used to a life like that.
“I’m going to miss you,” she murmured, sounding like she was going to fall asleep any moment.
Miss me? Colton frowned. “Are you going somewhere?”
“Yes, I’m…” The sleepiness left her voice, and she lifted her head, looking him in the eyes. “You don’t know.”
“Know what?”
Her eyes clouded with a mixture of worry and surprise. “My job—the one that doesn’t start until the end of summer.” A pause. “It’s in New York.”
Colton felt like someone had jabbed needles into his lungs, draining them of air. New York? She was leaving? For good? His fingers stilled in her hair. “I didn’t know.”
“Kajsa didn’t tell you.” It was more of a statement than a question.
“I’m pretty sure I would have remembered if she had.” Colton pulled his arm out from under her and swung around into a seated position, making Samantha pull her knees to her chest. His feet scuffed against the stamped concrete, and he stared at the dark crevices of the patterns, seeing a map of the US with New York on one side and Colorado closer to the other.
Samantha grabbed his arm. “I’m so sorry. Kajsa has told you everything else. I just assumed that—”
“I didn’t know,” he repeated, not knowing what else to say. It was the truth. He had no idea that Samantha would be packing her bags for a cross country move in only two short months. He’d assumed the graphic design job was here or at the very least, Denver. That was a doable commute. But New York? Not so much.
No good thing comes in a hurry, the thought returned to his mind like a rude I-told-you-so, sticking out its tongue and making a face.
Colton felt a stab of regret. Why had he asked her out? And why the heck had he kissed her? He should have kept things between them as friends and let them eventually gravitate toward acquaintances and then distant acquaintances, which is what would have happened if he hadn’t jumped the gun.
If only he’d known. If only Kajsa had clued him in on that tiny detail. Actually, why hadn’t Samantha? All along, she’d known. She’d flirted, gone out with him, and kissed him back. She’d made him feel like a future could exist between them. Why?
And then Colton remembered her stupid bucket list and a large lump lodged in his throat. “I’m your summer fling, aren’t I?”
“What? No.” Her fingers tightened around his arm. “Colton, I—”
He pulled his arm free and stood, turning around to look down at her. “Samantha, if I’d known you were moving to New York in August, I wouldn’t have asked you out or even flirted with you. I told you before, and I’ll tell you again. I don’t do flings.” His jaw tightened. “At least I didn’t before now.”
The light was still on inside, so Colton headed for the side of the house. Behind him, Samantha’s footsteps followed.
“Colton, wait. It isn’t like that. Can we please talk about this?”
He paused with his hand on the latch and looked over his shoulder. “Say we keep dating. Is New York negotiable?”
From the look on her face, Colton knew her answer before she said it. “I can’t turn down this job. I just can’t. It’s too—”
“Congratulations,” he cut her off. “You just crossed another item off your bucket list.” Then he shoved the gate open, strode to his truck, jumped inside, and didn’t look back as he took off down the road. He’d been wrong about darkness not existing around Samantha. Right now, his world had never felt so black.
Sam lay in the hammock alone, watching the few stars that could be seen. Sleeping beneath the stars wasn’t supposed to feel like this. It was supposed to be peaceful, adventurous, romantic. Not… blah. How she hated feeling blah.
At least I didn’t get too far down the Colton road before turning back.
At least…
Sam couldn’t think anymore. She rolled to her unburned side and curled into a ball, trying not to think about Colton or the way it had felt to be kissed and held by him. The way it had felt to watch him walk away. Over the past few years, she’d kissed her fair share of guys, but none of them, no matter how good or practiced they were, came close to getting into her soul the way Colton had so easily done.
But now he was gone, and Sam felt bereft, like something valuable and precious had been taken from her grasp—something that never belonged to her in the first place.
Why couldn’t her job start tomorrow? Why couldn’t she pack her bags, hop on a plane, and leave all this aching blahness behind? She’d once thought a summer without Kajsa and Adi would be bad, but that was nothing compared to the oppressive feeling that dimmed everything, including the stars.
The truth was, Samantha didn’t want to pack her bags or hop on a plane anytime soon. Nor did she want to go back in time and undo the past couple of weeks. She wanted to continue forward down the Colton road and keep seeing those glimpses of a possible life that took her breath away. A life that made her believe in The List.
Up until now, Sam had thought Colton’s arrival in her life was bad timing. But maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was a sign that New York shouldn’t be a detour on her way back to Colorado Springs. Maybe it was a road that shouldn’t be travelled at all.
The back door slid open and light footsteps padded across the patio.
“Sam?” A dark shadow in the form of her mother’s head peered down at her. “I heard Colton’s truck leave a while ago. What are you still doing out here?”
Sam rolled to her back, feeling a renewed sense of blah. Maybe her mother could shoo it away. “He found out about New York and said he doesn’t do flings. So he left.”
Her mother was silent for a moment. “I see.”
Those two words, spoken so quietly, became Sam’s undoing. Tears welled up in Sam’s eyes, her fingers balled into fists, and she hit the hammock in frustration. She hated crying even more than she hated feeling blah. She hated it so much she’d made a pact to herself long ago that she’d never cry again.
So much for pacts and bucket lists and career goals and The List. As far as she was concerned, they’d all just crumbled.
“He wasn’t a fling.” The words shook, giving away her tears.
Her mother crawled into the hammock and put her arm around Sam, hugging her close. “I know,” she whispered. “I know.”
Sam had been hurt by guys before, but she’d never felt it so deeply inside of her. Like someone had just vacuum-packed her soul, shriveling her heart into a tiny ball, like
an over-dried raisin.
Real heartbreak sucked.
“Give him some time. Then you can explain.”
“Explain what?” said Sam. “That I’m still leaving and want him to wait for me? Or that I’m willing to give up an opportunity I’ve worked so hard for to stay here?”
Her mother lifted her head. “Are you willing to give it up?”
Sam wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “I don’t know. I just know the thought of losing him hurts worse than losing the job.” Sam sniffed. “That should make you happy.”
The dark, now-blurry head shook slowly. “No, sweetie, it doesn’t. Yes, it’s been hard to watch you grow up and begin to spread your wings, and yes, I would have loved your dream job to be here instead of Manhattan. But what I care most about is your happiness. You’ve always been so driven, so sure of yourself, and I’ve always been so proud.” Her mom stroked her hair. “If you’re not happy, how could I possibly be?”
Sam turned into her mother, holding her tight. “I feel like I have to choose between them, and I don’t want to choose. I want them both.”
A cricket filled the silence with a relaxed cricken… cricken… cricken, as though it had no other care in the world. How nice would it be to lounge in this hammock with no worries, no cares, no fears? No thought beyond the sound of the crickets, the rustle of leaves, or the swing and sway of the hammock.
“Have you asked him what he wants?”
“No.” Sam swallowed. “He left without really hearing me out.”
“It’s not easy to listen when you’re hurting.”
“I know.”
“Give him a few days,” her mother encouraged. “Then see if he gives you a real reason to cry. But my guess is he won’t.”
The stars high above seemed to brighten as though the dimmer switch slid up a notch. Sam breathed in a wisp of hope and a hint of the neighbor’s lilac bush. Sam swiped the back of her hand across her eyes, clearing away the tears. Her mother was right. The heartache, the worry, the stress—it was all premature. Someday, they might trouble her again, but not yet.
Not yet.
Colton tossed the saddle on the mustang’s back and began to tighten it. “You don’t have an audience today, Maj, but you’d still better behave. I’m in no mood to get tossed in the dirt.”
The horse’s answering sniff sounded like a retort.
“I mean it. If you throw me, no oats or carrots for an entire week.”
Colton yanked hard on the strap, grabbed the reins, and swung onto Maj’s back. Other than smacking the soft earth of the corral with her front right hoof, the horse made no move to unseat her rider.
Huh. Maybe all the horse needed was a good talking to—someone to lay down the law. Colton tsked and urged the horse forward with the heels of his boots, but Maj didn’t budge. Like a stubborn mule, she simply stood there, playing with the bit in her mouth. Colton tried again, this time tapping a little harder and tsking louder. Still no movement.
“Unbelievable,” he muttered as he slid from the horse. Moving to the front, he tugged on the reins, trying to coerce Maj forward, but the horse stayed rooted. If she could talk, she probably would have said, “No audience, no ride. Deal with it.”
Colton was through dealing with it. “Fine. You don’t want to be trained, don’t be trained. Just don’t blame me when you end up back in some miserable federal holding facility because nobody wants a horse with an ego the size of Jupiter.”
A light buzz of an engine sounded, growing louder and louder until a beefy, camo-colored 4-wheeler appeared around the bend, speeding toward the house. Colton sighed. Under normal circumstances, he’d be glad to see his friend. But today, he wasn’t in the mood.
Will careened toward him, then slammed on the brakes and skidded to a stop just outside the gate. He killed the engine and pulled the helmet off his head, revealing a sweaty mop of sandy, curly hair.
“So you’re back,” said Colton. Not long after they’d returned from the mustang roundup, Will had taken off on another. And another. He was trying to save up for his last year of college, and the roundups paid pretty well. If Colton didn’t have a problem seeing wild animals being taken from their natural habitat, he would have done the same.
“I’m back.” Will leapt off the 4-wheeler and approached Colton, eyeing Maj with a grin. “How’s she doing?”
“Now that you’re here? Probably better than a few minutes ago.”
Will laughed. “I do have a certain animal magnetism about me, don’t I?”
Colton mounted again and urged the horse forward once more. When she began walking, he rolled his eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself. Maj isn’t picky about who’s watching, only that someone is. And the more, the merrier.”
“Maj?” Will asked, his left eyebrow lifting. “What kind of name is that?”
“Short for Your Majesty.”
Will threw back his head and laughed. “Who came up with that one?”
“I did.” Kajsa stood on the front porch with her hand on her hips, glaring at Will, who stopped laughing immediately.
“Sorry, Kaj. But you have to admit, it’s kind of a funny name.”
Kajsa climbed the fence next to Will and leaned forward, stroking Maj’s nose. “It fits you perfectly, doesn’t it, Your Majesty?” she cooed. The horse practically preened with the attention.
Before he could stop himself, Colton’s gaze swept the drive, looking for signs of a yellow Bug. “When did you get here?” he asked Kajsa.
“Cassie had a doctor’s appointment in Denver, so she dropped me off early. Adi too. We’ve been helping your mom paint your old room.”
“My room?” Colton had no idea his room was getting a facelift. “Why?”
Adi emerged from the house and walked to the front porch railing. “She’s turning it into a guest room,” she answered.
Now that Colton was paying attention, he could see that both girls were dotted with paint, but with the sun glinting off the windows behind them, he couldn’t tell what color it was. Only that it was light.
“Did you move out?” Will asked Colton. “Or did they finally get sick of your sorry hide and kick you out?”
“I moved to The Shack,” said Colton. “What color are you painting it?”
“Yellow.”
“Yellow?” He frowned, picturing his masculine room becoming a bright, feminine shade of yellow—his least favorite color at the moment. Any color with a hint of yellow in it could get dumped into the Pacific for all he cared. What was so wrong with the formerly gray walls?
“It’s the color of Sam’s car,” said Adi, lifting her arm to show him the speckles of paint. “Me and Kajsa picked it out because we thought you’d like it.”
Colton stifled a groan. This is exactly why he would never again date anyone who knew his family or Kajsa’s family or even Will’s family. From now on, he’d meet all girls via the internet and only bring home a woman once he’d put a ring on her finger. What was his mom thinking to let them paint that room yellow?
“I am so lost right now,” said Will.
“Colton’s dating Sam,” said Adi with a sly grin.
“Sam?” Will’s brow arched.
“Sam is short for Samantha,” Colton said.
“Adi! Kajsa!” his mother’s voice called from somewhere inside the house. “Where are you girls?”
“Coming!” Giving one last pat to Maj, Kajsa followed her sister inside.
Will turned toward Colton, folding his long arms over the top of the fence, and gave him a considering look. “Since when did you move out and start dating someone? I haven’t been gone that long.”
Colton tried to urge the horse forward, but this time, even with Will standing there, Maj refused to budge. “We aren’t dating.”
“Maybe you should tell Adi and Kajsa that.” Will nodded in their direction. “Preferably before they finish painting.”
“It’s complicated.”
“Why?”
“Bec
ause Samantha is their favorite person, and if I tell them we aren’t dating anymore… well, they won’t understand.”
“So what, you’re going to keep dating some chick because you don’t have the heart to tell the girls you’re not interested any longer?”
“I am interested.” Colton kicked Maj’s flank again, only to grind his teeth in frustration when she didn’t move.
Will was silent for a moment, probably trying to make sense of it all. “Oh, I get it. She broke up with you.” A grin followed his epiphany. “Wow. Has that ever happened to you before?”
“Nobody broke up with anybody. Like I said, we weren’t really dating.”
“What does that even mean? Did you make a move on her or not?”
This was exactly why Colton wasn’t thrilled to see Will roll up the drive. The guy could be annoying and infuriating and he always stuck his nose where it didn’t belong. When Maj still wouldn’t move, Colton jumped to the ground and began removing the saddle. He had better things to do than play twenty questions with his friend and get nowhere with the world’s most stubborn animal.
Will gave a little whoop and a laugh. “You did.”
“It’s over, okay? Over. She’s moving to New York at the end of the summer and that’s that.”
“How can it be over when summer’s not over? You could have a lot of fun during the next two months.”
Colton felt his last thread of patience stretch to the point of breaking. “Like I told her—I don’t do flings.”
Will’s grin widened further. “Oh, wow. You really like this girl.” He slapped the top of the fence and laughed. “Well, whadoyaknow, the great Colton McCoy has finally fallen.”
Colton didn’t think his mood could get any darker that morning, but if Will kept going on like this, thunderclouds would be rolling in any second. He didn’t want to hear about yellow rooms or sunny skies or Samantha. He didn’t want Will stirring the pot or playing Sherlock. All he wanted was for Maj to do what she was told without an audience for once.
“Just drop it, Will.” Colton tossed the saddle over the fence and removed the bridle, throwing it on top. “Don’t you have someplace you need to be right now?”
Stick in the Mud Meets Spontaneity (Meet Your Match, book 3) Page 13