After all these years of being separated from Clyde, the wasted time and tears I’ve shed over losing him, it’s a dream come true knowing my future will be spent beside him. Maybe it happened like this for a reason after all. We’ve had time to grow up and live a little. Now I’m at the point in my life where I want nothing more than to marry Clyde and start a family of our own. Some may argue it’s fast, but I could rebuke with this always being my destiny.
You can’t change fate. You may tempt other paths, but in the end, I have to believe that love will prevail—especially with us. We were thrust in and out of each other’s lives too many times to count. It was obviously for a reason as his soul called to mine so long ago.
Amber wrenches open the front door. Her hair’s piled up in a disheveled bun on the top of her head, plain black reading glasses resting halfway down her nose, wearing cut off jean shorts and a Tim McGraw T-shirt. Even a complete mess with a noisy toddler in the background, she’s smoking hot.
“Do you ever look bad?” I mutter aloud.
“No.” She shakes her head, and I burst out giggling at her complete honesty and lack of humbleness.
“Ugh, I can only pray I look half as good as you after I pop out a kid,” I moan on my way past her.
She shuts the door, dutifully sliding the chain lock in place. Not only beautiful, but she’s a smart, good mom to her daughter.
“And where’s the little princess at?”
“Stop spoiling her; she’s a brat!” Amber calls from behind, and I huff, shaking my head.
“I can if I want. So, guess what?” I say and twirl her daughter around in a hug. She squeals with delight, beaming a happy smile. Gah, the life of a two-year-old has to be purely entertaining.
“What?” She plops on the couch, setting her book on the coffee table and takes a long sip from the straw in her iced coffee.
“This sorta happened.” The words leave me in a jumble as I stand and hold up my hand for her.
She gazes at it a moment, and then, like fire coming to life, it clicks. “Holy shit! No way!”
I nod, grinning so big my face may split in two.
“How the hell did you get him to propose so fast?”
Skirting the coffee table, I plop down beside her and tell her all about the time I got to spend with Clyde, including waking up to the beautiful token of his love on my finger.
“Wow, I’m truly happy for you, Shyla. After all this time, you guys finally get you’re happily ever after.”
Tears fall. She knows how much I’ve loved Clyde over the years. “I know. I’m ecstatic. I don’t know if there’s a word strong enough for what I’m feeling right now.”
“Aw, Shy.” She smiles and pulls me in for a hug.
Wiping my cheeks, I take a breath. “So now there’s just one thing left…” I trail off, and her brow furrows. It’s impossible, but even that makes her look cute. I want to stick my tongue out at her but refrain.
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, I need my matron of honor.”
Her face lights at my words.
“You’ve been my best friend for practically ever.”
She nods, her normal chatty self, quiet, waiting.
“I couldn’t imagine having anyone else there to celebrate with me, would you be my matron of honor?”
“Promise not to make me wear yellow or orange?”
“You have my word.”
“Then you have a matron of honor.” She grins, and I yank her in for another hug, then make her jump with my excited squeal. This is, no doubt, one of the best days of my life.
Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit.
It’s been a week, and Shyla’s managed to move all of her belongings into the house. She’s been off work so she’s been around twenty four hours a day and I’ve enjoyed every moment of it. I can’t believe I ever thought even for a moment that she’d not loved me before. It’s almost as if we were never separated. I feel like we’ve just picked right back up. Sure, things have changed, and we’re adults now, but the feelings are still there. If anything, they seem to have come back full force and have grown stronger.
She’s cooked dinner every night, and I swear Nate’s going to blow up like a balloon if he doesn’t slow down. I’m beginning to wonder if he’s in love with her as well, but for the food. He’s been supportive, and for that, I’m grateful. My life wouldn’t be the same if it weren’t for my brother being here, even if he does drive me crazy occasionally.
We’re supposed to be headed to an engagement party that her parents are hosting tonight, and my nerves are getting the better of me. I don’t care to be around a lot of people. The town’s always been friendly to my family, but I prefer to be left alone. That being said, she’s got me dressed up in a suit. The last time I wore one of these things was when they signed my brother, but it was nowhere near as nice as this one.
Shyla’s mouth drops as she comes into the bedroom and gets the first look at me. “I don’t know how you do it, but Lord, you’ve gotten sexier.” My chest puffs a bit at her approval. I love having her full attention on me.
With a grunt, I pull at the collar. The downfall is these damn things like to suffocate people. I never understood why they make them so tight in this area. “You’re the good lookin’ one of us. You’re stunning.”
She beams at my compliment, but it’s the truth. The understated black cocktail dress accents her body in all the right places. She screams class, and I’m just a plain rancher playing dress up in some fancy clothes. Her dainty hands find mine, winding our fingers together. Even in heels before me, I tower over her.
“Even more beautiful up close,” I comment and her neck flushes. “I love you, Shy.” I could tell her a hundred times a day, and it’d never be enough.
“And I love you, Mr. Owens.” She leans up to press a chaste kiss to my lips, her soft caress making my groin tighten in response.
“Pretty soon you’ll be Mrs. Owens. Can you handle that?”
“Nothing has ever sounded better. I’m counting down the days.”
Mmm,” I mumble. “Not too many of those, huh?”
She grins, and I swear it makes me fall a little more in love with her at the moment. “We’ve waited long enough. I don’t want a long engagement.” Neither do I; the sooner she has my name, the better.
“I don’t mind, baby; however, I have a feelin’ your momma’s going to give me an earful for not giving her longer to plan everything out.”
She laughs, the sound a pleasant tinkle to my ears. “Well, you may be on to something when it comes to that; however, her excitement will outweigh any lectures she has in store.”
“That’s reassuring, one can only hope. I don’t want her wrath coming back to me. A Southern woman without enough time isn’t something I’d like to face.”
“I won’t leave you to the wolves, I promise.”
“We should hurry back home tonight. I have plans.”
“Do they happen to include me?” She asks against my lips, still on her tip toes.
“They do,” I rasp, rubbing my nose along her jawline.
“I think I have a little incentive to make you feel better in case the night drags on longer than you’d like.”
My brow rises. “Oh, yeah? What do you have in mind?”
She falls to her knees, hands reaching for my belt and a surprised grin grows. “I like your ideas,” I mutter and she snickers.
A few flicks of her fingers, freeing me from my pants and my cock breaks free, willing and ready for her attention. She licks her lips and sinks them around my length.
“Oh yes.” The groan leaves me, my voice gruff with need. My lids grow heavy as my thoughts turn to mush, watching her below me. Shyla knows just how to worship my body.
She hums, and the sound vibrates the back of her throat along with my cock. My fists clench so tightly, I may break through the skin of my palms at the incredible feelings below. I want so desperately to wind them throu
gh her silvery blonde hair and yank her to me, but I refrain. After a few more dips of her head, I grab her shoulders and jerk myself free. It’s too much, the need building up inside of me.
“I want to feel your warmness wrapped around me. I love your mouth, but I want to feel you—your heat.”
“Yes,” she agrees with a purr, more beautiful than ever with her lips rosy and swollen from sucking me off.
Wasting no time, I lift Shyla from the ground, pressing her back against the wall. I wrench her panties to the side and drive inside her core making her call out at the sudden intrusion. I can’t go fast or hard enough. I want to slam into her, again and again, to make her see the same flashes I do with each intoxicaticating pass.
“So good,” I groan, my face planted in the crook of her neck. She feels like home. That’s the best way for me to describe it.
“I love you, Clyde.”
“I love you, too, Shyla, so damn much.”
“If I try to drink another one of these frilly drinks, I’m going to puke,” she mutters, flustered.
Tucking Shyla into me a bit more, I plant a kiss on her forehead. Leaning in close, I mumble, “Just pour it in the bushes. That’s what I’ve been doing,” I admit and her eyes—full of amusement—flash to mine. “What? We’re in the garden, take advantage of it,” I say with a shrug.
She laughs, and I can’t stop myself from grinning in reply and kissing her again.
“I can’t believe it’s taken this long for you two to finally come to your senses,” her mom comments, her hand in the crook of her husband’s arm. She’s always had a soft spot for me thankfully. It made dating Shyla easier than it could’ve been when we were younger. I have a feeling if her mom hadn’t liked me, then we wouldn’t have stood a chance.
“Mom!” Shyla scolds and glares in her direction.
“What? It’s true. You’re so stubborn, young lady. We all know this; I’m only speaking the truth. It’s lucky he’d not married sooner.” She sniffs, and her husband shoots his daughter a look of understanding.
I feel Shy stiffen and try to smooth it over; I’ve known her parents the better part of my life. “I’m the lucky one. It’s fortunate another didn’t sweep her off her feet before I had a real chance to make her mine, for good.”
The older woman snorts and her husband pats her hand to quiet her. “Well, it’s real fine, to have you in the family officially, son,” her father comments and broadens his grin. He’s always been good to me, and I’ve returned it with respect for him and his daughter.
“Yes sir, I couldn’t be happier.” Shyla relaxes again hearing the sincerity in my reply.
“And we’ll have grandbabies soon, I reckon?” The older version of Shyla stares me down. She’s an intimidating woman, reminds me a lot of my own mother. When she gets her mind wrapped around something, it’s full steam ahead. The baby comment has been a long time coming from her though since she’d believed we’d have been married at least ten years ago. I did too.
“I’d love nothing more, ma’am, but that’s entirely up to your daughter. I’ll happily make it happen whenever she’s ready.”
Her mother opens her mouth to say something, but Shyla interrupts. “I’ve already thrown out my birth control tabs, Momma, so rest assured, I’m one step ahead of you.”
The old coot smiles like the cat that ate the canary. “Oh good!” she exclaims, the early comments forgotten with the promise of grandchildren. “You hear that Frank? You’ll be a papa soon!”
“Yes dear.” He pats her hand again. “Now I must go greet the Rogers and a few other guests.” He nods to me and presses a kiss to his wife’s forehead before trailing toward a wealthy looking couple around his age.
“This was a great chance to invite a few colleagues; you know he’s thinking about running for the Senate.”
Shyla rolls her eyes, but thankfully her mom’s called away by the kitchen staff.
“Senator, huh?” I mutter and Shy sighs, wincing. “What, sweetheart?”
“Can we just go home? I’m worn out. My mother drains my energy,” she says after a moment, and I could kiss her for it, but I’m interrupted by my phone vibrating.
“Hold that thought darlin’, someone’s calling.” Digging through the inside pocket, I pull my phone out, and Nate’s name flashes across the screen.
“Hey, you on your way?” I ask immediately. The asshat was supposed to be here an hour ago to help us celebrate. Now we’re ready to leave, and he hasn’t even made it here.
“I need you to hurry up and get back to the ranch.”
“All right, what’s going on?”
“I went for a ride to check out the south side before heading to join y’all, and I found something.”
“What?”
“Just get here, quickly.” He hangs up, and it takes a great deal of restraint not to shout my frustration in front of the guests.
“We gotta go.” I tug my woman along with me, headed for the door.
“Is everything all right?” she asks as I quickly stride toward my truck, her having to nearly jog to keep up with my pace.
“I don’t know, but Nate said we need to get to the ranch now, and he never tells me to hurry up for anything.” I yank the door open and help her hop into the middle seat.
She scoots to her spot, and we leave as quickly as I can without causing a scene for her parents. It’s bad enough we’re taking off in the middle of everything without saying our good-byes or thanking them. We’ll have to go to breakfast or something to smooth things over. I’m sure her mother’s feathers will be a bit ruffled.
“You think he’s okay?” She chews the side of her thumbnail, eyes shimmering with worry as she gazes at me while I drive. She has a soft spot for my younger brothers; she’s always loved my family.
“I hope so, Shyla. He’d tell me if he wasn’t though. He knows I’d flip my shit if he didn’t give me a heads-up right away. Something’s going on though; that I’m sure of. He sounded rushed and wants us home right away. I don’t know what the hell it’s about, but I trust him enough to do as he asks.”
“Of course,” she agrees. “I’d expect nothing less. Are you okay to drive?”
“I dumped all my alcohol out. I’m good.”
She leans over, kissing my cheek.
“I love you, darlin’.”
“I love you, Clyde.”
The drive feels like it drones on forever when in reality it takes us about twenty five minutes at the most. That’s still longer than I’d have liked, but I had to think of Shyla’s safety as well and not drive like a maniac. My parents’ accident taught me that life can be taken away so easily and that’s a fate I don’t want to tempt when it comes to the woman I love. I plan to have her around until I’m old, gray, and shriveled up if possible with a life full of smiles and children of our own.
I tear into the driveway, dirt flying everywhere as I slam the truck into park and wrench open the door. I hauled ass down our private drive because I could drive that road with my eyes closed. The only time I slow down is to pause long enough to help my woman hop out and grab her hand before heading for the house.
Nate’s sitting on the porch alone. His face is tearstained, which is entirely unlike my brother. He’s more the type to get angry before showing any other emotion. Witnessing him a mess immediately has my guard up.
“What happened?” I stare over him from top to bottom checking as quickly as possible for any type of injury on him.
He draws in a deep breath, my brother’s normal tan complexion pasty and pale against the porch light. “Dallas was shot.”
“Fuck!” I curse, my fingers immediately moving to massage my temples. Please tell me Nathan wasn’t the one to make this mistake. That’s exactly what this was, a mistake that either Nate or Dallas is responsible for. Were they drinking? What the hell were they thinking?
He nods. Swallowing back his tears, he clears his throat. “He’s going to be okay, thank God.”
“Why di
dn’t you ride to the hospital with him?”
He lifts the shotgun beside him and uses it to point toward one of the storage sheds. “I stayed to make sure them fuckers didn’t return.”
My eyes follow along, noticing the shed door partially hanging open and my brow furrows. “Tell me what happened.”
He shrugs. “We were out walking the fence line, our cousin and me. I was down by the ‘shine shed, and Dallas came ahead of me ‘cause Gracie started howling. I held back a ways because I couldn’t find Titan anywhere and I didn’t want him to be on the south end by himself. Just in case, you know.”
I nod. He means in case the asshole neighbors came back by and possibly decided to hurt Titan.
“I whistled for him a few times and then suddenly he goes tearing off from behind me, toward the direction of where Gracie was howling. There was a shot, and I took off in a sprint up here to find out what on earth was going on. Dallas was sprawled out on the ground, his shoulder bleeding like crazy. I called his pops right away. I knew he’d get here quicker than you or an ambulance.”
I nod again, to keep him going with the story.
“There were only a few minutes to get information out of him before his dad got here. He was clammy, and I didn’t want him to pass out or anything. He said that Gracie caught one of the guys from next door snooping around the buildings. When he saw Dallas, he shot him and then took off. I didn’t go after him. I wanted to, but just in case anyone else was around, I wanted to make sure Dallas was protected.”
“You did the right thing, Nate. I never would’ve been able to live with myself if anything had happened to you tonight or ever.”
“I’ve been texting for updates on Dallas ever since they took off. He was on his way to the hospital when I called you. Last text I got said Dallas was going to be okay. It wasn’t a bad spot to be hit; it could’ve been much worse. You know our uncle though, he won’t give many details.”
3 Times the Heat Page 14