Quarter Miles

by Devney Perry

  My hands dug into his shoulders, holding tight. I wasn’t sure if I was gripping him so strongly because I was trying to punish him or because he’d come after me. But I didn’t protest as he held me tightly against his chest, lifting me off my feet until they dangled by his shins.

  “I’m sorry.” His voice was filled with pain and regret. “God, Kat. I’m sorry.”

  “I forgive you.”

  He pulled away and his eyebrows came together. “You do?”

  “I’m hurt, but I forgive you. Your heart was in the right place.” And in his boots, I might have done the same. I wouldn’t have wanted him to be hurt by a woman who’d take my money without even asking about her child.

  “Doesn’t matter.” He shook his head and set me down. “I should have told you.”

  My shoulders sagged and I nodded. “It’s done.”

  What was the point of staying mad at him? It wouldn’t change anything. It wouldn’t undo the past and it wouldn’t change the relationship I’d had with my mother.

  I glanced past him to the SUV. “How’d you know where I was going?”

  “Lucky guess.”

  I looked up and met those hazel eyes. “Why’d you come?”

  “Because I love you.”

  My heart dropped. My mouth went dry. “What?”

  Cash stepped closer, taking my face in his hands. “I love you, Katherine Gates.”

  This wasn’t actually happening. How long had I dreamed of hearing those words? How long had I hoped for them? Too long. It was impossible to believe they were real. “As a friend.”

  He shook his head. “Not as a friend.”

  “As a little sister.”

  That earned me another head shake. “Definitely not as a little sister.”

  “You love me?”

  “I am in love with you.”

  Cash was in love with me. My head spun as it tried to flip the switch from fantasy to reality. I opened my mouth to say something, anything, but there were no words.

  Actually, there were three.

  “I love you.”

  Cash’s entire body radiated relief. He flashed me that sexy grin, giving me a split second to enjoy it, before he slammed his mouth down on mine. His kiss was so consuming, so powerful and adoring, it felt like he was claiming me forever, branding me as his and his alone.

  He loved me.

  The fears, doubts and insecurities I’d clutched for years were swept away with his hot tongue. The internal box that had guarded my secrets, and my heart, was wide open.

  The blare of the Cadillac’s horn filled the air. “Get a room!”

  I giggled at Aria as Cash broke away, holding me tight.

  “I love you, Kat,” he whispered.

  “I love you, Cash.”

  “Don’t go,” he pleaded. “Stay with me. Lean on me. I swear, I won’t let you fall.”

  I dropped my head to his chest. The only man in the world who could make me that promise, make me believe it, was Cash. “Okay.”

  The passenger door to the Cadillac popped open and Aria stepped out, rounding the trunk to join us. “Hi, Cash.”

  “Hi, Aria.”

  “How fast were you going to catch us?” she asked.

  He grinned. “Fast enough.”

  A semitruck blazed down the highway, the noise so loud it reminded me that we were essentially on the side of the road. “Should we head back to the hotel?”

  “I’ve got a better idea.” Cash shook his head and walked past me to the Cadillac. He leaned inside and when he stood, he held up the quarter I’d left in the tray. The quarter Carol had given me. “How about we start this adventure over?”

  Drive wherever the quarter intended. Explore the countryside with the man I loved. Share hotel rooms and sleep in each other’s arms. “Yes, please.”

  “Would you take the Cadillac?” Cash asked Aria.

  “Of course.” She stepped closer and took me in one of her fierce hugs.

  I clung to her, holding her close. “Thank you. For everything.”

  “Thanks for coming to find me.” She let me go and leaned back. “I’ve missed you.”

  We didn’t need to voice that we’d see one another again. We didn’t need to say call me or text. Now that I’d found Aria again, I wasn’t going to lose her.

  “Nice to meet you, Cash.” She held out her hand.

  He shook it, then pulled her in for a hug. “Don’t be a stranger. Come see us in Montana.”

  “Will you teach me to ride a horse?”

  He chuckled and let her go. “You got it.”

  “Will you be okay driving to Arizona alone?” I asked Aria as Cash went to collect my suitcase and belongings from the Cadillac.

  “Of course, but not today. I’m going home. I have to work on Monday.”

  “What?” My mouth fell open. “But the trip—”

  “Oh, I figured he’d catch up with us after about an hour or two.” She winked at Cash as he slammed the trunk.

  “How’d you know?”

  “Please.” She rolled her eyes. “That man loves you too much to let you go.”

  I cast a glance at Cash, where he was hauling my purse from the backseat. And I loved him too much to actually run away.

  Aria and I shared one last hug, then she waved goodbye to Cash and climbed in the Cadillac, flipping it around and disappearing down the highway.

  “Think we’ll ever see that car again?” Cash asked, pulling me into his side.

  “No.”

  That car had taken me on the trip that I’d needed, just like it had with Londyn and Gemma.

  Cash led me to the passenger door of the SUV, closing it for me once I was inside. Then he jogged around the hood and slid behind the wheel, holding the quarter up between us.

  I took it from his fingers and gave it a flip. “Heads left. Tails right.”

  “Hey,” I answered Gemma’s call.

  Cash touched his invisible watch, reminding me that we were kind of in the middle of something, but I held up a finger. I wouldn’t have answered except it was the first time on the trip that she’d called, and I wanted to make sure everything was okay with her and the baby.

  “Hi,” she whispered. “How are you?”

  “Fine. Why are you whispering?”

  “Because I’m breaking the rules by calling you and if Carol finds out, she’s going to banish me from the lodge.”

  “What rules?”

  “We’re not allowed to interrupt your vacation. Carol’s orders. She wanted you to have time to disconnect and explore and whatever. I would have broken the rule sooner but she promised to make me a fresh cherry pie and I was waiting until she delivered.”

  Carol. So she was the reason that my phone calls and texts had gone unanswered. I should have expected her to lay down the law with the family like she had with the resort staff.

  The only contact we’d had with home over the past four days was when Cash had called Liddy, assuring her that we were together and that everything had worked out. He’d also asked that she not tell anyone that the two of us were together before we had a chance to tell them ourselves when we got home.

  “So where are you? How’s it going? Did you and Cash hook up yet?”

  “Did Liddy tell you?”

  “What?” Her voice got louder. “You hooked up? And Liddy knows? Why didn’t she tell me?”

  “If she didn’t tell you, how did you know?”

  “It was only a matter of time. You two needed to get away and do something without everyone in the family watching over your shoulders so he could realize how wonderful and beautiful you are and the idiot would finally pull his head out of his ass and fall in love with you.”

  “Thanks, Gem,” Cash muttered at my side.

  I laughed. “You’re on speaker.”

  “Oh,” she muttered. “Well, I stand by my statement. Hi, Cash.”

  “Hi,” he said. “When you made me camp out and search for a mountain lion, there wasn’t really
a lion, was there?”

  “Nope.”

  And his appearance the morning I’d been slated to leave hadn’t been coincidence either. It was why she’d made me take cookies. Why she’d had Easton go fill the car with gas.

  I’d hug Gemma for that later and bake her a dozen cherry pies.

  “Where are you?” she asked. “When are you coming home? I’m bored. So, so bored. Carol took this activity rest restriction from the doctor to the extreme. She has me at the front desk and I’m slowly losing my mind. And you should know that things are totally falling apart around here.”

  “Really?” A smile spread across my face. “That’s great!”

  “It is?” Cash asked and I waved him off.

  “What’s happening?” I asked Gemma.

  “Well, let’s see. Annabeth got into a huge fight with one of the housekeepers and the two of them made this big scene in front of a guest. It was wildly uncomfortable and Easton had to step in. You can imagine how well he handled that.”

  I cringed. “Who’d he fire?”

  “Both of them. But Carol rehired them ten minutes later.”

  “Okay.” That was going to take some fixing. It had to have been bad because Annabeth wasn’t one to lose her composure. My guess was the stress of my absence was taking its toll. My chest swelled with pride.

  I’d feel guilty about that later, but at the moment, I was just happy that they hadn’t been perfect without me.

  “That’s not all,” Gemma said. “Chef Wong has gone rogue.”

  I scrunched up my nose. “He does that at times.” Hence the warning I’d given Carol.

  “When JR walked into the kitchen and found him making tofu instead of beef, things got dicey.”

  Cash chuckled, glancing over to the woman at the counter.

  She nodded and said, “We’re ready for you, sir.”

  “I’ll call and check in with Annabeth tomorrow,” I told Gemma. “And I’ll call Chef Wong.”

  “Good. We need you. So when are—”

  “Hey, who are you talking to?” Carol’s voice carried through the phone.

  “Oh, shit,” Gemma hissed, then called out, “No one!” The line was silent for a long moment until she returned. “Phew. That was close.”

  Cash jerked his chin and reached for the red circle to end the call but I swatted him away.

  “Gemma, I have to let you go.”

  “When are you coming home?”

  “We, um . . . we’ll probably need another week.”

  “Ten days,” Cash corrected just as the wedding march rang over the speaker system. There was a large diamond ring on my finger, one Cash had given me last night on bended knee.

  “Wait, what is that?” Gemma asked. “Katherine Gates, are you elop—”

  Cash ended the call, took the phone from my hand and tucked it into his jeans pocket, where he’d kept our quarter. He’d taken ownership of flipping the coin over the past four days and fate—as he’d called it, though we both knew it wasn’t coincidence—had brought us to Las Vegas. To the Clover Chapel.

  He led me toward the aisle. “I love you, Mrs. Greer.”

  “I’m not Mrs. Greer yet.”

  “Close enough.” My soon-to-be husband framed my face with his hands and dropped a kiss to my lips.

  The same soft kiss he gave me after Elvis pronounced us husband and wife.

  Epilogue

  Katherine

  Five months later . . .

  “Don’t touch my hair,” I whispered.

  Cash’s hands, centimeters from a curl I’d spent two minutes perfecting, stopped beside my ears. He brought them forward, toward my cheeks.

  “Don’t touch my face.”

  He grumbled and shot me a scowl. He was midstroke, his cock buried deep inside my throbbing core. “Then where can I touch?”

  “Anywhere below the waist.”

  Cash pulled out, grabbed me by the hips, yanking me away from the counter, and spun me around before sinking deep.

  I moaned, letting my head sag to the side.

  Cash’s hands dug into the flesh of my hips. His lips found the sensitive skin below my ear, and even though it was dangerously close to the makeup I’d spent an hour on, the nip of his teeth was too good to pass up. “Fuck, but you feel good.”

  I hummed, rocking back against him as he thrust in and out.

  His hand slipped beneath my shirt, his rough fingers sliding over my belly, dipping lower until his middle finger found my clit. He strummed the hard nub, bringing me closer and closer. My legs trembled, my heart raced. I was so close, I gasped, ready to detonate—

  “Kat?” Jake’s voice came from the hallway as he knocked on the door. “Are you in there?”

  Cash froze.

  My gaze whipped to the doorknob. Locked. I blew out a breath. “Y-yeah?”

  “She’s in the bathroom, Carol!” he yelled down the hallway.

  “Tell her the photographer’s here.”

  “Honey, the photographer’s here,” Jake repeated.

  Cash began moving again, his finger swirling.

  I caught his gaze in the mirror and the bastard was grinning. “Glad you find this so funny,” I hissed.

  He wouldn’t be laughing if we got caught screwing in his grandparents’ guest bathroom.

  “Kat?” Jake called again. “Did you hear me?”

  “I-I’m”—oh my God—“coming.”

  White spots broke across my vision and I exploded, feeling nothing but pulse after pulse of blinding pleasure as Cash continued his delicious torment.

  Cash groaned, dropping his face to my shoulder right before he let go, his orgasm hard and fast like my own.

  When we’d both regained our breath, I lifted my heavy lids and smiled at our reflection. “I love you.”

  “I love you too, sweetheart.” He wrapped his arms around me, holding me tight for a long moment before sliding out and tucking himself into his jeans. Then he bent and pulled my panties up my legs and smoothed down the skirt of my dress.

  The whole family was at Carol and Jake’s place for Friday night dinner. Except we’d had to arrive two hours early because before our regular weekly meal, we were having photos taken before sunset. The whole crew was going to hike out behind the house to a grove of cottonwood trees brimming with gold and orange leaves. In all my years in Montana, I’d never seen a prettier fall.

  The photos were for the resort website—my idea. It was time to update the family photo with all of the Greers, including the cutest addition, Gemma and Easton’s two-and-a-half-month-old baby boy.

  I straightened the sleeves on my green dress and looked down at the skirt to make sure there weren’t any wrinkles. My knee-high boots were polished and I did a quick fluff of my hair.

  Cash tucked in his starched white shirt and rebuckled his belt. Later tonight, I was stripping him down to nothing and having my way with him again. This bathroom escapade had only been a preview of later.

  We had a lot to celebrate.

  This morning, the two of us had spent another few minutes in a bathroom—the one we shared at home—as we’d waited for the results of three pregnancy tests.

  Next year, we’d have to retake photos with our own baby Greer. I doubted anyone would mind.

  “Should we tell them?” I asked as Cash leaned into the mirror to wipe the hint of gloss I’d left behind.

  “Do you want to tell them?”

  He looked down at me and grinned. “Yeah.”

  “Good. Me too.”

  I wasn’t waiting months to tell our family we were having a baby. Besides, as soon as Carol realized I wasn’t drinking the bottle of wine she’d brought for me tonight, the secret would be out.

  Our family hadn’t been thrilled about the fact that we’d eloped and excluded them from a momentous occasion, but they’d all been so happy to see Cash and me together, their irritation hadn’t lasted long. Plus we’d thrown a huge reception so they’d at least gotten a party.

&nbs
p; Besides Friday night dinners, that had been our only night out since returning home. Not only had Cash and I been savoring our extra time alone, merging bedrooms and closets, but he’d been consumed with work.

  The training facility was up and running and for the past month, Cash had worked tirelessly to train his own staff as well as the new animals. Easton’s lack of communication with his brother had rubbed me the wrong way, but Cash had confronted him about it when we’d gotten home. Easton had apologized and ever since, there had been no question about who ran the equine center. No decisions were made by anyone but Cash.

  I was proud of him for how hard he’d been working. He’d already been interviewed by a major horse magazine, and breeders from all over the Pacific Northwest were clamoring for him to see their horses.

  He was as happy as I’d ever seen him. Energized and excited. We both were. But work wasn’t the best part of my day anymore. Coming home to Cash, sharing this life with him, was my dream come true.

  “Okay.” I smoothed my dress down once more. “You go out first.”

  Cash lifted my hand to his lips, kissing my knuckles, then gave me the sexy smirk that had brought us to the bathroom in the first place. He eased out the door and I counted to ten, hoping not to draw any notice when I joined my husband and the others downstairs.

  Gemma was sitting on the couch, nursing the baby, when I reached the living room. “Your cheeks are a little flushed, Katherine. You weren’t doing something naughty in the bathroom, were you?”

  “Shut up.” I sat beside her. “It’s not like you and Easton haven’t done the same thing.”

  “Touché.” She peeked beneath her cover-up at the baby, her eyes softening at her son. “Your phone was buzzing while you were . . . indisposed.”

  I reached for my purse on the end table beside the couch where I’d left it when we’d come inside and pulled out my phone. “It was Aria.”

  “Call her back,” Gemma said. “We have time and I’d like to say hi.”

  Aria answered on the first ring. “Hey!”

  “Hey. You’re on speaker. I’m here with Gemma.”

  “Hi, mama. What are you guys doing?”

  Gemma smiled. “We’re getting ready for family pictures.”