by Kali Hart
“Me too. But besides the fact we’d starve, they’d send a search party if we’re out of touch too long.” I brush the hair from her cheek and tuck it behind her ear. The sight of her bare tit resting against my abdomen, nipple hard, is possibly the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. “I’ll take you to breakfast in the morning. There’s a diner I love in a tiny town most people don’t even know exists.”
“That sounds perfect.”
For the first time in at least a couple of years, I finally feel like the future I always dreamed of having might actually be possible. My dick starts to harden again, imagining lying in bed with Gemma every night. Naked.
Her fingers slide down my stomach.
My dick twitches in anticipation.
When her soft, small hand closes around my cock, I suck in a breath. It takes nothing for me to be hard again with her precious fingers working their magic. “How do you want it?” she asks me.
I want her in every position, every way possible. How the hell can I choose just one now?
“Do you want me to bend over?” she asks. “Or I could ride my cowboy?”
The way she says my cowboy wins me over. I like the sound of it so damn much. “Better saddle up and hold on tight,” I say. “It’s going to be a wild ride.”
6
GEMMA
“How many people does this little town have?” I ask as Tex parks his truck outside the cutest diner I’ve ever seen. It’s like a flashback straight to the fifties with its chrome siding and checker patterned everything.
“Less than two hundred, by official count.” He squeezes my hand. “Ready to get some breakfast?”
The smile I give him spreads throughout my entire body. Never in a million years would I have thought Tex Wilder would really want to be with me when he can have his pick of any woman. I’m still afraid someone will shake me awake from this wonderful dream. “I’m starving.”
The hostess, who’s also apparently the only server, greets Tex warmly. Like he’s an old friend. I suspect he comes here a lot. But the woman, old enough to be his mother, doesn’t moon over him like he’s a celebrity. She treats him like a regular guy. I bet it’s refreshing.
“If you like pancakes,” Tex says as he waits for me to slip into the booth seat then slides in beside me, “they make the best blueberry ones you’ll ever eat.” Tex drapes his arm around me, pulling me tight against him.
The words I love you have been begging to leave my lips since last night. They almost escape now.
“What can I get you two to drink?” The hostess asks. “Coffee? Orange juice?”
“Orange juice,” we say in unison. As if I needed another reason to smile. Forget my legs being wobbly and sore. But the end of the day, my cheek muscles won’t function.
“Coming right up.”
Tex kisses me when she walks away, making my toes curl and my nipples tingle. If we were alone, I’d do him right here in this booth. I thought having sex with him last night would calm down my cravings for a while, but they’ve only intensified.
“You’re really special to me, Gemma. I want you to know that.”
I kiss him again to avoid blurting out my undying love. I’d never forgive myself if my confession scared him away hardly a day after being with him. “Rumor has it you’re doing another movie soon. Is that true?”
“Yeah, my agent twisted my arm.”
“Can you tell me what it’s about, or is that top secret?”
“It’s a movie about a bull rider and the woman he almost loses over his own stupidity. I’m playing that guy’s brother. The one who stays home and takes care of the failing ranch that’s in desperate need of his winnings.”
I can’t deny how exciting it is to get firsthand knowledge from Tex Wilder himself about his next movie role. I wonder if he’ll do more. If we’ll have conversations like this one in this very diner. Or will he talk to me about a role he’s been considering as we lounge naked in bed? Get a hold of yourself, Gemma. You’ve been together like six minutes.
As we eat the best blueberry pancakes I’ve ever tasted, Tex tells me more about the movie role, his childhood, and funny rodeo stories. I still feel like a circus of butterflies is performing in my stomach around him, but I’m relaxing more and more.
Could this really be my future? Our future?
“I need to get some gas before we head back,” he says, pulling alongside a gas pump. “We won’t make it back otherwise.”
“I’m going to run inside and grab something to drink. Want anything?” I ask.
“Bottle of water for the road would be great.”
The gas station has the tiniest convenience store I’ve ever seen, but there is one cooler filled with water and soft drinks. Beside the cooler I spot a magazine stand. It’s mostly tabloids, which I never read—nothing in them can be trusted. But one headlines pulls me back before I make it to the counter: Has Tex Wilder Found Love with Gemma Hollingsworth?
With shaky fingers, I pull the tabloid from the stand. I’m afraid of what it says, of what consequences might come with it. For a fleeting second, I regret what I did last night. But then I see the photo they captured. Tex and I are kissing.
I snatch a copy off the rack so I can read the article later. Better to be armed with knowledge than caught blindsided. After I pay for our waters, I stuff the magazine into my purse and return to the truck.
“Ready to face the music?” Tex asks me.
“Guess we have to at some point, huh?”
TEX
“Next weekend I’ll be in San Antonio,” I say to Gemma as we reach the outskirts of town. In minutes, I’ll have to drop her off at her house. We haven’t talked about what happens next, but I know I want her in my life. “Do you want to come with me?”
“To the rodeo in Texas?”
“Yeah. As my girlfriend.” Someday sooner rather than later, she’ll be my wife. “School hasn’t started yet, so I thought we might take the scenic route and drive together.”
“I’d like that.”
We arrive at her house much too soon. The only upside is that reporters aren’t hovering outside her house. “I’ll call you,” I say, reluctant as hell to let her out of my sight. “I have to make sure my ex has packed up and left town. I don’t want to drag you into that shit-show any more than you’ve already had to be.”
“Walk me to my door?”
I do more than that. I come inside for what is supposed to be a brief moment. A simple goodbye kiss that we can finish later tonight. But before either of us knows what happens, Gemma is backed up against the wall and my hand is shoved up her shirt.
“Do you have time for a quickie?” She’s biting her bottom lip, and it’s making it really hard to say no. So I don’t.
We fumble our way to the back of the couch before I yank her pants down to her knees. Her panties were lost somewhere in my cabin, so she’s not wearing any. I lift her and prop her ass on top of the back of her couch as she unzips my jeans. Within seconds, my cock is buried deep inside the place it most belongs.
“Harder,” she begs. “Harder, Tex.”
I slam my cock inside over and over until we’re both crying out. I will never get tired of fucking this woman. Never.
I kiss her hard on the mouth. “I’m sorry I have to rush out—”
“Go, take care of things. You know where I’ll be.”
I love how understanding and calm she is about such a twisted situation. After today, I hope to be rid of my ex forever. I don’t want her ever trying to come between us, even though I know she would never succeed. Gemma is too smart for that.
“I lo—” I stop myself before I blurt out a confession I’m not ready to share. I think I might be in love with Gemma. But until I’m sure, I don’t want to say those special words out loud. “I’ll call you soon.”
In the midst of our passionate tumbling around, we dropped things and knocked others over. I spot her purse, spilled over on the floor.
“Don’t worry about
the mess,” she says to me as she shimmies her jeans back over her curvy hips. “I’ll take care of it.”
I’m at the door when I see the tabloid sprawled out beside her purse. Our picture is plastered on the front, and the headline includes both our names. I bend over to pick it up, a familiar old rage bubbling inside me. I don’t want to believe it. Gemma is different. I believed she was different. “Why do you have this?”
“I saw it in the gas station. I just wanted—”
“You want to be actress.” The clues I’ve been ignoring this entire time are falling into place.
“That was just a fantasy, Tex.”
“You kept asking me about my movie role…” I crush the tabloid in my balled-up fist. I need to leave before my anger consumes me. “I thought you were different, Gemma. But turns out you’re just like her, looking for your shot at my expense.”
I feel the ice hardening over my heart as I let the door slam behind me. How could I have been so stupid?
7
GEMMA
There isn’t enough ice cream in the state of Montana to mend my broken heart, but that hasn’t stopped me from testing the theory. Three empty cartons from the past three days line my kitchen counter.
“Have you eaten anything else?” Liz asks.
“Ice cream is the only thing that makes me happy.”
She pulls me into a hug and doesn’t let go, even though I must smell like a dump truck. I haven’t showered in three or four days. It’s pitiful, but I don’t want to wash Tex away. I’m not ready to say goodbye over some stupid misunderstanding. But the man won’t take my calls or answer my texts.
“If he doesn’t believe you, Gemma, then he’s not the one for you.”
The sobs are instant at that declaration, because if Tex Wilder isn’t the one for me, I’m doomed to be alone the rest of my life. No man will ever come close. “I don’t want to be a stupid actress!”
“Then why did you say you did?”
“We were talking about fantasies. The fantasy of being famous is nice. But I don’t really want that. I’d never put in that much work for a few ridiculous benefits. I love teaching acting.” I’m mad at myself for not telling Tex that when I had the chance.
“Look, he’s an asshat if he thinks you’re anything like that awful ex of his. I love the Wilder clan like they’re our second family, but even good families have rotten eggs sometimes.” She pulls me down the hall by the arm, stopping outside the bathroom door. “Now, you’re going to shower. Maybe you should burn those clothes.”
“Liz!”
“Kidding. I’m kidding.” She shoves me inside the bathroom and pulls the door closed. “Get cleaned up. Then you’re coming over for dinner. Austin and I have news to share.”
TEX
The last thing I want to do is attend some family dinner tonight, but I force myself to shower and put on clean clothes for my brother’s sake. Austin told me he and his wife have news to share, and they want the entire family over to hear what it is.
Fine. I’ll be there. Do the family thing tonight. Cause tomorrow, I’m hitting the road for San Antonio. Alone. I hope the drive will do me some good, but I don’t have high expectations. I thought my heart would harden over again, like it did when Maxine ripped it out. But the damn thing’s still bleeding like it’ll never run dry.
All I can think about is Gemma. She’s in every dream, every thought, every breath I take.
A pounding at the door warns me I’m running behind. Austin and Liz’s cabin is the closest one to mine—walking distance if I take the dirt trail. “Coming,” I call out when the pounding repeats. Snagging my keys, I join him on the porch.
“You are dressed,” my oldest brother Colt says with a nod of approval. “Here I thought I’d have to hose you off and drag you over my shoulder.”
“Very funny.” I lock the door behind—something I hadn’t worried about doing in months until Maxine showed up last weekend. Luckily, she gave up and left town after the reporters didn’t even mention her name in the tabloid article.
“You made a mistake,” Colt says halfway down the trail.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. You’re wrong about Gemma. So, get your head out of your ass and fix it before it’s too late.” Colt leaves me standing at the edge of the path, lost for words. My first instinct is to argue, but deep down I know he’s right.
Colt is through the front door of Austin’s house before my feet move again. It takes less than three strides for me to see that wavy dark red hair through the window. Gemma’s here. I glance over my shoulder, wondering how fast I can run back to my place and drive away in my truck.
“Don’t even think about it,” Colt calls from the front door. “Get your ass inside. We’re hungry.”
My heart stops in my chest at the sight of Gemma. She’s more beautiful than I remember, but the dimness in her eyes twists me inside. I did this to her. I stole her bright smile. I’m such an idiot to think she was anything like Maxine. I don’t know why she had that tabloid, but it doesn’t matter. I love her.
“Thank you everyone for coming,” Liz says once Austin gets everyone to quiet down. The living room is packed with all the Wilders, including the youngsters. My nephew Conner tugs on Colt’s sleeve. That kid is the spitting image of Colt.
I want a family. With Gemma.
“We have an announcement to make,” Liz says. “And then we’ll eat. I promise!”
Austin puts his arm around his wife, and it reminds me of the wedding I left early. The one where Gemma was going to work up the courage to ask me to dance. But I didn’t give her the chance. What if I’d just stayed a little longer? Would our story have begun without flashing cameras and all the drama that entailed?
“We’re having a baby!”
The room erupts in cheers and hoots. I manage to clap my hands together and force a smile. I’m truly happy for them, and later I’ll tell them. But right now, my sights are set on Gemma. I’m going to fix this.
I weave around the furniture and kiddos darting around the room like a pinball in play. I grab for Gemma’s hand a second before she turns for the kitchen. “Gemma, wait.”
She stares at our connected hands but her expression remains unreadable and blank. “What do you want, Tex?”
“Can we go outside a minute to talk?”
Her eyes slowly lift until they meet mine. The pain lingering there makes me want to die. “I don’t know.”
“Please?”
She looks around the room, no doubt searching for her sister. But when her gaze stops on Liz, who’s busy hugging Hudson and his wife Jillian, she lets out a deep sigh. “Sure.” She pulls her hand free and walks toward the front door.
The moment we’re outside and out of earshot from the open windows, I say, “I’m sorry, Gemma. I’m so damn sorry. I know you’re nothing like her.”
Gemma folds her arms across her chest. “I am nothing like her.”
“I froze when I saw that tabloid in your purse. It didn’t make any sense to me at the time. But I’m a fool, Gemma. I want to fix this. I want to make it right.”
“I don’t know.”
My heart is cracking in two. If Gemma walks away, I know I’ll never recover from the blow. “I love you.”
Her dropped head snaps up and she stares at me with wide eyes. “Don’t you dare say those words unless you mean them, Tex Wilder.”
The slightest ray of hope shines in my soul and I close the distance between us. “I do love you, Gemma. I love you so much it scares me. My life won’t be complete without you in it. I don’t just want to roll around with you naked—though that is admittedly one of my favorite things to do.”
Her cheeks heat to a pink color.
“I want a future with you, Gemma. I want us to be the ones making that announcement someday. I want a family.”
“What are you saying?”
Though I wasn’t planning to ask this tonight and I’m unprepared, I drop to one knee. “I’
ve been drawn to you since the first time I saw you in that coffee shop. A part of me has known this whole time you were meant to be my wife. I don’t care why you kissed me that first time, but I’m glad you did. I love you Gemma Hollingsworth. Will you marry me?”
Tears drop from her eyes as her hands cover in her mouth in shock.
Though my family can’t hear us, a bunch of them are watching this play out. I see them gathered in the dining room window. “Gemma?”
“Yes.” She finally drops her hands.
“Yes?”
“Yes, I’ll marry you.”
I leap up, wrapping my arms around her waist and lifting her in the process. I spin us both in a circle as her lips descend on mine. Cheers and whistles echo faintly from the house.
“I love you, too,” she says to me. “I’ve loved you for so long. I wanted to tell you, out at the cabin. But I was afraid.”
I kiss her again, and all the pent-up feelings of the last few days emerge. I missed her so damn much I could hardly sleep. “Will you still come to San Antonio with me tomorrow? As my fiancé?”
“Of course I will.”
Epilogue
GEMMA
“That’s daddy!” Jared, our three-year-old son shouts with excitement, pointing to the TV.
“Yes it is, sweetie.” I hug my little boy tight, thankful he’s still at that age where snuggling mom is cool. Tonight, it’s just me and my kid, as Tex is in California shooting another movie. He was offered the lead role, but turned it down for a minor one so he’d be gone less.
“I’m not trying to become a big movie star you know,” he told me before he left last week. “I just want to take care of my family.”
We watch the movie until the very end, and Jared gets excited each time Tex comes on screen. We’ve made it a game to watch for daddy’s name when the credits role, but tonight my little man is yawning worse than the Big Bad Wolf.
