What the Heart Wants: An Opposites Attract Anthology

by Jeanne McDonald

  I wanted to be that man.

  Energy crackled in the cab of my truck, and just as I leaned in to kiss her back a loud rap on my window shocked us out of our bubble.

  “Boone! What in the Sam Hill are you doin’? Come on out and let me see her.”

  “Your mom is really here. I’m not ready. Oh God,” she whispered. “Why is she still here?”

  I closed my eyes, said a little prayer, and let out a small sigh. “Possibly trying to ruin my life. Come on. Let’s get it over with.”

  I got out of the truck, gave my mother the eye as I made my way around the truck, and opened the door for Paisley. I grabbed her to help her out, and she squealed again, yanking at her skirt.

  “Oh!” my mother cried. “Isn’t she sweet. Come over here, girl. Let me get a good look.”

  Paisley looked up at me, scared to death, so I put a hand on her shoulder and introduced her to my nosey mother.

  “Paisley, this is my mama. Darlene Walker. Ma, this is Paisley…”

  Shit. I didn’t even know her last name.

  “Stone. Paisley Stone, ma’am.”

  Paisley Stone. That was my girl’s name. I still couldn’t believe how fast things were moving along. Meeting my mom on our first date wasn’t exactly the way I wanted things to go, but on short notice, I hadn’t had much of a choice.

  I was fucking terrible at this.

  “Aren’t you the prettiest thing. Boone said you were pretty. Have to be to turn his eye. I was getting worried he’d never find a gal to bring home.”

  My mother could be intimidating, but she was harmless. She just had loose lips and got ahead of herself. Most of all, she loved all of us something fierce. All she wanted was the best for us, and I knew she was happy I’d found someone to spend time with. I understood why she worried. Since I’d been home, I’d done nothing but work. It was important to me, and like I said, I hadn’t found anyone worth chasing down.

  Until Paisley.

  She’d been a mystery, however. We lived in a small town, and you know how that goes. People talked. No one knew much about her, and that boss of hers was loud-mouthed, but tight-lipped. She was protective of Paisley, which was obviously a good thing. It didn’t seem like she had much of a family to take care of her.

  If things went well between us, she’d have more family than she knew what to do with.

  Mama could sense it the same as I did. Paisley was a little lost, a soul flying around in the wind waiting for a branch to stick on to. Now that my mother had set her sights on her, it was all over. She was under mama bear’s paw now. She’d have to gnaw her arm off to get free.

  “It’s a darn good thing I cooked! Lord have mercy you’re as skinny as a rail.”

  Paisley’s back stiffened, and I squeezed her shoulder. “She looks just fine to me, mama. Now leave her alone.”

  I felt Paisley’s body ease up and wanted nothing more than to disappear into the night with her.

  “I don’t mean any harm, Paisley. I just like watching Boone squirm. You must be something awful special if he asked me to make my famous fried chicken. Best in the county, and it’ll surely put some meat on those bones. I leave the skin on. It’s good for ya.”

  She threw herself forward and grabbed Paisley, pulling her in for a hug. Mama liked her, and that was more important to me than I realized. My family meant the world to me, and I’d never admit it out loud, but I was mama’s boy.

  When my mom pulled away, I saw the wetness pooling in her eyes. She was happy. From the giggle that escaped Paisley, so was she.

  “Oh, you two are going to make me some beautiful grandbabies. Pretty babies with pretty dark hair and big brown eyes.”

  I almost choked. I thought we were heading out of the danger zone with my mom. Apparently, she wanted to chase the poor angel off.

  To my surprise, Paisley laughed. “I don’t think I’m ready to have his baby, yet, Mrs. Walker. This is our first date.”

  Mama looked up at me and winked, her chubby cheeks turning pink. “Oh, I’m a patient woman, sweetheart. Been married to his daddy for going on thirty-six years. That man would test the patience of the good Lord himself.”

  Another nervous laugh from Paisley, and I was officially about to climb out of my skin. I’d had enough. I had to get her inside before dust flew up from her heels as she high-tailed it out of town away from my family and me.

  “All right, ma. Time for you to go home. Food’s probably cold.”

  “Oh!” She flailed her arms around, finally getting the hint and started toward the truck. “I’ll leave you to it, kids. Have fun! I’ll be seeing you soon, Paisley.”

  We watched her go, and once again it got quiet. I wasn’t having that. She’d opened up on the drive down, and I wanted that to continue. I needed the quirky girl to start talking and give me some more of that sweet funny I was falling for.

  As we walked up the steps to the house, I grabbed her hand, and my heart sputtered when she willingly obliged. She was so soft and small, the way her hand fit in mine caused a stir in my belly.

  It was going to take all I had to keep it in my pants.

  “So here it is. This is my home.”

  She continued into the room and let go of my hand as she took in the open space of my living room.

  It was pretty sparse, but I wasn’t much for decorating. She headed toward the fireplace and lifted a frame from the mantle, smiling when she looked down at the photo of my two brothers and me.

  “You have brothers and sisters? How many?”

  I shoved my hands in my pockets and rocked back on my heels. “Two brothers, no sisters. They both live up the way on the north end of the property.”

  She held the frame to her chest and turned to smile at me. A smile so gentle, it broke my heart.

  “You’re so lucky. I always wanted a brother or sister. I’d get lonesome with just my mom. She was always so busy.”

  “I guess I never thought about it,” I said. “Sometimes I wish I was an only child. They’re a pain in the ass.”

  “You guys look happy.” She looked down at it again. “How old are you here?”

  I knew the photo well. It was my first national win. It had been the best day of my life.

  “Twenty,” I told her.

  She seemed to think that over, and when she looked up at me again, I knew what the next question was going to be.

  I’d been expecting it.

  “How old are you now?”

  “Thirty-two.”

  It was slight, but I caught the way her eyebrows raised. She caught herself, but I knew she was surprised.

  “That’s not so bad,” she mumbled. “So, you don’t care that I’m only twenty-one?”

  “Hell no,” I said immediately. “You don’t care that I’ve got eleven years on you?”

  “Nope.”

  “Good.”

  “Good,” she agreed.

  “We got that business out of the way, now can we eat?”

  “I’d like that.”

  She walked back to the mantle, carefully placed the frame back in its spot and followed me into the kitchen.

  My mom had set the table, and I was grateful. Everything looked perfect, and the food smelled delicious. I may have had eleven years on Paisley, but I was about as backward as a teenager when it came to dating a girl. Crooking a finger for them to follow me back to my trailer was as suave as it got for me.

  “This looks so nice. Your mom is so sweet. A little hyper, but I like her.”

  That was a relief.

  “She’s a special kind of woman, that’s for sure. She knows how important it was for this to be nice for you tonight. I feel bad I wasn’t better about preparing a nice date.”

  “This is perfect. I’m glad you brought me here, Boone. It means a lot.”

  We talked a lot while we ate my mama’s fried chicken and biscuits. I was happy to see that even though she was a mite skinny, she sure had a good appetite. The way she enjoyed every bite, sucked the go
odness off her fingers, and smiled as we talked gave me a feeling in my gut I’d never felt.

  There was something between us beyond words. I’d never seen a girl so comfortable in her own skin, and yet, she was complicated. She’d shown such a vulnerability at the coffee shop, then again at her apartment, and I realized it wasn’t nerves as much as it was simply who she was.

  She was silly, a little goofy, and most of all sweet. She wasn’t trying to be anything other than herself now that the initial awkwardness wore off. It was comfortable and refreshing.

  After dinner, we headed out to the porch. She really wanted to see the stars in the darkest part of the night, and I was more than willing to show her. I loved the quiet beauty of the ranch at night. We owned everything surrounding us as far as the eye could see and further, so there were no interruptions. No lights or sounds, just the soft whispers of the wind.

  Just as I’d imagined earlier, she laid on the porch seat with her head in my lap while I ran my fingers through her hair. We’d been talking for hours, and I learned a lot about her.

  She called her mom a wandering soul, but she sounded more like an unstable hippie. She created her art from the junk they’d find during their travels. They’d lived in a trailer that hitched to the back of her mom’s car. She didn’t sound bitter. Instead, she talked about some of the places she’d seen and things she’d done with a bit of nostalgia.

  “You ever miss that? Moving around?”

  “Never,” she answered immediately. “I love my mom, and we had a lot of good times, but I always wanted a place to call my own. I wanted a big family, like the ones I’d seen at the fairs. A dad to win a teddy bear for me, brothers to shoot squirt guns at me, or a sister to braid my hair. It got lonely, and it gave me way too much time to think and dream about things I wouldn’t have.”

  I pulled her up by her arms and sat her in my lap, so we were eye to eye. Damn, but I felt like I’d known her my whole life.

  “You can have anything you want, Paisley.”

  “Can I have a kiss?”

  She could have anything she wanted. Everything I had, for that matter. I grabbed the back of her head, wrapped my other arm around her waist, and kissed the breath out of her.

  Time stood still as we made out on my porch like two teenagers in heat. I hadn’t kissed a girl like that in a long time, and it’d never meant more to me than it did at that moment. I couldn’t get enough of her, and I felt myself getting out of control. I wanted to worship the girl, not dry-hump her on my porch like an animal, but hell if my body had other ideas.

  I moved my lips from her mouth down to the soft spot on her neck beneath her ear. She had the softest skin, creamy as milk and just as sweet. Her head rolled back, allowing my lips to wander and taste. Holding her tiny body reminded me just how fragile she was, inside and out.

  How in the world we’d gotten to this place, I had no idea. I’d never felt that way before. She made my knees buckle, and caused a piece of me I wasn’t familiar with to emerge. I wanted to love her, protect her, and be everything to her. All my accomplishments, all the adventures I’d had on the circuit and off didn’t hold a candle to having a girl like her in my arms.

  I was gone for the girl. Well and gone.

  “Boone?”

  “Busy here, Paisley.” I nuzzled her cheek, tickling her with my beard, and felt her shudder.

  “When do I get to see what’s under that big ol’ belt buckle?”

  I pressed my face into the hollow of her shoulder and laughed. Hard.

  “Let’s save that for the honeymoon.”

  Two years later.

  “Boone? Boone!”

  I dropped the rake and wiped my brow. Good Lord, the woman was making me crazy.

  “I’m in here!”

  She stomped through the barn, and I cursed myself for buying her those damn boots. She used them as a weapon, letting me know just how deep the shit I was in. Those damn boots made my balls crawl up in my belly.

  She was a little bitty thing, but Lord she could lay it on me when she wanted to.

  I squared my shoulders and waited for the onslaught. She’d been hell on wheels for weeks, and as much as I loved her, and damn if I didn’t love her to death, I was hiding out for my own good.

  As she cleared the wall and shuffled in front of me, I could see she was white as a sheet. There wasn’t anger—there was fear in her eyes.

  I ripped the gloves off my hands and moved to stand in front of her, holding her face in my hands. “What’s wrong, baby girl? What happened?”

  “It’s happening. My water broke.”

  The barn spun and I had to lock my knees so I wouldn’t fall at her feet. It was time. We were about to have a baby.

  Our lives had been a whirlwind. After our first date, it was only six weeks later that I made her mine. We stood in front of the preacher in the tiny church I grew up in with my family and friends as she became Paisley Love Walker.

  None of it was conventional, but it was right, and that was all that mattered. My family fell in love with her as quickly as I did, and she wrapped herself around them just as fast. She was thick as thieves with my mama, and it was as if I’d been waiting for her clunker of a car to break down in Red River my entire life.

  At my request, she quit her job at the coffee shop to become a part of the ranch. I wanted her to know everything about being a rancher’s wife, and give her the best parts of that life as often as possible. At first, I thought she’d kick me in the nuts for suggesting it, but after spending time with the horses, she was all for it. She wanted that life, and together we would build a beautiful one.

  She loved riding, and we’d spend long afternoons along the river on horseback. She took to grooming the horses and eventually started taking over most of the paperwork. For a girl that insisted she wasn’t good at anything, she sure took to ranch life like a pro.

  Giving her a home was the biggest triumph I’d ever experienced. Having her to come home to was all I ever wanted—until she announced that she was expecting. There was no bigger joy a man could experience than knowing his love for his wife created something so monumental and life changing.

  She brought so much color and vibrancy to my life. It was hard to imagine that I’d lived without it for so long. She saw the world through a kaleidoscope, and so every day was new and different with Paisley. The things she’d say to make me laugh, the way she’d touch my cheek when I was lost in thought, and the way she held me while we fell asleep made me whole.

  And now she was bringing my child into the world.

  “Boone! Holy crap, I’m freaking out. Don’t pass out on me! I can’t get myself to the hospital!”

  I snapped into gear, lifted her into my arms, and started toward the house.

  “I can walk, Boone! You’re going to break your back.”

  She was still light as a feather, even being as wide as she was tall. “I got you, baby. I got you.”

  Two hours later, I held my son, Colt Walker in my arms, and for the second time, I fell in love with Paisley.

  Ben’s a straight-laced college student who always does what’s expected. But when Lilli, a free-spirited musician, gets into his Uber one Friday night, nothing will be the same.

  She’s bright and loud and challenges everything about him. Ben hates it. Except that, for some reason, he doesn’t.

  And when Lilli keeps tumbling into his passenger seat after a string of increasingly horrible blind dates, he can’t help wondering if fate may be trying to tell him something.

  They have nothing in common, but Ben’s done playing it safe. He thinks Lilli might be the one he’s been waiting for . . . if he can only convince her to try one last first date.

  “ . . . but that’s what it’s there for, am I right?” The guy in Ben’s passenger seat emphasized his point with a huge burp, which was greeted with enthusiastic cheers from the drunken frat boys in the back seat.

  Ben nodded stiffly as the man swayed a little, bumping his sh
oulder and sending a waft of liquor-soaked breath into his face. He turned the corner, relieved to find his destination only a block up on the left. Traffic was busy as usual on a Friday evening, and Ben had considered not switching on his Uber app as he left the library to head home. But a buck was a buck, as his father always said, and God knew he could always use an extra buck.

  Streetlights glimmered off puddles as he pulled to a stop at the curb, glancing through the rain-spattered windshield at the row of bars and restaurants.

  “Here you go,” Ben said, fighting the urge to shove them all out of the car as quickly as possible. They toppled out and staggered down the sidewalk with laughter and whoops of excitement, leaving the back passenger door wide open. Groaning in frustration, Ben threw open his door and dashed through the rain to slam it shut. He was drenched by the time the passing traffic slowed enough to let him get back in, and he fumbled in his pocket for something to dry his steamy glasses.

  He had just replaced them, combing his fingers through his wet hair and cranking up the heat, when the passenger door flew open and a tumble of colors collapsed into the seat next to him.

  “I tell you, he’s a number one douche nozzle. Number one!” the girl—it was a girl, Ben realized—shouted, and he realized after a stunned moment that she was talking into her phone. “He sent his steak back three times, Sadie. Three times!” She caught Ben’s shocked expression and frowned. “Hang on a sec,” she said into the phone, then covered it with her hand. “Hey. Mark, right? I’m Lilli. Can we get going, please? I need to get home, get in my pajamas and have a nice big drink or some ice cream or maybe both.” When Ben continued to gape at her, she raised her eyebrows. “1416 Commercial. Do you need directions?”

  Ben recovered from his surprise and shook his head, opening his mouth to tell her he wasn’t Mark and she was in the wrong car, but she was already back on the phone.