Love Like Crazy (Friendship Texas, #7)

by Magan Vernon

I cocked an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me you can’t swim.”

  She swallowed hard, then shook her head. “No. I can. I just ... well ... guess I didn’t expect this is where you’d bring me.”

  I opened my door and smiled. “I’m full of surprises, sweetheart. Now come on. Mom got us a family pass, so I figured we’d use it. And the ten percent off in the gift shop for new suits. Unless you plan on going skinny dippin’, but I don’t know if they’ll allow that.”

  I didn’t wait for her response as I got out of the car, then walked around to open her side, holding my hand out to her. “Come on. It’s only like forty out today. Let’s get inside.”

  She reluctantly followed me as I gained entrance with the family pass I’d only used once when Mom had Noah and me babysit my ten-year-old sister Violet. When she came home with a crush on my roommate, Mom decided it was best that I didn’t watch her for a while again. That, and she told Mom I always smelled like oregano after taking a smoke break.

  Before heading into the large waterpark area with several waterslides, a lazy river, a wave pool, and other things I’d usually only see at big outdoor parks, we went into the kitschy little shop with water toys and a small selection of bathing suits.

  I picked out a pair of men’s swim trunks in a Hawaiian print, and Christy picked out a little white bikini.

  I didn’t think much of what she picked out until she walked out of the women’s locker room. As soon as I locked eyes on the petite stunner with the little white suit hugging her curves, all the blood rushed straight from my face down to my dick.

  A public waterpark in swim trunks was not the place to get a boner. But when she strutted toward me, her perfectly rounded breasts poking out of the triangle top, and swaying her tiny hips, all I could think about was how soon I could get us out of public. And her out of that suit.

  But I promised her a date, and I had to make sure my dick knew what was up. And stayed down.

  I could get into her pants easily. We both knew that one. But I wanted her to see there could be more to a guy than just a quickie. Especially a guy like me.

  You know, if I ran the ranch ... and maybe have a relationship with her. The second thought was what made my heart beat faster.

  A relationship? More than just sex?

  Fuck. What was this girl doing to me?

  “So, what are we doing first? Roller coaster? Lazy river? Gonna let me dunk you in the wave pool?” she asked, a sexy smile on her face.

  “Yellow Jacket Drop work for you? Then if you get scared on the inner tube, you can dunk me,” I said, taking her hand in mine as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

  As if we weren’t two crazy-ass people in the middle of a waterpark.

  In the winter.

  On a first date.

  After they were already married.

  “It’s a deal.”

  We got in the short line, grabbing one of the double inner tubes to ride down the large enclosed slide on.

  Once we got to the top, she situated herself in the front of the raft as I held it for her and tried not to stare at her ass while she slowly positioned herself. Then I got in the spot behind her, definitely noticing how warm her body was and just how close I was to her.

  She smelled amazing. Even above the wafting scent of chlorine, I could take in her fruity shampoo and a light floral perfume.

  Wrapping my arms around her waist, I tried to ignore the wild beating of my heart. Not only was I turned on as hell by having her this close, but another feeling was creeping through me. One I hadn’t felt before. One I was too afraid to admit.

  “You holding on?” I asked, trying to push back those feelings.

  She laughed. “Yep. Let’s hit it.”

  We pushed off the ledge, and our laughter echoed throughout the enclosed tube for that thirty-second adrenaline rush before we landed in the pool at the bottom, flipping our tube over with us.

  I shook out my hair as I pushed to the surface of the water and half expected Christy to be pouting or say it was stupid like a million other girls would.

  Instead, she was grinning from ear to ear, even with makeup running down her face and her hair matted to her head. “Wanna go again or try the wave runner?”

  I laughed, knowing I was in for a hell of a lot of trouble when it came to her. “You pick.”

  AFTER A FEW MORE WATER coasters and falling on our asses at least a dozen more times, we decided to take a lap in the lazy river before getting lunch. And I didn’t mind her idea of heading to downtown Grapevine for wine, so I figured we’d head that way.

  But first, it was nice just to sit with her, side by side in our inner tubes, and let the water take us.

  I closed my eyes, leaning back against the plastic donut of the tube.

  The place still didn’t have many people there, so it was like our own personal sanctuary.

  “Thank you for this. I don’t think I realized how much I needed a day out until now,” Christy said, taking my hand and lacing our fingers together.

  “Yeah, sometimes you just have to say fuck it and do something fun.”

  “I never get to do that. It’s either school, work, or just ... being ...”

  I raised an eyebrow, opening my eyes to look at her. “Just being?”

  She blew out a breath. “You know how everyone expects something of you? Like in grade school, I was the peewee cheer girl, and then in middle school and high school, I just blossomed into this leader of the popular girls. So, everyone expected something of me. Like that, I would always be not only a bitch, but always the one to throw a party or make out with the hottest guy we met at a random bar who would buy us alcohol. It sounds stupid, but I always felt like that was who I was supposed to be.”

  “That’s bullshit. You don’t have to be anyone but who you are.”

  She sighed, casting her eyes toward the plastic tube. “Some days, I don’t even know who that is.”

  I thought about what the right words would be to say to her. I could have said something sappy like “you’re the beautiful girl who captured my heart,” but that wasn’t my style and something I would not voice out loud either.

  Instead, I said the one thing I knew would get her to smile. “Because we’re fucking unicorns. We don’t have to know who we are, just that we’re badasses.”

  She laughed, splashing some water on my chest. “You’re crazy, you know that?”

  “If I’m crazy, what does that make you?”

  She smiled. “A unicorn.”

  I thought maybe that would be the end of our conversation when we steered into an alcove of the pretty much-deserted pool. I closed my eyes, letting the rocking of the waves take me.

  A sudden warm sensation caused my dick to jump to life.

  Opening my eyes, I looked to see not only Christy leaning over her tube, but her hands firmly planted on my swim trunks, making small circles over my groin.

  “What are you doing?” I barely managed to growl out, trying to ignore that damn this girl knew how to work her hands, and my body twitched, ready to explode at her touch.

  “I thought I should thank you for today,” she whispered, her warm breath trailing down my stomach as she leaned over. Those plump lips of hers vibrated on my chest, and my dick begged to be freed.

  “Whoa, girl, back up. We’re in a public pool, first off, and second, you don’t need to thank me by jumping on my dick. I didn’t bring you here for that.”

  It took everything I had to utter those words and not just let her put that pouty mouth on my shaft.

  Under normal circumstances, I would have let her continue. Hell, I still wasn’t exactly sure why I wasn’t.

  But something about this girl made me want to show her we were more than just physical. That she was more than that.

  She frowned, her eyes narrowing. “Seriously? After all this and now you don’t want me?”

  I shook my head, my dick about to jump out of my swim trunks and strangle me. “No. I just ... I’m not
expecting you to do that. You don’t need to.”

  “But I want to,” she cooed, with what would have probably normally been a sexy tone, but instead, it just had me on edge as I tried to move backward in the tube.

  “I don’t want you to, okay? I’m not looking for sex, or whatever you’re about to do here. I’m just here to show you a good time that doesn’t involve my dick in your hands or wherever else you were about to put it.”

  She opened her mouth to protest again, her hands still resting on my stomach. I tried to scoot away before those fingers trailed even lower and some lifeguard got an eyeful of my pierced member. But instead of either of those things happening, the world moved in slow motion.

  Christy’s eyes widened, and she lurched forward, her ass slipping off her inner tube and her face smacking hard into my chest. Which wouldn’t have been bad if I hadn’t been caught off guard.

  So instead of catching her, I flailed my arms as the tube tipped over with both of us in it, my trunks going with her hands that were grasping for anything to hold.

  “Ow!” she moaned as we bobbed to the surface, spraying water out of our mouths.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, scooting closer and quickly pulling up my shorts before someone looked around the corner and got an eyeful.

  She held one hand over her eye, and the other narrowed right at me. “You poked me in the eye.”

  Her face was stern, but as we stared at each other, it was about point two seconds before we both started cracking up. It was another minute before my stomach was in knots from laughing so hard.

  “Lesson learned. You don’t need to pay me in sexual favors, and if you try, I guess my dick can be used as a weapon.”

  “That’s not funny,” she whimpered, but it came out stuttered as she laughed.

  I held out my hand. “How about we get out of here, and I’ll get you some eye drops and lunch?”

  She let out a deep breath but didn’t take my hand. “Yeah. I guess we can do that.”

  Chapter 16

  Christy

  When it was our turn to approach the bubbly bottle-blonde with blue eyeshadow at the counter, my nerves all squirmed at once. I think every single thought I had that hid in my foggy haze was now coming to a head and telling me this might be a bad idea.

  I didn’t know if I would scream, puke, or giggle. Maybe all of them at once.

  “Hello and welcome! Have you two already booked online, or do you need me to go over the package options with you?” she asked with a twang that had to be fake or was just very overdone.

  No one spoke like that in Texas despite what the movies seemed to think.

  “We’re looking to book tonight,” Clay answered, squeezing my side as if we were really a couple in love.

  Maybe he really finally did care about me. Perhaps it wasn’t just my feelings.

  Yet he hadn’t said anything, which was the constant nudge at my brain. I wanted to know that he wanted me too even though he said he wanted to do this for the ranch. That I agreed to this since I didn’t want to run the place.

  But now that we were standing here, him in a suit and me in a white dress, I started to wonder if maybe I was making a mistake.

  But when his thumb rubbed a small circle on my hip, I swore I could feel the warmth even through the little lace number I was wearing.

  All reason left me, and it took everything I had not to lean into him and ask him to keep moving. To let those expert hands wander.

  “Wonderful.” She clasped her hands together and turned a monitor toward us, using her long fingernails to zip through some different screens.

  “We have a series of options. If you want something intimate in our chapel or outdoor gazebo, we can do that. Or a little more fun with our drive-thru service and a Hummer rental. Then you can add flowers, photos, or whatever else y’all need.”

  I stared at the different photos, swirling all together in various bright colors from pink Cadillacs with Elvis to showgirls in a garden.

  “Darlin’, are you okay? If you’re going to puke, can you please take it outside? We don’t want our other guests getting cold feet,” the woman said, nodding to each side where other people were waiting.

  “Yeah, totally fine,” I lied and pointed at the screen, swallowing hard before I said the first thing that was buried deep in my heart. “Now which one of these wedding packages comes with flowers because I think we’re going to need a whole freaking rainbow.”

  Clay laughed, pulling me close to his side. “That’s my girl.”

  And just like that, all the fear I’d been holding in left, and the bubbling excitement was back.

  Chapter 17

  Clay

  So maybe Tina was right about Christy picking out gifts.

  Within a half an hour, she had a bottle of wine picked out for each of my family members. While waiting for our food at a little bistro downtown, she ordered Violet some toy I’d never heard of from an app on my phone. Gift wrapped and all. The girl was a pro.

  “You should become a professional gift buyer or something,” I said, shoving my phone into my pocket after she hit purchase on the gift.

  I thought that after our little incident in the pool, things would be awkward.

  But that was the thing about being with Christy. She was able to brush things off like it was nothing, and being with her was easy—which could be taken in more than one way—but I didn’t want her for a sexual way.

  I mean, I did. I had a dick, after all, and the girl was gorgeous.

  But the more I peeled back her layers and got to know the real girl, the more I wanted to spend time with her. Not just kissing or hand-holding or having her hand other places.

  God, my head was royally fucked up by all these crazy emotions.

  “I don’t think that’s a real job,” she replied, taking a sip of her water.

  I wanted to order us a bottle or something, but after looking at the prices on the menu and calculating what I just spent on bathing suits and gifts, I’d have to pass.

  Christy must have sensed something because when I ordered water, she did too.

  “Anything can be a real job if you set your mind to it. Look at Noah. I think he’s found every job known to man and done it. Twice.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “Yeah, but Noah’s different.”

  “Because he’s deaf?”

  She shook her head. “No. Not that. He’s just ... well ...”

  I raised my eyebrows, trying to figure out what she was getting at.

  “He never has anything holding him back, you know? Like even though, yes, he’s deaf, he still jumps in with both feet. I think that’s why I’ve always liked him.”

  I laughed. “Don’t tell me you have a crush on my roommate now too.”

  “No. I think he’s always had a thing for Abbey, though.”

  “The tall girl from the bakery?”

  She nodded.

  “You’re way hotter. Just saying.”

  I swore her cheeks tinged pink as she took a sip of her water. “I guess I could say the same about you and Noah.”

  “So, what you’re saying is I need to tell Noah to move out, so I don’t have competition? You ready to move in, wifey?”

  Her face fell, and she sighed. “We probably need to talk about all of that, and you know what’s going to happen now that we’re back in Texas ...”

  God, I wished I had something to drink or smoke for this conversation.

  We were having a good day, one of the best I had in a long time, which sucked to even admit in my head. But now that she wanted to bring this all up again, even though I knew we had to, was like a punch to the gut.

  “Did you tell your family what happened?” I asked tentatively but knew the answer. If her father had an inkling something had happened, no way would I still have a job right now or my balls.

  “No ...” She shook her head.

  “Good. So at least we know your dad isn’t going to come after me or maybe congratulate me?
Who knows.”

  “What is your plan with all this anyway? You think we can just have some fun? Go on a date and pretend things didn’t happen between us in Vegas? That we’re just going to fall in love or something, and everything will be grand?” she asked, throwing her arms out.

  I tried not to choke on my own spit as soon as the L word came out. I’d never said that word to a girl who wasn’t a family member, and there was no way in hell I thought I was falling in love with Christy.

  Caring about her? Yes.

  Wishing I could have taken that little white bikini off her with my teeth? Yes again.

  But love? No. That wasn’t happening.

  That was why I couldn’t let her do what we both wanted in the pool. Because this wasn’t just a fling to me. What it was, though, I didn’t know.

  “I don’t have a plan. I never do.”

  She sighed. “We need one and probably soon.”

  “Why? Why can’t we just see where this lands? Or do you want to go see a lawyer now, spend the money on a divorce, and see what happens from there? Because all that seems like a fucking headache. Especially when we’re talking money, that shit going on our records forever, and whatever else.”

  I was stalling, and she had to know it. I didn’t have any sort of plan, that was true. But my ulterior motive? Maybe I did wonder if being married to her could have some leverage on the ranch.

  But every time I thought about that, a sick feeling sank in my gut.

  “If you want the ranch, why don’t you just ask my dad if you can buy it from him? Wouldn’t that be easier than all this?” she asked point-blank.

  I sighed, raking my hands through my matted hair. “Honestly? I don’t even know if that’s what I want. The ranch, that is. I don’t know why I thought an Army grunt and stoner like me could hope for anything more. The boss’s daughter or the business.”

  Even saying the words out loud pinched at my nerves. Things I hadn’t voiced out loud to anyone. How everyone else my age was getting married, having babies, and finding their dream jobs. Me? I was still smoking pot and playing a lot of video games on the nights I had off from my job as a glorified bartender who sometimes got to help run things when the general manager decided he didn’t want to do it.