I smiled, and gave him a questioning look because he couldn’t possibly be serious.
“He’s not joking,” Travis piped up from the other side of the garage. “Remember that show ‘Pimp My Ride’? Well, it’s like that. But with golf carts.”
Call my curiosity piqued. I wanted to see these pimp carts.
Colton came over to hand me a basket full of candy—mostly bubble gum and taffy—then ruffled my hair. I shot him a half-hearted glare and he just laughed.
I felt the heat of a familiar body come up behind me and callused fingertips grazed over my exposed shoulders.
“Have I told you how much I love this dress?” Travis whispered by my ear, causing butterflies in my stomach.
“Maybe you can show me later,” I suggested quietly so no one else could hear me.
I wanted him to stop holding back with me, to stop handling me as though I was innocent—even though I was. I wanted to throw all caution to the wind and just get it on already. I just wanted him.
“Anything for you.” He kissed the tip of my nose.
I sighed, feeling all swoony. Every time he did that it felt like my insides melted into a pile of mush.
Across the street, the taverns were giving out free ice water. Long white tables littered with disposable cups lined the sidewalk in front of the buildings. It was a great idea, considering the heat. People flocked to the tables, picking up the cups with grateful words I couldn’t hear.
It had to be close to ninety degrees outside. With the cloudless sky and stagnant breeze, the air felt a little suffocating. I went to stand by an oscillating fan Hank had put by the open garage door, hoping it would give me some relief.
An unsettling feeling came over me when I got a weird, hair-raising feeling of being watched. I glanced around before I caught the sight of a slightly familiar face. Kendra was one of the people behind one of the water tables in front of Buck’s.
And she was staring right at me. Not just staring. Glaring was more like it. Aside from the fact that she obviously had feelings for Travis, she didn’t have any reason to hate me, but there she was, glowering at me.
If looks could kill…
I almost laughed when I wondered if she was going to give me another kiddie cocktail. Maybe I should’ve been creeped out by the seething looks she was sending my way, but it was just so ridiculous. She and Travis had one date, and he told me they never even kissed. She had no reason to believe she had any sort of claim on him.
“You ready for this?” Travis interrupted the stare-down I’d been having with Kendra. “We’ve got about thirty minutes until start time, so we need to get in line.”
“I’m totally ready,” I said, holding up the candy basket.
In no time, we were driving down Main Street and kids squealed with delight as we drove by.
“Me! Me! Over here!” they shouted with outstretched hands, and I obliged by throwing handfuls of candy their way.
About halfway through the parade, Travis asked me if I wanted to sit on his lap and steer.
“I don’t know how to drive this thing!” I yelled over the loud cheering coming from both sides of the street.
Travis laughed. “We’re going like five miles per hour. You’ll do fine.”
He pulled me onto his lap and put his hands over mine on the wheel. He took off his hat and plopped it onto my head backwards. “Every trucker’s gotta have a hat.” He winked.
It was a good thing Travis was helping me steer because I honestly wasn’t sure I’d be able to do it on my own. Everything felt so big—the wheel, the windshield, and the pedals (which I definitely couldn’t reach with my feet).
The only vehicle I’d ever driven was the Driver’s Ed. car, which was a small sedan, and Claire’s Prius.
“There’s Hank.” Travis pointed out as we slowly passed by the auto shop.
Leaning out the window, I waved my hand wildly. “Hey, Hank!”
Travis hooked his arm around my waist and planted me back into his lap. “Gotta keep both hands on the wheel, baby.” He chuckled against the back of my neck before taking over with the steering and pointing up at the ceiling. “Here, pull that.”
Wrapping my hand around the rope, I pulled down and the horn blasted. Unrestrained laughter burst from me as I bounced on Travis’s lap, causing him to groan.
“Sorry!” I said over my shoulder. “Did I hurt you?”
“No, baby.” He kissed the side of my neck and smiled against my skin. “But Hank expects that basket to be empty when we get back. I’ll steer, you throw candy.”
Remaining in Travis’s lap, I resumed my assignment and allowed him to take over the task of driving.
I honked the horn again when I saw Ernie making balloon animals for some kids.
“Hi, Ernie!” I shouted, then tossed the last of the candy out the window.
Our part in the parade only lasted about fifteen minutes. Once we got back to the shop, Travis parked the semi and we went into the garage to help hand out coupons and key chains.
The pimp carts, as I’d so eloquently named them, were impressively decorated. Each one seemed to have a theme. The patriotic cart had dozens of mini American flags sticking out, waving in the wind, and all four family members wore red, white, and blue. A very loud cart had bells, whistles, and bicycle horns attached. People cheered as it made all kinds of obnoxious noises. My favorite was the musical cart that had a father and son dueling banjos in the backseat while an amused-looking woman drove.
Halfway through the afternoon, we ran out of the goodies and the crowds in the streets started to clear.
At some point, Ernie stopped by and handed me a yellow giraffe. “It’s my last one. Ran out sooner than I thought I would.”
It wasn’t a big deal—just a silly balloon animal. A kid’s toy. But it still meant a lot to me. He’d saved the last one for me.
“Thank you.” I hugged it to my chest.
“I’ll see you Monday? My grass needs a trim,” he said.
“Definitely.” I nodded, and he left with a salute-like wave.
He was walking away when I caught sight of Kendra and Tara approaching the shop with a tray of ice waters.
This was the first time I was getting a good look at Tara. Last time I’d seen her it was at The Brick House, and she was too busy laughing at me behind her hands for me to see her face.
She was pretty, with a short blonde bob and brown eyes. It was hard to tell how tall she was because her heels were sky high. She and Kendra wore black polo shirts with the Buck’s logo and black shorts.
Tara was a mystery to me. I never heard Colton talk about her, and she hadn’t been over to the apartment at all since I’d been staying there.
“We thought maybe you guys would be thirsty over here,” Tara said with a shrug. She attempted to smile, but it looked fake to me.
“No kiddie cocktail this time?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, come on, that was just a joke,” Tara said with a forced laugh. When she was met with stony silence she changed the subject. “Where are the guys?”
“In the office going over the plans for the next transport job,” I told her, keeping our exchange short.
She set a glass down for me, then went to the office to give the rest to the guys. Unfortunately, with Tara gone, I was left alone with Kendra. Her glare was still in place and I wondered if she always looked that way.
Resting-Bitch-Face was a real thing.
“You think you’re so special. Riding in the parade. Pretending you and Travis are together. Acting like you belong here,” she sneered. “But everyone knows all about you.”
Man, she really didn’t waste any time letting me know how she really felt, which was fine. I didn’t exactly have warm feelings for her either.
“What do you mean ‘everyone knows all about me’?” I asked warily, putting air quotes around her words, although I wasn’t sure I really wanted to know the answer.
“Rumor in town is you’re a hitchhiker.”
Her voice dripped with malice. “And Travis just picked you up off the side of the road like some lost, helpless kitten.”
My cheeks burned with embarrassment. I couldn’t deny what she said, so I just stayed silent and hoped she would go away. But she just had to dig the knife in a little further.
“That can’t be true, right? I mean, that would be ridiculous…” she trailed off.
She didn’t really need me to confirm the story. Obviously, the hitchhiking thing was true and she knew it. I resented the lost kitten comment, though. It was another low blow about the fact that I was young.
“Anyone ever tell you that your conversational skills need a little work?” I gritted through my teeth, but she continued as if I hadn’t said anything.
“What I do know for sure is you’re that leaving. And when you’re gone, I’ll still be here.”
The truth of her words stung. I didn’t need a reminder that my time here was limited. Although, she was delusional with that last part. If she was implying she had a chance with Travis, she’d obviously lost her marbles.
I hadn’t known him that long, but I knew he would never be with someone like her.
He was too good.
I didn’t see the sense in arguing with her, though. I’d never been very good at defending myself. The best comebacks always seemed to come to me hours later. I’d probably think of the perfect witty retort when I was in the shower tonight. What I really wanted to do was slap that bitchy look right off her face.
Instead, I just stated the truth. “You puked on his shoes.”
I could tell I hit a nerve with that one because Kendra’s face got bright red. I’d be pretty embarrassed, too, if I threw up on a guy I liked.
The office door opened and Travis came over, looking back and forth between us.
“Hey, Kendra,” he greeted her as he put his arm around me. Although his tone was casual, I could feel the tension in his muscles. “What’s going on?”
“Travis! So good to see you. We thought you might be thirsty.” She plastered on an obnoxious smile, and I rolled my eyes so hard I felt it through my entire body. I was sure Travis felt it, too.
“Thanks. That was nice of you,” he said politely, and an awkward silence followed.
“Well,” Kendra started to back away, “I should get back to Buck’s. See you at the street dance later?”
“We’ll be there,” he told her while possessively rubbing my shoulder.
It was really hard not to feel triumphant in that moment. Point for Angel.
Travis just made it very clear where his interests were, and I might’ve even felt bad for her if she wasn’t so mean.
Her words from earlier still stung, but I didn’t want it to ruin my day. Luckily, Travis had the perfect distraction.
“Are you hungry? There’s a barbeque going on over at the community building. Hotdogs and hamburgers,” he said. “That sound good to you?”
I was already nodding before he could finish. “You had me at hotdogs.”
Laughing, he looped an arm around my waist before steering me down the street and dropping a kiss to the top of my head.
The sun was sinking below the horizon when the music started, and the intense heat of the day began to ease up. The DJ was set up in the community building parking lot and Main Street was blocked off for everyone who wanted to dance.
Groups of people stood off to the side to talk while children ran around with glow sticks and tried to catch the thousands of fireflies that lit up the surrounding fields of the town.
Travis stood behind me, with his arms wrapped around my middle as he made small talk with some of the auto shop customers. They asked about the trucking business and he told them about the upcoming trip to Colorado. Our trip to Colorado.
Oh yeah, and he told several people I was his girlfriend, which made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It almost didn’t seem real.
Wanting to dance with Travis again, I planned to drag him out into the mass of moving bodies as soon as a slow song came on. It seemed as though he had the same idea because when the first chords of ‘Silver Wings’ played through the giant speakers, he intertwined our fingers and pulled me out into the middle of the street.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and ran my fingers through the short hairs on the back of his head. I loved the way they prickled against my skin.
Travis put his hands on the small of my back and pressed my body against his until I couldn’t get any closer. I swayed with him, resting my head on his chest where I could hear his steady heartbeat over the music.
Rising up on my tiptoes, I placed a chaste kiss on the side of his neck and his hands tightened around my waist.
Okay, so maybe the kiss wasn’t that chaste. Maybe I wanted to drive him crazy. Maybe I wanted to make him to lose control.
He pulled back and rubbed his nose over mine. I loved it when he did that. It made me feel special. Cherished.
“Wanna get out of here?” he said against my lips.
I nodded eagerly. Travis grabbed my hand and hauled me away from the crowds of people. We were practically running when we came to his apartment, but we didn’t go inside. Instead, he opened the passenger door to his pickup truck and planted me inside.
“Where are we going?” I asked breathlessly after he started it up.
“Country cruising.” He smiled, dimples on full display.
We took a back road out of town and headed south until the lights from the festival were far off in the distance. After slowing to a stop on a deserted country road, he turned off the ignition, then reached beneath the bench seat to pull out a folded-up blanket.
“Come on,” he said, hopping out of the truck.
I followed him around to the back where he lowered the tailgate and spread the fuzzy blue blanket over the bed of the truck.
After helping me up, Travis laid down and I curled into his side as he put his arm around me.
“What are we doing?” I asked through the sounds of the night, which was mostly the breeze rustling through the cornfields and the crickets chirping.
“Star-gazing.” He looked up into the sky.
Looking up in the same direction, I noticed how bright the stars seemed now that they weren’t drowned out by city lights.
“That’s the Big Dipper. And there’s the North Star.” He pointed out. “And those three in a line, that’s Orion’s Belt.”
“You know a lot about this stuff, huh?” I looked at his face.
He gave me a sheepish smile. “Not really. That’s about all I know. Hank knows a lot more about it. He knows all the constellations, and every year in August there’s a few days of meteor showers. Sometimes you can see ten shooting stars in an hour…”
He was babbling, and I wondered if he was trying to distract himself from the sexual tension. I wasn’t going to let him get away with it.
“Travis?”
“Yeah?”
“That’s all really great, but if I’m being honest, I don’t really want to talk about the stars right now.”
He barked out a laugh. “Neither do I.”
Rolling onto his side, he faced me and tilted my chin up with his thumb and forefinger. There was no hesitation to our kiss as my tongue eagerly met his.
He bit down on my bottom lip before trailing kisses over my cheek and down to my neck. He sucked at my pulse point and a whimper escaped from me.
Softly, he ran the tips of his fingers over my shoulder before bringing his mouth to my skin. This was another first. I’d never been kissed on the shoulder before and I had no idea it could be so erotic.
A continuous pulsing started between my thighs and I felt myself getting wet. My hand played along the bottom of his shirt, then slipped underneath to feel his abs. I traced the lines with my fingers, until I moved up high enough to graze his nipple.
Travis gasped against my neck. His breath fanned over my skin as he started to pull down on the top of my dress.
Just as I thought we were f
inally—finally—getting somewhere, I felt a sting and an itch at my temple.
“Ow,” I hissed and swatted at the air.
“What’s wrong?” Travis asked, concerned.
“Mosquito bit me,” I said, scratching at the bump by my hairline. As the haze of lust started to clear, I realized I was itching in other spots, too. “I think I’m getting eaten up out here.”
“Damn. Maybe we should get home,” he suggested.
With a heavy sigh, I agreed. I should’ve remembered bug spray, but in the heat of the moment, I’d forgotten how much mosquitoes love me.
Travis rolled the blanket up while I got back into the truck.
On the drive back, I itched all over. I found I had bites on my arms, hands, knees, ankles and several on my toes. Mosquito bites on toes were the worst.
“What kind of mosquitos do you have in Tolson?” I asked, baffled by the number of bites I’d obtained in such a short amount of time.
Travis glanced over at me as I furiously scratched at my body. “Did you seriously get bit that much?”
I grunted unattractively as I found another bite on my face. “It’s my blood type. O negative.” Travis had a skeptical expression on his face, so I insisted. “I’m serious. That’s a real thing.”
When we got into the apartment, he turned the lights on and his eyes widened when he saw all the welts on my skin.
“Holy shit,” he hissed. “You weren’t kidding.”
I just made a pathetic whining sound while I sat down on the couch and scraped at my skin some more.
“Don’t scratch so much. You’re gonna make them bleed,” he said, and I shot him a dirty look. “Hold on, I think we have some Calamine lotion.”
Travis went into the bathroom and when he returned, he held up the pink bottle like it was some kind of trophy.
“Last year, Colton walked through some poison oak,” he said, applying it to all the red bumps on my legs and arms with a cotton ball. “This stuff works wonders.”
The cool cream felt good on my skin and I let out a sigh of relief as it started soothing the itch.
“I thought making out in the back of your truck under the stars was so romantic,” I grumped. “This—” I gestured to all the bumps, which were now covered with big pink splotches of lotion. “—is so not what I was hoping for.”
The Good Guys Box Set: TRUCKER, DANCER, DROPOUT, and A Trucker Wedding Page 13
