by Zoe Lee
That made her pause for a second, as if she were turning over the idea in her mind, and then she snorted. “I don’t know… My first art class, when we were talking about perspective, I used up practically a whole sketchbook trying to show that squashed cat on the road.”
“Hell no, did you really?” Dunk gasped, then practically busted a gut laughing his ass off at the very idea. “Okay, okay, mad props. Except now all I can picture are those drawings of goth Disney princesses.”
“I love those,” Daisy replied with a wicked grin.
“Do you love the hipster Disney princes too? With the beards and the beanies and tattoos?” Dunk couldn’t help but continue to tease.
“Of course! It takes talent to reproduce a character and make it modern and interesting and sexy,” Daisy pointed out, her passion for art and creativity throbbing in her voice, making her face light up.
Dunk teased her some more about Disney princes, then they moved into their favorite comic book characters’ costumes, into which of the movie and tv adaptations they liked, and from there, they were off and running for four hours arguing about that. Dunk didn’t consider himself a secret nerd, but after long days working out, teaching, and coaching, he went home and sacked out on his couch. He watched a lot of ESPN, yeah, but he watched action too, plus ABC dramas with his mom and shows about fixing up and decorating houses with Jesse when she chilled.
But then Dunk saw a sign for the Grand Canyon, and he unthinkingly reached over and grabbed Daisy’s hand. “The Grand Canyon!”
“Oh!” Daisy cried. “Somehow I didn’t realize we were going to be so close to it. I think we definitely have to go. How could we drive by it?”
Since they’d gotten an early start, on the road by eight, if they sped some, they would have time to get to there and watch the sun set over it.
On their way to one of the most beautiful sights in the world, they started talking about all of the other wonders of the world they’d love to see. Dunk’s were all sporty in some way—scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef, climbing Machu Picchu—while Daisy’s were all artsy in some way— the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China. Predictable, sure, but who cared when they were about to see the Grand Canyon for the first time?
When they got there, they pulled on light sweaters and switched out their sandals for sneakers, the closest either had to hiking boots. It was late enough that they didn’t have time to hike all the way down to the bottom of the canyon or anything like that, but they had enough time to soak it in.
They stood before this thing that was so indescribable, yet so instantly recognizable thanks to the probably hundreds of photos of it they’d seen their whole lives. Dunk didn’t even hesitate, reaching out and hanging onto Daisy’s hand, creating a physical connection to mirror the emotional moment they were having together. It was so humbling, so powerful, and as the sun streaked the clouds one color after another, darkening, the air cooling rapidly, he didn’t think he’d ever experienced anything like it.
And when Daisy leaned her head against his arm and sighed, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that there wasn’t another person in the whole world he would rather have been with in those moments.
He had one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World spread out in front of him, but he only truly cared about the beautiful, generous, passionate, funny woman at his side, sharing this with him.
He swallowed hard and slipped his arm loosely around her waist, and stood there, taking her weight, for as long as she wanted to be there, content and calm. For the first time, with the vast scale of the Canyon, he understood that his issues with Daisy had been tiny and easily scaled. He’d only been too inexperienced to understand his feelings, and that had made him feel dumb talking to Daisy, which had led him to quit.
But he was all done with that, because Daisy Rhys was his Grand Canyon, his Sex Cinderella, and he didn’t care how dumb he sounded or how many times he put his foot in his big mouth, he was going to win her back because Coach Dunk McCoy was no quitter.
Chapter 24
Daisy
Daisy woke in another unfamiliar bed, a ceiling fan rotating with a low-grade, constant squeak above her, and she rolled onto her side and hugged her knees. Yesterday had been such an unexpected gift that she’d crashed as soon as she’d gotten to this room and then spent eight hours dreaming in vivid, brilliant colors. She couldn’t remember them all now, but there had been cacti and buffalos, paintbrushes that were trees, a sunset that was the warmest crocheted blanket, and Duncan McCoy.
In all of her dreams, wound through the images and through every cell of her body and heart and mind, was Duncan McCoy.
Standing together at the Grand Canyon had transcended friendship and transcended love, her heart exploding with love for just… everything.
She had never been so aware of her body and its place in relation to the ground under her or a body beside hers, and she’d felt like she would fly apart into a million pieces of happiness without his arm around her so tight, so present in a way that no one else ever had been.
But this morning, once she’d gotten ready and jogged down the pitted concrete walk and stairs of the motel to the Shelby, the fairytale tarnished. Maybe the beauty of the Grand Canyon had overwhelmed her, and that joy and awe had spilled out of her and caught Dunk up in it. Daisy had been in love with him not so long ago, and he was still the same funny, sweet, loyal man, as lovable now as he’d been then. So of course she had loved him dearly during that timeless moment at the Grand Canyon.
“You ready for our super long day of driving?” Dunk asked, grinning way too cheerfully considering it wasn’t even seven in the morning.
“Shut up and drive,” she grumbled.
A minute later, Dunk put on Rihanna’s “Shut Up and Drive” and slowly amped up the volume, whistling innocently, until Daisy cracked up.
“There,” he said with satisfaction as he pulled into a gas station and hopped out of the Shelby to pump the gas. “Now all you need is coffee.”
“What snacks do you want today?” Daisy asked as she headed for the convenience store in the gas station.
Dunk called out his choice of snacks and flavor of sports drink for that day, which was going to be about twelve hours of driving to help make up for their detours the first few days. Daisy paid for everything, including a big cup of iced coffee, and was back just as Dunk leapt over the driver’s side door and slid into the seat.
After their long get-to-know-you-better game and the intensity of the Grand Canyon yesterday, Daisy was wrung out. So when Rihanna turned out to be just the first song in Dunk’s Shut Up and Drive Playlist, she reclined her seat a little and propped her chin in the heel of her palm.
The landscape here was so familiar to her from the photography and landscape classes she’d taken over the years. But it was so different when the dust blew and coated her tongue, when the heat was almost a weight on her skin, pressing into it, and holding her tight.
The hours drifted by; they stopped for lunch at a steakhouse, drove for a while, pulled off at a rest stop and played some Frisbee to stretch their bodies, drove and drove and drove until they finally got to Amarillo.
Everyone heard a lot of things about Texas, and Amarillo just… felt like Texas should feel to Daisy, from the moment they parked at the motel she’d booked earlier in the day. They separated to shower, sweaty after the thirteen hours in the convertible, and Daisy smoothed on aloe where she’d burned across the bridge of her nose, the back of her neck and in a stripe along the neckline of her shirt.
Their plan was to go to a good old-fashioned country and western bar and grill, eat giant amounts of barbeque, drink a lot of beer, and do some line dancing. So Daisy shook out a sleeveless blouse the color of kiwis and tucked it loosely into a denim A-line skirt that ended a couple inches above her knees. She didn’t add any jewelry or more make-up than mascara and lip gloss, not wanting Dunk to think she’d dressed up or something.
Still, when she met him
in the hallway a few minutes later, his eyes skimmed over her in quick appreciation and then he held out his bent arm to her. “Ma’am,” he greeted her, thickening his drawl and trying to imitate some sort of Texan cowboy, “you look mighty fine tonight.”
“You too,” she said, and while she’d intended it to be some sort of over-the-top breathless Marilyn Monroe thing for some silly reason, it came out soft and shy.
She felt the hitch in his step before he smoothed it out.
The bar was only a couple of blocks away and Daisy enjoyed the evening air, energized at the idea of some drinks and dancing.
When they went inside, the saloon they’d chosen at the motel clerk’s suggestion was clogged with people at the bar, tables, and dance floor, barbeque sauce and tequila ripe in the air. If it had been twenty years ago, Daisy knew it would’ve been almost blue from all the cigarette smoke.
The hostess, wearing a romper so tiny and short it was practically a bathing suit, purred and flirted and petted at Dunk during the incredibly long trek through the huge restaurant to their table. Dunk engaged, of course, he’d never flat-out ignore a woman; but Daisy was aware of her smug, bitchy look at the hostess when she strutted off in a huff.
“Oh damn, Daisy Rhys, I know what we’re doing tonight,” Dunk told her, wide-eyed.
Before she could ask, he cupped her chin in one of his big hands and turned her head until she saw it.
“No way in hell,” she said immediately.
“What! Daisy! It’s a mechanical bull.”
“You’ll kill yourself up there,” Daisy cried.
“Yeah, right,” Dunk scoffed, his pride offended by the very suggestion, she could see it by the way he narrowed his eyes. “You might bruise your pretty tailbone or show the whole place your goodies, so, no bull for you.”
She gaped unattractively and then snickered, “Goodies?”
Sniffing, Dunk lifted his chin. “It’s polite, but complementary, okay?”
That got another snicker out of her. “Okay. But if you try to ride that bull, you’re going to wind up with your twig and berries squished.”
Dunk half stood up and wrestled his wallet out of his back pocket, flipped it open, and pulled out all of the cash in it. “Thirty—no, forty-four bucks say you’re wrong,” Dunk dared, slapping the bills down.
One of Daisy’s brows lifted almost smugly. “I’ll take that action.”
“Yeah you will,” Dunk replied, then ducked his head a little as if he hadn’t meant to fire back with the innuendo.
They ordered drinks and appetizers, Dunk dragging his chair a quarter of the way around the table to get a better view of the bull.
Once they were both a bunch of drinks in and finished eating, they went over to the rough-hewn wooden fence that surrounded the mechanical bull. The floor inside the ‘pen’ was covered in padded gymnastics mats and the people ranged around it leaned on the fence, drinking and betting.
Dunk put his name on the list and then they made friends with the guys standing next to them, shaking hands and exchanging names.
“Dunk,” the guy running the bull called out.
Dunk whooped and ran around.
“That your man, honey?” one of the guys asked her.
“Used to be,” Daisy said, offering him a genuine, but not too big smile, knowing its brightness was always taken as interest by men.
“Alright, then,” the cowboy replied with a smile, then settled his cowboy hat on Daisy’s head, tilting the brim way up so that the oversized hat wouldn’t block her vision.
When she could see again, laughing, one hand hovering in case the hat slid off, she caught Dunk staring at her intently while he, theoretically, listened to the rules and suggestions about riding the bull.
She leaned on the fence and gave him her cockiest smile.
The bell rang and the bull started to buck.
Dunk had a good grip and a great understanding of how to move his body in counterpoint to attacks and sudden movements.
But none of that mattered at all, because he’d never ridden a bull before and Daisy wagered that he’d never been on a bucking horse, because he went flying after only a few seconds. He landed with a loud curse, the crowd cheering him on, a few women whistling when he rolled onto his back to catch his breath, his shirt riding up to show off that vee.
He curled up, those abs flexing so beautifully before his shirt dropped back over his belt. He looked over Daisy again, his eyes twinkling as he came over, grabbing the top rail of the fence and clearing it like a hurdle in one smooth bunch and flex of his muscles.
“You’re a cowgirl now?” he asked lightly, flicking the brim.
“Yup,” she replied with a big wink.
He shook his head and sighed at the guys they’d been hanging out with. “You know, I left you boys in charge of an artist,” he teased.
“Cowgirls can be artists, why not?” one of the men laughed.
“Painting pictures with their lassos?” Daisy asked, laughing.
“And catching cowboys,” another offered easily with a wink.
“Lots of them are queens with sashes too—County Fair Queens,” the first man, whose hat Daisy still wore precariously, drawled. “You look like you might have a few of those sashes or maybe a few pageant crowns.”
Before Daisy could come up with a response, Dunk stepped closer to her, his chest brushing her shoulder blade and her French braid. “She never needed to win anything to prove she’s the prettiest girl in town,” he said.
Being flirted with felt good, but hearing Dunk state, plainly and unapologetically, that she was the prettiest girl in Maybelle… That was the thing that made Daisy flush and hold back a pleased smile.
“Thank you, Dunk,” she said softly, daring to press her shoulder back into the solid, thick slabs of his torso muscles.
His hand brushed the side of her hip and lay there, barely grazing her skirt over her hip. “No need to thank me for the truth, Princess,” he murmured, then reached up and deliberately took off the cowboy hat and handed it back to the other man, who accepted it and, with a shrug, moved off with his friends.
Dunk never looked away from Daisy, his hand still at her hip, and Daisy’s heart began to race. No one had ever called her princess like that before. He’d used it as if it really were an honorific showing nothing but respect and admiration, instead of diminishing her femininity or power. If she strained her imagination, she could hear it lit up by something like love, like darlin had while they were dating.
“Do you want to dance?” she blurted out.
She gestured vaguely at the dance floor, where people were doing line dances to music that was more pop country than classic country.
“Okay,” he said, that big hand settling on her hip to lead her gently around the fence and onto the dance floor.
She shivered when he let go of her, as if she were colder without the heat of his touch, but met his eyes and beamed as they started to dance.
She’d forgotten how good at dancing he was, when he wasn’t trying to make her laugh with terrible, cheesy dance moves. He found the rhythm easily and while he didn’t work his hips the way she did, he didn’t just shuffle side to side or bob his head like most guys she knew either.
This, Daisy thought, was the perfect balance point between the overwhelming euphoria of being with him at the Grand Canyon and the chilling doubts of meeting him at the Shelby that morning. His happiness enveloped both of both of them, her happiness pouring out of her to mix with his, making her feel like she was in a shimmering cocoon. The attraction was there too, of course, but it was a constant simmer, something that didn’t make her pant with urgency.
It felt inevitable that they would come together again, that they would interlock bodies and hearts and lives again, only better than the first time.
But before she could jump off that cliff, she bounced up and down when one of her new favorite songs, Lady Antebellum’s “You Look Good” came on.
She clapped
and then started rolling her body as the horns and the drums kicked in, singing along. She held out one hand to Dunk and he took it, bringing her palm to his chest and dropping his hands back to her hips. She tossed her head back and laughed, bubbling over, and then snagged the aviators tucked in the neck of his shirt and slid them on herself, mugging for him as the chorus rocked the dance floor.
His eyes blazed and he tugged her closer, his belt buckle scraping her ribs lightly because of their height difference, but it only served to remind her how big and strong he was.
Maybe she’d had more beer to drink than she thought, because she was floating on air, anchored by his hands and the look in his eyes.
“Daisy Rhys,” he declared hoarsely, stopping her hips, “you can tease me all you want, but… if you keep this up, then it’s game on, woman.”
Daisy scrounged up enough presence of mind to suck in a breath and admit, “I don’t think I can handle that kind of game right now, Dunk.”
That had him shuddering against her. “And I don’t think I’d win that kind of game right now,” he admitted right back.
Then he carefully let her go and stepped back, and after a second of smoldering, the smoke cleared from his eyes and he shook himself as if he was just breaking the surface after a big jump into a lake.
“Time out, then, darlin’,” he said, grinning.
“Okay,” she agreed with a soft, stunned laugh.
She reached automatically for his hand, but he twitched away.
Shocked, she looked up at him sharply, but he just winked. “I’ll resume play if you touch me now. Give me a minute to cool down.”
She watched, her lips parted and aching for his, while he went back over to the mechanical bull, put his name down again, and struck up a conversation with some other people waiting for their turns.
She wanted to go over there, to drag him back up the street to their motel, to go into one of their rooms together. But since she still didn’t know if she wanted to make love or just have some lust-crazed sex, she didn’t.
