Southern Comfort

by Natasha Madison

  “Depends, what is it?” She takes off the oven mitt and looks at me.

  “Just a little bit of sandwiches and some fruit,” I say. “Some wine maybe.”

  She looks over at me. “Some wine?” Her eyes almost twinkle as she taps her finger on the counter. “You want to take Olivia on a picnic?” She folds her arms over her chest.

  I’m about to answer her when I hear my father coming into the room. “What is this meeting about?” my father asks. Going over to my mother, he kisses her neck, then grabs the cup of coffee that she made for him in the cup he always uses.

  “He wants to take Olivia on a picnic.” I watch my father’s eyes. He looks up at me, then he puts his cup down and folds his arms over his chest. It is almost the same thing he did when Jacob came over to ask out Kallie all those years ago.

  “Casey Barnes,” he says, almost hissing.

  “It’s not what you think,” I say, but even the words don’t sound convincing to me. “She’s just never been on a picnic.”

  “Okay.” He glares at me.

  “Can you just relax?” I say, putting up my hands. “I have to check the property, and I was going to take her out on the horse at the same time.”

  “Have a picnic with her by the creek.” My mother tries not to smile. “I’ll pack a couple of things in a cooler.” She walks away, leaving me with my father.

  “You know she’s here temporarily,” my father says, and I don’t need him to remind me. It’s what I keep repeating to myself every single time my head goes there. “Unless …”

  “Unless nothing, Dad.” I shake my head. “She’s leaving, and besides, I don’t have anything I can give her.”

  “You have everything,” he says softly. “You just have to take the chance.”

  I don’t answer him because my mother comes back in the room carrying a bag. “I’ll be back at noon to get it,” I say, and she just nods her head.

  “Do you want anything to eat?” she asks, and I just shake my head. “Okay, let me know if you are going to be here earlier.”

  Walking out of the house, I head to the barn, making sure that the horses will be ready at noon. When I walk back into my house, I hear the shower from her room going. I walk over and start the coffee. I grab a pack of bacon to make, adding some sausage in the pan with it.

  “Oh my God.” I hear mumbled from behind me, and when I look over my shoulder, I want to laugh at her.

  She is wearing a baggy shirt, and her hair is on top of her head in a towel. “Good morning, sunshine,” I say. She just shakes her head, mumbling something while she gets on one of the stools, putting her head down on the counter. “Do you want coffee?” She grumbles, and I laugh at her. “Want a shot of tequila?” I get the stuff out to make a bloody Mary while she mumbles and then looks up.

  “I think I’m going to throw up,” she says. I place the bloody Mary down in front of her.

  “Drink that,” I say. She takes a sip and grimaces.

  “What’s in there?” she asks and coughs.

  “Trust me. You finish that, and you’ll feel somehow normal,” I say. When she just looks at me, I realize I was wrong. Out of every time before this, right here, she is the most beautiful she’s ever been. “If you finish that, I have a surprise for you.”

  “A surprise?” she asks, eyes opening. “Is this something I’m going to like?”

  “I think so,” I say, putting the plate of bacon in front of her. She mumbles and pushes the plate away.

  “Finish that,” I say. “And then go rest, and I’ll come get you when it’s time to go.”

  She finishes the drink and then walks over to the couch. Only then do I see she’s wearing booty shorts, and it doesn’t take long for my cock to get hard. Looking down, I head into my office and turn on the computer, trying to concentrate on work. Nothing but thoughts of her go through my head, and at eleven thirty, my mother texts me that the bag is at the barn. I push away from my desk and walk to the living room, finding the couch empty. When I look down the hall, I see that she is walking my way, and she looks semi-normal again in blue jeans, a white shirt, and her sneakers.

  “You ready?” I ask. She nods at me and smiles.

  “Tell me my surprise,” she says, and I shake my head.

  “Better if I show you,” I say, holding out my hand. She intertwines our fingers, and I don’t let her hand go when we walk out of the house and head across the grass toward the barn. My horse is waiting outside, and he is already saddled up.

  “Thank you,” I tell Miguel when he hands me the reins. I look behind to see that the bag is already secured. “I’m going to get on, and then I’m going to reach down and pull you up. Miguel will help you get on.” I get on the horse, then I look over at her. She looks so happy; the smile on her face is everything. I put my hand out, and she grabs it, then Miguel grabs her waist and helps her on. She sits behind me, and her arms go around my waist. “Are you good?”

  She leans against my back and nods her head. “I’m better than good,” she says. I kick the horse, and he starts to gallop. We go from my family land all the way over to the other side of the newly purchased land. The wind blows in her hair, and when we start to go around the back, I lead her to the creek. The same creek that Kallie always runs to, and the same creek where we found that guy lurking around.

  I slow the horse to a walk and look over my shoulder. “You hungry?” I ask. She nods, but she doesn’t move away from me. The sound of the creek starts to get a touch louder as we get closer. Once we pull up next to the rock and the open area, I get off the horse and then hold my hand out for her. She grabs me and gets down, then she shocks me when she rubs the horse’s neck. “Hold the reins,” I say. She holds them in her hand while I get the blanket out.

  “What are you doing?” she asks when I walk over to the open area under the tree and unfold the blanket, putting it down.

  “We’re having a picnic.” Her eyes go big, her smile lights up, and I swear I see a tear in her eye. “I figured since we were out.” I walk over and grab the cooler that my mother packed and then look over at her. “You can leave the reins. He won’t go anywhere.” She drops them and then follows me over to the blanket.

  “I can’t believe you did all this,” she says, kicking off her shoes and getting on the blanket.

  “I wish I could take all the credit.” I laugh, sitting down in front of her. “But Mom made the food.”

  The smile never leaves her face as she ties her hair up on her head. I have the sudden urge to lean down and kiss her face, forgetting all about the food. “I’m suddenly starving,” she says.

  I open the cooler, taking out the sandwiches Mom made along with a container of fruit and another of veggies, and at the bottom is the bottle of wine. “See, she knows you,” I say, and she just laughs. She grabs a piece of sandwich and sits down. “How’s your head?”

  “Better,” she says, chewing. “Remind me never to drink tequila again.”

  I laugh, grabbing my own piece. “I’ll remind you only if you tell me more about you being a model.” I watch as the smile fades from her face, and she just shrugs.

  “Nothing much to say. I used to model, and now I don’t,” she says. When she looks down at her hands, I’m almost ready to kick myself for asking her. “It’s not a secret or anything. I started when I was young, then finally, a couple of years ago, I just walked away from it.” She looks at me. “Almost like you up and leaving the rodeo circuit. That was how I felt about modeling. I was doing it because my mother made me, and then I finally stood up and said no more.”

  “It must have been hard to just walk away,” I say, knowing full well how it felt losing that little piece of me. “A piece of me was gone. It was just weird.”

  “But you loved doing the rodeo, right?” she asks, and I nod. “I hated fucking modeling. I hated everything about it. Getting on jets and living out of your suitcase and the cattiness about it. One girl I know ate only an apple for the whole week.” She throws
her hands in the air. “Seven days with one apple. Luckily, I had a great metabolism, but that didn’t keep my mother from trying to pinch fat on my body. Well, when she did that, it was always a bad month.”

  “Do you still talk to your mother?” I ask, and she shakes her head.

  “No.” She grabs a grape and tosses it into her mouth. “When I finished my last runway, I expected her to be there. Expected her to be somewhat proud of the fact that I had the career I did, but instead, she tried to punish me by staying away. In the end, she punished herself because I’ve never been happier.” She shrugs and eats more grapes. “I mean, I guess you can say my mother is the reason that I settled with Dominic.”

  “How is that?” I listen to her telling her story about how miserable her life was, and I want to make sure she never feels that way again.

  “I don’t know what love is,” she says, and my heart and stomach hurt for her. “If you’ve never had love in your life, how do you know what it feels like?” She shrugs. “It’s like I know I’ll never be a mother.”

  “I get that feeling,” I say. “I’ll never get married,” I finally admit to her, and she looks at me. “It’s just not for me.”

  She laughs. “Cowboy Casey on the loose.” I shake my head. “Adding notches to your bedpost.”

  I look down and then look up. “Hardly.”

  “You’re not lying,” she says softly. I grab a water bottle and take a drink, my mouth suddenly dry.

  “Whatever this thing is.” I point at her and then at me. “The one thing I can tell you is that I will never lie to you.”

  “Thank you,” she says softly. “I think that is one of the nicest things someone has ever said to me.” She looks down and then she looks up again, and I see the tears in her eyes. “This can’t go anywhere,” she says. “I’m here until it’s safe, and then I’m leaving.” I want to ignore the crushing in my chest. I want to ignore the fact that my stomach now burns, knowing she’ll eventually leave. I don’t answer her. Instead, I look off into the trees and pretend my heart didn’t just break.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Olivia

  I hear an alarm in the distance, and my eyes finally open. I feel him leave my side and turn to look over my shoulder at him. It’s still dark outside. “What time is it?”

  “Five thirty,” he mumbles. “Go back to sleep.”

  “It’s five thirty?” I ask him and lean up on the couch, not believing him as he gets up and goes to the bathroom. It’s the second night that I’ve slept on the couch with him. Yesterday, I spent the day on the couch bored out of my mind. I tried to work, but when I finally got my computer out and the emails started coming in, my head started spinning. Kallie looked over at me, and she took my computer from me. She then went as far as telling Casey about it, and all he did was glare at me and fold his arms over his chest. Needless to say, that night we sat in the almost dark, and we made out. God, the man could kiss like no one’s business. He kissed me breathless, yet I didn’t want to stop. Even when my eyes got heavy, and I knew I would be falling asleep, I went back in for one more kiss. It was always one more kiss until I fell asleep without a care in the world.

  I turn over and throw the covers off when he walks out of the bedroom dressed in his Levi’s. “What are you doing?” he asks when I stand and stretch. “It’s early.”

  “I slept for ten hours,” I say. “Ten straight hours.” I shake my head. “I don’t even think I dreamed.”

  “Well, if you go back to sleep, you can sleep twelve hours,” he says, putting on his shirt. This time, it’s a black one. I look over at him, watching as he pushes his hair back, and I have to take a minute before I move again. I’m used to my heart speeding up when I look over at him, but what I’m not used to is the flutters in my stomach. The itch that my hands get to walk over to him and hold his face in my hand and kiss him.

  “I’ll meet you in five minutes,” I say. Walking back to the bedroom, I get a pair of pink yoga pants and matching sports bra with a gray off-the-shoulder shirt. I grab my sneakers, and I sit on the stairs while I wait for him. “I’m ready!” I shout back when I tie my hair up on the top of my head. He comes from the kitchen and looks at me. “Let’s get the day moving, cowboy.” I wink at him, and he shakes his head. We walk out of the house just as the sun is rising and the sky looks pink. “It’s so pretty,” I say, listening to the sound of our footsteps since it’s the only sound in the air. “It’s so peaceful.” Our fingers graze each other, and just like every other time, his fingers entwine with mine.

  “It really is,” he says from beside me. “No matter where I am, this is always going to be home.” I look over at him and wonder how many other places he has. When he took me out to the barn yesterday and told me about his ex, I was floored. Did it bother me that he loved someone else? No. Did it bother me that he got hurt? One hundred percent yes. I never wanted him to feel that hurt. He doesn’t deserve it, especially when he loves with his whole heart. As he told the story, you could just hear how his heart shattered all those years ago. But then when he got to the end, you saw that it made him the man he is today, and no one can take that from him.

  “You’re just like an onion,” I say right when we get to the barn, and he opens the door. “So many layers to you.”

  He laughs at me. “I’ll start the coffee.” I watch him walk to the kitchen, and I take a minute to watch his perfect ass before I walk over to Lady Princess.

  “Good morning, girl,” I say, putting out my hand, and she comes to me. The horse beside her sticks out her nose. “Does someone else want attention, too?” I laugh and walk over to the horse. Her brown coat shines under the soft light from her stall. “Good morning to you, too.” I rub her nose, and she breathes out. “Now, now,” I say, rubbing her side. “Don’t be all cranky.”

  “She likes you.” I hear him from behind me.

  “I like her, too,” I admit. “She’s a beauty.”

  “She doesn’t like anyone.” He laughs. “She tried to buck me off her just yesterday.”

  “Well, maybe you need to listen to her for a change and not just order her around.” I shrug my shoulders, then look back at the horse. “Isn’t that right, girl? You need to be listened to and not ordered around.”

  “Do you want to ride her?” he asks. When I turn to him, I can’t even hide the smile on my face as I nod my head. I feel like a kid on Christmas morning coming down and seeing all the gifts on my wish list.

  “You see that right there?” He points at me. “That’s the best smile you got.” I look down and then up. “Your whole face lights up. It goes from your lips to your cheeks to your eyes.” I shake my head, and he just watches me. “You’re beautiful.” His voice goes even lower, and I look down. I’ve been told I’m beautiful my whole life from as far back as I can remember, but the way he said it—the softness to his words and the way he looked straight into my eyes—is something I’ve never had. “Let’s get you saddled.” He turns away just in time for me to wipe away the lone tear that sits at the corner of my eye.

  He walks to the side and grabs a saddle, then comes over. Opening the stall, he goes inside, and the horse backs away. “It’s okay,” he whispers, and she finally lets him tie the saddle on her. “There you go,” he says softly and walks her out toward the front of the barn, holding her reins.

  We walk out of the barn door toward the enclosed fence part. You can see from the worn grass in a circle how much the horses have been ridden in here. “Let’s get you on her.” He looks at me. I put one foot in the stirrup and pull myself up, without his help, and I’m happy that I didn’t embarrass myself by falling on my face. “So you have done this before.” He winks at me, taking her by her reins and walking her around the enclosed area. She walks perfect while he holds her, then after the third round, he looks at me. “Let’s see how she takes to you, and if she’s good, we can open it up and you can take her out into the field.”

  “I think she’s going to be fine.” I lean ov
er and pet her while I whisper into her ear. “Isn’t that right, girl? You’re the boss, so you tell me where to go.” It’s like she understands me because she blows out again.

  He walks over to the other white fence and opens it, the reins still in his hands. “If at any time you feel like she is going to buck you off, just say the word.”

  “Oh, a safe word.” I wink at him. “Didn’t think you had it in you, cowboy. I mean, I thought you did, but now it’s going to be making out even better.”

  “That mouth of yours is going to get you in a whole heap of trouble.” The way he looks at me, I know that he means every single word. I also know that what he’s going to do with me is going to have me begging him to come back and do it again.

  “I have to know. Is the saying ‘save a horse, ride a cowboy’ actually ever used?” He just glares at me. “I mean, I’ve never met a cowboy, so I’ve never actually had the opportunity to ask.”

  “You want to find out that meaning, then all you have to do is get ready to ride,” he says, making my whole body tingle. I swear, this time I can’t even hide the shiver that runs through me. I’m about to say something when I feel eyes on me. I turn around, thinking someone else walked into the pen with us, but there is no one. I turn to the right, and all I see are the heavy wooded trees and the little light that is coming from the trees. I turn around right and left and see nothing, but something is there. I don’t know what it is, but I feel it. “What’s wrong, darlin’?” he asks, and I turn to him.

  I contemplate not telling him about it so I don’t ruin the mood, but I know that I could be putting him in danger also. “It’s the craziest thing.” I start as I look around again. “But I feel like I’m being watched.” I try to play it off by shaking my head and faking a smile. “It’s silly, I know,” I say, and he just nods. When I start to trot around with her, though, the feeling is even more; so much so the hair stands up behind my neck.