I didn’t run flat out, so I caught up when we came to the porch door. I nearly careened into Rock, who’d just opened it. He had to put his hands up to stop my momentum. Maisy was right there to glare at me for bumping her boy.
There was something private in Rock’s eyes when he said, “Whoa, where’s the fire?”
I found it hard to hold his gaze. “Ask your godmother. She’s the one who took off running.”
“Peer pressure is no excuse.” With his pale skin, the blush he wore glowed like a wildfire. He lowered his voice to tease me gently, “If my Nina were to jump off a cliff, would you jump too?”
“Sure, I would.” I’ll bet I was beet-faced just like him.Christ. I am light-years too old for this.“You sleep okay?”
If anything, his color deepened.
“Yes. Elena ran?” He smiled shyly and I couldn’t help smiling back.
Our eyes met and locked and it’s not like I knew exactly what he was thinking and it’s not like he wore his emotions in the open. But I could feel him wanting me.
Hewasn’tnaive. He didn’t walk around in a cloud of innocence.
Not with the way he looked at me.
But his interest in me wasn’t only about sex. When he saw me, I could tell it pleased him—he reacted to me with enthusiasm, and I...
“Okay. Here’s brunch.” Elena came out of the kitchen with an old-fashioned picnic hamper in one hand and her purse in the other. Rock took the hamper. “Don’t say I never gave you anything. Your appointment is at one. I called Marge and she’ll have Dr. Declan squeeze you in too, Skyler.”
“How much will it cost?” I had a paper they gave me with the name of a clinic in Austin. I planned to go there when I needed to get tested and shit.
“Don’t worry about that. The doc gives us a family discount”—Rock nudged Elena, who looked scandalized—“on account of the boss’s entire family is shacking up with him.”
“How’s that going to help me?”
“Don’t listen to him.” Elena dug through her purse and came up with her keys. “The ranch has an arrangement with the office. Health check for insurance purposes.”
She opened the passenger door but before Rock had a chance to get in, she called Maisy to jump up in the passenger seat. “You two get in the back so you can share lunch easier.”
Rock and I got into the backseat. As soon as we opened the picnic basket Maisy abandoned the front seat and joined us.
I leaned over and spoke, just for him. “I feel like we’re going to prom.”
Rock snorted. “I never did that. My thing happened when I was a junior. You?”
“I went to a Sadie Hawkins once ’cause a girl asked me. She was nice, and I didn’t want her to be sad. I told her I was gay, and we went anyway. She was the first person I ever told.”
“You ever hear from her? After?”
“No.”
While he dug through the basket, I let my head fall against the headrest.
Elena had included kitchen towels, which we laid out on our laps, in case one of her highly stuffed, highly seasoned breakfast burritos exploded on us. Soon the cab of the truck was fragrant with the scent of onions and cilantro, roasted chicken, and Elena’s rich salsa Colorado—a smoky, spicy red chile sauce.
“So tell me” Rock leaned over. “The food in prison, what was it like?”
“Indescribable.”
“No fair. You gotta give me more than that.”
“You don’t need nightmares.”
“I dreamed about you last night.”
