Kissin' Tell (Rough Riders #13)(62)

“Takin’ you home ain’t a problem, Georgia.”


The hard set to his jaw and the clipped tone belied that statement. “I see my boss left me several e-mails about expecting updated status reports on three projects I was supposed to have finished last week. Now I know what I’ll be doing this week.”


“What?”


Georgia heaved a heavy sigh. “Burning the midnight oil. I won’t have time to breathe, let alone do anything else.” There was Tell’s opening, if he wanted it.


But he didn’t take it. He didn’t counter with a list of things he needed to accomplish this week and then ask if they could carve out time for each other at some point.


Tell left the engine idling when he pulled into her driveway. He didn’t offer to help her out of his truck like he always did. But he did reach for her hand.


Georgia looked at him. Damn man was so freakin’ gorgeous it was unreal. And it smacked her pride that he was done with her. Fine. She’d be done with him too.


Better to end it now rather than dragging it out until the end of summer. Didn’t last night with all the people in this town who are happy to see you miserable just prove that nothing, not even a smokin’ hot, super sweet cowboy who rocks your world in bed and comforts you when you cry, will convince you to stay in Sundance, Wyoming, anyway?


That snarky little conscience of hers had taken on a southern drawl and prompted her back to the cold reality of this situation.


Sweet Tell brought her knuckles to his mouth for a soft kiss. “I had a great time with you last night.”


“Same here.”


They stared at one another.


He said, “Georgia. I—” at the same time her cell phone rang in her hand.


Dammit. And it was her boss too. Calling her on a Sunday. She hadn’t been lying entirely; she had a shit ton to do this week.


Tell retreated. “You’d better get that, bein’ you’re so busy and all.”


Georgia snatched her purse and bailed out without looking back.


Late Monday morning, Tell drove to Ben’s place to work on the baler.


They’d been wrenching on the machine for over an hour when Ben said, “I’m takin’ a break before I haul out the sledgehammer and use it to try and fix this piece of shit.”


“Good idea.” Tell threw his tools onto the canvas cloth.


“So how was your reunion?”


He wiped the sweat from his brow. “All right, I suppose. Didn’t seem a whole lot different from high school, except for the bar in the gym.” And for the fact he f*cked Georgia in the history classroom.


Ben chuckled. “Booze was the only thing that made mine bearable.”


“It helps if you’ve got a hot woman hanging on your arm.”


“I wouldn’t know. I went to my reunion solo.”


That surprised Tell. “Really?”


“Yep. I wouldn’t have gone at all except I found out the girl I’d been crushing on for years was coming. Naturally I wanted to show her how much she’d missed out on by not getting with me back then, and by giving her the chance to rectify that.”


“And did it work?”


He grinned. “Oh yeah. We drank. We danced. We ignored everyone. We ended up doin’ it in the boys’ locker room and missed the awards ceremony. Then we went back to her hotel room and f*cked all night. Her plane left early the next morning.



“We went our separate ways. We both got what we wanted. No regrets, no promises, no invites to become Facebook friends. Just one night of turnin’ those teenage fantasies a reality.” Ben popped the cap on a bottle of water and drank. “Did it play out that way for you too?”


Tell leaned against the side of the barn, dreading that scenario. “It’s different for me because Georgia is back in town for good.”


“So what’s the problem?”


“Along the lines of what you said. Wondering if we just scratched an itch.”


“You thinkin’ that’s all there is?”


“No. I know there’s more than that since we’ve been hangin’ out the last two weeks. But that don’t change the fact the only reason we started spending time together was because she needed a date for the reunion. Now that it’s over… I don’t know where we go from here.”


Ben frowned. “You haven’t discussed it with her?”


Tell shook his head. “I’m the fun hookup guy, remember? My morning after conversations are more along the lines of, Hey, darlin’, have you seen my pants?”


His cousin laughed.


“Then Dalton showed up Sunday morning two hours early. We’d promised Brandt and Jessie we’d be at their place when Dad came over to see Tucker. But my dumb-ass little brother made it sound like some big, stupid secret, callin’ it that one thing because neither of us wants to talk about our f*cked-up family in front of someone that ain’t family.”


“So Georgia thought you were what? Tryin’ to get rid of her?”


Tell groaned. “Yep. Then she was dismissive. Like she couldn’t wait to get the hell away from me. And she was goddamn vague about her plans for this week. Complaining about bein’ so swamped she’d barely have time to breathe. Basically, she said don’t call me; I’ll call you. So see why I’m stuck on what to do?”