LOL: Laugh Out Loud (After Oscar, #2)(60)

“Scotty?” I called out, gasping and reaching for the pain shooting through my teeth. “Fuck!”

I opened my eyes and saw him standing on top of the mattress over me, his little butt sexy as fuck in navy boxer briefs. His fists were clenched and his blond hair wild.

“Get out,” he screamed, pointing at a figure standing in the door. “Get out!”

I followed his finger, still cupping my tender mouth. There stood a man I recognized. I scrambled to sit up, reaching for Scotty to pull him down next to me. “Shh, it’s okay. I know him, baby.”

Scotty looked at me with crazy eyes. “How many times is some random person going to sneak into this room? What the hell, Spartacus? Is this normal for you? Why didn’t we move the table like you suggested?”

The man in the doorway chuckled. “I tried calling. Just wanted to let you know we were here early, okay? Diana’s making breakfast. We’re starved. That piece-of-shit plane you chartered only had peanuts on it. I always assumed there was caviar and stuff on private planes. What a letdown.”

With that he turned and left, closing the door behind him.

Scotty blinked several times. “Who the hell was that?” he asked. Then his brain seemed to catch up with what the man said, and he frowned. “Wait, Diana as in your sister Diana?”

I nodded. “That was my brother-in-law, Earl.”

“Did you know they were coming?” His frown deepened. “Wait, I guess so if you chartered a plane? Did I hear that right?”

“I invited them—Diana, Earl, and their two girls,” I said, nudging him off the bed. “And yes, I chartered the plane for them. It’s not easy flying from middle-of-nowhere Nebraska to middle-of-nowhere Vermont without making a million stops.” I stood and stretched, enjoying how Scotty’s eyes traced down my body, lingering on my abs before dropping lower.

He seemed to realize he’d gotten distracted and shook his head to focus. “Okay, but why are they here? Why didn’t you tell me they were coming?”

I grinned. “Because it was a surprise.”

He didn’t follow. “A surprise for who?”

“You.”

He still didn’t get it. “Me?”

I wanted to bounce on my toes I was so excited to finally share the news. “Yes you. I asked him to come out and give you horseback-riding lessons.”

Scotty said nothing. He just sat there, forehead furrowed in confusion. It wasn’t at all the reaction I’d been hoping for. The moment Scotty’d told me he’d never learned to ride and how much he’d wanted to, I’d thought of my brother-in-law, Earl. It had seemed crazy at the time, but I’d asked Diana what she thought about bringing the family to Vermont for a visit, and she’d been all for it. She’d take any excuse to escape the arctic tundra of Nebraska, especially if it meant seeing me.

I’d been hoping Scotty would be thrilled by the news. But so far he just seemed confused. I wondered if maybe I’d overstepped my bounds, if this gift was too much, too extravagant.

“I don’t understand,” Scotty finally said.

“Horseback riding. You said you wanted to learn. My brother-in-law raises Tennessee Walkers. I’m told that’s a kind of horse even though I could have sworn it was a kind of whiskey. Anyway, when you mentioned wanting to learn, I figured who better to teach you than a professional horse trainer?”

When his eyes met mine, they were guarded. “For me?”

He looked so damn cute and vulnerable that I wanted to reach out and tousle his hair. “Of course for you.”

“No, I mean… you flew your sister and her family all the way out here just so I could learn how to ride?”

I nodded.

“Why?” His voice was soft, breathy. Hesitant.

I smoothed a thumb over his pink cheek and down across his soft morning stubble. I wasn’t sure how to answer the question. It was too complicated to put into words. So I settled with the easiest answer, even if it wasn’t a complete one. “Because I thought it would make you happy.”

Scotty hesitated a moment longer, thinking through my answer. Then he surged to his feet, his arms threading around my neck to pull me down to his level. My thoughts went fuzzy with lust and desire as his soft lips and prickly whiskers started in on mine. When he pulled back, I didn’t want to let him go.

He looked up at me, his eyes glistening. “No one’s ever done anything like that for me,” he said. “Thank you, Spartacus.”

I cleared my throat, feeling a little uncomfortable under all the gratitude. I hadn’t done much, other than make a few phone calls the day before while he’d been in the barn checking on Nugget. And Scotty deserved so much more than that. I didn’t know how he couldn’t see it.

I lifted a shoulder. “Of course. No problem,” I said, deflecting his praise. “It’s a slow time of year on their farm. I’m sure they’ll take advantage of being here and take the girls skiing.” I pulled away from him and grabbed my pants from the back of a nearby chair. “We should get dressed and get down there, though. My sister makes a killer french toast.”

He watched me for a moment before nodding and moving to the dresser where he’d put his meager stack of borrowed clothes. He’d washed some of them yesterday and folded them to use again. Despite Oscar having closets full of clothes, Scotty hadn’t wanted to take more than the bare minimum. He’d also refused to let me send his mother more than a couple of hundred dollars the day before. I didn’t even know it was possible to stay anywhere in New York for less than two hundred dollars a night, but he’d insisted sending her more than that would have been a mistake.