Page 105 of Big Dill

“Promise me you’ll take care of her, Brody. Make sure she’s happy,” he says his voice tired.

“You have my word.”

The call ends and Jami is still shaking her head when she says, “We were placating him right? Because he’s drugged out of his mind?” I don’t say anything and her voice rises a bit when she continues, “You’re not really going to train me, Brody. We’re not going to compete as partners right?”

“Wrong?” I reach the edge of town and soften my voice when I say, “Jami we can do this.”

A sound crawls out of her throat. “Brody… I don’t know. I won’t be good enough. Even with intense training.”

“You heard Jaxon. It’s not just about winning.” I pause. Then, “Besides… it’s my fault he’s hurt.” My hands tighten on the steering wheel. “I… I have to make this right.”

Her hand slides over mine, and she gives it a gentle squeeze. “Your fault? How is this your fault, Brody?”

“If I’d left the truck… or convinced him to come with us…” I flick the signal, voice tight.

She glances down, face softening with guilt. “Then it’s my fault too.” She exhales, leaning back. “I guess… we’re doing this, aren’t we?”

I nod. “For Jaxon, yeah. But… for us too. For the social, for your new line. We can’t let him down.”

I lift her hand to my lips, kissing it, holding on as I pull into our driveway. On the seat my phone pings, and we both glance at it.

Elise.

I pick it up and put it in my pocket.

“Aren’t you going to read it?” she asks.

“No.”

“Is she…”

“I don’t want to talk about Elise,” I say.

She nods and in a low voice says, “I guess it looks like I’ll be staying until September.”

Is it wrong that I’m secretly happy about that? “Is it going to be that bad? It’ll give you lots of time to save money and work on your new line.”

Her grin is small but mischievous. “Come to Churchill Falls, he said. It’ll be fun, he said.”

“Admit it, you are having fun.”

“Yeah… but now you’re going to work my ass off.” She winks. “And I kind of like my ass.”

“Babe, I like your ass too.” I gesture toward the door. “Let’s get inside and I’ll show you how much. I mean hey, you did promise your brother to have fun, and I promised to take care of you. He left the ‘how’ up to me.”

She laughs, and opens her door. “I’m not sure this is what he meant, and as nice as that sounds… don’t we have Sunday dinner to get to?”

I give her a playful wink full of promise. “I can be fast.”

“Oh, I’m very well aware of that,” she jokes, springing from the car. Her laugh lingers behind her.

“Hey.” I chase after her, as a cold breeze rushes down the street. “You’re going to pay for that.”

She squeals, locking the door before I reach her. “Let me in! I’m freezing my ass off!”

“Just when I was starting to like your ass,” she shoots back through the closed door.

“Don’t act like you haven’t always liked my ass.” As I think about getting inside and getting a glimpse at her sweet backside, my dick thickens, despite the cold.