Page 68

“Alright,” I whisper back. “Let’s go eat. You want to sit outside?”

She nods, sliding off the counter. “I’m gonna put my swimsuit on. I’ll meet you out there.”

I leave the bathroom, gathering up the food. There are a couple water bottles by the bed, so I grab those, then go out to the pool. The air is so dry out here. The hotel reminds me of a couple places I’ve stayed in Florida, but without the drenching humidity. I sink down at one of the unoccupied tables and start taking the food out. The desert has never been my favorite place to be, but this trip might change that.

After all, don’t some pilgrimages start in the desert?

Sighing, I let my eyes run over the people milling about. A young couple sits at the other corner, not too far from me. They both look pretty tired, but they're laughing and talking as they eat from paper plates.

The sound of Sabrina’s feet padding over breaks me from my thoughts. She sits down opposite, stunning in her yellow bikini. No cover up or shorts, just her long legs and tanned stomach bare.

“That looks amazing,” she says, leaning in to inspect the food.

“Go on,” I say, handing her one of the boxes.

She squeezes a lime over her tacos and has a bite, moaning slightly. I smile and get to eating my own. On top of her being the hottest damn thing I’ve ever seen, I’m also starving. We’re both quiet, too occupied by bolting our food. When we’re done, she sits back with a heavy sigh and stretches her arms over her head, letting her hands hang behind the chair.

“Thank you for asking me to come,” she says finally.

I wipe my hands. “It’s been fun.”

She looks like she wants to say something else. Instead, she turns and gazes out over the pool.

“You want to go get your shorts and meet me in the pool?”

That sounds like the perfect way to spend the evening. As I gather up the trash, I keep her in the corner of my eye. She crosses the pavement and hovers on the edge, adjusting her swimsuit. There’s something so…well, cute about the way she’s tugging at it to cover more skin. That’s not likely. There’s barely anything to work with.

I’m not complaining about that.

The sun hits her, making her hair glitter. In one fluid movement, she takes a neat dive off the edge and disappears into the deep end. I drop the trash into the can, and she appears, like a mermaid out of the ocean. The sight of her sends me back to the room to change into my shorts. She’s swimming across to the closest end when I return. I slip in, opting to make a less spectacular arrival than she did. She dips under and pops back up, smiling and slicking her soaked hair back.

“Looking good, cowboy,” she says.

I snag her waist beneath the water. I want to say something eloquent—that’s kind of part of my job, knowing what words to use—but she makes my head go blank. So, I just kiss her and slide my hand down her hip, gripping the back of her thigh. When we finally break apart, she gives me a look.

“There’s an unexpected item in the bagging area,” she whispers.

“What now?”

She points down.

I start laughing. “I think that item is pretty damn expected, baby.”

She slides her arms up around my neck. I lift her, lightly spinning her in the water. The sky has the water stained a bright, crystal blue. She leans back, her legs around my waist, and lets her back and hair float on the surface. Discreetly, because we’re not alone, I touch her stomach. A quiver moves through it.

“Thank you for coming,” I murmur.

“Hmm?”

“I said, thank you for saying yes to coming with me on this trip.”

She smiles. “I think it’s done more for you than staying in Wyoming would have.”

“I don’t know. You all have a nice ranch out there.”

“Be honest.”

I think back to the little guesthouse on their property. She has a point; I was a caged animal, even there. Briefly, I wonder if it was just too unfamiliar after all this time. Perhaps the ties that held me to where I grew up have dissipated. My mother might have been the last thing keeping them alive.