I’d remember what she looked like standing there in only her t-shirt for years. Fuck, I was hard solely from my thoughts steered that way. Maybe it was because I hadn’t been laid in a while. Maybe it was because I was back in the same town with the woman I’d always wanted. But still could never have.
“No, really,” he prodded. “What’s the full story? I know there’s a story.”
“The story?” I set the clothes down again and stalked past Kennedy and into the temporary command center. We were all ready to get out of Gram’s sewing room and into the new state-of-the-art building being built beside the bunkhouse. The floral wallpaper in here made me angry.
I couldn’t talk about Indigo being naked when I was holding her bra and panties. “It was… nine years ago. Buck and I were home on leave. My grandparents were away, so we had a party in the back forty—where I’m building my cabin. I came inside and found Indi in my bed. Completely naked.”
Kennedy whistled, eyebrows up. “How old was she?”
“Eighteen.”
“Ripe and with her cherry?” Hayes piped in. “I bet—”
I shoved an office chair in Hayes’ direction, and it went careening against his legs.
He stopped it but had to jump back. “What the fuck, man?”
“Don’t talk about her cherry.”
Kennedy grinned. “Did you pop it?”
I tossed my hands heavenward. “For fuck’s sake! I didn’t touch her. I covered my eyes and told her to get out. Then Buck showed up and nearly kicked my ass.”
“Ah. So you wanted to tap it, but Buck cockblocked you,” Kennedy added.
“No!” I exploded.
It was a damn lie, but I wasn’t going to give Kennedy any more ammunition. One look at Indi, all that creamy skin and guilelessness… yeah, and I’d wanted her. Hadn’t wanted anyone else since. I’d had women, but Indi was the fucking prize. The one I knew once I sank balls deep into I’d never be able to survive. Maybe that was one of the reasons I avoided her now. She was the only thing left, the only person left on this fucking planet with the power to destroy me.
“I promised Buck I wouldn’t touch her, and I won’t. End of story.”
“Right. Tell that story to your dick,” Hayes said with a laugh, then hightailed it out of there before I could kill him.
Chapter
Five
INDI
* * *
After three days in the wilderness with three couples from Omaha, finalizing paperwork for the trip and putting equipment away, making chit-chat with Brandon was the last thing I wanted to do.
“I’m wiped. I’m headed home to get cleaned up and go to bed early.”
I hadn’t worn the same clothes for three days, but I was dusty, covered in sunscreen, and hadn’t had more than a washcloth rinse-off in a creek in all that time. My hair was pulled back, but it was snarled and tangled. My mom had left a text the night I left to tell me she’d stuck a casserole in the freezer for me to heat up when I got home. The idea of her chicken enchiladas made my mouth water.
There were things that needed attention at Sparks Outdoor Adventure, but I could do them tomorrow. Or Brandon could take care of it since it was his company.
“There’s a band playing at K-Sparks,” he said, referring to the local radio station, KSPK, which doubled as a bar and outdoor music venue in the summer. “Want to meet me down there after you’ve had a shower?”
Ugh. I hated that he knew my routine. Ordinarily, I would’ve loved to head to K-Sparks after a long trek once I’d had time to shower, rest and recover. We used to meet there. As friends. After college, I’d thought I had the perfect job—a cool, laid-back boss with whom I was more friends than employee. One night, we hooked up. I’d been grieving Buck. Maybe I’d been a little lost. I’d also had a couple of beers.
I told him I didn’t want a relationship, and he’d agreed it was just a no-strings kind of thing, but I should’ve known better. Because now he was what the movies called a Stage-5 Clinger. He kept trying to make it happen again, and I kept refusing. It was getting damned awkward.
“No, I’ll stay in for the night,” I said.
“Sure.”
I took a step toward the door then turned back. I’d had so much time to think on this but had been afraid to say anything. But fuck it, since we were talking, I went for it. It couldn’t go any worse than my talk the other day with Ford.
“Listen, Brandon.”
He glanced up at me with a weird glint of hope in his dark eyes.
“I know you mentioned wanting to move back to Oregon. I was wondering if you’d consider selling SOA to me? You weren’t going to take all the equipment with you, were you? I could, um, take over as the new owner. Keep your legacy going, you know?” I flashed him a smile meant to make him proud of what he’d created here, which, I had to be honest, was mostly my doing anyway. He wasn’t the best at business, and he had no sense of direction, so he couldn’t lead wilderness trips. He’d taken a day trip group intending to go to Elbow Lake and a fun little cave, but he’d ended up getting them lost, and Search and Rescue had been called in to get them.