Get Bucked (The Valentine Boys 4)

And fuck everyone and anything that didn’t like me the way I was.

“I like you,” GQ said, turning to Darby. “You’ve got a good one.”

“She’s not mine,” he said at the same time I said, “I’m not his.”

GQ snorted as if we’d both just baldly lied to his face.

“Sure,” he agreed, humor lacing his tone. “I have an opening for a manager at the Apache,” he said, changing the subject. “It’s about half a mile down the road from here. The old drive-in movie theater right down the road from…”

I frowned. “There isn’t a movie theater in Kilgore.”

“Not anymore.” He paused. “But there was one a long time ago. I just bought it. I’m turning it into the gem that it used to be. I’m opening it next month.”

“It’s actually right down the road from where you live, Waylynn,” Darby said. “The place with the big black iron gates.”

Now that was ringing a bell.

Excitement started to lace through my body.

The drive-in was even closer than the diner.

And a manager position would make me quite a bit of money and also net me a little experience.

It could definitely work!

But first…

“What is the Apache?” I asked. “Why do y’all keep saying it like it’s some kind of secret?”

GQ’s lips twitched.

But it was Darby’s outright laughter that had me so interested.

“When Gibson and I were fifteen,” he said, “we snuck into the Apache.”

“And…” I pushed.

“And,” Darby continued, “we crawled over the gate, walked up to the closest spot we could get without being spotted, and then proceeded to watch a porno while people in cars had sex beside us.”

My mouth dropped open as if I couldn’t quite understand the words that had come out of his mouth. “I’m sorry… what?”

“The Apache is an adult-only drive-in movie theater,” GQ said. “Or was a long, long time ago. When I purchased it, it was with the intent of reopening it, and making it bigger and better, but also staying true to the original owner’s vision.”

I scratched my head.

“And you think I’d make a good manager for that… adult movie theater?” I asked.

He grinned.

“Not many people can handle Darby,” he said, tossing Darby an assessing look. “But you seem to have done nicely so far. And I’ve been searching for someone to fill the position. If you have Darby’s recommendation, then I think we’ll make a good fit.”

I scratched my head again. “When did I get his recommendation?”

“He came in with you,” GQ said. “He wouldn’t have done that had he not felt that you’d fit.”

I didn’t know what to say to that.

I was fairly sure that Darby was following me because he thought it would annoy me.

He was right.

It did annoy me.

Yet I wasn’t going to give him the benefit of knowing that he did.

Instead I looked at GQ and said, “What would my responsibilities be?”

Darby snorted and walked toward the bar where he then proceeded to pour himself a beer by leaning over the bar, grabbing a mug, and pulling it straight from the tap.

GQ ignored him as if Darby did this every single day.

“At first, hiring people that’ll work with what the business is about. Finding vendors. Setting up shop, so to speak,” he said.

I didn’t bother to mention that I’d never done anything like that before.

How hard could it be?Chapter 4

Me: Be careful. Don’t get hurt.

What he hears: Hi, I’m Johnny Knoxville. Welcome to Jackass.

-Text from Waylynn to Darby

Waylynn

My first day on the job, there was a porno film playing on the big screen as I walked up the front drive.

I stared, dumbfounded as Darby walked around with his shirt off, in only jeans and his boots, yelling, “I can’t hear any moaning back here!”

I came to a stop next to Darby, who clearly didn’t seem as surprised to see me as I was to see him.

“What are you doing?” I asked curiously, unable to take my eyes away from the screen.

It was early morning, just past six AM, and way too early to be watching a porno.

At least, I thought, anyway.

Darby and who I guessed was GQ? Not so much.

“I rode a horse over here to see what progress Gibson was making on the place,” Darby said. “And now he has me telling him whether I can hear the movie from the farthest speakers.”

I stared at the speakers that were next to the parking places where cars would park when they watched the movie.

“Oh,” I said, that making quite a bit of sense. “Is there a reason that you have to be watching a porn while you’re doing the testing?”

Darby paused, as if that thought had never occurred to him.

Then he turned and studied me.

“What else would we watch?” he asked curiously.

I thought about that for a second, then thought about the least sexy movie I could think of.

“Finding Nemo?” I suggested.