She laughed. “Why do I think you’re telling the truth?”
Leaning down, I kissed her cheek. “Because I am.”
With a blank look on her face, she stared into my eyes for the longest time. “You’re in love with someone, Mitchell Parker. Admitting that to yourself saves a lot of rescue calls in the future, ya know.”
Frowning, I laughed. “Yeah, no. This was a random hook-up that I wasn’t into.”
She shook her head. “You weren’t into her because you’re in love with someone else.”
I let out a groan. “Oh, man. Mary, you always were the matchmaker. Not this time, sweetheart.”
She waved her pointer finger back and forth. “Tsk-tsk-tsk. If you think you can hide it from me, go ahead. I know that look, Mitchell Parker and even if you aren’t ready to admit it, your heart already has. Those ‘random hook-ups’ you aren’t that ‘into’ are going to become more and more frequent, just you wait and see.”
“Is my wife giving you hell, Parker?” Robert called out.
I stared into Mary’s light brown eyes before I let a smile cross my face. Giving her a wink, I replied, “Nah. She’s trying, but it’ll never work.”
She simply shrugged and turned to Robert. Giving him a kiss, she said, “I’ll make us up some biscuits and gravy. I’m craving it.”
“Sounds good, baby. We’ll be down in the barn.”
I followed Robert over to his Mule and jumped in the passenger side.
He started it up and we headed down to his barn. Jumping out, I followed him into his office. Robert ran the dairy farm that had been in his family for the last two generations. His daddy had an office built into the barn and spent most of his time there; he pretty much lived in the damn thing. That was until Robert’s mom finally had enough of it and divorced him.
“Beer?” he asked, tossing me a Bud Light.
“Thanks,” I replied as I sat down in one of the chairs.
“Want to talk about it?”
“No.”
He exhaled a gust. “Seriously, Parker? You need to figure this shit out. When was the last time you got laid?”
Pressing the bottle to my lips, I took a long drink before answering. “February.”
His mouth dropped open. “Dude! It’s fucking August.”
I stared at him. “That’s why I had Cassidy French in my damn living room earlier.”
“Why couldn’t you go through with it?”
“Because I don’t want Cassidy. And I don’t want the bleach blonde who had her tits all pressed up against me the other night at the club in San Antonio. I don’t want the girl who offered to blow me in the bathroom at Cord’s Place. I don’t fucking want any of them.”
“Because you want her.”
“I don’t know what in the fuck I want, Robert. That’s the problem.”
Robert and Cord where the only two people I’d talked to about Corina, and I’d mentioned it to Wade once. Fuck if I wasn’t driving myself mad.
“What are you going to do when she moves on, Mitch? When she gets tired of you waiting to figure out your shit?”
Taking another drink, I half-shrugged. “She was with some asshole at Steed and Paxton’s shower. Philip, or some pussy name like that.”
Robert laughed. “Damn, dude. Harbor any ill feelings for the guy?”
I rolled my eyes.
“She’s better off without me. At least, I keep telling myself that.”
“Why?”
With a look that said he should already know, I replied, “My job, for one thing. The fact that commitment scares the piss out of me. Plus she deserves a guy who hasn’t slept with nearly all the single women in Oak Springs.”
Now he really laughed. “For Pete’s sake. All of you Parker boys have slept with all of Oak Springs and beyond. I wouldn’t doubt if one of you put the moves on my wife at some point.”
I held up my hands. “That was Tripp who put the moves on Mary. Not me.”
He frowned. “Are you kidding right now? When the fuck did he do that?”
Oh, shit.
“Um, what?”
He lifted his brows. “Did Tripp fuck my wife? I mean, before she became my wife.”
Aw, fuck. “What?”
Robert stood. “I’ll kill him.”
I walked over and put my hand on his chest. “Christ, Robert. Tripp was in a bad place, Mary had just lost her parents. It was one time.”
He let out the breath he was holding. “I wasn’t dating her then.”
“No joke. You know Tripp wouldn’t do that, and you know damn well Mary isn’t the type to cheat. Dude, please don’t bring it up to her. She’s married to you now and expecting your first child. Leave the past in the past.”
“Leave the past in the past? Do you hear what you just told me, Mitch? Here you are worried about what Corina will think about the women of Oak Springs and the next second you’re preaching to me about forgetting something from a while back. Pot, meet kettle.”