Not that we’d gotten crazy dirty. Honestly, she and I overestimated how easy it was going to be for the two of us to get it on. First, we had to wait for our tests to come back. That took more than a week. It was a fun week. Let’s just say I didn’t have to imagine what she looked like on her knees or what she tasted like. But Caroline was wary of too many meetings in the doc’s office, thinking that eventually it would become suspect, and she was right. Even before all our tests came back negative, we decided we couldn’t keep doing that.
Then, tests in hand, we were all ready to use Bev’s dad’s hunting cabin, only to discover Bev’s dad was using Bev’s dad’s hunting cabin. Jerk. So, a lot of our sexual interactions were chatty ones, based on my instigation of dirty sexts. I couldn’t stop myself. Ranching is mostly quiet work. You, a horse, and the expanse of sky. (Sometimes, there’s an idiot brother or two as well, but even then you're not always talking.) And when it was quiet, Caroline filled my mind. I couldn’t tell her all the things I really felt. The sweet, sappy fucking things about how she was unlike any other woman on the planet. So, instead I stayed in my assigned lane and told her that she had heaven between her legs. Or that I wanted her bouncing on my dick.
When she could, she answered me. And she wasn’t shy like I thought she’d be. She was her, real and so silly. I read her words over and over again.
OMG. I had an orgasm.
You made me have an ORGASM.
You are the bomb. Do people still say bomb?
I dreamed about your hands on me.
I can smell you on my skin.
OMG. I had another ORGASM. I did it myself! I was thinking of you. So hot.
I might never leave the house again.
I want to suck you. Tongue the head of your penis. I like how it feels on my lips.
You make me want to come. (That’s so cool. LOL.)
I can’t wait to fuck you.
She was so good at sexting that I changed her name in my phone and password protected her messages. (Again, my brothers were the worst. Was it possible that I was deflecting my anxiety and anger at them? Nah.)
Other than our messages and one instance on the way home from a meeting with Ralph Winters, the guy who was providing the horses and bulls for the rodeo, when we hid out on an abandoned dirt road so we could steam up the windows of my truck, we were mostly palling around. We spent a lot of time drinking iced tea and talking rodeo strategy and rodeO strategy. God, I could get hard just picturing her smile. When this was all over, I was going to be thankful that our sexual interludes were slowed by circumstance because it meant I got to spend more time with her, but right now I was constantly standing in mixed company with half a woody because I was always so hungry for her.
I smacked the wall of the shower. The warmth of the water wasn’t doing shit. My brothers were gonna get it. I wasn’t sure how yet. But I was going to think of something to show them that you don’t mess with the guy who messes with you. Something totally embarrassing. Something funny and persistent. Something they had to live with for a while. Something they never saw coming. Something way better than toothpaste in their Oreos or painting their soap with clear nail polish, some legit love-filled suffering.
I stayed upstairs longer than I meant to. First, I was so annoyed in the shower that I had to keep standing there willing my emotions to quiet down. Then I got fixated on finding the right shirt to wear. One that said to Caroline, Yes, I wore this so I would look hot for you, but also said to my brothers, See, I am not trying to impress Caroline Winchester. In the end, I wore a plain white T-shirt, a blank canvas on which they could project their ideas.
Everyone was already in the yard when I came out of the house. It was dusk and someone had lit a bunch of citronella candles. Caroline was cornered by my siblings, Kat, my father, and Kat’s mom. The kids were playing on a swing set my father recently had installed and Horse, Jamison, and Maddie were chatting at the picnic table where we were going to eat dinner. Not wanting to look desperate to be close to Caroline, I gave her a little wave and headed for the table full of my siblings' partners.
Jamison and Horse had their backs to the crowd circling Caroline, so I moved to sit next to Maddie, making sure to keep Caroline in my line of sight.
Without the exchange of any pleasantries, Maddie asked, “Are you really gonna leave her to fend for herself?”
“Who?” I shrugged. “Caroline? She’s fine. She’s smarter than the whole lot of them combined.”
Jamison’s eyes lit up. “Cody told me she was a real smarty. Like a bona fide prodigy. That true?”
I nodded and then added, “But don’t ask her about it. The whole town is constantly calling attention to her intellectual accomplishments, and it annoys her.”
“That seems dumb,” Horse said gruffly and instantly my hackles were up.
“No one likes to be stereotyped, dude,” I argued, trying not to snarl.
“I suppose not,” Maddie said, “but being seen as smart isn’t exactly an insult.”
“It is when you're isolated by it,” I snapped. “No one ever wants to be her friend. They all want to ogle the smart girl.”
Jamison gave me a look that only Jamison possessed. The look said, I smell fucking hypocrisy. Her eyes narrowed, her lips got tight, and her nose scrunched up like she was in a gas station bathroom. “Riddle me this, Wyatt. Cody was telling me that you’ve got a thing for pretty Dr. Prodigy over there. To be specific, he may have said that you’ve got your dick all tied up in knots over her.”
Next to me, under her breath, Maddie dramatically said, “Oh no, not dick knots.”
“Admittedly, looks like dick knots to me,” Horse said, egging Jamison on.
“What are you all talking about? I do not have dick knots—or knotted dick or whatever.”
Throwing her blond hair over her shoulder, Jamison continued. “I’m just telling you what Cody told me. Full-on case of dick knots, that’s what he said. He also mentioned that you insist on leaving your dick all tied up because you think she’s too smart for the likes of you.”
I huffed. “Okay, to be very clear, my dick remains in prime untied condition, no matter what any of my siblings say, but if it was knotted up about Caroline Winchester, that would be correct. I am in no way an appropriate match for a woman of that caliber.”
“Oh, wow, she’s got a caliber now,” Horse joked. Only a joking Horse is like a flat deadpan kind of a thing, so you're not sure if he just joked or if he’s annoyed.
Jamison shook her head. “Man, don’t make my points for me. You are doing to Caroline exactly what the Conwayans she’s bothered by do. You are assuming that her intelligence makes her different and unapproachable.”
“Nonsense,” I smarted. “I am totally friends with Caroline. I don’t see her as untouchable.”
“No,” Maddie said gently. “Just unfuckable.”
Ha. I laughed internally. They had that wrong.
“What are you smiling about?” Jamison asked, prodding.
“I promise you,” I said. “If she wants me to fuck her, I will.”
“Oh,” Horse said like he had just realized something.
Jamison turned to him. “What?”