Page 9 of Wild and Wrangled

Dusty

Dusty Tucker, get your shit together. You are supposed to be getting her out of her head. That’s it. That’s all.

Holding her hand while we ran to my car? Harmless. Touching the small of her back to guide her to the back of Stan’s store? Necessary. She didn’t know where she was going. Unzipping her wedding dress? That’s fine—she asked me to.

Dragging my fingers over whatever blue lace contraption she had on underneath it? Dangerously reckless.

Fuck.

I stood outside of my truck, letting the cold air outside bite at my cheeks and nose. I could hear my truck wobbling and creaking on its shocks—a reminder that Cam was in there taking her clothes—herwedding dress—off. It wasn’t the first time she’d stripped down in my car, but it was the first time I wasn’t in there while it was happening.

Take a breath, Dusty.

I dragged a hand down my face.She doesn’t need this from you right now, dumbass.She needs a friend. To help her escape for a few hours before both of us have to go back to real life—the place where Cam and I weren’t even friends, at least I didn’t think so.

While we were driving, I did my best to keep my eyes on the road and mountains ahead of me. There weren’t a lot of cars on this two-lane. It wasn’t the main highway—it twisted and turned around the mountains instead of going through them, so it took a lot longer to get where you were going. But it was my favorite road—the only one I took in and out of Meadowlark.

Now, I was looking at the mountains again—trying to think about anything but the woman who was undressing in the front seat of my truck, but I couldn’t. An image of her with her forehead pressed up against the window flashed in my brain, and I closed my eyes. The fact that she felt comfortable enough to fall asleep in my passenger seat had my insides doing a full gymnastics routine—twists, flips, jumps and all.

After what felt like forever, I heard two knocks on the window. My jaw unclenched, and I felt my shoulders drop slightly. I turned back to the truck and went straight to the back, opening the hatch to pull out a big Carhartt coat, a clean towel I’d just put in there, a pair of boots, and a pair of thick socks. I had to dig for those, but I was glad I found them.

I always made sure I had supplies in my truck—especially in the winter. You never knew when a canyon would close due to snow, and you’d be stuck in your car for at least one night, sometimes more.

Then I went to Cam’s door and pulled it open. I took her in, just for a second—she was drowning in that ridiculous T-shirt with her hair and makeup all done. God, she’d just gotten more beautiful with time.

“Coat,” I said and draped it across her lap with the towel.“Socks.” I looked down at her feet. She’d taken her heels off, and her feet looked red and painful. There were indents where her shoe straps had been, as if they’d been crushing her something fierce. I hated thinking that she’d been in pain this whole time.

I set the socks on top of the coat and the boots on the ground next to me before gently grabbing one of her ankles. “What are you doing?” Cam asked.

“I just thought…” I mumbled as I started to rub one of them with both of my hands. It was so damn cold. “Your feet look like they hurt.”

“I guess they do a little,” she said quietly.

“Does this feel okay?” She nodded—a woman of few words. I kept rubbing for a few minutes before putting one of the socks on, switching to the other foot, and starting over.

“What’s the towel for?” she asked after a second.

“In case you wanted to get your hair wet,” I said. Cam tilted her head in question. “Your hair…you don’t like it when it’s straight.” I shrugged. “I know you’ll say it’ll be frizzy or whatever, but the extra water and towel are there—if you want them.”

Her brown eyes were soft as she looked at me. Too soft. I couldn’t handle it, so I put the other sock on her foot and said, “We’ve got a thirty-minute drive to our destination, so you don’t need to put these on yet.” I put the boots on the floor of the truck.

“Where are you taking me?”

I shook my head. “I’m not telling, but I promise, you’re going to love it.”

—

Almost exactly thirty minutes later, we rolled into a parking lot. “You brought me to a fucking Chili’s?” Cam said with a shocked laugh.

I smiled over at her as I cut the engine. “Sure did.” While we were driving, she took her hair out of its bun and ran water through the strands with her hands. Curls started to form almost immediately. She seemed so much lighter than she did a few hours ago.

“This is so ridiculous,” she said.

“You know,” I said, “there are very few things that a mid-range chain restaurant can’t fix—especially one with chips and salsa and a sizzling fajita situation.”

Cam’s stomach growled. “All right,” she said. “I could do some damage to an order of chips and salsa.” She leaned down and slid the boots on.

“Ready to rock and roll?” I asked.

---