Page 24 of Coming Home Country
She was so advanced in her studies that her teachers couldn’t keep up with her, so they began sending her to my classroom—two grade levels above—to keep her from being bored with the curriculum.
Mrs. Wilson parked her at the desk next to mine and told me to keep an eye on her since I was top of my class. Joke was on her because I couldn’t have torn my eyes away if I tried.
It was the strangest thing. I’d known Bex Crawford most of my life, but I didn’t reallyseeher until that day. It was like my world came into focus, and she was the reason. My life suddenly made sense, and my future became clear. She was it. The rest didn’t matter.
Might seem crazy to some, considering I was only sixteen and she fourteen at the time, but the same held true today. We might have gotten off track for a bit—okay, the train derailed in a fiery crash—but I didn’t want a future that didn’t feature Bex.
Too bad for me, she didn’t feel the same. But that was my fault, and I had to live with it.
“Have an idea of the best plan of attack to make that happen?” I asked.
She pointed at the tiny screen. “We don’t need to do them all, as long as we play this smart.”
“Okay, and how do we do that?”
“Cashing in on bonus points is going to be our best bet. If we’re the first to try hopping behind the bar, the odds are good we’ll shock whoever’s working there long enough to get a few extra minutes. Teams that try after us are gonna be out on their ear quick because the bartender will have caught on to our shenanigans by then.”
I nodded. “Sounds good. What else?”
“Forget the slide. We’re not wastin’ time on ten points. And over my dead body are the two of us walking into the drugstore and making that purchase.”
That one stung. Sure, we were all messing around today, the focus on having some fun, but to hear her say she’d rather die than have someone think she was having my baby? When she was the one I always pictured as the mother of my children? It cut deep.
You can’t be upset when you did this to yourself, to her, by not dotting your I’s and crossing your T’s.
“Where to after the bar?” I prompted, clearing my throat when it came out a little hoarse.
Bex’s lips pulled in as she mulled it over. “We’ll already be on Main Street. Zig-zagging around town will only burn time, so we should go down the line, hit up the bookstore, and then the Range—we can snag those bonus points easy. Pop into the church if we still have time. I could find those records in my sleep.”
“On your marks, everyone!” Aspen shouted. “Three, two, one, go!”
The group took off like a shot, running toward several vehicles. I kinda felt bad for Harper and Colt since they had to take extra time buckling their baby into his car seat while the rest of us left them behind in the dust. But if they were working smarter, not harder, like me and Bex, they’d be fine.
Thankfully, there wasn’t an argument over who would be driving with Bex’s broken wrist. She’d hopped into the passenger seat of my pickup without a word.
Only one dirt road led from Sullivan Ranch into town, leaving no available shortcut as everyone headed toward Main Street. We watched Mac and Aspen dip into the drugstore and Tripp and Penny disappear into the bookstore, so our plan to be the first ones at the bar remained intact.
I parked in the lot out back, and we slid in through the rear entrance near the bathrooms. Before we made it down the hall, Bex halted me with a hand to my elbow.
The tiniest gasp sounded when she realized what she’d done, and she pulled away quickly as if touching me had burned her.
Closing her eyes, she shook her head quickly before reopening them. “We have to decide who’s hopping behind the bar and who’s going to film. And we don’t want to be too obvious about it, so whoever’s holding the camera needs to hide out of sight.”
“I’ll take the bar. People are used to seeing me around here. You’ll draw too much attention.”
Her lids lowered until only the tiniest hint of brown was visible. “Hole not deep enough for you, Tucker?”
My comment hadn’t been meant as a dig, but she was itching for a fight. We needed to clear the air at some point, but now wasn’t the time. The last thing we needed was witnesses when all the dirty laundry came out.
“You got the camera out or what? Because if I’m doin’ this, it better not be for nothing.”
Rolling her eyes, she shoved past me in the tight hallway. “Wait for my signal.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I drawled, allowing my twang to surface. Lord knows I loved the woman, but her attitude was starting to get me a little hot under the collar.
I could already tell we weren’t going to make it through this day in one piece.
Bex hustled her butt to a back booth, propping her phone on a napkin holder so that the outward-facing camera was pointed toward the bar. She gave the nod, which I returned and then sucked in a deep breath, getting my game face on.
