“I didn’t say but.”
“Yes, but there was definitely a but at the end of that sentence. It was a silent but implied but.”
“Jesus,” he muttered. “Can’t you just answer my question?”
“Fine. What exactly is the question again?”
“Why isn’t Nolan going out to Desolation with you?”
“I didn’t ask him. Listen, I realize that in your eyes I’m only a mechanic, but-”
“You’re more,” he said quietly, then met her gaze for a beat to let her see he meant it. “Far more.”
She was silent a moment, absorbing that. “I grew up out here, TJ, same as you. As the only tow truck driver in town, I’ve been called out at all hours. Alone. I’ve faced all sorts of things.”
He’d known that. He’d always hated that. Letting out a breath, he pulled into Wilder Adventures. He parked in front of the three-story lodge that he and his brothers had built, the late afternoon sun illuminating the stone and wood accents harvested from the property itself.
Home, for better or worse. He spent a lot of time away from there, and yet he always came back.
“I forget how beautiful it is,” Harley said quietly, and looked at him. “You ever think about it? Where you started out, and where you ended up?”
“Since we started out in the gutter and somehow ended up here, no. I try not to go there.”
“You didn’t somehow end up here. You guys worked your asses off. You deserve this.” With that shocking statement, she hopped out of the Jeep.
The sound of whining engines rent the air around them. Cam, Stone, and Nick-their pilot and mechanic-were racing on quads.
They’d had a lot of rain in the past few afternoons. The ATVs were churning across the yard, mud from the tires flinging up through the air in high arcs.
Annie stood off to the side, Chuck at her feet, the kittens nowhere in sight, but most likely in the lodge, creating utter destruction. Annie wore her usual dark jeans, vintage rock T-shirt, and chef’s apron. This one said: COMPLAINTS TO THE CHEF MIGHT BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH. She had her hands on her hips, and given her expression, she’d clearly rather be riding than watching, but Nick had set the law-no riding while pregnant. TJ was just glad Nick had told her that, since no one else could tell Annie what to do and live.
TJ set his hand on the small of Harley’s back and nudged her closer, just as Cam whipped past Nick and skidded to a stop right in front of them, the apparent finish line. Cam pulled off his helmet, hopped off the quad, and grinned. “I’ve still got it.”
Nick pulled in right behind him and shook his head. “You cheated. The finish line’s around the back of the lodge.”
“I’d have beat you there, too,” Cam said, eyes on Harley, a smile curving his lips as he pulled her in for a tight hug, affectionately rumpling her hair.
Right in front of TJ’s eyes, Harley softened, hugging Cam back, looking quite cozy while doing it.
“You’re not running clean,” Harley murmured to Cam about the ATV. “May be a carburetor problem.” She gently hugged Annie as well, rubbing her belly. “You feeling good?”
“I’d feel better if we could come up with a baby name.” Annie accompanied this with a long look in Nick’s direction.
“Hey, I’ve offered a bazillion names,” Nick said in his defense. “Ashley, Emily, Madison, Olivia. You vetoed them all. Even Abigail.”
“Not Abigail.”
Nick threw up his hands and looked at TJ. “She’s right, man, your quad is sluggish. It needs work.”
“Can’t be,” TJ said. “I just went over it.”
“Really?” Harley lifted a brow and moved toward the quad, inspecting it with a sharp eye. Not that TJ was noticing anything besides how her Levi’s were nice and tight across her ass as she bent down for a better look. “When?”
“Last week,” he told her.
“Huh.” She crouched at the quad and looked it over with a critical eye. “You did a pretty shitty job.” She said this so sweetly it took TJ a moment to process her words.
Cam grinned. “If I’d told him that, he’d have kicked my ass.” He pulled her up for a smacking kiss. “God, I love you. If I wasn’t already getting married, I’d ask you to marry me.”
TJ rolled his eyes. Cam looked just like Stone and TJ, but slightly leaner. TJ could kill him with one snap of the neck and make the world a better place, but he’d probably feel bad about it later.
Maybe.
Nick handed Harley his helmet. “Take it out for me? Tell me what else is wrong with it.”
“There’s nothing wrong with it,” TJ said.
“Ride it hard in the turn,” Cam told her. “You’ll see what I mean.”
“I can already tell you what’s wrong with it. You have a carburetor problem, and maybe a failed spark plug.” Harley slipped into the helmet, then looked at Nick, who was preparing to follow her on his quad. “Around the back of the lodge?”
“Yeah.”
“What do I get if I win?”
Nick’s gaze slid to TJ’s. “I’ll hold TJ down so you can beat on him.”
She actually turned and looked TJ over as if that might be satisfactory to her.
TJ arched a brow, and she let out one of her rare smiles. “Deal,” she said.
Before TJ could react to that, she threw a leg over the quad and kicked started the thing with an ease that was incredibly sexy.
TJ shoved Nick off his quad and replaced him. “If I’m the prize, then I’m sure as hell doing the racing.” He revved the engine, shot both Nick and Cam a long look, then nodded to Harley.
They took off. The wind hit his face and cut right through his clothes. It felt great. Harley was about twenty yards ahead so he floored it, his quad agreeably leaping forward, coming up neck and neck with her. She was leaning low over the handlebars in her black tank top and jeans, her legs hugging the machine like he wished they were hugging his hips. Oh, yeah, now there was an image…
Taking advantage of his momentary loss of concentration, Harley took the sharp right at the lodge and vanished.
TJ turned, right on her tail, content to stay behind her for the view alone, especially when she stood up, leaning hard into the turn, her ass looking damn fine.
The wind kicked up, but he still heard her laugh, and it caused one of his own. It felt good to play, even better to play with her, something they rarely got to do because though she was warm and fun and open with just about everyone else, with him she put up that damn brick wall that he hadn’t figured out how to break down.
Not that it’d mattered. None of it did. He was gone more than he was there anyway. And if he didn’t get his head out of his ass, the muddy, laughing, screaming Harley was going to win the race. She was good, damn good, but luckily he was better. He caught her on the back side of the lodge and neatly cut her off.
In tune to her swearing, he hit the finish line a nose ahead of her. He stood up and turned to face her, grinning.
She turned off her engine and pulled off her helmet. She flipped her hair free and looked at him. She was mud splattered, and her tank and jeans were plastered to her. “Fine,” she said, flashing him a rare but gorgeous smile. “You win. I don’t get to beat you up.”
“Maybe another time,” he murmured.
“Count on it.”
He knew she was only half kidding.
She shivered, and drew his attention downward. Her nipples were two hard points, pressing against the thin stretchy material of her tank.
“They’re just a regular old pair of breasts,” she said. “Half the population has them.”
Not that perfect, they didn’t.
She crossed her arms over herself. “I’m feeling cold.”
That wasn’t what he was feeling. But he shrugged out of his outer shirt and wrapped it around her, using it to tug her up against his broad chest.
“I’m muddy,” she said in protest.
“Makes two of us.”
She tilted her head up to meet his gaze warily.
“I won,” he reminded her.