pond.
“Have you ever been skinny-dipping?” Pax turned the truck around and headed back to town.
“I was far too self-conscious about my size to do that in high school. Besides, that water is damn cold, coming up from the springs the way it does,” she said.
“Then I guess there won’t be any sex until they get out.” He laughed.
“How about you?” she asked.
“Not in Baxter’s pond, and not with a girl unless taking a shower together counts,” he said.
“I know just the place,” she said. “There’s a shallow stream at the back of the Bar C that’s pretty nice.”
“Are we going to skinny-dip?” He wiggled his eyebrows at her.
“If we do, that’ll be all we do, because our stream is every bit as cold as Baxter’s pond,” she giggled. “Not even a big old strong cowboy like you could keep things ready in that kind of icy water.”
“Oh, honey, I bet we could get so hot we’d boil that water,” he said.
“You know we really shouldn’t,” she said.
“Probably not, but it would be fun to try to see if we could warm the water wouldn’t it?” he teased.
“Oh, yeah.” She directed him to a dirt road leading off to the back side of the ranch. “I’ll open and shut the gate. I hope that beer was good and cold.”
“I had it in the freezer for more than an hour.” He turned when she pointed and then braked when he came face-to-face with a gate.
She was out of the passenger’s seat before the truck came to a full stop and opened the wide gate. When he pulled through it, she shut it and got back into the vehicle. “Straight ahead about a quarter of a mile. Stay in the ruts. You ever been back here?”
“Nope,” he answered. “Is this where you take your fellers?”
She slapped his arm. “No, this is where I go when my fellers or my parents or anyone else upsets me. You’ve heard folks talk about someone being their person?” She put air quotes around the last two words. “Well, this is even better than having a person to tell all your darkest secrets to. This is my place where I sort out all my problems. I’ve never shared it with anyone. Park right there under that tree.”
The clear water looked to be about knee deep and served as a mirror for the moon and stars. There were no kids playing loud music or skinny-dipping. Pax felt like he was walking on air when he got out of the truck, knowing that he was the first person she’d brought to her secret place. He grabbed the beer from the backseat and headed down the grassy embankment to the bubbling creek.
She followed right behind him with the quilt in her hands. She flipped it out on the grass close to the edge of the creek, sat down, and removed her boots and socks, then stuck her feet into the cool, clear water.
“Come right on in, the water is fine,” she teased.
“I wish this creek passed through the back side of our land.” He set the beer down and removed his boots. He whistled through his teeth when the cold water bubbled over his feet. “Damn that’s cold!”
“My cowboy isn’t as strong as I thought.” She popped the top of a can of beer and handed it to him, then opened a second one and took a long drink. “So you still thinking about skinny-dippin’ in my little creek?”
“No, ma’am, but I might be talked into skinny-dippin’ in a big old Jacuzzi tub in a hotel room somewhere. Want to take this quilt and party up to Amarillo?” he asked.
“I’d rather stay right here,” she said. “Like you’ve told me so many times, I’m a ranchin’ woman, not a city girl. If you really want to go skinny-dippin’ with me, then you have to do it right here.”
He took that as a dare, downed the rest of his beer for some liquid courage, and got to his feet. He found Luke Bryan’s “Knockin’ Boots” on his phone and turned up the volume as loud as it would go. Moving his shoulders and hips to the music, he turned his back to her and teased her by taking off his shirt a little at a time. When he turned back, she was on her feet and was twirling her shirt around the top of her head.
“Guess I’m not getting a thing over on you, am I?” He pulled off his shirt and