Heartland (True North #7) - Sarina Bowen Page 0,56

a story there,” the woman says, lifting an eyebrow.

“That’s what I said,” Rickie grumbles from somewhere behind me.

I ignore him. “So could I possibly leave these with you and ask her to follow up?” I extend the boxes a little farther in her direction. And—thank goodness—she takes them.

“Sure.” She cracks open the lid of the box on top. “These do look pretty fabulous. They’re handmade in Leah’s creamery?”

“That’s right. Leah is Chastity’s cousin.” Distantly, anyway. Apparently everyone from the compound is related to everyone else by marriage if not blood.

She plucks one out of the box and bites into it. “Okay, wow.” She chews happily for a minute. “These are delicious. And you’re ramping up for the holiday season?”

“Right. Our first delivery is in two weeks. And here’s the order form with all the information and pricing.” I put it down on her desk before she can object. “I’ll let Chastity know you got your boxes.”

“Okay, kid.” She shakes her head. “I hope you get your shit under control.”

“Thanks,” I murmur. “You have a nice day.”

I leave her office and find Rickie, who’s picking out a few different fancy cheeses. “These prices are pretty high,” he says.

“Let’s go to our regular store, then.”

“No way. You brought me to good cheese. I shall dine on good cheese. And you’re paying half.”

“Okay.” If there’s one thing I’ve learned by now it’s that fucking things up is expensive. “They have fresh bagels.”

“Ooh! Get some of those. And don’t forget the smoked salmon.”

“It’s like fifteen bucks a pound!”

“Just get a little,” he insists. “We’re going to eat really well while you tell me what stupid thing you’ve done now.”

We do eat well. But the gourmet food doesn’t make it any easier to explain what happened. I begin by stumbling through an outline of what transpired between Chastity and me. Not that it’s easy to explain the way we went from arguing to…

My pulse jumps when I picture Chastity naked and begging me to fuck her. Did that really happen?

“I’m not half as surprised about the sex as you are.” Rickie snorts as I tear my napkin into little shreds. “That was just overdue.”

“Yeah, maybe, but…” I don’t know how to explain it without being crude. “I wasn’t gentle. It was wild and—” I swallow hard. Use me, she’d said. And now I’m worried I did that exact thing. “And before I got a chance to talk to her and make sense of it, Kaitlyn turned up.”

“Oh shit.” Rickie whistles under his breath.

“I think she heard the whole thing. And she did not take it well.” I tell him every horrible thing she said.

“Ouch,” Rickie says, getting up to pour water from the tea kettle into both our mugs. “So you're upset because Kaitlyn told the truth?”

“No! Jesus H.” Was he even listening? “I’m upset because Kaitlyn twisted the truth. I never said Chastity was unattractive. And it’s not like we sat around discussing her.”

“What did you say, then?”

“I told Kaitlin that I wasn’t attracted to Chastity. It’s not the same thing at all.”

Rickie carries the mugs back to the kitchen table. “It’s not exactly the same, no. But it still wouldn’t be that easy to hear from the guy you just handed your v-card to.”

I let out a groan, because he’s right. “The only reason I ever denied my attraction to Chastity was that Kaitlyn wouldn’t shut up about it. We never would have had the conversation if she wasn't insane.”

“Is she, though?”

“Yes!”

He drops tea bags into the mugs. “Are you attracted to Chastity?”

“Of course I am!” I shout, jumping out of my kitchen chair. “We just about burned her bed down last night.”

Rickie pretends to duck. “Well, now we're getting somewhere.” He pushes a mug of tea toward my side of the table. “Sit down, hothead. I’m only playing devil’s advocate. And in this case, the devil isn’t too hard to find.”

“Fuck.” I collapse into the chair. “I’m the one who didn’t want to screw up our friendship. And now I’ve detonated it. But before it all went wrong, it was…” Hot? Amazing? Incredible? All those words sound flip.

I’ve had a lot of sex before. I like adventure, because I’m easily bored. So I’ve basically tried everything. But it’s been a long time since I’ve been so intimate with someone, since I’ve had that kind of clawing, desperate sex where I’m so stuck in the moment that I hope it never ends.

But they always do. And this one ended spectacularly badly. I don’t