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JT climbed into the driver's seat. She slid her hand across the bench to rest it on his denim clad thigh.

He slid the keys into the ignition, but instead of starting the car, he turned to her, quizzically. "I don't get it."

"Get what?"

"Him." He gestured across the street, where Gregory and Angela were sitting in Gregory's white Suburban. "How could he possibly leave you for her? I mean, you're like a ten. And she's like... a six on her best hair day."

Tell me more. Instead she said, "Relationships aren't all about looks."

"Fine, but you're also smart, kind, funny as hell and easy to be around. Talk about going out for hamburger when you've got filet mignon at home."

Colleen laughed. Yes, she prided herself on being a kind person, but she was human enough, and petty enough, to appreciate JT denigrating her former rival.

She could almost hear Sarah's voice in her head. "Wait, he's sexy, funny, kind, and bitchy when appropriate? He really is too good to be true."

"Ask Gregory and he'll tell you Angela makes him feel 'special,'" she crooked her fingers into air quotes, "and 'appreciated,' in a way that I apparently wasn't capable of anymore."

"Yeah, I guess putting your body through hell in order to have a baby with him wouldn't make a man feel special or appreciated."

"She's also apparently way more enthusiastic about giving him blow jobs. At least that's what I gathered from the pictures I found on his phone."

JT's mouth dropped open and his eyes widened in surprise. "Seriously? What is he, like nineteen?"

"Seriously. What, you've never taken any dick pics or other photographic evidence of your sexual exploits?"

"Why, have you?"

She glanced down at her lap. "Nope, I've never sent a dick pic. Or any other pics for that matter. But from what I hear from my single girlfriends, we're the exception. You should ask Sarah about her one and only foray onto Tinder."

He laughed and shook his head. "I may be just your average dumb guy, but even I know there's no woman on earth who sincerely wants a picture of a penis. Not to mention that I don't want pictures of my junk floating all over the internet. And I've never felt the need to document my sex life. My memory works just fine, thank you very much." He paused and made a little huffing sound. "In any case, doesn't look like Gregory's going to be shown any sort of appreciation tonight."

He gestured across the street. Colleen could just make out Angela in the front seat. Her jaw looked tight as she faced forward, and her arms were folded across her chest.

"Guess she's not happy to have her baby daddy's bank account significantly lightened. Speaking of," she said, sliding across the bench seat to snuggle against his side, "let's get to a bank. I have a very significant deposit to make."

Chapter 19

After a stop at the bank to deposit Colleen's check, they went to their hotel to check in. With one arm wrapped around Colleen's waist, JT handed his credit card to the clerk with the other. His fingers stroked the curve of her hip as his mind filled with images of what he was going to do to her as soon as he got her into that hotel room.

He signed the registration and leaned over to whisper some of them in Colleen's ear, grinning at the way she blushed and shushed him.

"Your room will be ready by four," the clerk said as he handed him back his credit card. "In the meantime, you can leave your bags at the bell station."

“Well, there go my afternoon plans," JT said as the bellman handed him a claim check for their luggage. He pulled Colleen against him with a heavy sigh. He buried his face in the curve of her neck and whispered, "How do you want to kill the next few hours till I fuck your brains out?"

She gave a little laugh. "You're so romantic." She leaned back and looked up at the atrium above the hotel lobby, thinking. "Oh, I know. Let's go to a movie. I haven't been to an actual theater since I moved back home."

He hadn't been in ages either. Big Timber was too small to support a movie theater, and the closest one was an hour away in Bozeman. "Sounds good. What do you want to see?" He took her hand and led her to the elevator that would take them to the parking garage.

"I don't even know what's out. We should see something big and action-y that's worth seeing on the big screen."

He pushed the call button and took out his phone to pull up the local movie showings. They settled on the latest blockbuster from a comic book franchise. "Fair warning though, you're going to be too busy making out with me to see much of it."

"Promises, promises." She smiled as the elevator doors opened. "Can we go to sushi after? I haven't had that in ages either."

Stood to reason, since the closest to sushi you could get in Big Timber was to pull a trout out of the river and eat it raw. "Think they'll have chicken teriyaki?" he teased.

"Typical cowboy." She rolled her eyes. "You'll snack on fried bull testicles, but a little raw fish has you running for the hills."