Page 16 of Any Second Now (Fort Collins Blizzard Hockey #2)

Love Language

ATTICUS

I slept like shit last night.

I can’t believe what an asshole I am.

Raleigh’s trying to be nice and I fucking maul her while we were watching a movie.

She’s vulnerable right now, and I took full advantage.

Well, not full advantage.

And technically, she kissed me .

Then I told her I’ve never had a problem hooking up with women?

Such an asshole.

I groan and the clerk at the farm store gives me a skeptical look.

“Can you just confirm this address?” he says, tapping on the printed receipt.

I pull out my phone and double check the address of Raleigh’s campsite.

“Yes, that’s right. It’s a pink RV. You can’t miss it.”

“You know this coop is not exactly portable?” The man draws out the last three words and furrows his brow with a deep sigh. He knows I have no clue what’s going on.

“The sales guy told me.” I shrug. It’s possible I’m going a bit over the top with the latest gift. It’s possible she is going to think I’m ridiculous.

“And I can’t imagine it’s allowed under the campsite rules.”

I shrug again. Her current flimsy coop is pretty well hidden behind the RV, so we can tuck this away in the same spot. What’s the worst that happens?

I need to make last night up to her. I know I crossed the line kissing her. But she egged me on. What’d she say, any second now, Atticus? Damn, that was hot. And when I pulled her onto my lap… a sheen of sweat pops onto my forehead and I get half hard at the memory.

Raleigh makes me feel like a normal human being. She rolls her eyes at me, makes fun of me, and the way she twitches her lips when she’s trying to hold back a laugh? I couldn’t help but kiss that mouth.

I wanted to do so much more to her.

Especially when she let that little whimper slip and wiggled against my groin. Fuck.

But she pulled away. She hesitated.

I know why.

She thinks—knows—I’m not a serious human being. Maybe I’d be good for a hookup, but not for Raleigh. She’s for real. She deserves more than me taking advantage of her.

And I confirmed it last night.

“How long will you be at the campsite?” the cashier asks, jarring me out of my daydream. He taps a few buttons and the receipt prints.

“A few weeks, I think.”

“Well, if you want to sell the coup when you’re ready to move on—if you’re not taking it with you—let me know.” He raises his eyebrows, knowing that I’m not taking a giant chicken coup with me in an RV.

I picture Raleigh driving away in the Pink Palace, without the coop or the chicken, and without me.

“I have a friend who would probably buy it from you for half the original price.” He flips the receipt and scribbles a name and number. “He’d also probably take the chicken.”

“The chicken is not for sale.” How dare he try to buy Megghen?

“Yeah. He wouldn’t pay for it. He’d take it.”

“Her. It’s a girl.” The nerve of this dude.

“Sure. Whatever.”

I accept the receipt, yanking it a bit too hard from his hand.

“Someone will be there in about an hour to set it up.”

I leave the farm store and make one more stop before heading to the campsite.

The Pink Palace is quiet when I pull up. I peak around the RV. Megghen’s not in her flimsy coop and Raleigh’s not in one of the captain’s chairs I left yesterday. Maybe they’re snuggling up on the couch together.

My heart pounds a bit harder as I approach the door to the RV. Boom boom boom . What in the actual fuck am I doing? Boom . I haven’t even been away for twelve hours after bailing post-kiss and I show up without any notice? BOOM .

I tell my heart to fuck off and knock quietly.

There are footsteps inside, and then the door swings open.

“Atticus.” Raleigh breathes out my name. Her hair’s messy around her head and she’s wearing a tight blue tank top and black leggings.

“Hey,” I croak out, obsessed with the way she first looked at me, which was with raw and open happiness, no filter.

“What are you doing here?” She swallows, and I watch her throat move.

My eyes drop lower and spot the bat in her hand. “Jesus. Everything okay?”

“Oh, yeah. I get a bit jumpy.” She gently leans the bat against the wall next to the door. “I can’t believe you didn’t meet Fred last night.”

“Fred?”

“Fred.” She nods to the bat. “He usually sleeps next to me in bed.”

“Right. I forgot about him.” I’ve never been jealous of a baseball bat, but here we are.

“I brought breakfast.” I hold up a hand with a brown paper bag. “And, uh, another gift.”

“Dude. Stop buying me things.” But she smiles and puts her hands on her hips, and I can’t help but let my eyes drift down to the curve of her breasts and the points of her nipples, clear through her thin tank top.

I pull off my baseball cap and slide it back on backwards. I hope she didn’t notice me being an absolute creep.

“I like buying you things. Besides, breakfast is not a big deal. It’s just some croissants from my favorite bak—” My sentence is cut off by the sound of a pickup truck pulling up behind my Wrangler. We both turn to watch.

“Who is that?” Raleigh’s brow furrows and she crosses her arms. “And are those… kayaks strapped to the roof of your car?”

“Yeah. Kayaks. And that would be the farm store guy here to build the coop.”

Saying it all out loud makes it so much worse.

Raleigh Hayes does not need some man buying her things and trying to take care of her. She’s fiercely independent—obviously—and I’m just going to scare her off.

“Sorry, did you say to build the coop?” Raleigh’s eyes bulge, and she looks at me with her jaw dropped. “Hold on. I need a sweatshirt.” She disappears into the Pink Palace, leaving her door open and dashing into the bedroom.

“Where do you want this set up?” The farm store guy in overalls asks.

“Around the RV, next to where the other one is.” I make the executive decision and really hope this doesn’t backfire.

He peeks around the RV before nodding and heading back to his truck.

Raleigh pops back out of the Pink Palace in a sweatshirt. She keeps her eyes trained on the man hauling pieces of a sturdy, wooden pre-made coop to assemble around the RV.

“You really bought me an actual chicken coop.”

“Probably not the most reasonable idea for a gift, but I know Megghen keeps laying eggs in random places?—”

“Like in the cereal bowl I didn’t put away,” Raleigh grumbles.

“What?” I rub my hand on my chin. “That’s actually impressive.”

“I know.”

“So I thought if you could feel more secure with her out here, you could reclaim the Pink Palace for yourself.”

“But that—” she gestures to the stack of wood the store guy is hauling out of the truck, “—is a giant, permanent chicken coop. I’m sure it’s not allowed to be built here in the RV campsite.”

“That did occur to me, but they haven’t complained about the current one, so maybe we can get away with this one. And worst case scenario, we bribe the campsite manager with hockey tickets or Blizzard merch.”

We .

“Hmm. And what am I supposed to do with this when I leave?” Raleigh turns to me, hands back on her hips.

“I don’t know. Don’t leave?”

She huffs a laugh and shakes her head.

“You’re funny. But I guess I don’t have to worry about it for a while longer. Lucy’s back in, what, three weeks? I can’t leave before she gets home.”

“How much longer is your sabbatical?”

“Five weeks.”

She’ll be here max five more weeks. Less, because she’s gotta get herself back to Connecticut. It both seems like a long time and not nearly long enough.

Enough for what, though?

We watch the farm store guy unload the rest of the wood and grates and I let those numbers sink in.

“I’ll have it taken care of. As soon as you decide to leave, I’ll get it taken down and away.”

Raleigh turns and I can feel her staring, so I look at her. Her eyes flit down to my lips. Remembering our kiss last night? Kisses? Now that I’m in front of her, I know I don’t regret kissing her.

I do regret the way I left her last night.

“That you, Atticus. This is very thoughtful.”

The feel of her in my arms, on my lap, our mouths together… it was so right.

But I can’t trust myself around her.

“And the kayaks are for our afternoon activity.”

“Huh?” Whatever trance she was in snaps. “Afternoon activity?”

“You’ve got a lake literally at your front door.” I nod my chin toward the gently lapping waves on the edge of the campsite, sun reflecting against the water and forming diamonds on the surface. “Let’s use it.”

“I do not know how to kayak.” Her eyes widen.

“What’s there to know? Just sit and paddle.”

“It’s not that easy.” Raleigh shakes her head aggressively.

“It’s not?” I chuckle. “I feel like it might be.”

“I… am sort of terrified of being on the water.” She cringes.

“Why?” I furrow my brow, but Raleigh freezes, like an extra terrified deer in headlights. At that moment, the farm store guy calls us over to talk about the coop.

Thirty minutes later, Megghen is settled in the coop and we’re on the water in the kayaks. I’m realizing that for Raleigh, there might be slightly more to kayaking than sit and paddle .

“Atticus!”

I look over at Raleigh, who is floating next to me in water that’s so still it’s like we’re gliding through ice. But she has terror in her eyes, obvious even from underneath the bill of her Blizzard baseball cap, which she dropped on her head as we were climbing into the kayaks.

“You are doing just fine.”

“We are SO far away from the shore.” She stares longingly at the Pink Palace.

“Raleigh? We’ve been out here for five minutes. Even Megghen could swim back to shore from here if she were with us. Plus, you have a life jacket on.”

“You don’t understand.” Raleigh moans and lays her paddle across her lap. I get ready to grab it if it slips off. “I get seasick.”

“On a kayak?” I suppress a snort-laugh. She’s quiet for a minute, and I think she’s getting ready to answer me.

“I don’t think chickens can swim,” she says instead.

“You’re probably right.” I nod to reassure her further. “But I don’t think you have to worry. Seasickness usually happens with waves, an ocean, a different kind of boat, etc.”