Page 17 of Hot Ice, Tennessee (Hard Spot Saloon #2)

17

MASON

I’ve always told people that I’m a lover, not a fighter, and until tonight it had been one hundred percent true.

But apparently if a beefy guy shows up and clocks Jesse in the jaw—breaking us up when I really wanted to kiss him—I turn into a fighter real damn fast.

I didn’t think about the fact that he was built like a Mack truck and had just sucker punched Jesse. I tossed off my flannel, chucked it to the side, and landed a punch right on him. I shoved him off, using every bit of advantage I had from my own element of surprise, and he seemed stunned that some random cowboy outside a bar would even try to lay a hand on him.

Elliot .

Jesse had mentioned him plenty enough for me to know that I didn’t like him. I knew that I recognized his face at first. He was one of the players on Jesse’s team, and I’d also quickly spotted him in the frat house, the night I’d gone there.

“Holy shit,” I whispered under my breath, looking down at Jesse as ice-cold fear went through my veins.

“Fuck you,” Elliot said, glaring at me and wiping at a stray spot of blood that had appeared on his cheek.

I pushed open one of the front doors of the Hard Spot, yelling inside as loud as I could. “Help out here, please!”

I caught Kane’s eyes and he ran out from behind the bar, coming outside a moment later.

“What the hell is going on out here?” Kane roared.

Elliot was holding up his hands, feigning innocence. “That guy punched me. He’s out of his mind.”

“Jesse,” I said, ignoring every word that came out of Elliot’s mouth. I cradled Jesse’s head, watching as he blinked, coming back into consciousness.

I’d never felt more relieved in my fucking life.

“You’re here,” Jesse said as he looked up at me, a smile spreading over his face even as his face swelled a little on one side.

“Going to get him to the ER. I think he’s okay, but he needs to be checked,” I said.

Jesse was clearly out of it, but he was starting to mumble again, slightly incoherently. “Kiss me, Mason. Why’d you stop kissing me?”

Heat ripped through my body.

Kane had definitely heard Jesse say that. But none of that mattered when he was lying here, only half-conscious.

Kane body blocked Elliot. “You’re not going anywhere.”

“Jesse, where are your car keys?” I asked.

“Keys to my heart, right with you,” Jesse mumbled.

I felt around his pockets, finding them and pulling them out. “Going to take his car.”

“Don’t you have your truck?” Kane asked.

“Ah, no,” I admitted. “Jesse drove me here.”

Kane nodded, a hint of a question in his eyes that there was no time for us to dwell on.

“Go ahead,” Kane said. “I’ve got this fucking asshole taken care of.”

Miraculously, with a little help, Jesse was able to get back onto his feet. I let him lean on me completely, taking him to the passenger seat of his car and guiding him in. He seemed to be regaining consciousness slowly but surely, and when I got in the driver’s seat, I gunned it down Second Street toward the local hospital.

Luckily, we were close. I talked to Jesse the whole ride there, asking him questions that he was able to answer: what year it was, what season, and simple math. Within three minutes, I was pulling up outside the ER and throwing the car into park.

“These things are expensive,” Jesse said, peering at the emergency room.

“Jesse, I’ll pay every dime. Don’t think about that right now.”

The waiting room was mercifully mostly empty. We only had to wait ten minutes before Jesse was seen, and with each passing minute he was more and more himself.

“I was so dumb to ever be with that person,” he was saying as he sat on the edge of a hospital bed, waiting for a doctor to show up. “God, I don’t want to live with regrets, Mason, but when it comes to him…”

“I understand,” I said. “But don’t worry about him right now. You’re the only thing that matters.”

The doctor was in soon after. She asked Jesse even more questions than I had, checked his reflexes, and shined a light in his eyes.

“It doesn’t seem like we’ll need a CT scan or an MRI,” she said. “Pay attention to how you feel over the next few weeks, but I don’t think there are any signs of concussion.”

“Thank the Lord above,” I murmured.

The doctor gave me a polite smile. “You did the right thing getting him here fast. You’re a good friend.”

My heart ached.

A good friend. Is that what I am?

She was out a moment later.

“Mason,” Jesse murmured as soon as we were alone together in the room.

“Yeah?”

“I don’t want to sleep alone tonight,” he said, looking at me and giving me a sad, sweet smile.

And I’d never felt the tug as strongly as I did in that moment.

I nodded at him quickly, pulling in a breath. “That’s why you’re going to come over and sleep next to me.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I’d really like that.”

We were at my house less than an hour later. Kane had called and said that Elliot had left, and that Jesse was in his rights to press charges if he decided to. But tonight, all Jesse wanted was peace. He didn’t want to think about Elliot, and I couldn’t blame him.

Every other time Jesse had come over, it had felt heated, like I didn’t know what either of us might do next.

This time was entirely different.

As we got out of his car and walked to the front door, it was as if Jesse had never been socked in the face at all. He was walking and talking as normal, and aside from a couple places that were red or bruised on the side of his face, he was… himself.

Just calmer.

More at peace than I’d ever seen him.

I let us in the front door and we walked over to the living room. I turned on a few lamps, and Jesse breathed deep.

“Your house always smells so good,” he said. “The light scent of wood.”

“It’s one of my favorite scents,” I said. “When we used to go on trips as a kid, I’d always come back here and remember the smell of home. When you’re away for a while, it always smells stronger when you come back.”

I looked back at him, his tan skin glowing in the low light.

This man wanted to share a bed with me. Not even just for a hookup.

I didn’t know when I’d gotten so lucky, but I wasn’t in the business of questioning it anymore. After seeing him knocked out on the ground, I didn’t really have a doubt in my mind anymore about what my feelings were for him.

“I need to go check on the horses before I head upstairs,” I told him. “You can shower if you want, and change into any of the clean clothes in my dresser.”

“I’ll come out with you,” he said. “To see the horses.”

“You sure about that? I think resting might be the best thing right now.”

He was already walking toward the door. “I’m still trying to burn off some leftover adrenaline.”

“I won’t argue with that.”

He followed me out back and down the short path that led to the stables. The heat was finally starting to dissipate now that it was later in the night, and I listened to the soft sound of our shoes crunching over the dirt. The moon lit up the sky above the whole ranch, and every few yards we passed another one of my little solar lights along the path.

There was so much I wanted to say to him.

So much I felt like we needed to talk about, whenever the time was right.

But with each step we took, I was more and more certain that tonight, we weren’t going to talk about any of it. The silence between us felt more comfortable than any silence before, and strangely, it felt like I’d known Jesse for years.

What was this feeling?

It was like… the same feeling I’d had earlier in the car, where I didn’t feel like I was searching, for once.

Like everything I needed was here.

We walked close to each other. When we got to the horses, Jesse helped me check each of their feed and water buckets, which were plenty full after I’d seen them in the afternoon. He gave each horse some attention, particularly telling Maisie she was a sweet girl.

When we got back inside and headed upstairs, I asked him what he needed.

“A shower,” he said.

I nodded. “Coming right up.”

“A shower with you in it,” he added, giving me a quick look before turning and slowly stripping off each piece of clothing he was wearing. He left a trail of his clothes on my bedroom floor as he walked to my bathroom.

I followed after him. I took off my own clothes, then reached into the shower and turned on the water. As soon as we stepped inside, Jesse leaned over me, pressing his lips to mine. The water beat down on my back as Jesse wrapped his arms around me, gently guiding me until we both leaned against the shower wall.

“This is all I wanted,” he murmured against my lips. “Outside the bar.”

“Me too. We should have just kept kissing and let him punch us both into an unconscious heap on the floor.”

“Would be worth it.”

“I know.”

“Do you, uh, happen to remember what you said, when you were just waking back up?” I asked gingerly.

The steam of the shower billowed up around him in plumes. “I don’t remember much until we were in my car.”

I bit my lower lip. “You… told me to keep kissing you. While Kane was there.”

Jesse paused for a moment, then nodded. “I see.”

“Kane was distracted, but… I don’t think he’s going to just forget about that one. Didn’t want you to be blindsided.”

He hummed. “Nothing good happens when I’m blindsided.”

A few minutes later we had toweled off, put on soft pairs of shorts, and tucked into bed. When I shut off the lights, I turned over to immediately feel Jesse’s arms coming out, pulling me close to him in bed.

My heart beat a little quicker inside me.

This was what I’d been avoiding when I left his frat house that night. What I’d been so goddamn afraid of.

“Jesse,” I whispered against my pillow as he draped his arms around me, like a tight hug from behind.

“Mason.”

I swallowed. “It wasn’t always just about Kane.”

He was silent for a moment.

I swore my heart was beating so hard he must have felt it, having me so close up against his body.

“No?”

“No.”

He pressed a kiss against the back of my head, nuzzling into my hair. “Then why’d you run, babe?”

I practically groaned hearing the sweet sound of the pet name, the one I’d never felt like I quite deserved.

“I was afraid to fall for you,” I whispered. “I’ve been afraid of falling for you since we met, Jesse.”

My throat felt tight.

“I didn’t even know what it felt like to really fall for someone until now,” Jesse said after a moment.

“I really like being with you.”

I didn’t know what the hell else to say when my body felt like it was flooded with butterflies.

“Well,” he said, gently pressing a kiss to the side of my neck. “I think I’m off the market again. Because I really just want to date you.”

I exhaled, turning over to catch him in a kiss again. If I didn’t, I was pretty sure I would dissolve right into the atmosphere. It had never made sense to me before—why I’d been searching and searching, for so long, not knowing what I was looking for.

This was what I was looking for.

I couldn’t have found it unless I took a leap. Unless I broke out of the chaos my life had been for the past year and finally let someone see me.

Let someone know me.

And that tug?

That tug had been leading me there, all along.

All I had to do was stop doubting it.