Page 25 of Revelry (Cowgirls Do It Better #2)

Tate

For once, I’d come to her house and she hadn’t appeared at mine in a skimpy towel demanding showers like a tiny dictator.

I knocked and waited, pushing out a breath and watching it appear in the cold air in front of me. It was the first week of December and colder than it needed to be considering we were going on a hike today. I figured by the time we were on our way, we’d heat up.

Anxiety churned in my gut. I didn’t know where we were going, what route we’d be taking or how long we would be gone.

The unknown was not my friend, and trust didn’t come easy to me, if at all, but so far Gertrude hadn’t steered me wrong.

And slowly, I was learning to trust her.

The Halloween party, the costume I didn’t even hate, Thanksgiving and even the other day when she’d put my tools away properly.

I’d been getting agitated seeing her playing with them.

It was a herculean effort to let her continue, to push myself past my boundaries and give up control to someone.

Except I couldn’t control my impulses. I had checked them.

I let myself down when I was working so hard to do better.

And I should have trusted her. I couldn’t believe it when I unzipped the case and my tools were all in the correct order.

When I saw what she’d done, a weird sense of affection flared to life and it hadn’t left since.

Not even when she barged into my house all chipper before the sunrise and used up all my hot water.

Because I actually enjoyed our shower dates.

I would sit on the toilet lid and listen to her babbling away, learn her movements and enjoy the general feeling of having someone around. And obviously I got glimpses of wet, silky skin that just begged for my tongue.

The urge to jump into the shower with her was getting harder and harder to beat. I feared one day soon I was going to give in.

Because by now I knew Gertrude was not a woman you forgot.

Once I had her, there was no way I could forget her like I had with other women in the past.

So I needed to keep my hands to myself which would be totally easy if we were just hiking today. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

God who am I?

My thoughts fled when she opened the door.

“Morning!” she trilled, pulling a backpack onto her shoulders.

She was in an oversized navy sweatshirt which fell to midthigh and swamped her.

It looked like a man’s sweatshirt and the idea that it could be her ex’s had me fighting back a growl.

If she needed a sweatshirt, she could damn well borrow one of mine.

Her legs were wrapped in black Lycra yoga pants with thick socks and her feet tucked into her cowgirl boots.

“Do you think that’s appropriate attire?” I grumped in lieu of a hello.

She glanced down at herself as she locked the door. “What’s wrong with it?”

“You’re in thin yoga pants for a start.”

“And?” she cocked her head at me.

“Brambles.”

“Brambles?”

“Yep.”

There was silence as she narrowed her stare. I wouldn’t back down, I wouldn’t be the first to blink.

Dammit, I blinked.

“I’ll just have to avoid them. Anything else, O King of Hikes?” Her sassy brow made me want to pull her into my chest and kiss her. I blinked at the intrusive image, willing it away.

“Your boots.”

“What’s wrong with these? Best boots I own and they’ve lasted me a helluva long time.” She clicked her heels together.

“They’re not hiking boots.”

“Well, I’m sorry I don’t have all the apparel and didn’t come prepared…” she trailed off as she said the last part. Then her eyes widened in understanding, her features softened. “I’m not prepared but I’m sure it’ll be fine. Trust me.”

I grunted as she brushed past me. Seriously does this woman ever go around someone? She hopped the shrubbery between our driveways and hovered outside the passenger door to my truck.

“Oh, I get to drive?” I asked, surprised.

“Of course, I didn’t think riding in Princess would be that comfortable.”

I shook my head. “Princess.” I unlocked the truck and got inside, putting on the seat warmers to ward off the chill. I rolled my window down, then back up before facing her.

“Where are we going?”

“I’ll direct you,” Gertrude said, immediately playing with the dials on the dashboard.

I bit my cheek and fought back the urge to bat her hand away.

I was trying to step out of my comfort zone and not control everything, baby steps were necessary.

This rated pretty low on my ERP scale so I could let it slide.

I didn’t say anything as I turned the ignition and backed out of the driveway. I paused at the mouth of the cul-de-sac, waiting for instructions that didn’t come. I turned to Gertrude.

“Well?”

“Oh yeah, go left,” she giggled. “Sorry!”

I sighed. “Already off to a great start.”

“Have some faith, Tatey.” She patted my thigh, her palm leaving behind a warm imprint. I resisted the urge to tell her to leave her hand right there.

The journey was anything but smooth and I couldn’t work out if Gertrude was doing it on purpose or not.

She was late to tell me to turn and there was no urgency about it, she was relaxed like she had all the time in the freaking world.

She also didn’t bat an eyelid at any of the sharp turns or emergency braking I had to do due to a missed direction. She stayed calm and unflappable.

She eventually had me pull over at the side of the road. I got out, heading round to open her door and help her down, her fingers trailing over my palm and heating me in the cool air.

“Wow, it’s stunning!” she gasped, looking up at the trees around us.

I followed her stare, eyes running over the swarm of trees, some bare, some still full of bright green leaves and some with rust or ochre-colored leaves that lingered from the turn of fall.

The sun was peeking out and dappling through the branches, flickering over us gently but not taking the chill from the air.

Gertrude spun around and kicked her feet in the leaves, squealing with delight. I shook my head, smirking at her silliness.

“Kick the leaves, Tate!” she ordered.

Although I felt ridiculous, I didn’t want to upset the tiny dictator, so I scuffed my feet.

She tilted her head, placing her hands on her hips. “That wasn’t very good. You can do better than that.”

I rolled my eyes to the heavens before I ran through the leaves, crunching them under my boots.

She squealed and ran after me and we ended up in a sort of jog-chase-circle, but she was laughing and so was I, so I didn’t care.

I felt like a child again, carefree and mischievous and eventually the leaves were all out of crunch and we slowed.

Sighing wistfully, I threw my head back and drew a deep breath in, feeling my worries melt away. When I opened my eyes, she was watching me with a small smile on her lips that made my chest ache.

Grabbing our backpacks, I lifted hers onto her dainty shoulders, pulling her wild hair out of the way, the curls snaking round my fingers and attempting to lock me in place.

“This way!” she declared and marched off.

I hurried after her. “Do you have a map?”

“Nope.”

My stomach churned. “A compass?”

She waved a hand dismissively. “Compasses are for boring people.”

“Like those who don’t want to get lost?” I snorted.

“We won’t get lost. Have faith, like George Michael!” She then went into the hip wiggle from the Faith music video and I swallowed my laughter. She was a little ball of joy and how anyone could have treated her the way her father and ex-husband had baffled me.

We walked for a while, not saying much, just enjoying each other’s company.

There was nothing like seeing the blue sky, the multicolored trees and being in nature to bring a sense of peace.

I could feel myself unwinding, tension evaporating from my shoulders.

I felt lighter than I had in years at being out in the wilderness with my pint-sized guide.

Maybe hikes were fun after all.

The trek did little to diminish Gertrude’s energy as she skipped from one thing to another.

Dragging me over to look at a smooth rock, or a cute bush, before tugging me away to look at a fuzzy caterpillar or an intriguing clump of moss.

She dazzled me with her spirit and enthusiasm for nature and love of the little things.

It was the most chaotic hike I’d ever been on.

She paused abruptly to look at another of nature’s marvels, but I wasn’t paying attention and walked into her, nudging her forward. I wrapped an arm around her middle to keep her from tumbling into the leaves.

“Careful,” I huffed, righting her. She glanced around, her pink bottom lip drawn between her teeth, her finger tapping her cheek as she looked from left to right.

“Hum,” she began, spinning in the opposite direction. “Interesting…”

My stomach plummeted. “We’re lost, aren’t we?” The peaceful sensation I’d been enjoying immediately disappeared.

“You really have no faith in me, do you?” She was kidding, but there was an edge to her voice and guilt pricked at me.

I held up my hands. “Apologies.”

She twisted one-eighty and then thrust her hand out. “This way!” she declared, marching off, her hair bouncing behind her, her round ass shaking with each step and I hurried to keep pace beside her before I dragged her down into the leaves and had my way with her.

We eventually came to a clearing by a hot spring, steam rising in the cool fall air, a group of rocks towering out over the water like a ledge and I followed Gertrude to the smooth surface.

“Perfect place to stop,” she said, sitting down and taking her backpack off. She laid down, resting her head on her pack and I took a seat beside her, leaning my elbows on my knees and closing my eyes, listening to the bubbling of the spring, the birds calling.