Page 6 of Want You Back (Second Chance Ranch #1)
Chapter 6
Colt
Then: Spring, Senior Year
As I rushed out of Disappointment County High School, which served Lovelorn along with the other small communities in the county, I wasn’t surprised to see Maverick’s shiny black truck idling in the lot, but I exhaled hard nonetheless. I’d lost track of time talking to Betsey and Lulu, and I wouldn’t have blamed Mav had he driven on.
“You waited?” I was damn grateful for the ride because Disappointment County High School was a fair distance from my home and the bus was long since gone.
“For you?” Maverick shrugged. “Always.”
I wasn’t precisely sure what I’d done to earn the loyalty of Maverick Lovelorn, but at some point while playing arcade games our freshman year, we’d become best friends. Never called it that or talked about it. We just were. Kind of like him waiting. I’d known he would, just like he’d known I’d show up eventually.
“Another few days and that part for my truck should be here.” I buckled up as he headed out of the school parking lot. Maverick had received his shiny black truck for turning sixteen, delivered special to the ranch. His older sister Faith might’ve been neck-deep in wedding planning, but she’d made sure Maverick’s birthday wasn’t forgotten. Naturally, though, his old man had slapped a Lovelorn Ranch logo on the truck in case Maverick wanted to forget who he belonged to. I’d worked all damn summer to afford my own fourth-hand beater truck that kept breaking down.
“How are you paying for the repair this time?” Maverick was well used to my cobbled-together system of bartering, swaps, discounts, and do-it-yourself fixes.
“Yardwork.” I tried to sound upbeat. Could be worse. “Doug, the mechanic, has a wife who wants a garden this year. Guess who’s moving dirt this weekend?”
“You could let me loan you the money and get your weekend back.” Maverick shot me a look as he pushed past the speed limit on the narrow county highway. He’d learned to drive in much the same way I paid for things—a little of this and a little of that. Various ranch hands. Faith. Me. And at some point, he’d decided his arcade game attack style of full speed ahead worked for driving too.
“Save your dough.” I braced my shoulder against the seat as he took a curve a little wide. I glanced in the rearview. Maverick wasn’t likely to get a ticket in a Lovelorn Ranch truck, but one could hope. “You can use it for prom tickets.”
“Prom tickets?” He made a rude noise. “You asking me to prom?”
“Not with me .” The back of my neck went hot and itchy. “With all of us. You, me, Betsey, Lulu?—”
Mav cut me off with a scoff. “Sounds suspiciously like a double date.”
“Betsey’s too busy barrel racing to date. We’re friends. Same as you and me.”
The heat on my neck gave way to a bead of sweat rolling down the back of my shirt. Nothing was the same as Mav and me—my other friendships didn’t come anywhere close to the intensity. Betsey and I had been friends forever because her folks were friendly with mine. There was a quiet comfortability there, along with a certain relief I’d never confess to when she’d loudly proclaimed her disinterest in dating. On the other hand, Maverick was sharp edges, adrenaline, and unfamiliar feelings. And lately, there was an urgency there, a sense of time dwindling before Maverick left for college and escaped this town for good. I didn’t want to let the girls down, but I also didn’t want to go without Mav. “Come on. It won’t be the same without you there.”
“Give me one good reason you want me there.”
Huh. I sucked in a breath. I lacked the vocabulary for what Maverick was in my life, and besides, any attempt at sappiness was likely to be met with outright disdain. Pointing out how few nights we had left to hang out would mean talking about the future, a topic we’d carefully avoided all year.
“You’ve got the best truck in the school.” I forced a light laugh. “Girls love that shit. And yours is more likely to make it somewhere decent to eat outside of Lovelorn.”
“A sweet ride?” Maverick shook his head as a rusty laugh escaped his throat. “That’s the best you’ve got.”
“And you always make the girls laugh. You’re better at that than me.”
It was true. For all that Maverick was a prickly cactus when we were alone, give him a room of strangers, and he’d develop the ability to transform into a charmer, a chameleon able to converse on any number of topics, a stark contrast to the seriousness I carried with me regardless of venue. He thrived on attention and approval, whereas those same things tended to make me retreat. “They like you.”
“I’m not sure knowing how to bullshit is a strength.” Maverick was unsurprisingly taking the long way back to my house. We did this sort of aimless driving around all the time, but today felt…different somehow. Edgier.
“Well, it beats you being cranky all the damn time.” Frustration laced my voice, which was rare. Usually, I enjoyed being the only one who saw the Maverick behind the shiny truck and sharp wit. “And who knows, if you did get a girl, maybe it would improve your mood.”
Maverick abruptly pulled over onto a wide turnout on the gravel shoulder.
“What?” I held up my hands. Sex and girls weren’t something we discussed often, but my other friends made dating or at least the pursuit of sex into a singular obsession. I didn’t understand it. I’d nod and laugh in the right spots, but the subject just didn’t have the same weight for me. My stomach clenched. “What did I say? I don’t have firsthand experience, but the guys on the team who have done the deed all seem rather proud of the fact.”
“Strutting like a rooster bound for Sunday dinner is hardly a selling point for sex.” Maverick snorted.
“Don’t you want it?” I asked softly. Maybe I wasn’t the only confused one standing by, wondering what gene I was missing.
“No.”
“Oh.” I exhaled, the word filling the cab of the truck. “Me?—”
“Colt.” Mav cut me off sharply. “I’m only gonna say this once, and then I’m gonna drive, and we ain’t speaking of it again. Girls aren’t for me. You follow?”
My eyes went so wide it was a wonder they were still in my head. “You mean?—”
“Not talking about it.” Maverick threw the truck back in Drive. “You wanna quit being my friend, you go right ahead.”
“You think I’d quit being your friend over something like that?” I craned my neck, trying to force him to meet my gaze. I didn’t know any gay folks in real life, but my mom watched a TV show about a pack of gay friends and their city lives. I’d asked her once why she liked it, and she’d said gay people deserved happiness the same as anyone else. And that was how I felt about Mav’s declaration. He was still Mav. He still deserved all the things. “That’s the real bullshit, Mav. You’re my bro.”
I’d called him my bro before, but it never quite fit. I had brothers, both younger, and they had a tendency to drive me crazy and inspire my stern side. Maverick was different. Different from my other guy friends, too, especially over the last year or so. There was an awareness there I didn’t have with anyone else, a soft spot in my chest, an electric unease, yet a rightness to our friendship I couldn’t define.
“So we’re good?” Maverick’s eyes were wary.
“We’re good,” I said firmly. I might not be sure of much else, but I was sure of that.
“I reckon I could drive for prom,” Maverick mused slowly as he resumed our drive to nowhere.
“You just said?—”
“And you said it’s a friend group. Not an orgy.” He laughed at his joke. I didn’t. I had no clue what he was after. “I can go for you. Help you get in with Betsey.”
“I don’t know if I want in with Betsey.” I wasn’t as good at shocking confessions as Maverick, didn’t know how to explain that I didn’t think about kissing or sex like other guys. Sure, I got the same random hard-ons, but they never seemed tied to sexy imagery like they were for others.
“You want in.” Maverick’s expression was as grim as I’d ever seen it, but I wasn’t so sure myself.