“Your family loves you. Dax loves you.”
“But they don’t know.”
“Is it really about that, or is it about you still not feeling sure you deserve love?”
“I… Fuck. I hate talking about shit like this. Can’t we just go shoot something?”
“I suppose that’s a possibility as long as it’s legal.”
“What if it happens deep in the bayou where no one will ever know?”
“Ambrose.”
He grinned. “I’m kidding. Well, maybe. We can’t stay here, though, not with you telling your department you’re taking time off.”
“And you thought we’d go back to your primitive accommodations?”
“You loved it out there.”
“I think that’s stretching the truth a bit, but it’s got this haunting beauty. I guess that sounds dumb.”
He shook his head. “No, it doesn’t. I think that too. I know most people just see a swampy wasteland filled with muck and dangerous creatures, but I see beauty.”
“I see that too, especially after going deep in with you, but I also like reliable electricity and modern bathrooms.”
“You do realize that in most countries—”
I held up a hand. “I’m privileged to have those things, and there may well be plenty of people who live happily without them, but I’m not going to be one of them unless I have no other choice.”
“What if I said the cabin was your only choice?”
“Then I’ll rent us a motel room somewhere cheap. I need plumbing and air conditioning, but I am on a rural sheriff’s salary.”
Ambrose laughed. “It so happens there’s another place in the bayou we can stay.”
21
Ambrose
No one, not even Dax, knew I’d been restoring my great-uncle’s old house. They all assumed it had rotted away, but I’d been slowly working on it since a few months after my return. It wasn’t finished, but the power and water were hooked up again, and the lower floor had air conditioning, though I’d yet to put the ducts in for the upstairs. It might be a bit rough, but Eric would view it as far more livable than my cabin, and now that I knew how handy he was, he could help me if he really did want things between us to last.
I’d intended to show it to Dax first, but I hoped it would be okay that I was taking Eric there. I didn’t think Dax would mind, and I’d mainly wanted to show him first so I could gloat that I’d done a much more extensive renovation than he had, even if it wasn’t perfectly historically accurate. It was as much like the pictures I’d found in our aunt’s old albums as I could make it, and I’d even salvaged a lot of the original materials.
“Are you going to tell me about this other place we can go?”
He shook his head. “All I’ll say is that you’ll like it more than my cabin.”
“It’s not a tent or a couple of hammocks strung up between cypress trees, is it?”
I laughed. “No, you’ll have a roof over your head.”
“And walls around me?”
“Yes, now go.”
Neither of us took long to pack. I stayed out of sight as Eric drove through town, but once we were past where people might be watching, I climbed into the passenger seat.
“Pull over the next chance you get. I’ll drive.”
He gave me a disapproving look.
“Watch the road.”
He turned his eyes back to the rough pavement in front of us. “You have no idea how to find the place we’re going. I doubt anybody does unless Dax or Beau have better memories than I think.”
“You could direct me there.
“It’s too complicated. Just let me drive.”
Eric still looked annoyed.
“You do realize this truck is going to get scratched up no matter who drives it through the bayou.”
“Yes, that’s not the problem.”
“Then what is?”
He huffed. “I like control. I don’t like being a passenger.”
The petulant tone of his voice made me smile. “Sometimes you don’t mind losing control.”
“I might enjoy letting you fuck me, but letting you drive… I think that will be the opposite of fun.”
“Are you saying you didn’t enjoy the ride on my bike?”
“I was sure you were going to kill us.”
“You didn’t like being right behind me, pressed up against me.”
“Fuck, you know I did, but I don’t get to be pressed against you while you drive my truck.”
“No, but I’ll hold your hand if you get scared.”
He flipped me off as he pulled into a graveled area where fishermen parked when they headed down to the small dock barely visible through the trees.
He scowled at me as he shoved the gear shift into park and reached for the door handle. “Don’t make me regret this.”
I grabbed the front of his shirt, yanking him toward me. “Have you regretted any of the time you’ve spent with me?”
He held my gaze for several seconds then closed his eyes. “No. Not at all.”
“That’s what I thought. Now, let’s get going.”