9
Time for a Snack
My body hung boneless,absolutely unhinged from what had just happened. I was like a limp noodle, so much so that the guys pretty much poured me back into the truck. There I lay in my seat, my legs just sort of draped in front of me and my body still shivering from the intensity of my orgasmic aftershocks.
“Let me get you some water, darlin’,” Derek said as he climbed in next to me, fishing around in a small cooler at his feet. He pulled out a few empties, tossing the half crushed cans back inside in frustration. “Well, shit. You guys drink it all?”
Nick looked over from the front seat. “No fucking way. I packed a dozen bottles. You sucked all that down at the rodeo? And you didn’t even win, you fucker.”
“I never win, asshole. And neither do you. Hey, wait,” Derek said, “here’s one with a couple sips left.”
He extended it toward me but I waved him away. “That’s okay. I can wait till we get to a store.”
I was thirsty but not desperate. Yet.
“Was the rodeo fun?” I asked, basking in the afterglow of incredible sex. Honestly, they could have said they were rodeo clowns, I wouldn’t have minded.
“I did some shootin’,” Nick said, touching his eyebrow in a little salute. “I do okay, just don’t have the equipment some of the serious contenders do. The winner had a pistol that cost more than this truck.”
“That doesn’t seem fair.”
Nick shrugged. “Not as bad as what the Olympic style folks do, but I agree with you.”
“And you?” I asked Derek.
Derek grinned, and reached into his pocket, taking out a small red ribbon. “Here, you can read for yourself.”
I turned the ribbon over, my eyes popping out when I saw what was there. “A pie eating contest? You’ve got to be joking.”
“It was kind of a joke, and don’t you know, I won the freaking thing,” Derek said, laughing.
“Hey, we’re coming up on a gas station and country store,” Shawn said from the driver’s seat. “Maybe a couple miles. And Derek, since you drank all the water, you’re buying.”
Their bro-banter was cute, and I chalked it up to their trying to make me feel as comfortable as possible in a strange situation. After all, it’s not every day you pick up a girl in a wedding dress, drive her a few miles, and then get down and dirty with her on the side of the road while she’s still wearing her pretty lacy bridal panties.
The store came into view like a spot out of an old movie or something. Instead of the bland, corporate steel and plastic construction, this place was a mix, with white gas pumps underneath a weathered roof, and a wooden main building that looked like it was a lot more than just your standard convenience store. It looked almost like a travel rest stop, the kind you’d find on the interstate.
Shawn pulled into a parking spot and squinted through the windshield.
“What is this?” Nick asked. “It’s different from what it was last time we were here.”
“I’m not sure,” he said. He turned to me, nodding toward the one end of the big glass windows. “They used to have clothes here and such. Thought we could help you find something to change into.”
“That would be awesome,” I said, looking down at the fluffy confection that had been pulled up to my waist not thirty minutes ago. It was a mess, dusty, dirty, torn in a few places either from my flight from the church or the eagerness of my roadside passions, and basically was good for little more than dishrags at that point.
What a stupid tradition, wedding dresses were. Spend a ton of money on something that squeezes you so tight you can barely breathe, and which is so fragile it tears at the slightest bit of tension.
“This looks like…” Shawn said, continuing to peer at the store, “normal gas station crap. No clothes.”
“Oh, it’s fine. I’ll find myself some runaway bride clothes someplace else. Let’s just get something to drink,” I said.
Since I’d looked at that bottle of water in Derek’s hand, I’d been dying for something cold.
“Let’s do it,” Nick said, hopping out of the truck and coming around to my side to open the door before I could react. I was surprised.
Guys still opened doors?
A lump settled in my throat, but I swallowed it away. After the discovery I’d made about Daniel and running out on my wedding, it was such a contrast for someone to do something so nice. It whacked me over the head with the realization that I was going to get through this bullshit.