“You too.”
As I made my way over to my truck, I couldn’t ignore the way my lips still felt from that kiss. Or how my body had come to life when Lincoln wrapped her arms around me. Or how good it’d felt with her next to me when I woke up this morning.
Pushing it all aside, I decided I needed to ignore it. I didn’t deserve a woman like Lincoln Pratt.
Not one single part of me did . . . not one bit.
Chapter Nine
LINCOLN
The entire drive back to my house, I couldn’t ignore how my body felt.
Because Brock Shaw had kissed me. Really kissed me.
My lips still tingled from his kiss. I’d never before experienced the feeling I got when he put his hands on me . . . intentionally put his hands on me, that is. I wasn’t counting last night’s liquid-courage word vomit he’d spewed or the way he’d touched me when he wouldn’t remember one moment of it.
Holy shit. He kissed me.
By the time I’d pulled in and parked in my little driveway, I was positive the smile on my face couldn’t possibly be wiped away.
Kaylee stepped out onto the porch of the house and watched me get out of my car. A wide grin grew on her face when she saw me. “Tell me you had cowboy sex or reverse-cowgirl sex—hell, any kind of sex—and that’s why you have a smile on your face!”
I laughed as I made my way up the steps. “No, I didn’t have sex. But I think it’s safe to say that Brock Shaw doesn’t hate me.”
Her brows rose in question. “Do tell.”
“I need coffee, and then I’ll spill everything.”
By the time I was finished telling her everything that had happened, Kaylee was staring at me with a shocked expression. She’d been oddly quiet as I told her everything that had happened after she’d left the bar, until Betty Jane had caught Brock and me kissing. A raised eyebrow here and there was all I had gotten from her.
“So, let me get this right. He kissed you in the middle of the parking lot of the bar.”
Nodding, I replied, “Yep.”
“For everyone to see?”
Taking a sip of my coffee, I replied, “Well, I think it was only Betty Jane.”
“Hence what I meant by everyone. That little kiss is going to be spread through town like wildfire. You have no idea how small towns are, and you even said she’d made that comment last night about people finding out.”
I brushed her off with a wave of my hand. “Nah, I don’t think so. She seems cool.”
Kaylee grinned wide. “If you say so. But this is huge, Lincoln.”
Frowning, I asked, “Why is this huge?”
“Okay, so last night at the bar, when I went into the bathroom, I got some scoop on the mysterious Brock Shaw.”
I laughed. “He’s not mysterious.”
“He is. Anywho, out of the two women I was talking to, I couldn’t get all the details of what happened to his wife, but it was something tragic; I got that much. And Brock blames himself for it. They said he hasn’t dated anyone or shown interest in anyone in a long time. I guess he’s been bull riding since he was, like, ten or something crazy, started professionally at seventeen, and that he lives, eats, and breathes the crazy shit. He didn’t come home a lot during his marriage, and I think that caused problems between him and his wife. Now, he tries to be home each week when he can, but he’s usually gone every weekend, bull riding.”
My eyes widened. “You got all that in the bathroom of the bar last night?”
She nodded. “I’m telling you. Small-town folk like to fill in the new people. I couldn’t say anything to you last night, with the subject matter sitting right there.”
“You said something tragic happened?” I asked, totally sucked into Kaylee’s God-given talent for telling a story—and praying she wasn’t about to tell me what I thought she was.
“I think she died.”
I covered my mouth with my hand. “Oh no.”
“Listen, I’m not really sure, but the way they kept saying how sad it all was, I sort of put two and two together. They said Brock was bound to not like you, since you bought the house that he and his wife had lived in.”
Sitting back in my chair, I nodded. “Brock told me himself the house brings back bad memories when he apologized to me, so that part I believe is true.”
Kaylee made a face like she agreed while nodding her head. “So, something tragic happened to the wife, and that’s why he sold this house.”
“I don’t think it’s just that. I think he loves what he does. And I can understand selling the house.”
She nodded like she completely got it. “Yeah. I can understand that too.”