I was lying on top of him, and I sat to straddle him and slap him in the chest. I followed it up with some poking. “We could have had him! What were you doing?”
For a beat, he held a straight face. I’ll give him that much. Then his stomach shook underneath me and he grabbed my hips as he shut his eyes and laughed his ass off.
“Are you freaking kidding me?” I growled and tried to get up.
His hands held me there, though, and I crossed my arms over my muddy chest to stare death lasers at him.
“Meek, you dove like you were in the Army and there was a landmine. For a bunny…” He cracked up again, unable to finish his thought.
“Lorraine has wanted to catch that rabbit for ages. It’s been eating her garden for years, Jay!”
His eyes got wide and he looked at me seriously as he nodded along with my statement. “Yes, you’re right. That one rabbit has eaten her garden for years even though I promise you these bunnies reproduce at an alarming rate and all of them look the same.”
“No, but she said…” I sputtered out, unable to accept that my mission to win over the town and Lorraine was shot to shit.
“She just wanted us to shoo them away, Meek, not try to catch them.”
“You acted like… didn’t Lorraine say to catch him?”
He started laughing again.
I’d been through a lot in my life, I decided. I could talk porn for days to anyone. I could turn up at Jay’s parties to shut them down. I could even sit at the doctor’s office discussing bruised ribs.
But this—this was embarrassing. I’d misinterpreted everyone.
And him laughing under me didn’t just frustrate me, it enraged me.
He blubbered out a half-ass “sorry” while trying to catch his breath.
“You’re an ass,” I told him.
“And you’re a great bunny catcher.” He shook his head in the dirt at his joke, completely happy with himself.
I couldn’t help myself. The mud was right there. He deserved it. I grabbed a handful, one so big it got under my now ruined manicured nails and shoved it in his face. I even smeared it in for good measure.
“Meek!” He let go of my hips to scramble and wipe the dirt from his eyes.
He looked precisely how he should.
Ridiculous.
It was only fair; he normally looked like a god among gods. His chiseled jaw had a clump of soil caking it, and his blue eyes shimmered brightly to contrast the brown covering his face. His hair still curled a bit at the longer ends but had a sort of chocolate gel look now.
“You deserve it for making fun of me,” I replied, holding up my dirty hands, not sure where to set them now.
His nod was slow, calculated, and just when I had decided it was definitely time to get up, he grabbed my hips again and spun us around.
As I screamed his name and we flipped over so that Jay was hovering over me, I knew I was in trouble. He didn’t look worse than normal. He actually looked better. He was dirty and a little irritated. He looked like a man who’d done hard labor all day and was now ready to take me in the dirt.
The look he gave me was one I’d dreamt about, one I wasn’t sure I’d ever see again.
The humor in his eyes bled out slowly, like he was realizing the same thing I was.
Our bodies fit like they’d known each other forever and had been waiting for this moment. I didn’t know if we’d avoided what could have been for too long or if our energy had just shifted over the past few months, but I knew I wanted him.
I wanted him more than I’d ever wanted someone. Maybe Dougie and I weren’t meant to be. Maybe our red strings weren’t really connected. I didn’t want to fail at our relationship but I didn’t want to fail at experiencing real love either.
“Meek, I’m trying to find a reason not to kiss you. Give me one.”