I set to my task. I didn’t have a massive yard, but I had a sizeable front one along with the back that was more than enough for just me. I hadn’t done a damn thing to either of them since I’d moved in earlier this year. Partly because I didn’t have time, but mostly because I had no idea what to do with them.
They were boring old hunks of grass.
Today, I was grateful for it. It didn’t require a tremendous amount of brain power to fire up the mower and walk around the flat, boring yard.
It did allow my brain to go into overload.
I’d never thought about something so much in life as I was about Kinsley and our new situation. We hadn’t spoken since she’d left last night except for me texting her goodnight and her telling me to shut up, she was reading.
I hadn’t expected anything else, to be honest.
Colton appearing last night out of the blue was a bit of a reality check. Yes, we’d crossed all the lines we had left to cross, but that didn’t mean we’d actually discussed where our relationship stood.
Or what the hell we were going to do now.
In theory, it was simple. We could pursue a real relationship and Colton would have to deal with it.
But if reality was as simple as a theory, we’d all be friends with aliens by now.
Kinsley and I both knew that wasn’t going to happen. We couldn’t just walk into Bronco’s holding hands and have everything be fine. There was a whole storm we had to weather, and that didn’t even include us.
Did I regret it?
No. How could I regret something that made me so happy? Even if we tried then failed, that was better than us never trying at all. A part of me—a big fucking part—wished I’d told her before all this shit happened, but the rest of me was happy it’d happened this way.
If I’d told her a year ago, would she have felt the same?
Was she only open to this because we’d spent a lot of time together lately? We’d hung out at her place, at the bookstore, at the bar. Hell, we’d even had dinner.
We’d never done any of that before.
Not alone, anyway.
I sighed and shut off the mower. I’d finished both yards, and now I had to deal with life outside my little bubble of a house.
I locked the shed and went back inside where I took a shower. It was quick and hot, and I scrubbed my body so hard I took off a good couple of layers of skin in my never-ending frustration.
I was almost thirty, for fucks sake.
Why was all of this even an issue?
Fucking stupid schoolboy crush.
I dressed in my room, tossed the towel in the laundry, and headed downstairs. I had nothing to do now that job was done, so I threw myself onto the sofa and turned on the TV. My phone was flashing with a message from its spot on the coffee table and I grabbed it to check.
KINSLEY: Don’t tell ANYONE. I told Saylor and Holley the same story I told Colton.
ME: Shit. I need to cancel that billboard.
KINSLEY: Hardy har har.
ME: Make sure you don’t hurt yourself laughing too hard.
KINSLEY: At your jokes? Not likely.
ME: Oh, how she wounds me.
KINSLEY: Be quiet.
KINSLEY: We need to talk about this.
ME: Absolutely. Let’s do it. I’m free now.
KINSLEY: I mean actually talk, Joshua, not have sex.
ME: I see no reason why we can’t do both.
KINSLEY: I started my period this morning.
ME: That’ll be the reason.
KINSLEY: Thank you.
ME: You know people do do it while on their period.
KINSLEY: I am not those people.
ME: I’ve never done it myself, but apparently it’s better than normal.
KINSLEY: Let me put this in a way you can understand.
KINSLEY: If you come near my vagina at any point during the process of the shedding of my uterine lining and the cramping of the same uterine walls, so help me God I will grab your balls with a metal nutcracker and twist so hard that they’ll retreat back inside you and you’ll taste your own sperm.
ME: So that’s a clear no, then.
KINSLEY: You’re hard work.
ME: You’re not exactly a walk in the park yourself. Your brother is the reason for this.
KINSLEY: No, your immature and misguided teenage pact is the reason for this.
ME: If you want to be specific…
KINSLEY: When am I ever not specific?
ME: I can’t think of any situations. Even during sex. It’s slightly distracting.
KINSLEY: If I don’t tell you, how will you know where my clitoris is?
ME: I believe my tongue located it pretty swiftly last night.
ME: Or you need an Oscar nomination.
KINSLEY: Shut up.
ME: You’re welcome for that, by the way.
KINSLEY: Shut up!
ME: Are you getting embarrassed? Are you blushing?
KINSLEY: I’m going to kill you.
ME: But then you’ll never have another orgasm again.
KINSLEY: Hey. Until last night, I hadn’t had sex in a year. The middle drawer of my nightstand says I most definitely WILL have orgasms. With or without you.
ME: Now we’re talking.
KINSLEY: I didn’t mean to say that out loud.
ME: I’m snooping in your drawers next time I come to your place.
KINSLEY: Don’t you dare!!!!!!!!
ME: Shoulda thought about that before you told me you have a sex shop in your nightstand. What other kinky things don’t I know about you?
There was a knock at my door, and I threw my phone down, chuckling at myself. Winding her up was more fun than I’d realized.
Dirty banter was the best banter.
I pulled open the front door and stopped short.
Colton’s eyebrows shot up. “Expecting someone else?”
“Like who? Santa
