Sabrina reached inside him and took hold of his heart somehow. He didn’t think she’d ever even meant to, but years of friendship had turned to more one night. One perfect, spring night.
He’d been powerless to stop it then and he was starting to wonder if history was repeating itself. Knowing everything that’d happened, how destroyed he’d been, it didn’t seem to matter. He found himself wanting to go, to be with her.
Could he risk the destruction of his heart again? He wasn’t sure he’d ever recover if he fell in love with Sabrina again and she walked away. Or worse.
But he also couldn’t stand the look in her eyes when she’d thought he’d used her to scratch an itch. She was never just a lay to him. Never a notch in his bedpost.
So, he did the only thing he could do. He nodded.
“All right.”
Her smile of victory was sweet and sassy, making her eyes sparkle and his heart crack open a little more.
10
Boomer shifted his weight and did the best shimmy a guy of his stature could manage. As it was, his six-foot five frame barely fit between the rows of barbed wire, which was painfully evident when a sharp barb poked him in the ass.
Why the hell did Teo have a barbed wire fence anyway? He raised military dogs, not cows.
The second he was free of the fence a dark blur of feathers, complete with a God-awful squawk, flashed before his eyes. Dropping to the ground, he rolled left, then rose to a crouch and faced his enemy.
A hearty laugh rumbled from across the field, but he didn't dare turn his head away from the wild-eyed rooster.
For several seconds they simply stared at one another. Boomer had no intention of being flogged; he'd seen the cock fights in other countries. It was brutal for both birds, often resulting in lost feathers, blood, even life.
“You have chickens,” Boomer called to his friend.
“Yep.”
The bird fluffed its glossy mane of feathers and looked to be gearing up for round two.
Another laugh was interrupted by a deep bark. Boomer pushed to his feet and regarded the chicken a moment longer. The bird cocked his head, gave Boomer another long look and then, as if deciding he was dreadfully outmatched, pranced away.
“Quite the guard bird you got there,” he said as he turned Teo's way.
His friend wore dark jeans and a NAVY sweatshirt that had seen better days. He removed a pair of leather gloves and tucked them into his back pocket as he closed the distance between them.
A large black and tan dog trotted along at Teo's side, dividing its attention between his master and Boomer.
“That's Elvis. He came with the property.” He held out his arms, indicating the large field. “Leroy Parsons, the old man who sold it to me, was adamant I keep the chickens.” Teo gave what Boomer could only describe as a sheepish shrug.
“Plus, Jill's excited to have hens.”
Boomer laughed and slapped Teo on the back. “You're a regular farmer Joe.”
The dog gave Boomer a sharp look and he let his hand drop.
Teo snorted. “Hardly.”
Boomer was happy with his fifth wheel trailer and small plot of land at the campground. Sure, he hit his head every time he stepped up into the living room, but he had no grass to mow.
He eyed the massive oaks in front of the old brick house. A shade tree or two wouldn't be unwelcome. The heat this past summer was a bitch. More than a handful of days reaching one hundred degrees and the humidity was almost as high. The air conditioners on his roof had buzzed constantly.
“Dylan on his way?” David asked.
“Yep. Probably just tied up with Reya.”
David snorted. “Tying up Reya's more like it.”
Teo's punch was fast and furious. “That's my sister you're talking about.”
David rubbed his arm. “Am I wrong?”
Teo's jaw worked back and forth. “No.”
“He's a good guy.”
“I know.” The muscle in Teo's jaw relaxed a little.
“He'd never hurt her.”
Teo nodded. Dylan Harper could give Teo a run for his money in the love department. Both of them were head over heels and it'd been fun to see the two relationships develop over the last ten months.
“Besides, he knows we'd kick his ass in a New York minute.”
“No shit.”
Boomer decided to change the subject.
“Where’s this shed we’re tearing down?”
When Teo’d called earlier in the week, Boomer had been at a loose end with his free time. Not that he had much of it, but his brain couldn’t seem to stop thinking about his night wrapped in Sabrina’s arms.
His dick got hard at the most inopportune times. Like last night at the burger joint when she’d been sitting so close, leaning in for a picture, wafting her unique scent his way.
Coconut and vanilla.
He’d woken up hard as a rock, sweating, that scent filling his nose. It was about damned time he washed his sheets.
But he hadn’t. Instead, he’d showered, dressed, and driven around the city until it was time to help Teo. And when he got home tonight, there’d still be a faint, tropical fragrance waiting, taunting and haunting him.
His supervisor was still driving him crazy.
And he kept rubbing his chest, trying to ease an ache that was getting worse by the day.
Pitiful. So, he’d leapt at the chance to rip something apart with his bare hands. A little exertion with the boys was just what the doctor ordered. And if helping Teo clean up his property and prepare to raise guard dogs would help, all the better.
Teo nodded toward the line of dense evergreens bisecting the yard. “Back there.”
Boomer pulled out a pair of gloves. “Lead the way.”
They were piling up the old tin panels when Dylan showed up.
“How come he didn’t have trouble with Elvis?” Boomer asked, wondering where the rooster was.
Dylan raised a brow as he approached.
“Let’s just say Elvis knows
