Jesus Lord almighty she was the most beautiful chick I’d ever seen. I kept my eyes on her face because it felt fucked up to check out her body while she was unconscious, but I’d gotten a glimpse of her sheer bra and white panties before she jumped in the lake and it was over for me. She was insanely hot … when she wasn’t fainting from snake encounters.
“Did I pass out?” She clung to my neck and eyed the ground, seemingly for snakes. Feeling her skin pressed against mine, having her grip tightly to me, I liked it. I felt … needed. Something I didn’t know I liked to feel.
I nodded. “Afraid of snakes I take it?”
She eyed the ground again and held on to me tighter.
“Terrified,” she yelped.
Poor thing. A red blotchy rash marred her chest and face. “The ground is clear, I’m gonna set you down so you can get dressed, okay?”
She seemed to realize she was hanging onto me in her bra and panties, because she let go and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Okay,” she squeaked.
I set her down and then spun quickly so that my hard-on could go away before she saw it. I wasn’t built for this kind of gentlemanly behavior. I wanted to take that kiss further, but the snake stopped us and now I knew why.
This was a train wreck waiting to happen. I hated this chick.
Right?
She’d been on my nerves for the past three days and now I was kissing her? The heat got me all crazy.
I was just thinking of a way to ask her if she wanted my cousin to drive her home, when my cell phone rang.
Gran.
Slipping into my jeans, I answered.
“Hey, Gran. We had some car trouble.”
“I know, Martha called me from the town over. She’s friends with Colton who’s the brother of Nick, who is your tow truck guy.”
What the hell? Small towns never ceased to amaze me.
“Well, Millie’s had quite a fright with a cottonmouth, so I’m thinking Richie should come in to town and bring her home.” I looked up to see hurt cross Millie’s features and cursed myself.
“Was she bit!?” Gran yelled.
“Nah, just a scare,” I reiterated.
I could hear her sigh of relief through the phone. “Well, get your asses up the hill because I’m here.”
I looked up and saw my Gran in her brand-new blue F-250, perched on the side of the highway.
Here we go. Leave it to Gran to speed to our rescue.
“My gran’s here,” I told Millie, as we walked up the hill, her fearful eyes scanning the ground for snakes.
“She drove out here in the heat on her birthday?” Millie asked, eyeing the truck.
I chuckled. “Gran is protective of me and doesn’t take kindly to others telling her what to do.”
No doubt my aunt and cousins tried to tell her they would go instead and she probably told them to shove that idea up their asses.
The window rolled down and Gran stuck her head out. “Did y’all go for a swim?” She looked at Millie’s dripping wet hair and then my shirtless torso and grinned.
Dammit. Gran always knew everything.
“It’s hot as hell out here,” I confirmed.
“Language,” Gran snapped, knowing full well she cursed more than I did.
“Millie, darling, get up front and stick your face in this cold A/C,” Gran told her.
Millie smiled, moving to comply, when I reached out a hand and stopped her. “Want my Gran to drive you back to your apartment? My truck probably won’t be fixed until tomorrow and—”
“Nonsense! She can sleep in the guest house. Can’t you, Millie?” Gran shouted through the opened window.
I sighed.
Millie yanked her arm from mine. “I’m not ruining your grandmother’s birthday with having her drive clear across Tennessee the entire day.”
And the viper was back. Funny, a woman so afraid of snakes sure liked to act like one. Millie stepped into the front seat of the cab and buckled in, letting the cool A/C blow on her face.
Gran put the Ford into gear. “Come on, Nick is gonna call me once he starts working on your truck.”
Well, so much for getting rid of this chick and putting space between us.
Crawling into the back seat, I buckled up and pressed my face to the cool glass.
Millie buttered my gran up. “Thanks for picking us up. That was so sweet of you.”
Gran reached out and patted her knee. “If it were just Ashton, I’d have left him by the road, but I knew you were with him and didn’t want you to die from the heat.”
“Oh thanks, Gran.” I chuckled.
She waved me off. “You’re from around here. You’re used to it. Not Millie. New York is so cold I heard the pipes freeze!”
Millie giggled. “It does get cold there.”
They made small talk back and forth, and I was starting to doze off when I heard Millie ask something that made my entire body freeze.
“Who is that? She’s beautiful.”
My eyelids snapped open as I remembered the picture of Jenna that Gran kept on the dash. It was taken a month before the accident. Gran had snapped a pic of Jenna standing in a field of lavender on the farm. They used the same picture at her funeral and blew it up to be three feet tall so people could put flowers around it. Now I hated looking at it because it reminded me of the funeral.
“None of your business,” I said from the back seat and Gran’s eyes flicked up to meet mine in the rearview mirror.
“Ashton!” Gran hissed, and Millie’s shoulders shrank.
I hadn’t meant to sound like such a dick, but I didn’t want Millie knowing all my personal business. It would only make her take more pity on me, and I had to work with this chick. A chick I’d just kissed because I was a damn idiot.
“She’s my niece,” Gran said and left it at that.
Thank you, Gran.
We didn’t need outsiders
