Always His (Crazed Devotion #1) (17 page)

I think in all the years I’ve known Randall that was the lengthiest conversation we’d ever had.

“W
here are we going?” Nicole asked as I drove toward Huntsville.

I’d already spoken with my uncle and made sure we would have the place to ourselves. He owned multiple acres of land that he always allowed the younger kids around town to come out and cut loose on, which basically described Uncle Leroy to a T. He was single, wild, and rarely passed on anything that didn’t make him feel twenty years younger. So when I asked him if Nicole and I could relive our younger years using his land, he quickly agreed.

I rounded the bend and saw the gravel path to the field up ahead just as Nicole asked me once more what was going on.

“Do you remember what we used to do after it rained?” I asked, looking over at her as I slowed the truck.

She looked between me and the drive I was turning into with a huge smile. “Yeah.”

I looked in the rearview mirror, and Tori’s curious stare made me laugh. “I thought I could relive those days with my two most favorite girls,” I said as I slowed to a stop. I pressed a button on my dash panel, shifting my truck into four-wheel drive and turned back to look at Tori. “What’dya say, sweetheart, you ready to play in some mud?”

Tori’s face lit up as she looked out at the field of muddy, torn-up land before us. Like I said, Uncle Leroy loved to be a kid. And by the looks of it, he’d already had the first turn on this patch of land after our most recent rainstorm. Which only meant he’d made it even muddier for me.

The first time I took Nicole out four-wheeling, she squealed and gripped the door handle so tight her knuckles turned white. But after that, she grew excited at the mere mention of going muddin’.

“You wanna drive, baby?” I looked over at Nicole with an arched brow, trying to hold back my laughter.

“You feel like getting stuck?” she shot back with a gleam in her eye.

“Damn near took me half a day to dig my truck out of the mess,” I chuckled, remembering how bad she got it stuck the first and only time she attempted to take the reins all those years ago. “But if I remember correctly, that day didn’t turn out so bad.”

I was growing hard remembering us stuck in the middle of a field miles from town as we climbed up in the back of my truck when the rain began again. The heavy downpour soaked us within seconds. Making love in the bed of my truck as one hell of a rainstorm rolled through was a memory that got me through a lot of hard days.

What I wouldn’t give to repeat that night.

“Going down memory lane?” Nicole asked with a knowing smile.

“Yeah,” I said as I grabbed her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “But I’m ready to make some new memories.”

Nicole’s nostrils flared, which I recognized as her attempt to compose herself.

“How about you, Princess?” I looked back at Tori. “You ready to see what your momma and I used to do when we were younger?”

“Yes,” she chirped excitedly as she bounced around in her seat.

“Hold on, Peanut,” Nicole told her as I eased farther out into the field. The ruts in the mud made the truck bounce, and Tori’s squeal made me chuckle. I took it easy at first to be sure Tori was okay with the way the cab jerked around, making her bounce. Nicole and Tori’s laughter and excitement as I spun out and twisted the wheel was the best part. Forget the natural high of the muddin’; they were my high.

“You having fun, baby girl?” I asked as I slowed to a stop at the edge of the field.

Tori’s eyes were wild, and a huge smile covered her face as she nodded and bounced up and down, throwing her hands in the air. “More,” she insisted as her eyes scanned the surrounding area.

Nicole laughed. “You heard her, Ryker,” she said. “More.”

In that moment my entire world finally made sense. My life wasn’t the path I’d chosen or the mistakes I made along the way. It was all about the beautiful faces of these two amazing girls. They had me so tightly wrapped around their fingers, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Their smiles and laughter were what bound me together.

I would give them anything they asked without a second thought.

I was so in love with them that I knew in that moment the only thing I wanted to do was seal our future. I wanted to do something I should have done years ago.

“You wanna drive, Tori?” I asked as I twisted around to face her.

If someone had asked me moments ago if she could have grown any more excited than she already was, I’d have said hell no. But I was wrong. She was already trying to figure out how to unbuckle her belt and damn near clawing her way out to get to me.

“Hold on,” I said as I turned and began to unbuckle her. Pausing, I shifted my gaze to Nicole. “This okay?”

She didn’t answer me with words. Instead she leaned over and softly kissed my lips, then pulled back with a smile.

Tori began wiggling around once more, trying her hardest to break free from her seat. The moment I unclasped her belt, she dove for me, and her little feet were moving a hundred miles an hour to get her to the front.

I placed her in my lap and put her hands on the wheel. “You steer,” I told her, and she faced forward as I eased the truck into drive again. I took it slow, but she didn’t notice the change of pace. She was too focused on the fact she was controlling the wheel. A look of determination graced her features, and I tried not to laugh.

Days like this I could relive forever.

“H
ow have things been going?” Liz asked as she walked alongside me. We’d met for coffee and were now doing a little window-shopping.

“Things have been great.” I couldn’t control my smile as I thought about the last few weeks. “He’s been amazing.”

“You look really happy,” she added as I turned to face her.

“I am,” I confessed, my stomach flipping with excitement. “He’s been taking Tori and I on all these adventures, like little flashbacks of our past. I told you about the muddin’, right?”

“Yeah,” she said, followed by a laugh.

“Well, since then we’ve had a water balloon fight in my daddy’s backyard, played in the rain down by Mitchell Lake, and camped out in the back of his truck under the stars.” We sat down on the bench in front of the café on the corner of Lurch and Winslow. “He’s been unbelievable with Tori, and the way she looks at him, God, Liz, it melts my heart. She adores him.”

“Happy looks good on you.” She nudged my shoulder with her own. “I’m so glad he came back. You deserve this.”

“What about you?” I asked. “You deserve to be happy too.”

“Maybe one day, but for now I’m having fun testing the waters.” She wagged her eyebrows, and I laughed.

Elizabeth Berfield had always been a flirty girl, but she secretly wished for her own happy ending. Believe me, I’d gotten her drunk on many occasions where she rambled on about wanting to find that perfect guy. Sober, she may not admit it, but I knew all her dirty secrets.

“We all still on for Saturday night?” she asked, quickly changing the subject.

“Um, yeah,” I replied, choosing not to push her when she obviously didn’t want to talk about her own love life. “Ryker made reservations for six.” He had this idea of gathering everyone together for dinner to make his friends Luke and Ben, who were arriving tomorrow afternoon, feel welcome.

“I may be a few minutes late, but I’ll be there,” she assured me as she nervously picked at her nails. She had been doing it pretty much all morning. She always did it when something was on her mind.

“Spill,” I said as I leaned back against the bench and lifted my coffee to take a sip.

“What?” she asked. She seriously needed to realize how transparent she was.

“We can play this game all afternoon, or you can just fess up and tell me what’s on your mind.” I watched as she contemplated whether to tell me or not. Finally, her need to talk won out, and she turned to face me.

“I don’t want to be the reason anything dims your happiness. I just think maybe you need to hear something before everyone in town is talking about it behind your back.”

I could tell she was stalling, and I was getting nervous. “I guess if it’s something I’m not gonna like, I’d rather hear it from you instead of a stranger. So just tell me.” My stomach was in knots. The kind that made me feel like at any moment I would hurl.