Page 78 of Deviant
“The Randy thing. Explain.”
“They thought they were hilarious, I guess. Told me all about your ex, Rowdy Randy. I was seeing red until I saw her. That was fucked up.” He extends his hand to me, jerking his head to his truck. “Come with me. I want to show you something.”
I follow him to the truck and we climb in. He doesn’t say where we’re going, and I don’t ask. The engine turns over, pulls off the gravel and into the fields, and I watch his hands on the wheel, thinking about those same hands on me last night, and have to look out the window.
The land opens up the further we go. Fence posts thin out. The cattle disappear behind us. The grass gets taller, the quietgets heavier, and Rhett drives like he knows exactly where he’s going, which, I suppose, he does. He’s known this land his whole life—every acre of it.
After a few minutes, he eases the truck to a stop in the middle of a field where the grass has grown high, rising halfway up the doors, brushing softly against the sides of the truck.
When the engine finally cuts, the silence settles in around us. Rhett climbs out, putting the tailgate down and hops up to sit on it. I follow, sitting next to him, and look at the expansive land around us.
“I had no clue that the ranch spans this far out,” I say quietly.
“It didn’t, at first. Grandpa Ben has been expanding for years—graduation gifts, birthdays, milestones, or anything else one of us had worth celebrating. Instead of money, we got land. This plot is mine.” He gestures widely to the tall grass stretching out as far as the eye can see around us.
“All yours?” I ask skeptically.
“Could be ours,” he says so softly, a stark contrast to the determination in his eyes.
How the fuck do I even respond to that?
I look out at the grass—try to picture it. A house sitting here instead, a porch catching the evening light, someone’s boots on the steps.
The first image that comes is wrong—a woman I don’t know, kids that aren’t mine. Rhett standing in the doorway of a life that got built the way everyone expected it to, and me somewhere else entirely, which is where I’ve always been headed anyway.
I sit with that image for a second longer than I should.
Then I look at him.
He’s not looking at the field anymore. He’s looking at me.
He’s watching me with that steady, certain expression, the one I’ve spent all summer trying to crack.
My stomach flips.
“I don’t want this because you think you’re supposed to give it to me. If we do this—any of this—it has to be because it’s actually ours. Something we build together. Not because it fits some picture you’ve had in your head your whole life.”
“I know that.” Rhett holds my eyes. “That’s why I brought you here and not anyone else.”
“Even if I have to leave for school? I won’t give up on my dreams either.” I push again.
Rhett huffs out a quiet breath. “I’d tell you you’re being stupid if you tried to stay. I want you to chase your dreams, but I want to build more with you—a whole life with you, even if it means waiting a couple years. I told you I love you and I meant it.”
“Jesus,” I mutter, running my fingers through my hair.
“Colt, I’m going to be here when you come back,” he adds, softer now. “And if you told me today that this”—he gestures to the field—“isn’t for us, then we’ll build something different that makes you happy too.”
“What about you? What about your happiness?” I ask.
Rhett leans back on his hands, looking out over the land like it’s already written. “I’ve spent twenty-three years building something I could barely see the shape of.” He looks out at the field, then back at me. “I can see it now. It’s you. That’s what changed.”
My chest tightens, something sharp and unfamiliar twisting under my ribs.. “Are you really okay with that? You’ll be happy with me?” I ask, quieter than I mean to.
He doesn’t even hesitate. “As long as you come back. I told you how I felt, Colt Dawson. You’re mine. I’m not going anywhere.”
That does it.
His eyes meet mine and I close the distance between us, angling his mouth just the way I want him so that I can devour him. I want to show him, without words, what he means to me.
