36. Callan

36

Callan

R eed and our dad worked to get everything packed and loaded up so they could head back to the ranch with the horses. Most of the crowd had dispersed, heading over to the fair right behind all the buildings. The short walk was convenient, which was why they always did the same events in the same town each year.

Avery had helped my dad with his side of things, her little hand always moving to adjust my hat on her head. I’d have to get her one of her own if she wanted to be a cowgirl, but for the time being, mine would suffice.

“Did you have fun?” Sage asked, finding me in the cluster of people.

“Not as much fun as Avery,” I replied. “Did you? ”

She nodded as she slipped her hands into the pockets of her sundress. “You looked very cute up there.”

Heat rose in my cheeks. “I did, did I?”

Another nod. “Bit distracting, if you ask me.”

My arm snaked around her, bringing her close. “Is that so?”

Our noses were almost touching now as she fought a smile.

“Do you not like when I distract you?” I teased. Little did she know, she distracted me from any anxious thoughts that might’ve crept their way into my mind before. With Sage, I felt somewhat unstoppable.

“Depends how you’re doing it.”

“Mama!” Avery said, skipping over to us with a hand on my hat, holding it in place.

Sage didn’t move away as she looked down at Avery.

“You looked so good out there!” Sage exclaimed.

Avery’s little feet jumped up and down in place. “It was so much fun! Can I go on rides now?”

Before Sage could reply, my mom came up beside Avery. “Why don’t I take her on some?”

“Are you sure?” Sage asked.

My mom nodded, then looked at Avery. “Can’t go on any rides with Callan’s big ol’ hat like that.”

As if it dawned on Avery that the hat was too big, she took it off, handing it back to me.

“I want a hat,” she said with a small pout as I took it.

“I’ll get you one. You can pick it out and everything,” I told her .

Her eyes lit up as Charlotte reached out to grab her hand. “Yay!”

“What do you say?” Sage asked.

“Thank you,” Avery answered, aiming it at me.

“You’re welcome. Now go have fun. We’ll see you in a little.”

Charlotte and Avery disappeared as they headed over to the rides, leaving me and Sage alone.

“Do you want to go over there?” I asked. She fit in the crook of my arm like she was made to be there.

“You really want to go on rides?” she questioned, like she couldn’t believe that a twenty-eight-year-old man could ever want such a thing. To be fair, I was deathly afraid of them, but I’d do anything if it made her happy. Plus, how hard could it be to shove that fear aside if it meant I got to see that beautiful smile light up her face?

“As if I wasn’t the one to ask if you’d go on them with me.” My hand slipped lower on her back, toward the curve of her ass under her pink-and-white plaid sundress. “Unless you had other plans?”

Pink tinged the apples of her cheeks as she pivoted, setting her hands on my chest. “What if I do?”

“Yeah?” My voice lowered so only she could hear me. “Does your plan include me hiking this pretty little dress up and making a mess of you?” My hands fisted in the fabric, the material rising ever so slightly up her thighs.

“It may,” she said, her words laced with satin .

“That what you want, baby? Me to bring you over to my truck and have you ride my cock until your screams fill the cab?”

She swallowed, her throat bobbing. “Yes.”

I dropped her dress and grabbed her hand, leading her over to where my truck was parked in the back of one of the parking lots. My windows were tinted, so the chances of someone seeing us were slim, but even if they did, all I needed was her panties moved aside, so she’d be covered.

I made quick work of removing my chaps once we got to the truck, tossing them in the bed before pulling the handle on the passenger door. I got in, then helped her into the cab. She maneuvered her legs around my thighs as I closed the door and locked it from the inside.

She set a hand on the seat behind me as I quickly unzipped my jeans, freeing my cock. Then I grabbed my hat, tossing it on the driver's seat.

“Are you sure we should do this?” she asked, even as she hiked her dress up her thighs.

“We don’t have to if you don’t feel comfortable.”

Her teeth bit into her bottom lip as I reached up to brush a strand of hair behind her ears from where it was dangling in her face.

“I want to,” she admitted.

My hands immediately tangled in her hair, pulling her face down to mine. Our lips met, the kiss slow and full of breath.

Reaching up under the fabric of her dress, I pushed her panties to the side to expose her slick center. I internally cursed at how wet she was, loving that her body responded to mine so easily.

After lining my cock up with her entrance, I grabbed her hips as her hands found my shoulders. I lowered her down onto me, her lips parting in a gasp, causing our kiss to break.

Once she was fully seated on me, a moan escaped her. I wanted to hear her make that sound all fucking night.

She slowly began rocking her hips, lifting herself to the tip of my cock and then burying it deep inside her again. With her on my lap, her breasts were so damn close to my face, and all I wanted was a taste.

Reaching up, I pulled a side of her dress down along with her bra so that her tit was out. My lips wrapped around the peaked nipple, my tongue instantly darting out to flick at it. Her hands tangled in my hair, keeping my face close to her as she let out another breathy moan.

My hand gripped her breast as my other stayed on her hip, moving with the pace she set. She was in control, riding me like she could do this all fucking night. Having her vulnerable for me like this in her cute little sundress made my cock impossibly harder.

Releasing her tit, I moved my mouth up her chest to her neck, relishing in the feel of her soft skin under my lips.

Her hand reached down between us, moving her dress out of the way so she could rub her clit.

I took my time kissing her neck, then moved back over her chest to her breast again, sucking the bud back into my mouth. Her breath hitched, then her thighs tightened, and my name passed her lips as her entire core shook around me. Her pussy gripped my cock so tight, I saw stars, and then I came along with her.

My mouth popped off her tit as I groaned, my hand that was on her waist moving to grab her ass as she continued to milk every last ounce from me.

As her orgasm ebbed, she stayed seated on me, her forehead resting on my shoulder as she caught her breath.

“You should wear this dress more often,” I said. The sight of her coming apart in it was my fucking undoing.

She let out a small chuckle. “You like it?”

“I fucking love it.”

I felt her smile before she lifted her head to look at me. “I love you.”

I froze, unable to even blink. “You—” I cleared my throat. “You love me?” Maybe I’d heard her wrong.

She nodded, her bottom lip disappearing as she worried it with her teeth.

“Me?”

She nodded again. “Yes, you. There’s no one else in this truck.”

“You’re sure?”

“Should I not?”

I quickly shook my head. “No. No, you should, because I love you, too.”

Her mouth slowly pulled into a smile before she crashed her mouth to mine in a kiss that stole every thought, breath, and feeling straight from me.

She pulled away, asking, “It’s not too soon, right?”

“We’re living on our own timeline, baby. If it’s right, it’s right.”

She looked so damn beautiful sitting on me with her rosy cheeks and mussed up hair, her dress still hiked up her thighs with my cock still inside her.

“I like that,” she said.

My mouth quirked up. “Me, too.”

She smiled as I fixed her dress back over her breast, situated myself back in my pants, then reached for the locks. I opened the door and helped her out, making sure her dress was tugged down so she was decent.

Once we were both out of the truck, we headed toward the rides and booths where the screams of children filled the air as they were flown around on swings and metal contraptions that looked far too rickety to trust.

“Do you still want to go on some rides?” I asked Sage as we walked, her hand folded in mine.

“Do you?” With a glance her way, I noticed she was eyeing me with a grin on her face.

“What’s so funny?”

She shook her head. “You look a bit worried.”

I gestured to the chaos ahead of us as we walked under the lit up arch. “Are you not worried about these metal death machines?”

“You ride horses,” she said, as if that made me indestructible.

“And your point is? Horses don’t fly in the air at high rates of speed and spin you around with mere screws holding your seat together.”

She threw her head back, letting out a laugh that could’ve put the sun and all its glory to shame.

“They’re not far off. In fact, I bet more people have been hurt on horses than on carnival rides.”

I scoffed as a group of kids ran past us, giggling amongst each other. “I highly doubt that.”

“How about we play it safe and just do the Ferris wheel?”

I looked ahead of us to where her line of sight was trained, then looked up, and up, and up… “How is that playing it safe, exactly?”

She laughed again, her hair slipping over her shoulders and down her back. She was blinding in her beauty. I was so entranced by every inch of her.

“Come on,” she said, picking up her pace to get a spot in line. I trailed right behind her, seeing the smiles on everyone’s faces around us.

Though we did the parade every year, I never stayed for the fair. I’d help my mom with the rescue portion and head home to drink a beer and go to sleep. It was a tradition I’d fallen into seamlessly .

Being here with her, though, made me realize there wasn’t a damn place on this floating rock I’d rather be than holding hands with Sage McKinley at the county fair.

“After this, do you want to get some funnel cake?” she asked as we stepped up to the stairs, third back in line.

“I’ve never had it.”

Her jaw dropped dramatically low. “You’ve never had funnel cake?”

“Nope.”

“It’s amazing.”

“I’m sure it’s not as amazing as your baking.”

“Listen, I may be a good baker, but nothing beats a fresh funnel cake at the fair.”

I smiled. I couldn’t help it. “I’ll put that to the test after our ride, then.”

We climbed the three stairs to the metal platform and they let us through after I handed them two of the tickets Bailey had given me earlier. He’d snuck in early to buy a shit ton of tickets before the lines got long and gave each of us a handful of them.

Letting Sage go ahead of me, she slid onto the seat, the entire cart swinging with her movement. I eyed it warily, and she let out a snort. “Come on.” She patted the seat beside her.

Reaching a hand out to steady the contraption, I sat. The guy who took our tickets dropped a metal bar across our laps, the tiny knob at the end clicking into place, and then we were moving .

“You trust that with your life?” I asked, staring at the little knob where it knocked around in the lock.

She squeezed my thigh, scooting closer to me. “No, but I trust you with my life.”

I shook my head as I set my hand on hers. “I wouldn’t. Not up here.”

A small laugh escaped her. “I thought you could fly?” she teased.

“Only on the back of a thousand-pound animal.”

She looked out at the fair below us, people walking every which way, lights lit up in an array of colors. “I bet it does feel like flying when you get to a certain speed.”

I nodded. “Helps clear my mind when I need it most.”

She turned her gaze to me then, her eyes reflecting the lights below. “What do you need to clear your mind from?”

I shrugged, wrapping my fingers around hers. “Life, I guess.”

“You can talk to me, Callan. Just because I have my own issues doesn’t mean you can’t talk to me about yours.”

She was right. It went both ways. It wasn’t that I was under the impression that I couldn’t open up to her, but when other people had things going on in their lives, it felt so burdening to unload my own problems. Because of that, they stayed bottled inside.

“Before you, I rarely went to town unless I had to,” I told her.

She nodded, but she already knew that, so she waited for me to continue.

“When my ex gave me the ultimatum that I’d have to choose between her and the ranch, it gave me this outlook on life that I wish I never saw.”

Just the thought of saying this out loud made my pulse quicken.

“She made me believe we were living this fairytale life, like I really could have it all and things would be fine. But that day, it all switched. A full one-eighty, if you will. It broke that trust I’d built that things could all work out. I could get the girl, the house, the job I always wanted, and be happy. She tore that dreamland away faster than I could blink, and I knew it couldn’t be her. Who gives that kind of choice to the person they love, right?”

Sage sat silently, our seat swinging slightly as we continued going in circles.

“It turns out that even if you give your whole heart to someone, it doesn’t mean they’ll take care of it, regardless of the words they say. And I should’ve seen the signs. I really should have. But I didn’t. I was blind because I thought what we had was love and it so clearly wasn’t. And being blindsided by that, it proved to me that I really didn’t know anyone at all. I may see the image they try to portray, but that’s all it is. An image. A perception of who they are that they want to show, but one day, that disappears. Their true self comes out, and it can either be the most beautiful thing or the ugliest.”

I inhaled deeply through my nose, not taking my eyes off the metal bar strapped across us .

“Seeing that side from someone I thought I loved ruined my perception of the other people around me. Like maybe one day, they’d change, too. So I stopped entertaining friendships and stayed home, only hanging out with my brothers or Bailey.” I looked at her then, her rapt attention focused solely on me. “I pushed everyone away to protect my heart. And you, Sage? You spilled that coffee on me on a real shitty day, but I didn’t think for a second how much you inconvenienced me that day, only that you made me slow down while I was somewhere out of my comfort zone and I felt . I saw you and I wanted to feel again. To stop caring so much about what others might do to me, or how my family was doing, and finally fucking feel something for someone without the fear of it ruining me. Because when I saw you, I didn’t think for a split second that you could ever ruin me. That look in your eye that day, the fear on your face when you spilled that drink on me, I knew someone put that there in you, too. You were hurt by someone, and maybe not in the same way I was hurt, but hurt people know hurt people.”

She sat on that, letting my words sink in. I’d kept it all in for so long, I didn’t know how to say any of it without it sounding messy, but she didn’t need me to spell it out simply or sugarcoat my feelings.

She sympathized, but most important of all, she understood.

I didn’t fall in love with Sage McKinley slowly. Every moment with her added up to me plunging off the cliff, and my heart was swimming in affection for her. I fell for her hard and all at once, and I didn’t want it to happen any other way. Things happened for a reason, and Sage and I? We were damn good together. Our reasons were our past, and before I met her, I was just scraping the bottom of the barrel when she swooped in and showed me how great life could really be.

I’m just glad fate let us end up in the presence of each other.

Before she could open her mouth, the ride swung to a stop at the bottom and the ticket man lifted the bar across our laps. I intertwined my fingers with hers, the two of us standing from the seat, and walked down the three steps to the yellow grass. Only a few feet away, she turned and threw her arms around me, her cheek resting against my chest. The beat of my heart pulsed against her with the knowledge that I just spilled every transgression to her on a fucking Ferris wheel.

My arms wrapped around her, holding her tight to me.

“Thank you,” she murmured.

I let out a disbelieving chuckle. “For what?”

“For sharing that with me.”

My throat worked around the emotion that suddenly clogged it.

Her head lifted off my chest and she looked up at me. “I love you.”

“I love you, baby. For a million years.”

“A million years,” she repeated, her lips a caress around the words.

This was love.