But Ripley? She slides into all the other scenes I’ve pictured having in my life like she was always meant to be there. It should scare the ever-living hell out of me, but it doesn’t.
I’ve learned a lot of things in my life already, including the fact that shit happens for a reason, even when you don’t know why at the time. My brother got half his leg blown off in Afghanistan, and there was nothing that could make me understand why that had to happen. But fate had me there on a USO tour at the same time, and I was able to be by his side in Germany as they fought to save his life.
And when he came home early, frustrated and cursing fate for condemning him to this life, he met his wife while she was visiting her brother at Walter Reed. He tells it as love at first sight. She says he was doped up on painkillers, but either way, now they have an amazing boy, another on the way, and a house down the road from my parents.
The worst thing to happen in his life led him to the best thing. You can’t tell me that wasn’t meant to be.
I’m hoping life has a similar plan in store for me. The darkest moment taking me down a path that leads me to the light.
“Are we gonna ride this thing or what, superstar?” Ripley wiggles her ass on my lap, the excitement in her tone loud and clear.
I wrap my fist around her ponytail and tug it to one side as I lean forward, dragging my teeth down the tendon of her neck before adding some pressure at the curve of her shoulder.
Ripley inhales harshly before squirming again, this time for a completely different reason.
“First, we’re gonna ridethis thing, and then I’m gonna ride you.”
She arches back, unable to move because of my grip on her hair. “Is that right?”
“Damn right.”
A shiver ripples through her body.
“You wet, sugar?”
“You’ll have to wait to find that out for yourself.”
Her words goad me into firing up the ATV. I wrap an arm around her waist and pull her back so she’s flush against me.
“Hold on tight.” I give it some gas and steer us toward our destination.
* * *
Fifteen minutes later, I stop the ATV beside my stocked pond. Sure, I took a longer route than usual to get here, but that’s because I wasn’t ready to let Ripley off my lap.
She sucks in an audible breath when she sees the little dock that stops thirty feet into the twenty-acre pond as the sun starts sinking in an explosion of reds, oranges, and yellows.
“It’s beautiful here.”
“Glad you like it. We’re gonna have us a picnic.”
Ripley twists around to look at me. “I never would’ve guessed that you were a picnic kind of guy.”
The breeze catches a piece of her hair that pulled free of her ponytail, and I brush it away from her face. Even though the weather hasn’t taken much of a chill, I’m glad I grabbed a blanket to bring along with us.
“A beautiful woman, a trout pond, a sunset, and cold wings? Those are some of my favorite things. Put ’em all together and it’s the perfect evening.”
48
Ripley
Just like that, Boone crushes my remaining preconceived notions.
When he climbs off the ATV, he leaves me on the seat. “Hold tight a second. Let me get this set up, and then I’ll bring you down.”
“I can walk, superstar. For real. My ankle feels way better.”
He gives me a pointed look. “Tomorrow. Take one more night to let it heal up, and then we’ll talk about it.”