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“Field trip!” Destiny said.
There was a trill of excitement in the air.
Delta took another sip of her wine and said, “I brought my four-wheeler. Tru can ride with me.”
Nory tugged at Tru’s free hand and pulled her toward the door.
“No, you psychopaths, I know what you’re about to do,” Tabian said.
Warning bells went off inside of Tru and the smile faded from her lips. She jerked to a stop and pulled her hand from Nory’s grasp. They were pranking her, weren’t they? Stupid girl.She’d been all happy for a second thinking they were inviting her for an adventure.
Tabian was shoving his feet into boots. “You’re about to shove all of you onto one four-wheeler. I’m not having Tru fall off the back.”
“I wouldn’t let her fall!” Delta scoffed from the front porch.
“I’ve seen you drive. You’re like a bat out of hell on that thing. No. I’ll take Tru and Nory and they can survive. I call the humans.”
Oooh. Tru’s smile was back. He was being protective, that’s all. She wasn’t being pranked.
Outside, Delta hopped onto the seat of a four-wheeler, and Lyric scrambled onto the back, while Destiny was adjusting herself to sit on the handlebars.
Tru took another sip and laughed at the girls bickering over the bars bruising their butts.
Tabian jogged to the shed and yanked a blue tarp off a four-wheeler, then started it up. The little engine roared to life as Nory and Tru made their way to him.
He got on, powerful legs splayed on either side of the seat, and he offered Tru a hand, helping her get on behind him. Nory eased herself onto the handlebars and leaned to the side so he could see.
When he hit the throttle, Tru yelped and nearly spilled her drink. She sipped it down a little more and gripped onto the back of Tabian’s shirt.
He was so hot. He had a random four-wheeler sitting by his awesome house in these beautiful woods and seemed like a man who just knew how to do things. God, she thought he was so sexy. He smelled like cologne. He reached behind him and grabbed her hand gently, then pulled it around his waist, and oh Mylanta, she could feel his perfect, flexed six pack. He for sure looked like a demigod under this T-shirt.
He laughed, and she asked, “What?”
“Like what you feel?”
She stopped rubbing his stomach. “Oh. Sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he said, laughing. “You can do whatever you want with me. I don’t mind.”
Chills rippled up her forearms, and she bit back a smile as her cheeks heated with a blush. Whoo, she was having fun.
She’d come here with the intention of dropping off food and then bouncing, and maybe texting him later that he wasfun to talk tobut here she was, red plastic cup in her hand, fancy-tasting wine in it, on the back of a four-wheeler, holding onto the hottest man she’d ever seen, following another ATV filled with fun ladies who had invited her to hang out with them.
Tonight had taken a turn, and God, she couldn’t stop smiling.
This was the most fun she’d had in as long as she could remember.
Chapter Five
“I have to leave for a couple of days,” Tabian told Tru.
Tru had been relaxed on his couch, telling him to move the TV mount left and right to make it look centered.
At his admission, she sat up straighter and the smile fell from her pretty lips. “Oh. Oh, I understand.”
“I don’t want to. It’s for work.”
She was nodding and wouldn’t meet his eyes. Her demeanor had changed.
