“You’re home?” I croaked, my voice raspy from how long I’d slept.

“We’ve been home for a while, but Tyler had to go to some study group. Said he would be gone ’til eleven.”

I glanced at the clock and gasped when I saw I’d slept for six hours. “Crap, I’m so sorry. Let me make dinner.”

“No way, you do too much for us. Besides, I was kinda hoping you’d let me take you out tonight.”

“Out?”

“Yeah, I wanna go driving.”

My face fell. “Oh. Okay.”

He chuckled and pulled me off the couch. “Go change, we’ll grab some food on the way.”

“Where are we driving to?”

“Not sure, we’ll see when we get there.”

I gave him a confused look but rushed into the bathroom to rinse off my body since I still smelled like coffee. Even though it was the middle of November, it was still pretty warm, but I’d already learned far too well that could change quickly. So I pulled on some jeans, rolling up the bottoms, and a light long-sleeved deep-V-neck shirt before grabbing my jacket and running back to the living room.

“Ready!” Gage’s smile stopped me in my tracks. Dear Lord, he was so handsome. And there were those dang dimples again. Those things alone could reduce me to a puddle on the floor.

“If you want, we can go eat somewhere, or we can just grab some burgers.”

“And you aren’t going to tell me where we’re going?”

He put a hand on the small of my back as he led me out of the apartment. “I don’t even know where we’re going, Cass. Really. I just wanted to go for a drive with you.”

“Fine, don’t tell me. Burgers are fine.”

Gage chuckled and shook his head as he shut my door.

Okay, so he was being serious. He really did just want to go for a drive. We’d drive, and if we came to a T in the road, he told me to choose which way to go, and every now and then we’d take a random road just because it was the first one we’d come across in a while. After a little over an hour and a half, it was already dark outside and he pulled over into a small field.

“Uh, is this the part where you kill me and leave me in the woods?”

“Now, why would I do that? Who would keep me fed?”

I smacked his arm and he pretended it actually hurt. “Rude.”

“You in a hurry to get home?”

“Doesn’t matter.” Lie. I didn’t want this night to end. We’d kept the windows down and sang to the radio. I’d propped my feet up on the dash, and Gage had his arm resting behind me on top of the seat. In between songs we’d tease each other, and I don’t think either of us had stopped smiling since we’d gotten in the truck. Tonight was simple and perfect. “Up to you.”

“Well then.” He put his truck into park, turned it off, and got out.

“Where are you going?” I asked as he rounded the front, coming to me. He opened up my door and stepped back, waiting for me to join him. When I did, he reached in the back and pulled out a blanket.

“Why don’t you join me?” He climbed into the bed of his truck, reaching down to give me a hand as well. After we were sitting down, our backs up against the cab, he wrapped the blanket around us and I snuggled closer to his side.

I was wrong. Now it was a perfect night. “I like this. It’s so quiet and peaceful.”

He grunted an agreement and held me tighter. “Makes me miss the ranch.”

“When are you going back?”

“Christmas probably. You gonna come with me?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t even thought about the holidays. I’ll probably have to work. I do want to go though; you did promise to teach me how to ride.”

“I’ll teach you a lot of things there. How to ride, how we take care of the place, how to shoot.”

“Shoot?” I leaned away and looked at his face, my eyes wide. “Guns? Like, real guns?”

“Uh, yeah. Do you not want to?”

I was shaking just thinking about it. “Are you insane?”

“You shouldn’t be scared of them. Guns should be respected, not feared.”

“Gage! They kill people!”

His expression deadpan, he said, “Cars kill people too, Cass.” He sighed and pulled me to his side again. “They do, but it’s the people who do the killing. Anything you come in contact with on a regular basis can kill someone.” His voice got soft and he started making lazy circles on my arm.

“But that’s just it—things I come in contact with on a regular basis, which makes them normal. I’ve only seen a gun on TV, so they’re definitely not normal to me.”

“Cassidy, I have two in my room.”

“What?! Why? Why would you need them in your room?”

Gage laughed lightly. “To protect you, darlin’. You should see in our house on the ranch. We have so many we don’t know what to do with them all.”

“Gage, that’s weird. Why do you have them?”

“It’s not weird. This is Texas, I assure you it’s common. Out on the ranch, they come in handy with things that wander onto the property that shouldn’t be there. But here, they’re just to protect us if someone breaks in.” He chuckled and rubbed my arm. “Why are you shaking?”

“I rank guns right up there with spiders.”

Gage laughed louder. “Well, I’ll help you with the guns. But I can’t help you with your fear of the last one, except to come runnin’ when you scream because there’s a spider on the wall.” He raised an eyebrow at me.

“That evil bastard jumped at me!”

“Cass, it was microscopic.”

“Doesn’t matter. They’re nasty and have too many legs.”

“Perfect . . . guns don’t have legs.”

“It’s not like that automatically drops the scary factor and makes them okay all of a sudden! God, I can’t believe you have them in your room.” I whispered the last part to myself.

“You’ve been there for over three months now, and you had no idea. It’ll be fine.”

“But now I know they’re there,” I reasoned. “Way different.”

“I promise they won’t hurt you.”

“Can we talk about something else? I’m still freaking out and they’re not even near us.”

He stiffened.

“Gage?”

“So how’s work going?”

“Gage!”

Tilting my head back so he could look in my eyes, he spoke softly and watched closely for my reaction. “My shotgun is in the backseat.”

My breath caught. How many times had I been in his truck, and I’d never noticed this? “Nope.” I shook my head and forced myself to relax into him. “No, I’m pretty sure that’s incorrect. There isn’t a shotgun in your truck.”

He laughed. “Yes, ma’am. Whatever you say.”

“So work is going great.”

He laughed even louder. “I’m glad. Though now we have so much coffee in the apartment, I don’t think we’ll ever go through it all.”

“Probably not. I’ll send some with you to the ranch.”

“They’d like that.” He was quiet for a moment. “They’d like you too. I hope you come with me sometime.”

“I will,” I promised.

We slid down so we were now lying in the truck, looking up at the stars. He kept an arm around me, and I stayed curled into his side, my head resting on his shoulder. Our morning hugs were the most we ever touched now, so I closed my eyes and enjoyed every bit of this, knowing it wouldn’t last forever. I listened to his heartbeat, breathed in his clean, masculine scent, and memorized the way my body felt pressed up against his. His heartbeat picked up when I lightly ran my fingers across his chest and I smiled to myself.

His chest rumbled as he said, “What do you want to do for the rest of your life, Cassidy?”

Stay here with you. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I know you don’t want to go to school. Just wondered what you wanted to do. If you had a certain career in mind.” Gage’s deep voice got even huskier as he continued. “If you actually wanted to do something with your photography, or get married and have kids, if there’s somewhere you want to move to . . .” He trailed off.

No kids. I refuse to have children. “I don’t really know. I’ve never thought about it.”

“Seriously? You’ve never thought about your future and where you’d like to be? What you’d like to be?”