Blackhill Ranch (8 page)

I could feel a slight
blush creep into my cheeks. “You’re forward, are you like this will
all girls?”

Rhet laughed softly. “I
will tell you about my past sometime. I really don't like talking
about it because it's very sad and depressing, but it has taught me
to not let a good thing pass you by.”

“I like your way of
thinking,” Rhet squeezed my hand this time, and we walked the rest
of the way in silence.

**

The pool house was built
around eight years ago. My dad and brother were thinking of some
new ways to make our ranch more family friendly, and I mentioned
that if I was a kid going on vacation, that I would love to go
swimming in a big pool. My dad and brother really liked the idea,
so they began plans on a new pool house. Their design was beautiful
and it only took a few years for us to be able to create it. What
was unique about our pool is that it was indoor and outdoor. We
were very busy in the summer, so the outdoor pool was a big hit.
Inside we also had two large hot tubs, a gorgeous steam room, and a
very beautiful sauna. Outside we had a swirly slide, and a few
diving boards. It was still a little cool outside to have the
outdoor pool up and running, but we were hoping by the end of the
month we could get it filled up.

Rhet and I walked into the
pool house and the smell of chlorine instantly invaded my senses.
“I've missed that smell,” I sighed and threw my towel and bath robe
on the lounge chair next to the door.

“That's a strange smell to
miss.” Rhet laughed and cocked his eyebrow at me. His expression
change for a second before he turned to throw his towel down,
too.

I shoved his shoulder and
made a silly face at him. I loved the banter between us, it just
felt so comfortable. That was until Rhet took his shirt off. Then,
I was anything but comfortable.

“That doesn't get old,” I
said quietly to myself and sighed. Rhet looked over at me and
grinned, and before I knew it he had picked me up and threw me over
his shoulder. I didn't even have enough time to protest before he
yelled, “Cannon Ball!” and jumped straight into the freezing cold
swimming pool.

I took a quick breath
before the cool water saturated my face, and now, my not so cute
messy bun. I pushed away from him so I could come up and get a new
breath of fresh air. I popped my head out of the water and found
him laughing with his head back and eyes closed. Two can play at
this game.

I jumped at him and put
him in a deathly head lock. I twisted and turned so I could dunk
him under the water, but all I did was splash around him like a
dolphin out of the water. My boobs were smashing into his face, and
his rock hard Greek body didn't move an inch. He mumbled something,
so I got off and splashed back in to the water.

“What?” I asked out of
breath.

“I asked you what you were
doing,” he laughed and adjusted his swim suit. “It seemed you were
trying to seduce me a little.”

“I was not seducing you, I
was trying to drown you a little,” I said with a gasp. “I really
didn't mean to smash my boobs in your face.” I turned red and
started playing with the water.

“I'm not complaining about
the boobs in my face, but I may have to hang out a bit before you
come any closer.” He now was turning red and went on his back to
float a little.

“Well, you should have
thought about that before you threw me in and made me look like a
drowned rat,” I yelled and knew the time was now to pounce, or I
would never have a chance to push him under the water. He must have
used his spidey-sense because right before I made contact he moved
out of the way and I face-planted the water. I opened my eyes
underwater and saw his legs right next to me. I grabbed them and
bam, he went under. I laughed and got a little water in my
mouth.

I came up for some air and
spit out the water I was about to swallow. I was quick and jumped
over onto Rhet to hold him underwater. He grabbed me around my
waist and spun me around so fast that I was the one underwater.
Damn him and his super strength. I twisted around and finally was
able to come up for air. I shot up and landed right against his
chest. Oh that chest. All other thoughts left my mind, and all I
could picture was running my hands up and down that gloriously
sculpted piece of art.

Rhet cleared his throat
and was looking down at me with a look of surprise mixed with lust.
I stopped and looked down at my hands. I wasn't imagining running
my hands up and down his chest, I was actually running my hands up
and down his chest. I pulled them back and let out a small laugh.
Rhet grabbed my arm with one hand, my chin with the other, and
tilted my face up towards his. He gently lowered his face down, and
in an instant our lips were touching.

I grabbed his head with my
free hand and gently grabbed a hand full of his hair. A small moan
escaped his mouth, and he let go of my hand and ran it up and down
my back. Soon, both hands reached down and gently grabbed my back
side. I was the one to moan now and with that Rhet gently pushed me
up against the pool wall. I wrapped my legs around his waist and
could feel all of him pressed right against me.

Oh god, I was going to
die. I thought cold swimming pools were supposed to shrink a man,
and if that's true I'm in trouble, literally. Wait, I know my
brother was cool with this, but I don't think he mean for it to go
this far. I think he just wanted us to get along and make each
other happy, but oh boy was I happy and I didn't even think about
Brian... Until now. Just focus on Rhet kissing me.

I reached around and
grabbed his back side this time, and squeezed it hard. He moaned a
loud, “Ooh God, Lexi.” His lips left mine and started trailing down
my neck. His lips felt like velvet as they sucked and tickled
me.

Then as fast as it
happened, Rhet looked up with a surprised look and shouted, “No I
don't see anything,” and splashed away from me. My body was in
protest and I probably had a very confused look on my face, but
when I heard a cough from behind me I turned around and there was
my dad, yes my dad, standing by the entrance.

“Dad! I thought something
was on me and Rhet looked for it.” I breathed hard and tried to let
out a little laugh, which probably sounded more like a
whimper.

“With his tongue?” my dad
lifted his eyebrow, mumbled something, and then walked back out the
door.

I was mortified. My dad
hadn't walked in on me making out since I was in high school, and
that guy wasn't welcomed back out to the ranch ever again. I am a
grown women, what does he expect!? Just then the door opened again
and I looked over my shoulder. I was expecting to see my dad
getting ready to lecture me about making out in the open, but to my
surprise it was Tina.

“Oh hi, Lexi. I didn't
know you were coming down here tonight. I was just going to sit in
the sauna,” she smiled and looked around.

“Hey Tina. Are you looking
for my Dad? He just walked out. You should have walked right by
him,” I said with a slight blush. I looked over at Rhet and he was
getting out of the pool on the other side.

“Why would I be looking
for your Dad? I mean sometimes he's here and we sit in the sauna,
but we just talk about ranch stuff and you guys. That's it. Okay,
I'm going in there,” she said quickly and walked over to the
sauna.

“Right. Well, if he comes
back I'll tell him you're in the sauna.” I smirked and started to
climb out of the pool. Rhet was in the hot tub now, so I made my
way over to join him.

“That was awkward,” Rhet
said with a laugh and grabbed my hand to help me in the
tub.

“A little, right?” I
giggled and scooted in next to him.

“Man, I haven't had a dad
walk in on me making out in a very long time.”

“That's weird because I
was just thinking the same thing. He walked in on me once when I
was in the tenth grade and he kicked out my boyfriend who was never
able to come back to the ranch. Needless to say, that relationship
didn't last very long.” I laughed to myself remembering how mad I
was.

“Sounds like a good dad to
me.”

“He is a very good dad. He
grew up with all brothers so he had no idea what to do with me when
my mom passed away.” I looked down and started twirling my other
hand in the water.

We were silent for a
moment when the door opened again and my dad walked back through.
He had his hand held up covering his face, and walked straight to
the sauna. Rhet and I laughed and I shouted it was all good now. My
dad didn't even turn towards us and just shut the sauna door behind
him.

“He must like you, you're
still here.” I smirked and looked over at Rhet.

“Nah, you're just a grown
up now.” He shut his eyes as he rested his head on the cushion
behind him. “This feels amazing.”

I closed my eyes as well
letting the warm water work it's magic. “Well, since we obviously
can't make out anymore, tell me something about
yourself.”

“What do you want to
know?”

“Your first love story?” I
asked and couldn't help the smile that crossed my face.

“My first love story huh?
Okay, I told you I would tell you a little about my past so why
not. I met her when I was seven... “

“Seven? Come on I'm
serious here!” I said and splashed water on his face.

“Hey!” he yelled and
swiped the water drops off his face. He splashed a little back at
me, but I blocked it from hitting my face. “I am being serious so
just sit back and listen. As I was saying, I was seven when I saw
the most angelic face I have ever seen. She was six and her family
was our new neighbors. Now, granted we lived out on a farm in
southern Wyoming so our new neighbors lived five miles away, but
still they came over to meet us and brought us a cherry pie. I know
Cole told you that I lost my mom young as well. I am the youngest
and she had complications while she was pregnant with me and got
something called preeclampsia. Well, they didn't get me out fast
enough and she had a major stroke. It was just my dad, older sister
Aubrey - who you'll love - and me. So when we met these new
neighbors, and this young beautiful angel walked up with the best
looking pie I had ever seen, I was done for. I loved her the minute
she looked over at me and smiled. We went to the same elementary,
middle, and high school. I finally had the courage to ask her out
when I was in the seventh grade, and I took her to the ice cream
shop in town. We were already friends so it really wasn't that
different. When I tried to kiss her later that evening she slapped
me, and said she would never kiss me until I bought her a ring.
That's what her dad told her. That if someone really loved her they
would buy her a nice ring.” Rhet stopped and laughed a little, but
quickly continued on, “So that next weekend I took some of my 4H
money I had saved up and asked my sister, who was in the
10
^th
grade, to drive me
to the store so I could buy her a ring. She thought it was sweet,
and helped me pick out a beautiful ring with a small pink stone. I
gave it to Ella, that's what her name was, the next day at school.
She had the biggest smile on her face and kissed me right in front
of our English class. We both ended up getting pink slips but said
it was worth it.”

Rhet paused and didn't say
anything for a minute or so. This was such a sweet story, but I had
a feeling it had a very sad ending. I didn't know what to say, so I
just squeezed his hand a little and waited for him to continue.
Another minute or so went by until Rhet cleared his throat and
continued on.

“Sorry, I haven't talked
about her in a while.”

“Rhet, it's okay if you
don't want to. I was just making conversation.” I smiled over at
him, but he still had his eyes closed. He started rubbing his thumb
over my hand.

“No, it's kind of nice.
She was a really great person. I do want to tell you the rest.” He
cleared his throat, but then continued on. “We dated all through
high school, and we were never apart. She loved everything I loved.
We hardly ever fought, and we just got each other. When I went off
to college at WSU, she told me to enjoy my first year and not to
worry about visiting her. I didn't listen of course, but after my
first semester it just became different. We both started to change.
She always talked about moving out to the East coast to attend
college, maybe Boston if she could get accepted, which of course
she did. She wanted me to transfer out there, too, but a big city
just wasn't my scene. I knew we were going to go our separate ways
after that. After she graduated high school, she came to visit me
in Laramie. I had gotten a summer job there and decided to attend a
few classes. She rode there with my dad and they stayed for the
weekend. My dad stayed at a hotel and Ella stayed with me at my
apartment. We stayed up all night talking about our future, and
both knew it wasn't in our cards to stay together. She was so
excited about going out to Boston, and I loved my life in Wyoming.
They left that Sunday. We hugged and said our goodbyes. I felt so
good. So free and happy. I would miss her, but I knew we could now
live our lives the way we wanted to.” Rhet stopped and finally
opened his eyes and looked over at me. He moved his hand under mine
and grasped it completely in his.