All I See Is You

37. Silence

Chapter thirty-seven

Silence

Quinn

E very moment I spent with Hux, I learned something new about him. Like, how he grew out his hair when he was a teen so Walker could play hair salon with him. Or that he’d been massively understating his artistic abilities when he’d told me he drew as a kid. He’d won multiple art contests at school, apparently, and had even been awarded a scholarship that he turned down for his rodeo career. Each revelation added another deep, complex layer to him that made me love him all the more.

We sat in the dining room around a massive dark-stained wooden table. Mr. Lane took up the head, while Mrs. Lane and Walker sat to his left, Hux and I to the right. Dinner had been delicious—fried chicken, fresh bread, roasted veggies, and mashed potatoes. But dessert had been divine. Hux's mom might be the best cook I’d ever met.

“You want another slice, sweetie?” Miss Dotty asked me.

I smiled, but shook my head. “Thank you, but I’m okay. If I have another piece I might go into a food coma. They’re both absolutely delicious, by the way,” I added with a giggle.

She smiled, scooping the slice she’d been poised to give me onto her husband’s plate instead. He opened his mouth to argue, but a single look from her and he sighed before digging into his third piece.

I guess there were some battles not worth fighting.

“So, Quinn,” Hux’s mom asked, “how did you and Hux meet?”

“Oh.” I let out a nervous laugh, remembering the incident in the grocery store. “It’s actually kind of funny, I guess. We met twice, you could say.”

“Twice?” She offered me a quizzical look.

Hux chuckled, placing a hand on my thigh beneath the table. A shiver went through me. “The first time she didn’t actually talk to me—well, not really. I was in H-E-B and I heard this girl singin’ from the aisle over. I just…” I looked at him, noticing the soft look on his face. “I had to find her.” He squeezed my leg.

I took over the story, adding, “I hadn’t realized anyone in the aisle was with me and I turned around and found him standing there watching me, or so I thought. I waved at him, not realizing—” I paused, “Well, you know, and I thought he was offended by my singing so I basically ran away.”

“What?” Miss Dotty's eyes twinkled with excitement. “Did you chase after her, Hux?”

“I mean… I tried. But I didn’t get far.”

“Well then how—” she started, but Hux cut her off.

“Turns out her dad is the guy who bought Broken Creek.”

“Really?”

I laughed. “Yeah, that's why I came back to Texas in the first place. I am—was planning my dad’s wedding and staying at the ranch. When I went to go meet the ranch hands, I saw Hux and realized he was the guy from the grocery store.” I left out how I’d embarrassed myself yet again, before thankfully fixing the situation—she didn’t need to know that.

Hux's mom giggled. “What a cute story.”

“You said you were plannin' your dad’s wedding,” Walker said. “What happened? Is it no longer happenin'?”

Dotty batted at her daughter. “Walker Rose, you don’t ask that!”

“What, it’s just a question?” she defended.

I blew out a breath, taking comfort in the silent feel of Hux’s hand on my thigh. “No, it’s okay. My dad and his fiancé broke things off today. Now it’s kind of a scramble of what to do. It’s too late to cancel the event and get any sort of refunds from the vendors or anything like that. And now my dad is talking about selling the ranch and, I don’t know, everything is kind of a big mess.”

I bit back a groan at the amount of unneeded information I’d just word vomited. They didn’t need to know all my problems. They hadn’t even asked. I guess at the end of the day, even the prospect of meeting Hux’s parents couldn’t quell the anxiety I felt over this whole debacle.

Hux's mom offered me a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry to hear that, sweetie.”

I returned what I hoped was a reassuring smile and not a grimace. “I’m sure it’ll work out in the end.”

Hux slid his hand up and down my thigh in soft, soothing strokes, but even as the conversation shifted I couldn’t shake the worry burrowing deeper and deeper into my heart.

I wondered how Dad was. I hadn’t heard from him. Not that I expected to, really. I hoped wherever he was, whatever he was doing, he was okay. Maybe I’d call him after dinner, check in on him.

Yeah, that sounded like a good idea.

There was no such luck getting ahold of my Dad, though. Again, not surprising, but at least I could say I tried. I offered to help Hux’s family with dishes after dinner, but Miss Dotty shooed me out, all but demanding that Hux show me some more of the property.

“Come on, let's check out the barn,” Hux said as he led me through the house with ease and out onto the front porch.

T he barn wasn’t quite as fancy as the main one on my dad’s ranch, but you could tell this one actually saw use. It was accented with warm-hued wood, flagstone, and black wrought-iron, much like the front gate. Almost all of the horses knickered and whinnied as we came in. Hux muttered something to them about not having anything to eat.

“So, are all of these your family's horses?” I asked as we walked down the right-hand aisle, filled with horses on either side. To the left was a large, indoor arena, and then to the left of that was another aisle of stalls.

“Most of ‘em in this aisle are my dad’s. The left are his horses in training or ones he’s gonna sell.”

“That’s a lot of horses." There had to be at least twenty, if not more in the barn.

“You ever ride before?” he asked, threading his fingers through mine as we walked deeper down the aisle.

I shook my head as I replied, “I mean, my dad and I rented horses for a day in Griffith Park a couple times when I was growing up, but no. Horses never really were my thing.”

“What was your thing?” he asked, as we continued walking. It’s like he knew exactly where we were going.

What was my thing? Did I have one? I tried to think of what hobbies I’d had that I felt as passionately about as he did in regards to rodeoing, but I kept coming up short.

“Um…I don’t know, honestly. I did sports growing up. Gymnastics, cheer, volleyball. But I was never, like, super into it, you know?” I pursed my lips. “The only thing I can think of that I’ve always liked to do is read.”

We stopped before the final set of stalls and Hux turned to face the right, close to where the stall door was. “You like to read? What kind of books?”

"Oh, um…" I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. "Lots of stuff. As long as it has a love story and happy ending, I'll read just about anything."

"Walker likes to read too. She tried to get me to listen to some audiobooks of her spicy books, she called 'em."

"Really? Did you like them?" I asked tentatively.

"Reading' really ain't my thing." He leaned in and whispered, "But I wouldn't mind doin' what some of those guys do to their girls in those books," he said before reaching a hand out toward the stall.

My cheeks heated, but all thoughts of spicy books and Hux and I reenacting scenes from them died in my mind as I watched as an oddly-colored horse padded from the back of its stall into the light of the aisle. Holy God, it was huge…and beautiful. It was tall. Like, crazy tall and seemed thicker set than most of the horses in the barn. Its coat was a pretty grey color, while his long mane and tail were black as midnight.

The horse blew out a soft huff of air as it bumped its muzzle into Hux’s hand. A soft warm smile illuminated Hux’s face. “Hey, bud. You miss me?” Hux pulled me closer and lifted our intertwined hands up, before letting go enough for me to press a hand to the massive horse’s cheek. “Darlin, this is Church. He's the best horse I’ve ever had.”

My heart fluttered as I ran a hand gently up and down his cheek. I didn’t know the first thing about horses, but I think he liked the attention. “He’s gorgeous. And huge. Like, really huge compared to the others.”

Hux laughed. “Most of the horses my dad trains are Quarter Horses. Church, here, is a Mustang Percheron mix I found at an auction my dad and I were at about ten years ago. Poor guy was gonna be sent off to the glue factory—”

“Glue factory?” I asked.

He aimed his gaze in my direction. “Slaughter.”

I gasped. “People actually do that?”

Hux shrugged, rubbing a hand up and down the length of Church’s neck. “You’d be surprised how common it is. Some people are fuckin’ assholes…” He shook his head. “Anyway, best six hundred bucks I’ve ever spent. This guy’s bomb-proof. You can put anyone on him, take him anywhere. He’ll do anything you ask of him. He don’t know how to hurry if his life depended on it, but if you need to get somewhere, he’ll get you there…eventually.”

I looked up at the horse, noting his kind, dark eyes. “He sounds amazing.”

“He is.” Hux patted him a couple times on the neck softly before taking a step back, gaze still focused toward me. “I’d offer to take you for a ride, but it’ll have to wait 'til next time. I wanna show you somethin’.”

“What is it?” I asked, my heart beating quicker in my chest.

“Can’t tell ya. You ever driven a truck before?” he asked.

“Um, no. But as long as it isn't a stick-shift, I can make it work.”

He held out a hand to me, and with a final pat goodbye to Church, we walked out of the barn.

“You notice a truck with a flat bed?” Hux asked. “Walker said she parked it outside the barn.”

I looked around and noticed a large black truck with a weird looking truck bed. “Does it look like just a big sheet of metal instead of like an actual truck bed with a tailgate?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, then it’s just over there to the right.”

I led him over, and he made his way slowly around to the passenger side while I hopped into the driver’s seat—no easy feat in my sundress and high heeled sandals, I might add. I’d never ridden in a truck this big, let alone driven in one, and I had this weird, nervous tick about driving cars that weren’t mine. At least we weren’t going off the ranch—I hoped. Oh God, what if we were? Why was I freaking out about this? It’s not like I’d never driven before. I’d be fine.

It’s fine.

“Alright, there should be a road just east of the barn. You’re gonna take—”

I interrupted him before he could say anything else. “Which way is east?”

He chuckled. “You don’t know the cardinal directions?”

I scoffed, adjusting the rearview mirror to better suit my ridiculously short self. “I struggle with following GPS with step by step directions, you expect me to know my cardinal ones?”

Another laugh rumbled out of him as he placed a hand on my thigh and surprised the hell out of me by leaning over and pressing a deep, insistent kiss to my lips. I melted into his touch, loving the confidence in his caress. When he finally pulled away, my lungs screamed for air and my chest fell in heavy breaths.

“What was that for?” I managed to breathe out.

“No reason at all, darlin’.” He settled once more in the passenger seat, but his grip on my leg remained. “Alright, I can still get us there, even if you ain’t good with your directions. If you look toward the barn, there should be a dirt road off to the right. You see it?”

I looked out the windshield and spotted the road he was talking about. “Yes.”

“Okay, head that way for about a quarter mile.”

I did as he said, cautiously urging the truck forward. His fingers started up a soft pattern along my bare thigh, sending sparks of desire igniting low in my belly. Fuck .

“If you keep doing that, I can’t be held liable when I accidently crash your dad’s truck,” I said, my voice a bit high-pitched and breathy.

He chuckled, the sound sending another spark of desire straight to my core. His fingers slid up higher, higher, dangerously close to slipping beneath the fabric of my dress.

“Hux…where…where do I go?”

God, a few simple touches and I couldn’t even talk straight. His touch really was magic, and I was helpless to it.

His tone rang with amusement, and when I glanced his way, a satisfied smirk curved his mouth. “There should be a dead, black tree that’s comin’ up on the left, right next to a gate leading into an open field.” His fingers continued their teasing.

I tried to ignore it as best I could—which was nearly impossible—as I focused on his words. There it was. “Okay, I see it.”

“You’re gonna stop there. I’ll hop out and open the gate for you, then drive on through so I can close it back up.”

I followed his directions, my body all but screaming out for him as he left me alone in the truck. I didn’t have to wait long until he was back, though, picking right back up with where he’d left off, stoking the flames of my lust higher and higher with each teasing touch.

I don’t even know how long it went on like that, but by the time we finally came to a stop in the middle of an open field of mostly golden grass with trees dotting the distant horizon, my body felt like it would spontaneously combust at any minute.

“Here?” I asked, my voice little more than a breathy moan.

His hand finally paused its lazy, teasing pursuit of my inner thigh as he leaned over and brushed his lips against mine. It was soft and slow, almost taunting with its gentleness. Which sent a surge of annoyance through me. He’d gotten me all worked up, to the point my body all but vibrated with need, and now he was going to stop?

Nope, I wanted him. Right now. I grabbed a fistful of his shirt and pressed my lips to his harder.

He chuckled, gripping my chin between his thumb and forefinger. “Easy, darlin’.”

“Easy? You’re the one over here teasing me this entire drive. I want you. Please.”

The groan that escaped him sent spears of desire straight to my core. “Fuck…I love it when you say please.”

I hummed, capturing his lips with mine. “I know,” I whispered, reaching out to trail my fingers down his chest, along the hard muscled plains of his stomach, before toying at his belt buckle.

His free hand gripped my wrist. “I want you just as bad darlin’, if not more, but I wanna show you this first.”

“Show me what?” Some of the desire stilled in my veins, curiosity replacing it.

“Hop on out and I’ll show ya.”

With a huff, I did as I was told. I hopped out of the truck and made my way to his side. He was rummaging through the back seat for something.

“What are you—” But even before I could finish my question, he took a step back, holding what looked like a couple pillows and a blanket in his arms before he closed the door.

My heart did little somersaults. How had he gotten those in there?

Walker. I remembered how he’d said she had parked the truck by the barn. My heart fluttered wildly in my chest. What else had he secretly planned without me knowing?

“Can I help with anything?” I asked.

“Help me spread this out?”

I did, and he grabbed his phone out of his back pocket once we’d finished. “Hey, Siri,” he said, waiting for the robotic voice to respond. “Play my Country playlist.”

A moment later, some soft music played from his phone as he placed it on the blanket.

Okay, this was seriously the cutest, most romantic thing anyone had done for me. He held a hand out and said, “Come here, darlin’.”

Like I needed to be told twice. I melted into his embrace and we swayed to the beat of the song for a few long moments. How was he this attentive and romantic? All day, he’d gone out of his way to reassure me and make me feel wanted.

“Thank you,” I whispered, pressing my chin to his chest as I looked up at him.

He kissed my forehead. “For what?”

“For this distraction, as you so called it earlier today. Thank you for introducing me to your family. For bringing me here. For giving us this moment.”

He stopped swaying, one of his hands remaining on the small of my back while the other came to cup my cheek. “Thank you for comin’ with me. I’ve never brought anyone home before.”

“I know,” I whispered. “Walker told me.”

He chuckled softly. “She did, did she?”

I nodded, gazing up at him. He still wore his sunglasses, and I found myself wanting to see his eyes. I wanted to see the emotion lurking in the amber depths. “Can I take your sunglasses off?”

He stilled, but nodded after a moment. I took them off gently before disentangling myself from him only long enough to put them safely on the blanket by his phone. I turned to go to him when the sun sinking low on the horizon gave me pause.

A gasp escaped me, realization settling over me as I looked around the field. The pale pinks and oranges and blues of the sky. The random splotches of green and brown—the shrubs and trees. Miles and miles of golden fields. And the pops of blue. Bluebonnets.

Tears welled in my eyes, blurring my vision.

“Oh my God,” I breathed. “It’s the…it’s the painting. This—” I swallowed past the lump of emotion in my throat. “This is what you painted that day.”

The smile on his handsome face was soft, appreciative, and a little surprised. “You noticed.”

I honestly don’t know how it took me this long to piece it all together. The similarities between his painting and the actual real deal were impeccable. “I remembered you’d said this place was on your parents’ property, but I didn’t think you’d actually bring me here.”

He held out a hand in the direction of my voice and I crossed the distance to him, letting him pull me into his arms. “I’ve wanted to bring you here from the moment you saw that painting,” he murmured as he picked up a slow pace to the music once more.

“Really?” My heart went from fluttering to full on pounding around against my ribcage now. He was so sweet and kind and thoughtful. Did he even realize how amazing he was? Probably not. Actually, I knew he didn’t. Which was such a damn shame. I’d just have to show him, I guess.

He nodded, stepping away from me and forcing me to twirl around before bringing me back into the safety of his embrace once more. “As soon as you said you’d come with me today, I got a hold of Walker and planned it all out.”

Tears welled in my eyes once more at his thoughtfulness. “Hux…” I didn’t know what to say. Thank you just didn’t feel like enough. “This is the most romantic thing anyone’s ever done for me.”

He tipped my chin up with his fingers and pressed a feather-soft kiss to my lips. “You deserve it, darlin’.”

“I wish I could do something for you too,” I admitted quietly.

We slowed to a halt, and Hux asked earnestly, “Can you tell me what you see?”

I cocked my head to the side. “Like, the clearing?”

He nodded. “The clearing. You. Me. All of it. I want an image in my mind that’s as close to this moment as possible.”

My throat bobbed and tears sprouted in my eyes. Emotions pummeled into me, so hard and fast it was near impossible to keep them all straight. I never realized how much I took for granted with my sight. I couldn’t even comprehend what he went through, but he did it with such ease and grace that sometimes, most of the time, it was too easy to forget he couldn’t see.

And him not being able to see this moment, well, it broke my heart. But, if I could do this for him, if I could help him envision this moment in his mind, I would do my damned best.

“The fields are golden, but not like a bright, burnt gold, more like a–a soft buttery color. Right here it’s not too tall, but off in the distance it’s long enough to sway in the breeze. There’s pops of blue all around us, just like in your painting. Dark shadows of trees fleck the horizon.”

He nodded, a soft appreciative sound rumbling in his chest. “And you, darlin’?”

“I–I’m in a blue sundress with a white paisley design and thin straps—” My breath hitched in my throat as his hands began to trail up and down my body, like he was trying to memorize every line and curve.

I looked at his outfit, taking in his tall, powerful build. “We’re matching again,” I said, laughing when he frowned. I remember he told me he thought basically everything he owned was black. “Your t-shirt’s a light sky blue, it goes well with the dark fade of your jeans. I like that I can see your tattoos today.”

“Oh yeah?” The rumble in his chest sent shivers through me. “Got a favorite?”

All of them, I almost blurted out. I reached out and traced my finger tips up and down his sleeve. My lips tugged upward as I felt him shudder under my touch. “It’s hard to choose, but the one on your heart will always be my favorite.” It encapsulated everything that represented him so beautifully.

He slowly brought a hand up to grip my chin. “And the sky?”

I only dared take my gaze from him for a moment. As beautiful as the sunset was, it had nothing on him. With his fierce jawline that could’ve been carved from stone, or his intense stare that reminded me of finely aged whiskey. He was harsh and brutal and beautiful—like a wildfire or a storm. Devastating, yet gorgeous.

Reaching up on tiptoe, I whispered against his lips, “I’d rather look at you, cowboy.”

Another low chuckle escaped him as his arms caged around my waist and he pinned me to his chest. He kissed me. Hard and fierce and with enough force to rip the air from my lungs. But I didn’t care. Not when his touch felt like fire, searing me to the core.

Our mouths moved in time with one another, a seductive dance that left me shaking with need. God, I wanted him.

“Hux,” I breathed against his lips. “I want you.”

And that was all it took.