Only With Me (Sugarland Creek #4)

Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Harlow

T he day after the best oral of my life, I have training with Noah but can still feel Waylon between my thighs.

After I came down from my orgasmic high, I noticed Waylon was hard again. But this time, I told him to get himself off so I could watch in person. It was even sexier than through a screen, especially since this time, he shot his cum on my chest and then licked it off me.

Safe to say, last night was one of the hottest nights I’ve ever experienced. Feeling his facial hair scratch against my pussy and thighs was a new kind of sensation I hope to relive over and over.

Once we cleaned up and got dressed, he made dinner and we watched The Notebook so I could refresh his memory on the fighting in the rain scene. That led to him asking if I had more things on my romance wishlist.

Go-karting and whoever wins gets to make the loser do whatever they want—sexual or not

Wine tasting but with coffee drinks

Eat something off each other—preferably non-sticky but make it fun and erotic

Buddy read a book together

Each time I think of another thing I want to experience or do with him, I add it to my notes app. I’m up to a hundred and seventeen.

The rails aren’t set up in the training center today, which means Noah’s going to have me do exercises and conditioning with Piper. It’s as important as practice jumps but considering I’m more tired today than usual, we drag ass and Noah notices.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, why?” I ask, grabbing Piper’s lead rope and walking toward her.

She shrugs one shoulder. “You’re lower energy than normal.”

I swallow hard because as far as I know, Waylon hasn’t told his family, except Wilder.

“Didn’t get much sleep last night, but I promise to be on my A-game next time.”

She hides a knowing grin with her clipboard. “Okay, no biggie. We all have our off days.”

“I’ll take Piper to the groomin’ stall and put her back in,” I tell her.

“Your sister should be here any minute for her session if you wanna stick around.”

Delilah’s a professional trick-rider, so she doesn’t need a lot of extra training but likes to practice more during the off-season, so she doesn’t get rusty.

“Sounds good, I’ll come back out when I’m done.”

Guiding Piper into the barn, I tie her up in the grooming stall and then take off her tack. When I carry her saddle into the tack room, Waylon’s in there waiting for me.

“What’re ya doing?” I whisper even though no one else’s here.

“I was missin’ ya and saw you were almost done, so wanted to surprise you.” He scoops me in his arms, tilts my chin, and presses his lips to mine. “And I was hopin’ we could talk.”

“Well ain’t you sweet.” He giggle in his arms, kissing him back. “Noah noticed I was draggin’ ass today.”

“You’re not the only one. Wilder’s been on my case all mornin’ about it, which is hilarious comin’ from him .” He scoffs. “But oh well, totally worth it.”

“Definitely worth it.”

He sinks his tongue into my mouth, and I get so lost in him, I don’t hear the door open, but it’s followed up with a loud gasp.

Waylon’s eyes widen and I glance over my shoulder to see my sister in the doorway, looking like she’s ready to murder him.

“Oh shit.” I turn around and wipe my chin.

“My little sister ?” Delilah snaps at him, folding her arms across her chest. “How long has this been goin’ on?”

“A month,” I say at the same time Waylon says, “A couple weeks.”

I narrow my eyes and look back at him. We weren’t together at the start of my lessons but we started talking before he confessed he wanted me.

Delilah’s brows furrow in confusion. “Which one is it?”

Waylon scrubs a hand over his scruffy jawline. “We started talkin’ New Year’s Eve.”

“So…over three weeks?” She gives him a pointed look.

Before either of us can answer, Noah opens the door, not realizing what she’s walking into.

“Oh, hey.” Noah notices Delilah’s pissed off expression and then glaces at Waylon and me. “Uh oh…did y’all not tell her yet?”

Delilah shoots daggers at Waylon and me. “Am I the last one to know?”

“To be fair, I didn’t know that Noah did,” Waylon says.

“Oh, please.” Noah snorts. “I know a secret relationship when I see it. Y’all weren’t very discreet. He never came to watch you practice in the four years since you started and suddenly he’s showin’ up. Waylon’s on his phone way more than I’ve ever seen him. Harlow coming to trainin’ exhausted like she stayed out the night before. I was young and sneakin’ around with Fisher once, too.”

Oh my God.

My cheeks flush with embarrassment.

“ Great …” Delilah feigns excitement. “So glad my ex is corruptin’ my baby sister.”

Like a dagger to my heart, I hate that she still sees me as a little kid.

“If anythin’, I’ve corrupted him,” I blurt. “I’m not a child anymore, Delilah.”

I turn twenty-one in less than two months. But in her eyes, I’m a fragile kid who’s on bedrest and needs her help for everything.

“Yeah, I don’t need details.” Delilah moves her gaze to me. “Do Mom and Dad know?”

I swallow hard and nod. “Yeah, he spent Saturday at the house playing games.”

“And they’re okay with you datin’ my ex?” she asks in shock. “Who’s over a decade older than you?”

Nervously, I suck in my lip. “Yeah, they love him.”

And I’m falling hard for him, too.

After an awkward amount of silence, Delilah says, “Okay, well I need to grab Jasmine’s saddle. Excuse me.”

Realizing we’re in her way, Waylon and I move to the side and she silently grabs it from the rack.

Noah grabs what she came in for and then Waylon and I are left alone.

“Well…that went as expected,” I say. “She’ll come around.”

Waylon sighs. “Hopefully. I thought she was gonna kick me in the balls before Noah came in.”

I chuckle lightly. “Saved by your sister.”

He scratches his cheek. “Yeah, I can’t believe she knew…”

“Do you think that means the rest of your family does?”

“There’s only one way to find out.” He takes my hand and leads me to the door. “Wanna go to lunch at The Lodge and then we can talk at my house after?”

“Really?” I ask about showing up around his siblings together.

“Yeah.” He winks, bringing my hand to his lips and kissing my knuckles. “No point in hidin’ it now that your sister knows.”

When we walk into The Lodge hand-in-hand, the rest of his siblings who are there to eat all hoot and holler, embarrassing us in front of the guests.

Waylon leans into me as we get closer to the tables. “Oh yeah, they knew.”

I giggle and blush at the attention. “ Great .”

Magnolia and Ellie are here too, so when I sit across from them and they smile sweetly at me, I return the gesture.

“So…” Magnolia waves her fork between Waylon and me. “How’d this happen?”

Tripp snickers next to her. “So nosy.”

“As if you’re not wonderin’ the same thing,” she drawls.

“The shortened version…” I begin. “I messaged him through a dating app and we started talking.”

Speaking of the app, I need to tell Waylon about Emery showing up at my work yesterday. But I forgot the moment I arrived at his house and he opened the door in only a towel, his hair still dripping wet from his shower.

“She asked me to teach her how to orgasm,” Waylon abruptly adds in the most casual way and then takes a bite of his food.

I elbow him and winks at me. The little blabbermouth. “They didn’t need to know that .”

“Oh my God, yes we do!” Magnolia squeals, leaning over the table to get closer.

Ellie checks her pretend watch on her wrist. “I’ve got the whole afternoon free.”

“Did you tell Delilah finally?” Wilder asks.

“She kinda walked in on us makin’ out.” I wince, scooping mashed potatoes and taking a bite.

“Yeah, she ain’t happy with me,” Waylon adds.

“To be fair, she wasn’t happy with you when y’all were datin’, so who cares what she thinks now?” Landen quips, and Ellie shoots him a glare that can only be translated to Shut up, you idiot.

“I think she’s madder we didn’t tell her because she still sees me as her little sister who needs her,” I explain. “My parents are okay with it, so I think she will be too once the shock wears off.”

“If y’all get married and Delilah’s your maid of honor, Waylon’s gonna haveta see his ex-girlfriend walk down the aisle before his new wife does.” Magnolia giggles.

“That’s not awkward at all , Sunny.” Tripp gives her a pointed look.

“Oh, c’mon. It’s kinda funny. She’s his ex’s sister ! That’d be like you and me breakin’ up and then I go on to date Wilder.”

Wilder leans over the table and winks at her.

“Don’t even think about it,” Tripp warns him.

It’s hard not to laugh at their antics.

“Or I can hook up with Delilah and level the playin’ field.” Wilder waggles his brows.

“That’s even crazier!” Magnolia blurts. “Your twin’s ex-girlfriend? That’s some straight to jail shit.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time he’s slept with someone I was interested in…” I give him a pointed look.

“That was one time!” Wilder defends. “And how was I supposed to know you were actually gonna tell her? You dragged your feet for so long, she got married and knocked up six months later.”

Waylon leans down closer. “Don’t listen to him.”

Wilder rolls his eyes, then looks at me. “Wait, I thought y’all started talkin’ in that group chat first?”

Waylon visibly stiffens next to me and my heart races at his reaction.

“What’re ya talkin’ about?” I ask Wilder, leaning toward him.

“Jake told me y’all were in the horse club group chat together. I assumed y’all started talkin’ through there.”

“Wilder, shut up,” Waylon demands through clenched teeth.

I’ve never seen him act this way toward his brother.

I nudge Waylon to grab his attention. “What’s he talkin’ about? You were in Jake’s group chat?”

There’s no way. Jake never introduced him.

Waylon’s gaze lowers as stress lines cover his forehead. “I was gonna tell you after this,” he mutters softly.

“Tell me what?” I ask, but I already have a sneaking suspicion and it’s going to piss me off. “You’re the one who told me I had poison ivy, aren’t you? The one who told me about havin’ a vitamin K deficiency?”

He nods.

I push my chair back. “We texted for a month and then you stood me up at the cafe!”

“Harlow, lemme explain…” He reaches for my hand, but I stand out of his reach.

“You fooled me!”

He stands, covering me from his siblings’ views. “I was gonna tell you this afternoon, I promise. I’ve been tryin’ to but there was never a good time.”

“It doesn’t matter now because our relationship is based on lies.” I push against his chest when he tries coming closer, and then I walk away, storming through the doors until I’m outside.

Jokes on me now because my truck’s all the way on the other side of the ranch.

A moment later, Ellie calls out my name behind me.

“Harlow, wait!” She catches up to me. “I’ll drive you.”

Tears fill my eyes, and I quickly wipe my cheek. “Thank you.”

She leads me to her truck and once we’re buckled in, she starts it. For a minute, it’s silent between us, but then she glances over at me.

“I know my situation ain’t exactly the same, but Landen and my relationship didn’t start out with the truth either.”

“How so?” I ask, keeping my gaze low as I fight the urge to burst out crying.

“I hated him for four years before I lost my memory in a barrel racing accident.”

I vaguely remember that from two years ago, but I was never in their circle to know the details.

“But when I forgot him, I realized I liked him. He was so kind and attractive, I couldn’t fathom why I hated him.”

“Did you figure it out?”

“Oh yeah…after I was deeply in love with him, too. So that sucked.”

“How’d you react?”

“Well, I knew since the beginning that he was someone I was supposed to hate. Everyone kept tellin’ me, ‘you can’t stand him, Ellie’…and Landen tried hard not to let me get too close. He knew as soon as my memory returned, I’d hate him even more. He was constantly waiting for the moment it came back and it felt like an evil trick. No one knew why I didn’t like him, so no one could tell me why.”

“Yikes, that’d be so frustrating.”

“It was! But even after I remembered, there were moments it felt like our relationship wasn’t real because of the four years prior, but me losing my memory gave us a real chance to explore our feelings. If I hadn’t, there’s no way we woulda ended up together.”

I nod, understanding her position.

“So what I’m sayin’ is, if it hadn’t happened exactly how it was meant to, everything would be different, and that makes me sad because I can’t imagine a life without him. So even if your relationship started out with deceptions, it brought you two together now. If you wanna make it work, you’re gonna need to hear him out. Listen to why he did what he did and then decide if you can forgive him and move forward.”

She parks next to my truck, then turns toward me.

“For what it’s worth, none of us have seen him this happy before. Wilder spilled his big fat mouth about y’all and then I started noticin’ the signs when I’d see him at The Lodge or during family dinner nights. His eyes are brighter. He laughs and smiles more than I’ve ever seen. And although I dunno him super well, I know he’d never hurt anyone on purpose.”

“I know…he’s been very patient and open with me.” I wave out a hand. “Minus this one thing.”

“And you have every right to be upset about it. In fact, make that man grovel like he’s never groveled before.” She smirks. “But don’t punish yourself by not being with him outta fear if he’s who you wanna be with in the end.”

“I do want him but I can’t help questionin’ everything I told him when I didn’t know it was him. It’d be one thing if we never had contact again, but then I found him on CowboyMatch and sent him a message to tease him about his prompt. We started casually chattin’ about how awful the guys on there were and that I had no datin’ experience. He had so many opportunities to tell me before he confessed his feelings to me.”

“If I know anything about the Hollis boys, they fall hard and get scared easily that they’ll lose it.”

“Yeah.” I release my belt. “Appreciate you drivin’ me.”

“No problem. Good luck, Harlow.”

I jump out. “Thanks, Ellie.”

When I get into my truck, I pull out my phone and find a message waiting for me.

Waylon: Harlow, I am so sorry you found out this way. I’ll explain everything whenever you’re ready to see me again. But please know I never wanted to hurt you or make you second-guess my feelings for you.

Because I don’t want to have this conversation over text, I type out a quick reply.

Harlow: Give me a few days. I’ll text you when I’m ready to talk.

Waylon: I can do that.

Dropping my phone, I let the tears welling in the corner of my eyes fall down my face.

When we started texting in a separate thread, I opened up and shared so much with him that didn’t involve my past and it made me feel seen for the first time in my life. I wasn’t the girl with the trauma. I was just me .

Realization hits when I think back to the day we were supposed to meet. He saw the pink ribbon in my hair before he saw my face and that’s when he acted like he was only there to grab coffee. While I sat and waited for him to show up, he let me think I’d been stood up.

But why?

Why would he pretend he wasn’t the person I was there to meet?

I guess that’s the answer I need from him.