Page 26 of Just Friends
Rebecca forced herself to focus on the deer and smile. “Yes. I’d love to prepare it. Thank you.” She glanced at Weasel who glowed; over her shoulder he threw Dalton a “told you so” grin. “Could you get it processed for me, please,” Rebecca asked.
Weasel nodded. “Sure. I field dressed him already.” He moved, grabbing the hand she’d had on his arm and pulled her closer to the truck bed. She wanted to move in the opposite direction but followed him. “It was a clean kill,” he stated, she was pointing out a hole. “The arrow passed all the way through.” His emphasis on this must mean it’s a big deal.
“Wow,” she replied pretending it impressed her. “That’s hard.” She took a wild guess on that.
“Damn, right. It went directly through the heart and out the other side of the body cleanly.”
Now that was an impressive shot, not that she needed verification of his marksman skills.
“Hey, Romeo,” Dalton called, “we gotta go.”
Weasel narrowed his eyes with a look that indicated he should shut up. But Dalton appeared unfazed by the pissed off expression. He looked at Rebecca, his gaze softened. “You really like it?”
She smiled. “I’m already thinking about recipes.”
Weasel lightly squeezed her hand before letting go as he headed around to the passenger side. When his brother was on the other side the truck, Dalton gave her a thumbs up. She nodded at him and turned back to her apartment laughing to herself.
???
Weasel settled into the seat, and Dalton didn’t speak until he turned out onto the main road. “You realize, women like flowers.”
Weasel snorted. “Buying flowers doesn’t take any type of skill or any real attention. Any bozo can buy her flowers.”
“And it takes a special kind of bozo to bring her a dead animal,” Dalton quipped and, ignoring the middle finger Weasel gave him, continued. “For Christ’s sake, just ask her out.”
“Ask her out?”
“To dinner… at a nice restaurant. Have a meal and conversation…” He stopped the truck at a light and faced him. “You do know how to date, right? She’s not one of your random bar hookups.”
“Of course, I know how to date, asshole,” he glared at Dalton.
“Just checking. It’s not like you grew up with a normal family.”
“You didn’t either. I just didn’t marry the first woman who showed me her tits.” It was Dalton’s turn to glare at Weasel. “Not that you could ever do better than Cindy, so you made the right decision,” he conceded.
“Yeah, I did.” Dalton drove in silence for a few minutes, then added, “So, ask her out.”
“You don’t think she’s out of my league?”
“Dude, she’s way out of your league; that’s why you should.”
“We’ve been out.”
“Oh, and…”
“It was fun. Cut short cause she got called to cater a wedding at the last minute.”
“And?”
“There’s a jackass ex I think abused her. I’m not gonna rush it with her.”
He nodded. “Good… but you’re already in.”
“I’m in?”
“Dude, you woke her up, and drug her out into the cold to give her a deer carcass and at no point did she run screaming.”
???