You're Mine, Cowboy

Chapter 13

“What was that for?” I asked him, tilting my head slightly to the side; Derek smirked back, making that ache for him deep in my belly flare up once more.

“I could ask you the same thing,” he replied, a faux cocky expression on his face. I bit my lip and felt a light blush color my cheeks as I looked up at him through my lashes, trying to be coy.

“Maybe I just wanted to kiss my boyfriend,” I told him sincerely, not looking away and feeling my face heat up even more; was it too early to call him my boyfriend? What would he think? His face lit up with surprise that he masked quickly, blinking to cover it up. Derek stayed silent for what felt like an hour, but couldn’t have been more than a few moments. I turned away and pulled my hand out of his grasp; it wasn’t hard; his grip had loosened significantly, allowing me to turn and walk back towards the house, leaving him behind as I furiously blinked the forming tears from my eyes. Why had I said ‘boyfriend’? It was too soon; I knew it was too soon, but I went and ruined a good thing – again. I crossed my arms over each other, holding my elbows as I headed over the grass towards the front door.

Before I could unlock it, though, Derek’s hand on my shoulder stopped me as he spun me around to face him. I didn’t look up, but instead stayed still, looking at the ground and biting my lip as I waited for him to tell me that I was moving too fast – even though I was the one that was adamant on moving slow and we had already exchanged the big ‘I love you’. I had kind of figured that since we professed our love, we were boyfriend-girlfriend; I waited for him to tell me otherwise, but the verbal blow never came. He just stayed silent; I could feel him looking at me. Eventually I looked up through my lashes at him while chewing my lip viciously, nervously.

“You called me your boyfriend,” he finally whispered, breaking the tense and awkward silence. I nodded, looking away and remaining silent. Derek put his hand under my chin and tilted it up so I was looking at him instead of the ground. “You called me your boyfriend,” he repeated. I nodded again, slightly confused as to why he was repeating himself; I knew what I had said. Suddenly, his mouth turned up in an ear-splitting grin that lit up his whole face. My brow furrowed in confusion at the sudden change in atmosphere; it seemed lighter, clearer - happier.

“You,” he leaned down and pecked my lips, “called me,” – another peck – “your boyfriend.” This time when he leaned down, it was a lasting, tender kiss that showed me just how happy he was that I had said that. I pulled out of the kiss, put my hands on his chest and tilted my head back to look up at him.

“I thought you were upset,” I confessed, searching his eyes for any signs of falsity. Derek’s eyes flashed with unmasked shock as he shook his head.

“No, baby girl, I’m not upset. I’m thrilled that you called me your boyfriend; I didn’t know how much longer I could stand just working up to that title,” he told me, shooting me a small smile. Immediately, guilt rushed in. I felt awful; I should have considered Derek’s feelings, him, too. It wasn’t fair to him that I kept him waiting so long while just being friends; well – friends that kissed a lot.

“I’m sorry, Derek.” I hugged him tightly to me and he chuckled, carefully pulling back from my iron grip.

“Sweetheart, you have nothing to apologize for. Just smile and be happy and go on another date with me,” he coaxed, smiling at me. I felt my facial expression mirror his own as my mouth formed a smile of its own accord while admiration for him shone in my eyes. I nodded.

“Okay.” I bit my lip and smiled bigger now, feeling extremely happy. I squealed with delight when Derek suddenly lifted me into the air, spun me around and kissed me before lowering me gently back to the ground.

“Okay,” he grinned. “Let’s go, then!” We walked back over to his truck and paused while Derek took my hand and kissed it before opening the passenger door and helped me up on the seat.

“Such a gentleman,” I murmured appreciatively, winking as he laughed and shut the door before walking around and getting into the driver’s seat. Derek took my hand and held it over the center console as he drove, looking confident and sexy. For the first time in a long while, I couldn’t remember the lasttime I had been this happy.

*          *          *          *

~ Derek ~

I couldn’t help but feel deliriously happy and completely at ease now that I knew Layla classed me as her actual boyfriend. I felt over the moon with excitement. I could show her off officially now and tell people she was actually my girlfriend instead of just ‘the girl I was crazy about’. Damon, Marcus and Xander already knew how crazy about Layla I was, but I was more than willing to take it as slow as she wanted, no matter how much it killed me to do so. There were – and would continuously be – many cold showers involved, but I didn’t mind as long as she was happy, as sappy as that sounded. Man, I was whipped. I chuckled at the thought of how much I had changed over the course of just a few short weeks; I used to be some arrogant jerk who loved nothing more than parties and getting laid by the hottest chicks around, but now I was a big ol’ softie, willing to do anything for one girl if she’d only let me.

“Hey, Derek,” Layla’s voice piped up from the passenger seat. I glanced over briefly and smiled.

“What’s up?” I asked her, turning back to the road.

“If you could re-do everything and have stayed the way you were a few weeks ago, would you do it?” I was surprised at the question, and the bluntness of it.

“What made you ask that?” I replied, extremely curious. She shrugged and drew small circles on the back of my hand that was holding one of hers.

“I don’t know,” she answered. I could hear the honesty and slight confusion in her tone. “It just popped into my head, and I blurted it out. So, would you?” she repeated. I pondered for a moment. My immediate answer would have been no; I loved her and if I wasn’t able to be with her, I’d be a wreck. I knew, though, that she wanted a serious and more thought-out, honest answer.

If given the opportunity to change things, would I go back to the way things were before I met her? I couldn’t deny that I’d had a good time with that lifestyle, but after another moment’s deliberation, I shook my head.

“Not a chance.” Layla seemed relieved, and I felt bad right away. “You don’t have to worry about me going back to that kind of life ever again,” I assured her. “Not while I’m with you.” She kissed my hand and held it to her heart.

“I love you,” she whispered. I smiled.

“And I love you, you beautiful, blue-eyed angel.” I peeked at her and saw a deep red blush coat her cheeks; I felt pleased with myself; I had made her blush – in a good way.

At that moment, Lee Brice’s voice filled the cab of my truck as the opening lyrics to his song, “Woman Like You” came on the radio. I laughed at the irony before quietly singing along.

“Last night out of the blue, drifting off to the evening news, she said honey, what would you do if you’d-a never met me? I just laughed, said I don’t know. I could take a couple guesses, though. I then tried to dig real deep. Said darlin’ honestly – I’d do a lot more offshore fishin’. I’d probably eat more drive-thru chicken. I’d take a few strokes off my golf game if I’d-a never known your name. I’d still be driving that old green Nova. I probably never would’ve heard of yoga. I’d be a better football fan. But if I was a single man, alone and out there on the loose, I’d be lookin’ for a woman like you.”

Layla softly sang a harmony, and even though neither of us would be singing in Carnegie Hall anytime in the near future, I loved how we sounded together. Whenever I was with her, it felt like we were writing a song that only we knew the music to.