Free A Long Goodbye by Kelly Mooney

mind when her eyes met mine almost questioning what I was thinking. “Come here, girl,” I whispered in her ear. I couldn’t walk off that floor without giving her a slow dance, wrapped up in my arms. “One more dance and then we are getting out of here and starting that bucket list of yours.”
    She sat closer to me in my truck then on the ride here. I was not about to complain. “Where we going?” She glanced around as I pealed out of the lot, kicking up the dirt beneath the tire wheels. I pulled into another parking lot, and then turned to her. “Be right back.” I quickly ran inside the liquor store on the corner of the street, grabbed a fifth of Comfort, and hauled ass back to my truck.
    She eyed me briefly when I jumped back in and handed off the brown bag. “Umm, Woody, getting drunk isn’t on my bucket list. I kind of had that one nailed down in college.”
    “No one said anything about getting drunk. We’re finding some back ass country dirt road, we’re gonna lay down in the back of my truck, drink a little, and you are going to tell me how I can help you with that list.” She didn’t say anything, she just continued to stare at me like I had lost my damn mind somewhere back on the dance floor. “What?” I asked noticing she was suddenly real quiet.
    “You want to help me?”
    “Yeah,” I said, unsure of why she seemed so surprised as I started to back up and out of the lot.
    “Why, Woody?”
    I slammed the truck back in park, grabbed her hand before lifting it to my mouth and pressing a small kiss to her knuckles. “Grace, I just want to see it. Let me see you find yourself.” When she smiled, I knew she was allowing it, even without her telling me.
    After twenty minutes of driving away from the city lights, I made my way off the ramp to finally find what I was looking for. My foot pressed down a little harder, Tim McGraw blasted out of my speakers, and the dirt was kicking up behind my truck as we veered off the highway. Ashton had her head tipped back, singing the words to ‘Southern Girl’ as we made our way down some country road putting me one step closer to getting what I wanted, but shouldn’t take. And I knew this. What I was doing was stupid, something I’d probably regret tomorrow or a month from now, but hell if I gave a shit. I wanted to love this girl tonight with everything I had. Hoping like hell she was on the same page, I pulled under a big ol’ tree and placed my truck into park.

CHAPTER 11
    ASHTON
    I was not stupid and I really hoped he didn’t think I was. Part of me believed him when he asked to watch me find myself, but now I was thinking he wanted to see something else. Most likely me in my birthday suit. I took a deep breath before I turned to him. “What are we doing out here?”
    “C’mon,” he said, pulling the brown bag from my hand. Before I was even out my side of the door, I could feel the truck move from him jumping up into the bed of it. Slowly, I made my way to the back to find him digging in a big old black bin to see him pull out a sleeping bag. He turned and smiled, unzipping it then placing it down on the bed, kicking off his boots and leaving them on the tailgate of his truck. I followed suit, since I was starting to find this whole seduction thing kind of sexy.
    He patted the spot next to him as he propped himself up against that black bin he pulled the sleeping bag out of. Just as I was sitting, he pulled the bottle out and twisted off the cap. He took a long swig, and then handed it off to me. I took a small sip, before giving it back to him. “What is all this?”
    “I told you. You have how many days left until you need to head home?”
    “Eleven total.”
    “All right, how ‘bout this. Each day for the next eleven days you pick one or two things on your list and we do them together.”
    “But Lu and I are heading to Miami soon. Maybe we could get one or two in before I go?”
    He took another pull on the bottle, then gave it to me