The Winter Cowboy || Bucky x Reader

Chapter 4

The next two weeks were spent installing the floors in the cabins and ordering furniture to fill them. It was a big expense, but necessary. As you slowly watched your vision coming together, new ideas started sprouting in your mind. Perhaps you could renovate the old treehouse and add a slide for children to play on during parties and perhaps you could order one of those old fashioned sauna barrels to install behind the cabins.

The only thing that kept your spirits from being up high, was the fact that you had barely had the chance to speak to Bucky. He spent much of his time logging wood from the forest for the floors, and when he wasn't working he chose to go straight up to his room right after dinner. You wondered why he was avoiding you and wondered if you had said something wrong. Or perhaps you had thought the conversations had meant more than they actually did. The distance taken by Bucky annoyed you a lot more than it should have. It wasn't until the next Sunday morning that you had your first moment in close vicinity to Bucky Barnes.

You found the house empty that morning, seeing your parents were out on a hike for the day and Harper wouldn't wake from her alcohol-induced coma until 2 in the afternoon. You guessed Bucky had to be outside already, angrily staring down a tree or something. So you decided to have a morning in and went downstairs dressed in your brother's old ice hockey jersey and fuzzy socks. This morning was the 562nd time you had to conclude you would never be able to nail a cute messy bun and would have to settle for second best. You freed a stack of your favourite vinyl records and selected one of your favourites. As the music started playing, you raided the kitchen cabinets for everything you needed to make the cinnamon French toast you enjoyed so much. You were shaking your hips to Do You Love me by The Contours as you dunked your bread in the egg, milk and sugar mixture to the beat of the music. You sung along to the lyrics as you dumped the toast in the buttery pan you had heated up. "Do you love me? Now that I can Daaaance. WATCH ME NOW HEY-" it was at that exact moment, when you had started a little impromptu dance solo and twirled around, that you found Bucky standing in the doorway wearing his work-out shorts, criminally tight running shirt, two wide blue eyes and raised eyebrows. You nearly headbutted the table as you jumped towards the record player to lower the volume and clumsily hauled yourself back up.

"Morning," you uttered breathlessly as you felt your cheeks turn all kinds of crimson and pink. For the shortest of seconds you thought you saw a small smirk play on Bucky's lips, but it disappeared as his steel blue eyes looked you up and down.

"Morning," he uttered when his eyes had finally travelled up to yours. You didn't quite know how to respond when he raised his arm to scratch the back of his neck, his muscular arm flexing as he did so. His hair had been tied back in a messy bun, save for some strands which had managed to escape during his run. When you studied him closer you found his skin to be covered with the sweat he had worked up, his chest still lightly heaving from the run.

"I uh- better go take a shower," he huffed as he gestured to the door and bolted from the kitchen as fast as he could. Left alone in the kitchen, you still felt the path Bucky's eyes had burnt into your skin. You were convinced he had looked at you like that for your idiotic appearance, not for the reasons you hoped were crossing his mind.

But unbeknownst to you, Bucky found himself cursing under the cold water of the shower- desperate to cool down from the figure of you that was now permanently imprinted in his mind. He struggled to not think of the way that jersey teasingly moved over your upper legs and the way you had danced when you thought no one had been watching.

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The next morning you woke up to the smell of freshly baked cherry pie and the sound of laughter coming from downstairs. Knowing the day would be unexpectedly warm for late August, you dressed yourself in a pair of high waisted denim shorts, a white top and a black paisley handkerchief tied up in your hair. Very unlike your usual self- you stalked into Harper's room to borrow her cherry chapstick, wondering if Bucky liked the taste of cherries. Lord this was getting out of hand.