Landmine - Post Malone

27

"Out," Austin says yanking open the truck door and pulling Dillon out. She groans and rolls her eyes at him then stamps her foot for good measure. "Austin, you are being ridiculous. I was just going with Mitch to check on the fence line," she groans and folds her arms over her chest to drive home her annoyance. "You never let me go anywhere!" she adds, she can't help herself. "Not true. I have let you roam freely around the ranch house while we work," he says. "As long as I stay in your line of vision," Dillon snips. "Exactly," Austin snips back and snaps his fingers at her before he walks off. Angry, she lets out a frustrated scream and spins on her heel, heading to the other side of the almost-finished ranch house and as far away from him as possible.

After Luke's visit and his very clear message to not only continue his war with Austin but get to Dillon too - Austin has become overbearing with his over-protectiveness. She can not go anywhere on the ranch without him; she has been banned from town now altogether, and on top of all that, she has to stay in his line of sight at all times. He threatened to break down the bathroom door when she locked it the other night for a bit of 'personal time' because he could not physically check up on her and her verbal confirmation that she was fine was apparently not good enough. He has gone into overdrive, and it's driving Dillon insane. She is afraid to stand still for too long, or that man will bind her to his wrist. She can't reason with him either; she has tried, and the man point-blank refuses to reason with her. She is going to lose her mind if something doesn't change soon.

"Darlin', lunch," he says coming up behind her with two packed lunches, one for each of them. She would protest because she is still angry, but she has been working all day and is starving, so she puts her anger to the side and eats her lunch in silence. They work on the ranch house for the rest of the afternoon; she is starting to get a little excited because it's almost done, and Austin has mentioned that they could be living in it in a few weeks. It's a beautiful house and she can't wait. But, she can't enjoy it because she wants to go into the city and pick furniture, she wants to go clothes shopping too. But, even though Austin has not said anything about her not going she knows he will insist she no longer go. But he'd best get ready for one hell of a fight. She is going to the city and he will just have to deal with it. Even with her determination, she knows she will have to lay some careful foundations. He won't relent easily, so she has to do some planning, and it will have to be a little underhanded and sneaky.

The week goes by with no interference from Luke, and things on the ranch are quiet. They work hard every day, and she always makes sure to cook Austin a good meal before he spreads her out on the bed, the kitchen table, or the trailer floor while he maps out her body with his hands and lips. With the week so quiet and uneventful, you would think Austin's over-protectiveness would soften a little, but it doesn't. He even took the bathroom door off its hinges when she locked it a second time. She is going to freak the fuck out soon, and by the end of the week, she has cabin fever and feels like a prisoner. She has started to refer to Austin as warden rather than rancher because that's who he is now.

"I need to go into town. I have nothing left to make dinners with," she says as they get dressed on a Friday morning. "Make a list, and I will send Tom into town," Austin says, fiddling with the belt buckle she had handed him.

"No. I don't know what I need yet. I have to see what's there, and then I can decide what to make for dinner."

"That's not well planned."

"I cook from the head. I don't have recipes I follow, Warden."

"Warden? If you had recipes, you could make a list, right?"

"Yes. But, it's a moet point because I don't have recipes. I need to go into town."

Austin finishes snapping his buckle into place and flicks his eyes to her. She can see just by the way he is looking at her that she will not be going into town. He doesn't say anything when he turns and steps out of the bathroom so with a defeated and tired sigh, she finishes brushing her teeth and then heads to the kitchen to make coffee before they leave. While she is busy, Austin's hand appears and he places a large book in front of her. It's old and well used with bits of paper peeping out. "What's this?" she asks, opening it carefully and flipping just as carefully through the well-used, messy pages. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of handwritten recipes.