Georgia

Chapter 5

Caroline

Looking out the window of this black pickup at the Georgia night passing by I can feel his eyes on me. I try to resist the urge to look in Luke's direction. I still can't believe I'm sitting here on my way to who knows where with this good-looking country man. And wearing cowboy boots no less! Who am I right now?

We turn onto a dark dirt road and Luke starts to slow down. I look ahead of us and see nothing but darkness. "Where are we?" I ask, the tiniest hint of worry in my voice.

"You'll see."

He keeps driving and out of nowhere I see at least 15 trucks forming a circle around a bonfire and what looks like a small stage in this big clearing. Luke backs up to the fire and gets out. There's cars everywhere too, a small lake off to the left and a wooded area to the right.

He's at my door taking my hand when I ask, "What is all this?"

"A good ol' Leesburg tailgate. C'mon."

We walk over to an attractive, slim guy with jet-black hair sitting on the back of a red truck strumming a guitar. Luke waving and saying hey to everyone we pass. "Caroline, this is my best friend Carter. Carter this Caroline."

"Hello" I say quietly.

"Ah right, the city girl. Good ta meet ya darlin'." Carter says. I look at Luke and smile, he's been talking about me.

More people come up and gather around the fire, piling on the tailgates of the trucks, sitting on the hoods of the cars. Luke walks me over to a cooler full of beer, opens two and hands me one. I hesitate a little. He leans in and whispers, "Letting your hair down, remember?"

I smile, clink the neck of my bottle against his and take a drink.

Back at Luke's truck, halfway thru my third beer and I feel good. I notice he hasn't even finished his first. "Are you not drinking?"

"Nah, not tonight. I've got a some precious cargo with me I wanna make sure it gets home alright."

I can't help but smile. "Did you just call me cargo?"

"Whoa now city girl. Who said I was talking about you?" He chuckles, "I've got my fishing poles back here." He says gesturing towards the back of the truck.

"Really? Oh my god!" I say giving his shoulder a shove. He grabs my hand and it's there, that feeling. I look at our hands touching like if I'm going to see some explanation in them.

I look up at Luke and he's staring at our entwined hands too. "You feel it too, don't you?" He says in a breathy quiet voice.

He's moving his face closer to mine, one hand on my cheek, the other holding my hand to his chest. Our lips are about to touch, my heart is pounding, it's like I've completely forgotten how to breathe when we hear Carter.

He's up on the small makeshift stage with the mic in hand, "A'ight a'ight settle down now y'all! I'm gonna need smokin' hot Luke Bryan to get his country ass ta the stage!" Everyone turns to look for Luke.

Luke shakes his head, chuckles, "I'll be back. Sit right here." He drops his hand from where he was holding my face and jumps off the tailgate. I must not have done a very good job at hiding my disappointment cause he turns back to me, puts a finger under my chin, lifts my face to his and says, "Don't worry, I'm gonna kiss you before this night is over if it's the last thing I do."

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Luke

We pull up to the party, backing up I hop out and go to her door. She asks what all this is, her face lit up with excitement and just a little bit of worry. I grab her hand and we make our way over to Carter.

Back at that truck she's swayin' a little to the music coming from one of the trucks. We're talking, flirting, I'm teasing her, making her laugh. For the second time tonight I'm about to kiss her when we get interrupted. I hear Carter calling me to the stage.

I make my way thru the crowd that's gathered around, high-fiving everyone as I pass and jump up on stage. Grabbing the mic and picking up my guitar I start strumming a few cords, "How ya'll doin' tonight?"

Up on a stage, guitar in hand with my buddies along side me, this is home. Playing in front of people drinking and dancing, singing along is all I've ever wanted to do. We start playing and everyone screams.

"I got that real good feel good stuff
Up under the seat of my big black jacked up truck
Rollin' on 35s
Pretty girl by my side"

I look at Caroline and give her a wink. She blushes but doesn't look away.

"My kinda your kind is this kind of night
We dance in the dark and your lips land on mine
Oh oh oh oh oh, gonna get our love on
Oh oh oh oh oh, time to get our buzz on"

Even with all these gorgeous tan-legged Georgia girls standing in front of the stage screaming my name and shaking their hips I don't take my eyes off of Caroline for a minute. I don't know what it is about her, the innocence, the shyness, the way that she doesn't even realize how beautiful she is.

We finish our set, I jump off the stage and head straight for Caroline. She’s standing in front of the tailgate of my truck clapping her hands, I take a bow and she giggles.

I want to kiss her, I need to kiss her. I walk up to her, put my arm around her waist and pull her body up against mine. I put my hand on her neck, I bring my face down to hers and our lips touch.