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The Triple Threat (Love In Dayton Valley Book 1)

Page 19

by Nikki Ashton


  Hunter looked over my shoulder and shrugged. “And?”

  “And, we need to step up our plan.”

  He took a long swig from his bottle of beer and then sighed as he leaned in, so his lips were at my ear.

  “I think it’s about time I got some recompence for helping with this plan of yours.”

  Side-eyeing him I snorted my derision. “Recompence for what? I’ve done everything.”

  “Well for listening to you in the first place, for doing the calendar.”

  “Oh, which I’ve seen the proofs of by the way,” I replied excitedly. “And I have to be honest, you look pretty good.”

  Hunter preened, pulling to his full height. “You doubted me?”

  I shrugged but smirked and earned myself a beautiful smile.

  “Wish I’d done December though, don’t cha?” He nudged me with his shoulder and winked.

  “As much as I hate to admit it, you are a teeny bit more photogenic than Dylan.” I held my finger and thumb apart to show him how small the gap was. It was a lie of course; his pictures were phenomenal. I had no idea how, but he knew how to work the camera. His eyes looked down the lens as though they were looking right at me and only me.

  Phew, just thinking about them made me hot.

  “That mean you’re going to be buying more than one calendar for yourself?”

  “Well, it is for a good cause,” I replied with a shrug.

  “Sure is.” He grinned and took a drink of his beer. “So, I look forward to hearing from you when you’ve decided what I deserve for helping you.”

  He moved to go and join the Monopoly game, but I caught hold of his sweater.

  “What are you thinking?” I asked. “A few beers, a dinner. What?”

  Hunter’s eyes crinkled with amusement and he put his mouth close to my ear and whispered.

  “I’m sure you’ll think of something, but until you do, you’re on your own baby.”

  Hunter

  “What the hell is wrong with you today?”

  Pop jumped out of the way as I threw the broken fence post to one side.

  “Nothing. I’m fine.”

  The post slammer went down on the new post with a thud and reverberated around us.

  “Well that post has done something wrong then.” Pop shook his head and with a swing of his axe split the broken one in half. “Something happen yesterday at Henry and Melinda’s?”

  I breathed out deep, through my nose. “Pop, I said I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Fine but stop acting like a teenage girl who lost her ticket to a Bieber concert.”

  “Bieber isn’t relevant any longer,” I replied, lifting the slammer again.

  “Whatever, you know what I mean.”

  We continued to work in silence, but everything that had gone on with Ellie the day before had turned me into a brooding dark cloud. I didn’t want to talk about it, but it was also all I wanted to talk about. She was driving me fucking crazy with her hot and cold attitude. We’d been intimate twice and both times she’d passed it off like it was nothing. Wasn’t that what I was supposed to do? I’d tried to laugh it off, make her think I was okay with the fun of it all, but once I got home and thought about things, I was pretty pissed.

  “It’s Ellie,” I blurted out and threw the slammer to the ground. “She’s driving me crazy.”

  The grin on Pop’s face said it all. Ellie had been right; he did already know about us.

  “You knew?”

  He shrugged. “Not the full story but then you’ve had a thing for that girl most of your damn life. She’s grown into a beautiful woman, so why would you have different feelings now.”

  “What? What the hell are you talking about. I haven’t had a thing for her all my life.”

  “Most of it you have, son. I’d say since you were about ten or eleven and you realized she looked like Belle from Beauty and the Beast.” Pop threw his head back and laughed. “I remember you almost walked into the side of that big old tree in their back yard because you couldn’t take your eyes off her. She came outside in a cute little yellow sundress and a pair of flower shaped shades, with a book under her arm. Then she plonked her sassy little ass on a sun lounger, pushed her shades up her nose, crossed her legs and started to read. You watched her from the minute she set foot outside, to the moment she picked up that book and you’ve been watching her ever since.”

  “Huh,” I scoffed. “As if.”

  Pop smile and nodded. “Truth. Your mom noticed too.”

  “She did?”

  “Yep,” he sighed at the memory. “She grabbed my hand and said, ‘he’s found his one, baby’.”

  I started to laugh. “My one. I don’t think so, Pop. I mean I like her and all, but my one? Nope we’re nothing like that.”

  “So, tell me, son,” he said as he took his work gloves off and shoved them into the back pocket of his jeans. “What are you like?”

  Pinching the bridge of my nose I thought about his question. “We just had sex and… well other stuff.”

  “Don’t let Henry hear you say that you’ve just had sex with his girl, but she ain’t your one.”

  “Why not? You have a sex with lots of women and none of them are your one.”

  “I had my one,” he replied, a shadow passing over his face. “And I treated her like a queen from the moment I knew she was it for me.”

  “It’s kind of difficult to treat someone like a queen when they act like a bitchy princess most of the time.” I kicked at some stones on the floor and sighed before looking up at him. “Truth be told, Pop I have no idea how I feel about her.”

  He leaned back against the truck and folded his arms over his chest. The tattoos on his arms peeked out from under the cuffs of his rolled back shirt sleeves, both our jackets were thrown to one side when the work got sweaty.

  “So, what’s got you so hot headed. If you don’t know how you feel, how come you’re in such a shitty mood?”

  “She just shut me down afterward; both times.”

  “And that’s hurt your sweet little heart, right?” He quirked a brow and crossed his feet at the ankle, looking every inch the damn man who had knew exactly what he was doing with his life; no regrets.

  “No… yes… fuck, Pop I don’t know. I just know I’m pissed about it.”

  “Well, seems to me if you can figure out why you’re pissed about it, you’re well on your way to figuring out how you feel about her.”

  I moved over to join him leaning against the truck and looked out over the land. Some of the herd were grazing, in front of us and to the right in a smaller paddock was the bull we were hoping to introduce to them in the next few days.

  “I kinda wish I was like that bull,” I said, nodding in his direction. “Get introduced to a whole load of females and then just jump whichever ones smell right and take my fancy.”

  “You can, Hunt,” Pop replied. “But something is stopping you and my guess it could be those damn elusive feelings that you have for Ellie.”

  Watching his profile, I saw his jaw tense and tick as he looked dead ahead. That usually meant he was trying not to get emotional in some way or other. I figured it wasn’t anger he was holding back, but maybe sadness seeing as we were talking about feelings and falling for someone.

  “How long after you met Mom did you know?” My eyes stayed on him and the tension increased as the tick sped up. “Don’t think you’ve ever told me.”

  Finally, Pop looked at me and gave me a sad smile. “Well your mom would have told you it was the minute she fell off the fence she was sitting on and flashed her panties at me; four weeks after I’d been working on her Uncle’s ranch in Connecticut.”

  “Her Uncle Drake, right?”

  Pop nodded. “Yeah. Your Grandpa wanted me and Miller to learn the business from other people, not just him, so he got me a job on Drake’s ranch, while your uncle went to Kentucky. Dad knew Drake from way back, from when they went to the same auctions. I was supposed t
o stay there for eight months in total, but,” he sighed and lowered his gaze to the floor, “after five, your Grandpa was killed by a bull that got spooked, so me and Miller had to come back.”

  “Grandma was already dead wasn’t she.”

  Pop nodded. “Yeah she died of cancer when I was seventeen.” He looked at me and squeezed my shoulder. “Funny how life repeats itself.”

  “Yeah, I guess so.” I hadn’t realized Pop had been a similar age as I’d been when I’d lost Mom. It did all seem a little weird. “If it wasn’t when Mom said it was, when was it then? When you knew Mom was the one.”

  Pop’s eyes lightened and a huge smile that was brighter than the sun lit up his face. “It was a week after I’d been there. I’d gone into town with one of the other ranch hands. We’d gone to get some supplies for Drake. The guy I was with was in the barber shop getting his hair cut and I was waiting outside because it was real hot and humid and the barber shop had no AC. Well, your mom was walking along carrying some bags and one of them busted open. Everything in it rolled across the floor so I rushed over to help her, but she brushed me away and said she could manage. Said she didn’t need my help. I watched her put what she could in the other bags and then stuff the rest down the front of her shirt and in the pockets of her shorts. Once she did, she strutted past me like she had no damn clue who I was or that anything had happened.”

  “That made you fall in love with her?” I asked a little surprised. “Sounds like she was too stubborn for her own good.”

  He grinned at me. “Exactly. So, it was then, but I knew for definite two weeks later when she accidently flashed me her panties.”

  We both laughed and it felt good to talk about her and not get emotional or feel the need to scream my anger at her leaving us.

  “I think what I’m trying to say, son,” Pop said eventually. “Is that sometimes it’s not the beauty of someone that is the best part of them. Sometimes it’s the things that piss you off like their stubbornness. Your mom was one of the most tenacious people I ever knew and thank God she was. If she hadn’t been, she would never have stuck up for herself with her folks and come here to marry me. That cost her a relationship with them, but she was steadfast in what she wanted, and praise everything under the god damn sun, that was me. That damn stubbornness also gave me you because you know she was told not to have kids, but she was adamant. And, without you I don’t think I’d have survived losing her, son, I really don’t.”

  I turned away, not wanting him to see the tears glossing my eyes.

  “You’re right, once she made her mind up,” I sighed.

  “Yep. So, for all she was the most beautiful woman in the world, it was her stubborn streak that made me realize she was the woman I wanted by my side for the rest of my life. Which means that you may need to look past your anger where Ellie is concerned. Consider why she’s being stubborn and pushing you away. And if that all comes from a good place, well maybe you need to give her time and be more understanding.”

  I let my head drop back and puffed out my cheeks.

  “I’m so mad at her though, Pop. She just shut me down and won’t even consider what we could be.”

  “Don’t forget the number that ass clown Dominic did on her.”

  “She didn’t care about him,” I scoffed.

  “She knows that now, and maybe even then, but he still hurt and humiliated her. Plus, you don’t have the best track record for long and meaningful relationships, Hunt.”

  I stared at him wide-eyed.

  “Hey, I had the best woman in the world as long as God allowed me to have her. I’m not looking for anything else.”

  Shaking my head, I slapped Pop’s back. “I’ll think about it. It’s just she’s so crazy.”

  “And the crazy is the best part about women, you should know that.”

  We moved to gather the tools and throw them in the back of the truck and as I stalked to the driver’s side, my phone buzzed in my pocket. Pausing, I pulled it out to see another message from Ellie – number seventeen in the last twenty-four hours.

  Ellie: Hunter, if I show you my boobs are you back on the team? Whaddaya say Cowboy?

  Yep, fucking crazy.

  Ellie

  Hunter Delaney no longer existed to me. He was an idiot and a douche, and he’d abandoned me in my hour of need.

  Well, it wasn’t quite that bad, but he had dropped all my calls and ignored my text messages since Thanksgiving. Admittedly, they were all about our… okay my, ‘Get Bronte with Carter’ plan and his silence had made it quite clear that I was now on my own – unless of course I could think of a suitable recompense for his involvement. Obviously, I knew what he was getting at – more sex and or including the possibility of ass play.

  Whatever, he could have at least answered one text message. I didn’t even get a response from my offer to show him my boobs if he was still willing to help; things were definitely bad between us.

  The plan had evidently become my sole responsibility. That was fine, everything we’d done so far, which hadn’t been much if I thought about, had been instigated by me anyway. It was now solely on me to get Bronte’s mind off Jefferson and onto Carter. Which was why I was knocking on the door of her house with a devious, some might even say downright evil, plan.

  “Hey, Ellie,” Darcy greeted me with a small smile.

  “Hi, Darcy. Is Bronte home?” I thought she was because her bright pink Chevrolet Spark was sitting on the drive, but she was going through a jogging phase so may have been out.

  “She’s in her room. Go on through.”

  Darcy stood to one side and let me in, but I didn’t get the usual hug and squeeze from her. In fact, she looked sad and was gray beneath her eyes. Maybe what Shaw had said at Thanksgiving about his parents was more serious than we all thought.

  “Hey.”

  Bronte looked up from the magazine that she was reading and sighed. “Oh hi.”

  “Hey, what’s wrong?” I asked, joining her on the bed. “You look as sad as your mom.”

  “She and Dad have been arguing again, and last night he actually stayed out all night.”

  “So, what Shaw said was true?”

  Bronte nodded. “Yeah. I think they’re going to split up. I wasn’t supposed to hear, but I heard Mom say if he didn’t want to be here then he should leave.”

  My heart hurt for her. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have your parents separate. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to lose a parent.

  And Hunter invaded my head space, yet again.

  “What did your dad say?” I asked trying to get my mind back on track.

  “He said if that’s how she felt then he would. He didn’t, he stayed home, but last night he didn’t come back after he stormed out over another argument. I have no idea where he went, but he came back while I was out getting some supplies for the salon and they haven’t spoken to each other since.”

  I let out a deep sigh, second guessing whether I should put my plan into action. It was kind of mean, and Bronte seemed to be suffering enough.

  “One positive,” she said giving me a beaming smile. “I saw Jefferson when I was in Jennings Bridge getting supplies.”

  My shoulders sagged. “You did?”

  “Yeah, we had coffee together.” Bronte grabbed my hand and gave it an excited shake. “And he looked super-hot. He was wearing a flannel and jeans and his top two buttons were open and I got a sneaky little glimpse of his tattoos.”

  She bounced on the bed all worries about her folks evidently gone.

  “Bronte,” I snapped. “You’re supposed to be worried about your mom and dad.”

  “I am,” she replied. “Seeing Jefferson just cheered me up is all.”

  She pouted but I saw a hint of smile and I knew she was trying to play me which made me even more determined to go ahead with my dastardly plot.

  “Shall I get us a coke or something?” I asked giving her what I hoped was a sympathetic smile.
/>   “I can go.” She made to get up off the bed, but I put a hand on her shoulder.

  “Let me, you’re obviously upset.”

  She looked deeply sad once more, and I fleetingly second guessed my plan again before remembering how she’d had coffee with Jefferson.

  “Yeah, leave it to me.”

  I left her room and furtively checked my pocket with a little pat.

  “He’s going to be okay, right?” Bronte asked Carter.

  My brother placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Of course, he will. I just want to keep him under observation.”

  “And you’ll call me if he takes a turn for the worse?”

  “Honestly.” Carter’s voice was soft and gentle. He surprised me with just how sensitive he could sound. Probably because it involved animals – Bronte’s cat, Rodrick, being the animal in question. Her shitting cat, Rodrick.

  “Why don’t you two go over to Stars & Stripes,” he said as he looked over his shoulder toward his consultancy room. “I’ll come over in a little while when I’ve kept an eye on him for a bit longer.”

  “You’ll come over?” I asked, thinking my plan was going well. I could bail and get him to give Bronte a lift home.

  “I’m supposed to be meeting Hunter, he’ll already be there. Tell him I’ll get over asap.”

  Bronte nodded. “Thanks, Carter, I really appreciate it.” She stood up on her tiptoes and leaned in to kiss his cheek.

  This was getting better and better.

  “Let’s go, Bronte.” I grabbed her hand and pulled her gently toward the exit door.

  She gave Carter one last smile and followed me out.

  “You do think he’ll be okay, don’t you?”

  “Yes, of course he will. With Carter taking care of him he’s bound to be. He’s a great vet,” I stressed. “The best. So good with all animals and such a sweetie when he needs to be.”

  “Hmm.” Bronte pulled a face that asked me if I was talking about the same Carter. “If you say so. Come on let’s sit down.”

 

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