by Nikki Ashton
“I did not,” Nancy cried alongside a grunt as she gave Carter another push. “I helped him home from the café. He’s been up all night with a horse and taking painkillers for his toothache.”
“Oh, so you drugged him.” Shaw pointed an accusatory finger at her. “You really are a piece of work, lady.”
“He still hasn’t been to the dentist. He’s had that damn cavity for months.” I moved to the side of the bed and looked down at Nancy. “He took painkillers on an empty stomach, didn’t he?”
“He was eating at the café, but I’m not sure how much he got down him seeing as he was falling asleep at the table. All I did was help him home, Bronte. He was so out of it I brought him in here and he fell on top of me, trapping me,” Nancy explained and then grimaced. “He doesn’t look as heavy as he actually feels.”
“God, I know it,” I replied with a smile. “When he falls asleep, he’s literally a dead weight.”
“You believe that?” Shaw asked incredulously. “That he fell on top of her. I suppose his dick just fell inside of you too, did it?”
Nancy inhaled slowly and blinked slowly. “You think you could tell your brother to… you know… go fuck himself.”
“Me go fuck myself?” Shaw responded. “As opposed to you fucking my sister’s boyfriend?”
“I didn’t damn well fuck him,” Nancy cried, attempting to throw her arms in the air. “I told you what happened and when he wakes up, Carter will tell you the exact same story.”
“Oh of course he will.” Shaw smirked. “Because he’s going to tell any lie he can to make sure my sister doesn’t dump his ass.”
“Shaw,” I snapped. “Just leave it. I believe her.” I turned back to Nancy. “I’m sorry, my brother can be a dick at times.”
“Yeah, well,” she grumbled. “That’ll be the trainee lawyer in him.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Shaw asked, widening his stance and putting fisted hands to his hips.
“You’re the brainbox, Shaw,” Nancy spat back. “You work it out.”
“Says the girl who was always the ass licker in high school,” Shaw returned.
“Will you both quit it.” I rolled my eyes and sighed heavily. “Help me get Carter off Nancy and then you can apologize to her for being rude.”
Marching over to me, grumbling under his breath, Shaw put his hands under Carter’s armpits and pulled him off Nancy. Throwing me a sarcastic smile, he unceremoniously dumped him onto the other side of the bed.
“Thank God.” Nancy groaned and pushed off the bed, swiping the back of her hand over her forehead. “I thought I was going to die there.”
She stood a few inches from me and gave me a small smile. “I’m sorry, Bronte, it really wasn’t what he said.” She flashed a warning glare at Shaw. “Carter really was dog tired. He told me he’d taken some Advil PMs on top of six painkillers.”
“Six!” I exclaimed.
Nancy nodded. “Those mixed with the Advil, no sleep and a near empty stomach just knocked him clean out.”
“It’s fine, Nancy. I’m just sorry my brother is such a rude douche.” I looked her up and down. “Are you okay?”
She rubbed her side. “Yeah, but he has real boney elbows.”
I grinned. “I know, he gets me with them most nights.”
“Are we finished with the sweet girly catch up?” Shaw ground out. “Any chance we can go home now?”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I replied looking down at Carter who had upped his snoring a notch. “I want to check he’s okay.”
“Really?” Shaw asked.
“Yes, really.”
“After what he did, with her?” He pointed at Nancy who was brushing her long dark hair back from face.
“I told you, it was nothing like that,” Nancy replied looking at my brother like he was a big pile of horse manure she’d just stepped in. “Why are you such a dickbutt? Were you born like that or did you learn it at that fancy Ivy League college of yours?”
“Well, we all know you were born an uptight bitch.”
“Shaw,” I gasped. “Apologize now, god damnit.”
What the hell was his problem with Nancy? I believed her, so why didn’t he?
“Don’t worry about it, Bronte.” Nancy huffed out a breath. “Just make sure Carter gets that tooth checked out. Oh, and I forgot to bring his painkillers from the café, so you may need to get him some more.”
I nodded and gave Nancy’s arm a squeeze as she moved past me toward the door, shoulder barging Shaw on her way out.
I turned on him. “Well, you were rude.”
“Yeah well, she deserves it. Been a bitch since high school and evidently hasn’t changed since.”
Carter groaned, rolled onto his back and then rubbed at his nose.
“He’s waking up,” I told Shaw, recognizing the tell. “You take my car and tell Mom I’ll call her later.”
“You can’t be serious about staying with him?”
“Yes, Shaw I am. Weren’t you the one who less than twenty-four hours ago was telling me what a good man he was?”
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, before we found him in bed with Nancy Andrews. Which kind of makes me a shit judge of character, dontcha think?”
Exhaling heavily, I turned my gaze back to Carter who was most definitely waking up—he was scratching his balls.
“Just go home, Shaw.”
Shaw looked to Carter and then back to me. “If I find out Nancy Andrews was lying, I’ll chop those balls off and that baby you’re carrying will be the last of his fucking bloodline.”
“What’s going on?” Carter asked, looking at me with only one eye open. “I wasn’t dreaming, you’re here, Lollipop.”
Shaw opened his mouth, but I slapped my hand over it. “How’re you feeling?”
He winced and put a hand to his cheek. “Still have a fucking toothache. That’s what woke me.” He patted the pockets of his jacket. “You seen my painkillers? I had them in the café.”
“The café where you hooked up with Nancy Andrews,” Shaw griped.
“Shaw,” I snapped. “I told you to go home.”
Carter pushed himself into a sitting position and scratched his cheek. “What the hell are you talking about?” he asked. “I remember eating pancakes and then Nancy offering to give me a ride home, but after that.” He let out a loud yawn. “Don’t remember much, except sleeping and dreaming about you Lollipop, except it wasn’t a dream because you’re here.”
He gave me the most beautiful of sleepy smiles but then winced and flopped back against his pillows.
“Shaw, make yourself useful and go check for painkillers in the cabinet in the bathroom.”
He began to grumble but when I pinched his side after Carter gave another groan of pain, he left the room.
“Shit, I really need to see the dentist,” Carter said, clutching a hand to his face.
“Yeah, you do.” He certainly didn’t look like a guilty man, just a tired one wracked with pain.
He was fully clothed, and Nancy had been too. It did seem pretty unlikely anything had happened between them.
“Nancy may well have been telling the truth.” Shaw shoved a bottle at me. “If these are the same as the ones he took with the Advil, there’s no way he’d have managed to even think about getting his dick up, never mind actually getting it up.”
I looked at the label and saw it was emblazoned with Extra Strength Tylenol.
“Are these the same as the ones you had in the café?” I showed them to Carter.
He grimaced and pulled in a breath. “Yes. I just need them until my dental appointment next week.”
“Carter,” I cried. “Why have you not been to the dentist? The number of pills you’ve taken along with the Advil and no sleep, no wonder you pretty much passed out.”
I turned my gaze on Shaw, who shrugged. “Okay, so maybe Nancy was telling the truth. Look, I’m going to go.”
“At last. And be careful in my car.”
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He shuddered and turned for the door. “Can’t believe I have to drive that thing. It’s fucking pink for starters.”
“I hear you, Shaw,” Carter said around a pained laugh. “I keep telling her to trade it in for something more suitable. A nice SUV that can handle the winters, but she won’t listen to me.”
I pushed a hand against Carter’s shoulder, emptied two pills from the bottle and passed them and a bottle of water from next to the bed to him. “That’s the last two you’re getting. I’m going to call the dentist and get you an emergency appointment. You take them and get some more sleep. And you,” I pointed at my brother, “go home and stop saying shit about my car.”
Shaw sighed and with a wave of his hand left me alone with Carter.
“You know, Lollipop, I’d sleep much better if you got on here with me.” He patted the mattress and I had to admit, it did look comfy.
I could have done with a little rest, but I knew if I got onto that bed with him, it would be so much more than taking a nap. It would probably be the start of us being an ‘us’ again. It would be me admitting that I trusted Carter with mine and the baby’s heart. Yet how could I when I’d mistrusted him even though I should have known better.
“Sleep,” I said with a sigh. “I’m going to call the dentist and then when you wake up, I’ll make you some dinner.”
Carter gave me a sad smile and nodded. “Okay. Sounds good to me.”
Touching the edge of the comforter that I’d picked out, I sighed and left the room, wondering whether I’d ever come to my senses.
Two days after having my cavity filled, I felt like a new man; as far as the pain was concerned anyway. Bronte was still being determinedly stubborn about us; despite the fact I was pretty sure she’d wavered when I’d asked her to get into bed with me. The little hitch of her breath was the tell.
Whenever she was turned on and close to rocking my world, she always did this thing where she breathed in and did a little gasp at the same time. Well, I’d heard it that day in my apartment, so the future didn’t look completely bleak. I just needed a little more help.
“Hey, Aunt J,” I called up to the front porch of the house as I slammed my truck door. “Where’s that big ugly lug of a nephew of yours?”
“Oh hello, Carter, honey. How are you?”
The sweet little old lady was dressed in a yellow sundress with big pink roses on it and frills at the sleeves. On her feet were what looked like wooden clogs that I’d seen in books about Holland. Some might have been a little surprised by the attire but nothing Hunter’s aunts wore or did shocked anyone in Dayton Valley.
“I’m great. How about you?”
As I walked toward her, I noticed a fat puppy at her feet chewing on a shoe.
“Who’s this little guy?” Stooping down I rubbed its head, giving a quick look under its belly. “And it is a little guy.”
Janice-Ann’s face fell. “Really?” She turned and called over her shoulder, “Lynn-Ann, Primrose is a boy.”
Janice-Ann’s identical twin appeared in the doorway with a bowl of what looked like oatmeal and wearing the exact same dress as her sister but in pink with yellow roses.
“Are you sure?” she asked, looking crestfallen. “I’m sure you’re mistaken.”
“Carter said—”
“You can’t believe a word that boy says,” Lynn-Ann retorted moving forward and spotting me. “Oh hi, Carter, honey.”
She wasn’t even phased that she’d been caught out on calling me a liar.
“Tell her, Carter,” Aunt J said.
I shrugged my shoulders and passed ‘Primrose’ to Aunt J. “She’s most definitely he, I’m afraid.” I indicated for her to lift the puppy up and showed her and wondered how the hell they’d missed it—although it was the twins we were talking about.
“Darn it,” Aunt L hissed.
“I have my bag with me, you want me to check him out?”
Aunt J snuggled him to her chest. “Would you, honey? We’d be really grateful.”
“No problem. I’ll visit with Hunter and then call back to the house. That okay?”
The two sisters nodded in unison.
“Where’d you get him, anyway?” I asked.
“Pauly Jansen’s dog had puppies and he was going to take them all to the pound,” Aunt J explained. “We saw him at the gas station when we were there with Jefferson, so we decided we wanted one.”
I smiled. “And I’m guessing you went on at Jefferson until he said yes. Am I right?”
They both grinned.
“Janice-Ann refused to come out of the rest room until Jefferson agreed.”
“How many others were there?” I asked, giving him another scratch behind the ears.
“Three,” Aunt L retorted.
“And what happened to the other two?” A thought came into my head. “Did Pauly take them to the pound?”
“No.” I looked up to see Jefferson. “They’re in my damn barn. And that is my shoe it’s having for breakfast.”
“He won’t let them in the house. He made us pick one out,” Aunt L pouted.
Jefferson rested his hands on his hips and looked down at the ground. “And didn’t that take longer than a cow with a breach birth,” he muttered.
“What are you going to do with the other two?” I asked, my idea taking shape.
“Why, you know someone who’ll want one?” Jefferson asked, looking up at me with hope in his eyes.
“Well, there’s nothing like owning a dog to tell a woman you’re ready to be a dad, right?”
Jefferson took a step back and winced. “Carter, son, are you sure that’s the right way to go about things. You know better than anyone how much work puppies are, and with a baby on the way…”
“I know.” I shrugged. “Like I said, it proves a point.”
Jefferson’s eye roll didn’t escape me, but I didn’t care, I knew it was the right thing to do. There was nothing like a fluffy little animal to soften a girl’s heart.
“I’m going to go pick one,” I informed them.
“There’s a boy and a girl,” Jefferson informed me. “They’re at the back of the barn in an old tack crate. Hunter is in there changing the oil on the truck.”
“What’re you ladies going to call your little guy now?” I asked, already deciding I was taking the boy.
Hunter’s two aunts gave me identical frowns. “Primrose,” they chorused in a tone that said I was stupid.
Jefferson shrugged and gave me a look as if to say, ‘see what I’m up against’.
“Okay.” I scratched my head and pointed toward the barn. “Once I’ve finished talking with Hunt I’ll give them all a check over.”
“Thanks, Carter.” Jefferson slapped my back and leaned in close. “Maybe see your way to swapping this guy out with the little girl. I’m not sure I can be responsible for him having a dick and answering to Primrose.”
Laughing, I nodded and walked away toward the barn to find my best buddy not with his head under the hood of the truck as I expected, but pacing up and down, mumbling to himself.
“Hey, what’s going on?” I asked, my eyes searching for the crate.
Hunter barely glanced at me as he carried on wearing a path in the sawdust and hay on the floor.
“Hunter, buddy, what’s going on? Your dad said you were changing the oil on the truck.”
He looked over to me and scrubbed a hand down his face. “What do you want? I’m kinda of busy right now.”
“Yeah, looks like it.” Leaving him to stride, I went to the back of the barn where a big, old wooden crate was making little yapping noises. “Hey, there guys.”
Inside were two more cute little puppies. One was all black and the other black and gold, just like ‘Primrose’. At a quick glance you wouldn’t have a clue what breed they were, but I knew Pauly’s bitch, Sadie, was a Golden Retriever. As for the dad, it could have been a Coonhound by the length of the puppy’s ears. They were handsome little fellas and I kne
w one would most definitely make Bronte all gooey inside. Picking each up in turn, I could see that Jefferson was seemingly better at gender spotting than his sisters. He was right, there was a boy and a girl.
“I’m taking the boy,” I announced to Hunter, whether he was listening or not. “Gonna call him—”
“Do not say, Blake,” Hunter snapped from behind me.
“Oh, so you are listening then?” I turned to see a real pale face. “What the hell is wrong with you? You sick or something?”
“No,” he groaned and tugged at his hair.
“Well, you look sick,” I offered as I picked up my new puppy. “Hey, Mani, how are you doing?”
“Mani?” Hunter asked.
“Yep,” I replied without turning away from the cute hairy face in front of me. “He’s Bronte’s favorite member of The Stone Roses.”
Hunter shrugged.
“British indie band?”
He shook his head. “No idea but if you’ve finished you can go. Like I said I have stuff to do.”
“What the hell’s crawled up your ass?” I placed Mani back with his sister and turned to my best friend. “I actually needed your advice but if you can’t be bothered to help a friend, forget it.”
“You know what, Carter, it isn’t always about you. Sometimes other people have stuff going on too.”
“What’ve you got going on?” I asked, raising a brow. “Apart from faking changing the oil on your truck.”
“Just stuff.” Hunter raised his brows and thrusting his hands into his pockets, nodded toward the door. “Now, you think you can go?”
Contemplating just doing as he asked, I eyed him up and down noticing his eyes were looking at everything except for me.
“What are you hiding from me?” I felt a thud in my chest remembering the last time I thought he’d kept something from me—that he’d kissed Bronte. He hadn’t, but I’d still put him on his ass with one punch.
“I’m not hiding anything,” he protested. “Just fuck off and leave me alone.” He stalked toward me and when he pulled his hand from his pocket to take hold of my arm, a piece of paper glided to the floor.
“You dropped something.”
As I bent to pick it up, Hunter was on me in a flash trying to snatch it from under my fingertips.
