Triple Daddy Heat

by Pepper Swan

  I had to admit, I didn’t look like much of a mother. I’d worn my shortest jean shorts that didn’t quite hide my ass cheeks when I leaned over, and my shirt was about as tight and low as it could get over my bare breasts. I had a perfect set and liked to show them off when I was working in the bar. It made getting tips a lot easier or at least I thought it helped. I never had any inhibitions about my body, until that very moment.

  “Not exactly, more surreal, like I’m caught in a movie. I don’t think I’ve been inside a Walmart since I was a kid.”

  “Might do you some good to see how normal folks live.”

  “Are you saying I’m not normal?” he asked as my gaze slid over his perfectly pressed Western shirt, his designer jeans, and boots that probably cost more than my car.

  “How old are you?” I asked him, guessing he was in his late twenties or early thirties.

  “Twenty-nine, but what does that have to do with anything?”

  “You’re twenty-nine years old and you haven’t been in a Walmart since you were a kid. That says you’re not normal. That says you don’t need to shop at Walmart like most people do.”

  “No. It says that I do all my shopping online. Now, what do we need?”

  “Lots of baby supplies. Follow me,” I told him as I led the way.

  On the way to the baby department, I found a red, black and white flannel shirt that I put on over my clothes, leaving it unbuttoned. Fall was fast approaching, and my skimpy outfit wasn’t enough to keep me warm, the shirt would help a great deal.

  We found the baby department, and I loaded the cart with several onesies, diapers, baby bottles, nipples, some cute little girly things, blankets, and a small playpen we could put her in to sleep. I grabbed another cart and added a decent car seat and a stroller. The car seat we had now was much too big.

  “And tell me why we need all of this when she’s not going to stay more than a few days?”

  I hated that he was so eager to pass Belle off to the next person. Poor little thing. Nobody seemed to want her.

  Well, I did, but that didn’t matter. I had no claim on her, and until we knew the results of a paternity test, neither did Boone.

  “Because the little darlin’ needs to be comfortable. An uncomfortable baby translates into an uncomfortable home.”

  He thought about that for a moment, when Belle sighed as she tried to shove her fist into her mouth.

  Boone grinned down at her and my heart melted until he said, “Now, where’s that paternity test kit?”

  Meg 4

  “This is your house?” I asked as we drove up to what looked like a log-cabin castle. It was as big as any hotel I’d ever been to, only in the horizontal position instead of the vertical. It had two floors and could probably accommodate most of Silver Springs if it came down to it.

  “We’re still working on it,” Boone said as he pulled up in front, turned off the ignition, and got out. I’d sat in the back with Belle the entire time, even though she’d fallen asleep as soon as we drove away from Walmart.

  What was it about babies and cars? They seemed to fall asleep as soon as the engine roared to life.

  The back of the SUV was loaded down with so much stuff, we could barely get it all in. I may have gone a little overboard, but I figured it was better to be over-prepared than under. Boone could return whatever he didn’t use.

  Before Boone opened the back, two other guys, dressed in jeans, boots, and loose-fitting t-shirts walked out on the long wrap-around porch. The entire front of the house lit up like a hotel. If I didn’t know better, I would think the place was some sort of extravagant lodge rather than someone’s house.

  “What the hell?” the shorter of the two guys quipped.

  “What are you doing home?” the taller one asked. “Did they run out of booze at Last Call? And you’re not stumbling around? Did somebody die or what?”

  I slipped out of the backseat after I’d unfastened the seatbelt that held Belle’s car seat in place. Then I slid it out and held it by the handle, trying not to disturb Belle, who was still fast asleep, her head tilted to one side, with white drool running down her chin. I wiped it off with the corner of the blanket. She needed to look her best when she met her other potential daddies.

  “It’s a long story,” Boone said. “But can you guys keep it down? The baby’s finally sleeping and believe me, you don’t want her to wake up again.”

  “The baby?” the shorter one asked.

  I carefully shut my door, so they could get a good look.

  “What’s all this about?” the taller one asked.

  “I’ll explain everything once we unload all of this and we’re inside. Can you guys help?” Then he gazed over at me. “Megan… it is Megan, right?”

  My full name was printed on my name tag. Fortunately, I’d remembered to unfasten it from my tee before we’d gone into Walmart.

  “Just call me Meg,” I told him.

  “Meg, why don’t you go on inside and make yourself comfortable. We’ll be right in with everything.”

  “Can I just get a diaper and the baby wipes from the back? She needs to be changed,” I said, then I successfully found what I needed before heading for the house, passing the other two men as I went.

  “I’m Tucker,” the shorter guy said, nodding his head while heading for the back of the SUV. “Nice to meet you, Meg.”

  I smiled as we passed but didn’t say a word.

  “I’m Vince,” the other one told me. “The kitchen’s off to the left, and the bathroom’s off to the right once you walk through the foyer, living room’s straight ahead if you just want to sit for a while.”

  He looked as though there was some Asian ancestry running through his veins, just like Rosie and Belle. I wondered if Belle was his baby, and if she was, how would he handle it?

  How would any of them handle it?

  And just like Belle, they all had dark thick hair and a gorgeous olive-colored skin tone, unlike my porcelain white skin that burned out under a sunny sky faster than a struck match.

  Any one of them could be her father, I was sure of that now.

  Boone had purchased three paternity kits, one for each of them, and I had a feeling they would all be anxious to know the results.

  I walked inside and at once, the scope and beauty of the house surrounded me. I’d never been in a house so big and set up for comfort. Boone had said they were still working on it, but I saw no evidence of that.

  Of course, the house was set up for adults and not for babies or young kids with pointed edges on the tables, decorative floor lamps, and throw rugs to catch on tiny feet. That would have to change if Belle was going to stay there for any length of time… like forever.

  But I was getting ahead of myself. Nobody knew where Belle would live in the long run. However, for the next few days, this would be her home.

  Of course, if Boone had his way, the sheriff would pick her up tomorrow and place her in some sort of shelter over in Denver, no doubt. I hoped that either Vince or Tucker wouldn’t allow it.

  I walked into the living room and set her car seat down in a quiet corner near the front of the room. I was going to change her but then thought better of it when I heard the guys coming in with all the stuff. I hurried out to the foyer to ask them to keep their voices down. Until I could give her another bottle, change her, and put her down for the night, I wanted to keep her sleeping.

  It was then, in the bright lights inside the house that I realized how absolutely gorgeous and muscle-bound all three of them were.

  Holy shit!

  They were panty-dropping good looking, with bodies that captured my sinful imagination. I couldn’t help but imagine what it might be like to be in bed with all three of them at once… all those hands… all those, well…

  Oh, what a night!

  They carried in heavy boxes and countless bags of baby things like they weighed ounces instead of pounds. These guys certainly didn’t need me. They were perfectly capable of fe
eding, changing and securing Belle in her new sleeping arrangements without my help.

  “Maybe we should put all this stuff in one of the guest bedrooms down the hall,” Vince suggested, and the other two cowboys followed him down the hall while I waited in the living room.

  Boone returned first.

  “Well, I should be going,” I said, pulling out my phone and getting ready to text for a cab. Silver Springs still didn’t have Uber or Lyft, but the cabs were just as affordable.

  “Aren’t you staying?” Boone asked, a look of sheer panic on his face.

  “That wasn’t our agreement. You three can handle it from here.”

  “What makes you say that? I don’t think any one of us knows how to change a diaper or mix formula or even pick her up without breaking her.” He raked his hand through his thick hair and shuffled his feet. “Name your price. Two thousand for the next week, would that work for you?”

  “Money isn’t the issue. I have a dog that needs to be fed and let out. Tell you what, I’ll get Belle ready for the night, tuck her into that small playpen you bought and make up some bottles, but after that, I’ll be going home.”

  “Whatever you say. But can you come back tomorrow? Early?”

  “Don’t you have someone who cooks for you guys or cleans your house? Maybe she can help out.”

  I refused to get sucked into this quagmire. Besides, I had a feeling it wouldn’t end well. Who knew if Rosie would change her mind and come looking for Belle. I didn’t want to get attached to her, even though I was feeling somewhat attached already.

  “We do, but Ted’s in his sixties, has no kids that I know of, and is about as rough around the edges as a cactus. I don’t think he’d work out.”

  “It doesn’t matter anyway. According to your plan, the sheriff will stop by to pick her up before she probably wakes up.”

  “What sheriff?” Tucker asked as he walked into the living room.

  “Can somebody tell us what’s going on around here?” Vince asked, looking right at me. He had possibly the most perfect face I’d ever seen, with a body I wanted to feel pressing up next to me.

  And Tucker… wow. Just being in the same room as these three amazing men made me wet. All that fabulous testosterone gave me a complete body ache. No way could I work for them. I couldn’t even be around them without imagining what all those hands would feel like on my body. Oh, and what my body would feel like rubbing up against all that hard naked…

  “I need to go,” I said, turning away from them and heading for the door.

  “Wait!” Tucker called out. “Aren’t you forgetting your baby?”

  I swung back around and glared at Boone. “You didn’t tell them yet?”

  “We were busy unloading the car.”

  “You need to tell them, Boone,” I said.

  “Yeah, Boone. What the hell is all this about?”

  “We should sit down.”

  “I want to go,” I said. “This is private stuff.”

  “Wait. Tell me right now,” Vince said. “Why are you leaving your baby with us?”

  “She’s not my baby,” I said. “She’s yours.” Then I turned to Tucker. “Or yours, or possibly Boone’s. But he doesn’t believe that she can be, because Boone here never had sex with Rosie without using a condom. Which, after seeing him drunk on his ass these past few Saturdays, I don’t think he could even find his cock, let alone slip a condom over it.”

  “What the fuck?” Tucker said. “That’s Rosie Hall’s baby?”

  “And one of us is the father?” Vince asked, falling back into a blue leather chair. “How does she know that for sure? What about that guy she left with? Maybe he’s the father. I can’t be responsible for a baby. I can barely be responsible for myself. This can’t be happening. Besides, I always wore a condom… and if I didn’t, it was because Rosie promised me that she was on the pill. Why did you agree to take her baby?”

  “I didn’t agree to anything,” Boone shot back. “She just left Belle with me.”

  “Where the hell is Rosie? And how did she ever find you?” Tucker asked, going over and plopping down on the leather sofa. “This can’t be happening. I’m not ready to be anybody’s father. She can’t be mine.”

  “Well, she sure as hell isn’t mine,” Boone reiterated. “So maybe I got a little drunk on Saturday nights. I’m sure I was aware enough to put on a damn condom.”

  “Holy fuck, Boone,” Vince accused. “You had sex with Rosie while you were drinking? Are you crazy? I have to agree with Meg. No way could you know what you were doing in that state. That’s it then. She’s your baby.”

  “So, you’re going to sit there and tell me you always wore a condom?” Boone asked.

  “Listen, guys,” I said, interrupting their verbal brawl. “Before this gets any louder, I’m going to get Belle ready for bed, then I’ll make her bottle. One of you will have to give it to her because I’m going to head on home.”

  “Please don’t go,” Tucker pleaded. “We’ll kill each other if you’re not here.”

  “Yeah, you’re our buffer,” Vince agreed. “Besides, I don’t have a clue on how to burp her after she drinks her bottle. Please stay.”

  “I have a dog,” I told them.

  “Isn’t there someone you can call to take care of it?” Boone asked.

  “No, but if you guys will hold your argument until Belle is ready for bed, I’ll take care of her until then.”

  “Agreed,” Vince said.

  “No more arguing,” Tucker agreed.

  “Fine,” Boone mumbled.

  I picked up the car seat. “Let’s get her bottle ready first, so when she starts fussing, she won’t have to wait long to eat. This will go a lot easier if you’ll help me.”

  Both Tucker and Vince walked over to lend a hand, while Boone turned and walked out of the room and headed up the stairs.

  “Where’s he going?” I asked, nodding in Boone’s direction.

  “Probably to get drunk. It’s Saturday night, after all,” Vince said.

  “You’ve got to be kidding. With everything that’s going on, he’s still on a mission?”

  “Nothing can deter Boone from getting what he wants,” Tucker said.

  “That’s fine. Now, if you’ll show me to the guestroom?”

  Vince 5

  Even though there was a baby monitor in all three of our bedrooms, that wasn’t enough for me. I slept in Belle’s room. Of course, sleep wasn’t quite the word for what I’d experienced. It was more of a night of awe.

  I fussed over Belle all night long, and when she opened her eyes around three in the morning, I was right there to change her and give her a bottle.

  Once she was sound asleep, I busied myself with assembling the rest of her furniture, including a changing table. Fortunately, nothing required a hammer, just a screwdriver and some elbow grease. I had everything assembled by the crack of dawn and was able to grab a few hours before she woke again.

  Tucker and Boone may not have known what to do with a baby, but I knew exactly what to do. My youngest brother was almost fifteen years my junior, and there’d been plenty of times when I had to take over for my parents.

  I had five siblings and I was the oldest. Changing diapers and making bottles was part of my everyday life. My parents still lived in Daly City right outside of San Francisco, in the same house we all grew up in. Most of the houses in Daly City looked very similar, only in different colors. There was even a song about those houses that was popular in the early sixties, Little Boxes. My mom always referred to our house as the little box with the big family. She loved our house. I did, too, but I liked living in this ranch house better. I was the only one who moved away, and I had to admit that sometimes I’d get so homesick, I’d second guess my wanting to live way out here on this god-forsaken ranch.

  Thing was, I loved being a cowboy, even if I was still learning the trade. There was something about the lifestyle I’d been in love with since I was a kid and my grandpa and I
would watch John Wayne movies together or Clint Eastwood or my all-time favorite, Jimmy Stewart in The Man From Laramie. We had an original movie poster of that movie hanging in our movie room.

  Yeah, I used to get bullied for it in school when I wore my cowboy hat and boots, but I didn’t care. And whenever I hung with Boone and Tucker, who also happened to love Westerns, well, those bullies all faded into the background.

  It also helped that Boone was big for his age and could knock any bully on their ass with one swipe, and for that, I would be forever grateful.

  Still, lately, the way he’d been acting, with his weekly binge drinking had me nervous.

  But little Belle had kept him sober. He’d joined me at three in the morning for her feeding, and he joined me now as we sat in the kitchen as we discussed just how to handle this.

  “I could call the sheriff, and we could hand Belle over and be done with her,” Boone threatened as he cooked a mess of eggs in a pan. It was Ted’s day off, so we usually had to fend for ourselves on Sundays, which was fine. Our entire house staff had the day off on Sunday, which worked out well for everyone.

  And on occasion, when Boone was able to make it home from Last Call, or on the rare Saturday night when he chose to do his drinking at home, he would put a breakfast together better than Ted ever could. Fortunately, today was one of those days.

  Tucker usually came up with some exotic dinner that wowed us. At one point in his life, he’d wanted to be a chef, so he’d gone to school for it, but when we came along with our social media idea, he dropped out and instead was vital in our reaching our goal.

  And now that we owned the ranch, Sunday night dinners, sometimes with our neighbors, gave him cooking joy.

  “And what would he do with her?” I asked, looking over at her as she sat in her little seat on the table, sucking on her fist and cooing over at us whenever she once again realized we were in the room.

  “The sheriff could locate Rosie and force her into taking Belle. Force her into acting like a damn mother.” He shook his head. “What the hell did any of us ever see in her?”