by Pepper Swan
I liked to cook dinner on the weekends, and we’d gotten into the habit of dressing for the occasion.
We were all glammed up in casual cocktail wear for the night. Sometimes, when I didn’t want to cook, we’d drive into Denver to a posh restaurant, but most of the time, we’d stay right here, with Belle safely tucked in her bed down the hall.
Also, it made it easier for us to have sex, and we had a lot of sex, both in a group and one-on-one with Meg. She loved sex as much as we did, so there was usually never a night that she wasn’t fucking one, two or all three of us.
“To Belle’s first word,” I said, holding up my wine glass.
“To Belle,” everyone said, clinking glasses.
“I have other news,” Meg said, looking so lovely I wanted to take her right there on the table. To hell with food, I wanted to eat her for dinner.
But I controlled my urge, telling myself that we’d be in bed with her in less than two hours. I could wait that long… couldn’t I?
“Do tell,” Vince said.
“Well, my darlings, I didn’t warn any of you because I didn’t want to get your hopes up, but I took a pregnancy test today…”
“And?” Boone asked, still holding up his glass.
“And… I’m pregnant.”
You would have thought it was New Year’s Eve the way we all carried on with whoops and yells. Even Toto howled and danced around in circles. For the first time ever, we sounded like a bunch of real cowboys, whooping it up. Ted, the resident old-time cowboy, would be proud. I even thought I heard a “Yee-haw!”
In the next moments, we scrapped dinner, at least for the time being and instead carried our beloved Meg off to bed. An occasion like this deserved to be celebrated properly… in the bedroom.
“But this time,” Meg said, once we deposited her on the specially made extra-wide, extra plush bed. “There will be no DNA tests because you are all this cowgirl’s baby daddies.”
“Amen to that,” Vince said right before we collapsed together on the bed, ready for a night of pure bliss, and completely intoxicated by baby number two.
We were truly a family and nothing would ever change that.
~***~
Thanks for reading! Please consider leaving a short review for this book.
I would truly appreciate it. Just tap this link HERE!
Join my Facebook group for fun giveaways and info for my latest release:
www.facebook.com/pepperswanauthor
or signup for my newsletter HERE!
Keep Reading For A Preview Of:
3 COWBOYS FOR THE BRIDE
Sneak Peak at 3 Cowboys For The Bride
Luke
“Okay, so yeah, I’m nervous. I’ve never been married before. It’s a big damn change,” I said to my two best friends, Cody and Bobby, as we stood in a small back room of the chapel. There were about a hundred guests out there waiting for the ceremony to begin, while I was ready to jump out a window and make a run for it.
“So, you don’t love Nikki, then?” Cody asked as he fiddled with his black tie. He hated being trapped inside a suit, we all did. Never wore anything but a Wrangler shirt and jeans for most of our lives. But Nikki had insisted that this should be a “proper” wedding, with groomsmen and bridesmaids, so we’d agreed. Anything to satisfy Nikki.
‘Course, we all wore our hats, nothing’s going to get us out of a hat. Mine was a light gray hat, while Bobby and Cody’s were black.
“You know that’s bullshit,” I argued. “Of course I love her. I’d lay down my life for her. She means everything to me.”
“We all love her,” Bobby said, tugging on his white shirt collar. “We’d all lay down our lives for her. So what’s the hangup?”
“Yeah, you’re the lucky fuck who gets to marry her,” Cody said. “If it were me, I’d be standing at the altar already. Eager to get this thing done.”
“I’m eager, it’s just that lately, I’ve been getting the feeling . . .”
“The dumb fuck actually has feelings. What’s that all about?” Bobby teased, knowing I usually kept what’s going on inside of me to myself. Always been like that. I just think it’s lame to blab your shit to other people. Yeah, both Cody and Bobby wore their emotions on their sleeves, but I wasn’t like that. Grew up with a military dad who taught me never to cry in public and to keep my shit to myself.
But these were dire circumstances.
Nikki and I were getting married and moving away from Harper’s Landing, the town we all grew up in. I didn’t know if I could it. Didn’t know if she could do it. The way she carried on about leaving Cody and Bobby. We were like family, like siblings, only in the best sense. Been through so much crap together it was a wonder we all didn’t still reek from it, getting so deep at times none of us thought we’d ever get out. Yet here we were. All cleaned up and ready for a wedding.
My wedding.
To Nikki, the girl we all had fantasized over at one time or another.
It was no secret. I knew they both craved her, but for some crazy reason, she’d chosen me.
“Yeah,” I said. “I have feelings. Just don’t like to talk about them is all. Not like you bitches who yap about your problems twenty-four-seven.”
Bobby walked over to me and grabbed my shoulder. “You’ve got about ten minutes before Nikki walks up that aisle. Spill. We’re here for you, man. You know that. Besides, you look like you’re going to hurl and these monkey suits cost too much to rent for you to be messing them up.”
“I just don’t know if I’m doing the right thing by moving her away from here. Yeah, it was great that my grandfather left me his ranch in Montana, and it’s a good opportunity for us, but fuck. Montana’s a long way from Harper’s Landing. I think she’s having second thoughts, and that’s no way to start a life.”
“Have you talked to her about this?” Cody asked, undoing his tie so he could make the knot all over again. This would be the third time in a half-hour.
“Of course he hasn’t. He keeps everything bottled up. I’m surprised you’re telling us this now,” Bobby said then gazed down at his watch. “Seven minutes before your wedding.”
“What should I do? I’m going crazy.” I started pacing. A habit I’d formed whenever I was really nervous about something. Been pacing since I was a little kid and had to pee so bad I thought I’d burst, but didn’t want to take the time away from playing. Now I paced because I was so nervous my head was about to explode. “I mean, it wouldn’t be so bad if we weren’t leaving tonight for Montana. Already sent most of our belongings. We’d seen the place for two days, and suddenly we’re moving. What the hell?
“If we were going on a real honeymoon, we’d have time to talk this move over. I was eager to get our new lives started and when I suggested that we use our new ranch as our honeymoon destination, Nikki didn’t argue. She went along with it. Why would she do that?”
“Maybe because that’s what she wants to do,” Bobby said.
“Four minutes and counting,” Cody said, his golden tie now crooked. “Tick. Tick. Tick.”
“I don’t know, man,” I said, pacing, hardly breathing.
“Take a breath, man,” Bobby told me, but my stomach was shaking like there was a war going on in there. “You’re way too uptight. This is Nikki. If she didn’t want to move, she wouldn’t. She must want a new life. Just go with it. For once in your sorry-ass life, try not to overthink this and ruin it.”
They both knew how many times I’d fucked something up by overthinking. Case-in-point, from when we were teens and I missed out on feeling up Jessica Myers—only the hottest tenth grader in all of Idaho—when she invited me to join her in the back seat of her father’s parked SUV, who then went on to be Miss Idaho when she turned nineteen. To passing on the opportunity to buy into a lottery pool that won fifteen million dollars for four of my ranch hands. There were many more of those kinds of things that I overthought, and I didn’t want marrying Nikki to be one of them, but fuck, this was r
eally weighing on me.
Still, I took Bobby’s advice and sucked in a deep breath, let it out, and shook out my arms. I stopped pacing, looked at my best friends, the guys I’d go through hell for, the guys I’d kill for, the guys I’d die for and told myself they were right. I was the lucky one. I was about to marry the only girl I’d ever loved . . . the only girl the three of us ever loved.
We’d all dated other women, but I was fortunate enough to have dated Nikki and it stuck. We’d been exclusive for the past eight months. More than enough time to plan a wedding. Hell, I would’ve married her the first week we slept together. I’d known she was special since we were kids. Loved everything about her, but once we made love, once I was able to feel her skin, taste her body, go in deep, I knew she had to be mine. Knew no other woman could satisfy me the way she did. Sex with Nikki kept getting better and better and I didn’t want to ever let that go.
I was getting hard just thinking about that gorgeous body of hers. The woman could do things that . . .
“Let’s get this show going,” I said, grabbing hold of Cody’s damn tie and straightening it around his neck. “Now, don’t touch it.”
“I can’t help it. The thing makes me nuts.”
“All we have to do is get through the ceremony,” I reminded them. “After that, we can all change into more comfortable clothes.”
Nikki knew we weren’t meant for suits, so she had agreed to let us change into white shirts, jeans and boots, of course. I made sure the jeans were new, the shirts were clean and pressed, and our boots were shined. If I didn’t check up on these rednecks, there was no telling what they’d show up in.
“That’s why we love your bride. She’s rational about these things. She knows us,” Cody said.
“All three of us,” Bobby agreed. Bobby liked to keep the peace and because of that, he more or less always went along with the program. He hated to cause waves, either with us or with anybody. I could count on Bobby to get me through almost anything stressful.
And this was way-over-the-top stressful. But as long as I knew these two punchy cowboys had my back, I could do anything . . . even marry my beautiful best friend, Nikki.
I headed out into the chapel, with Cody and Bobby following close behind me, feeling as though I finally got something right.
Cody
Yeah, my tie was driving me crazy. And yeah, this whole wedding thing only added to that crazy. I just wanted the damn thing over with.
I felt like a jackrabbit caught in a farmer’s trap and I might have to chew off my own leg to get out. Sure, I was happy for Nikki and Luke. They were my best friends, but seeing them today was going to break my fucking heart, and believe me, breaking my heart was easy. Any of those chick flicks did it, or a good book. I was always reading. Even read some romance novels in my day, although all that male adoration for the woman seemed over the top.
At least it used to until I made the mistake of kissing Nikki and sucking on her sweet tasting nipples, and running my fingers over that fine pussy of hers. It had taken all the self-control I had not to go any further. We both knew it wasn’t right. Wasn’t what we should do. We were friends, and it would ruin our friendship if we took it any further.
That’s what she had told me at the time, and I had agreed with her. Secretly, I didn’t give a shit about friendships. I just wanted to make love to her until neither of us could walk. After that, we’d figure out a way to stay together, to be together without it being weird with the other guys.
But back then, she wouldn’t listen, so I stuffed my cock back into my jeans and left.
That was months before she and Luke made it serious between them. I always wondered why he was the one she’d risk having a relationship with and not me? It didn’t matter now, though. They were getting married and I was happy for them.
Of course, I never said anything about that night to Luke. Never told either one of them that I’d managed to feel her warm, slick pussy, a pussy I had wanted to taste more than taking my next breath, but she wouldn’t let me. Kept telling me it wouldn’t be right. Naturally, I had stopped. I wouldn’t do anything she didn’t want me to do, wouldn’t ever want her to feel uncomfortable.
We had never talked about what happened that night. Never even a whisper, mostly because I always had a feeling it made her uncomfortable.
Damn, but I was getting hard thinking about her, about how she smelled when she was hot. Like nothing else, as sweet as honey and as smoky as a campfire.
I had to stop thinking about that night, about how wet she was for me. It just wasn’t right, but I couldn’t help myself. I reached up to undo my tie again, but Bobby stopped me.
“Will you leave that thing?” he said, like he was my dad or something.
Playing with my tie helped distract me. Seemed to focus all my dirty thoughts on that damn golden tie instead of my need for Nikki.
This was her wedding, after all.
She and my best friend were getting married, and I was there to honor the moment . . . wanted to honor the moment.
Luke had been my best friend even before Bobby came into the picture. We started hanging together in first grade. That’s when Nikki joined our twosome. We did everything together and went everywhere together. Our teachers were always trying to break us up, but nothing worked. Then when Bobby joined us in third grade, we were a force to be reckoned with.
“Thanks, guys. I don’t know if I could do this without you,” Luke said as we stood at the front of the chapel, Reverend Farthing standing behind us, waiting for Nikki to appear in the front doorway. Fortunately, it was a snowy day, with no breeze, or we’d all be freezing right now. November in Harper’s Landing was always unpredictable.
There wasn’t much to this chapel, but Nikki and her sister, Julia, had managed to transform it into something out of a magical fairytale. Flowers and bows and streams of white gauzy material framed just about every boring surface in the place. There were even flowers and vines around the front door where Nikki would walk through any minute. They’d brought in so many flowers that the chapel had a nice floral scent to it. I kind of liked it. Made it feel more like this was a really special moment.
And it was, but I still wished it was me she was marrying instead of Luke.
Naturally, I would never let him know that. Might ruin our friendship and our friendship meant everything to me. If I ever lost any one of these guys, it would be like losing a limb and I’d rather not even think about that kind of loss.
“Okay, don’t go getting all touchy-feely on us or we won’t know how to handle it,” Bobby said.
I gazed down at my watch again. Couldn’t help it. I was a stickler for punctuality. Always thought it was rude if one of us was late, like that person didn’t give a damn about anything but themselves. Thing is, when you’re working with cows all day, they don’t run on a schedule and sometimes dates get broken. That’s the cowboy way of life. We work each day until it’s done, no matter what the clock says.
I knew that, but that never kept me from trying to keep everybody on time.
“Yeah,” I said, having to agree with Bobby. “Keep your emotions hidden, where they belong. We don’t know you any other way and it’ll throw us off balance. Let Bobby and me do all the sappy stuff. We’re used to each other’s tears. Yours would only make us uncomfortable and we’re both uncomfortable enough in these darn suits.”
All three of us were big, muscular guys. You don’t work on a ranch or a farm and not build muscles. No gym memberships here, just hard physical work out in the sweltering sun in the summer and the bitter cold in the winter. There were no holidays in ranch work, that’s for damn sure, and each of us had the scrapes, cuts, and broken bones to prove it.
Bubba Peterson and his trio of older guitar pickers entertained the guests with soft music from their acoustic guitars. Nikki’s mom sat in the front pew along with an aunt and uncle, both from California. I’d never met the relatives, but I’d heard they were both wealthy attorneys f
rom Los Angeles. They looked out of place for this rural community, and I could tell they felt it as well, the way they kept fidgeting in their seats.
I saw Nikki’s dad pacing outside the front door, waiting for his girl to walk out of the little side room where she and Julia, along with a cousin, were probably messing with their hair and makeup one more time before they walked out. I don’t know much about all that stuff, but I knew both Nikki and Julia loved to glam up whenever they could, and this wedding was the big event for glamor.
“What time is it?” Luke asked just as the acoustic serenaders started a lively rendition of an old George Straight hit.
I gazed down at my watch realizing that we’d already been standing there for a full ten minutes. “She’s a little late,” I said. “But she’s the bride, and brides like to be late.”
“Where’d you get that load of crap from?” Bobby asked.
“Don’t swear in the chapel,” Luke told him, as if he’d suddenly gotten religion. Oh sure, we all went to services every Sunday, and grew up fearing the Lord, but none of us was what anyone would call religious. We were more the Sunday-go-to-church type and the rest of the week we were hard-working, beer-drinking cow wrestlers. Didn’t have much time to go reading a bible or thinking about what the Lord might expect. Not that any of us didn’t honor those kind of folks, it just wasn’t our way of doing things.
“Since when is crap a swear word?” Bobby asked, trying to talk under the music so nobody else could hear him. Bobby didn’t like to make a fuss. Didn’t like people to notice him.
