The farm had a couple of hundred head of sheep give or take, that could possibly yield twenty, maybe twenty-one grand, the rest … I had no clue. Mal and I had exhausted the piddly amount of life insurance Dad had left us. We’d sold most of Mum’s jewellery sans two pieces, one for Mal and one for me to hand down to our children, other than that we didn’t have much left of any significant value. The farm’s machinery and vehicles not worth anything, and the bank turned us down flat to mortgage again, and then there was the bridging loan.
Ugg, I was too young for this shit.
“Sounds sensible, gonna cost ya, though,” Charlie pointed out needlessly.
“Oh really, Charlie? Ya, think?”
“No need to get shitty with me, girlie. Just pointing it out, you won’t get enough with the sheep, but maybe if you sell off that fifty-acre lot, we don’t use except for the hay sheds. That could get ya a bunch of cash,” Charlie suggested, then ducked his head so he couldn’t see my face and rightly so. Selling the fifty acres meant losing one more part of my mother. That paddock belonged to her; her parents gave it to her when she married my father. My maternal grandparents once owned the neighbouring property, now owned by the Hayden’s, and for a wedding present, presented Mum with a piece of her family’s land. The bad thing about that being the codicil added into the agreement releasing the parcel of land that in no way could my father sell or rent out the land. My grandparent’s will clearly stating it must be kept for any children Mum and Dad had together. According to Mum, Dad got so pissed off he refused to even put livestock on it or use it for growing. Instead, he erected three hay sheds, and that has been its purpose since.
My father’s pride had been his biggest downfall; the main reason nothing he touched turned into success.
I didn’t ask for this responsibility to be thrust upon me, but by hell, I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. My mother loved life on the land, enjoyed baking bread every day, putting meals on the table all made by her hand, meat and vegetables produced on the farm. Even the day to day struggle never got her down, her love for the man she married and their children is what made her the fabulous mum I remembered.
Thinking about Mum, and that parcel of land suddenly set a plan to form in my mind. I needed to be alone, with Daxx safe with his father and set for a day at the Triple H; I had the perfect opportunity to play hooky for a while.
“Charlie, do you mind taking care of this? I think Banjo needs a run,” I said, dumping the last bale in the ute, hanging the bale hook on the nail on one of the wooden rails.
“No worries, girlie, I will tell Mal to meet you in the fifty,” Charlie replied knowingly, his freaky insight where my mind was heading unusually welcomed for a change.
“Thanks, old man.” Walking over to him, I pressed up on my toes and kissed his weathered cheek. “What would I do without you Charlie?”
“Aww, girlie, you’ll do just fine, you have way too much of your mother in you. Ain’t no way you can fail or do a bad job. You were handed a mess, but I trust you will find your way through it, you just gotta listen to your heart, with the farm and that man up at the house.”
Charlie patted me awkwardly on my shoulder, not one for physical contact all that much. Me giving him a kiss probably happened once a year, if that.
“Mackie?”
I looked at Charlie, surprised to hear him call me by my shortened name and not the pet name ‘girlie’.
“Yeah?”
“Remember, not everything is what it looks like on the surface, sometimes people distort the facts for selfish reasons that just don’t make sense.” A strange clouded look passed over his wrinkly face then left so quickly I thought I might have imagined it. Before I could question him on what his cryptic statement meant, he lowered himself into the doorless ute and took off, leaving me standing there positive now, that all men, no matter what age, were the most confusing sex on the planet.
***
I sat on Banjo, one leg thrown over the pommel on the saddle, looking over the expanse of wasted land, a heavy and hard decision playing on my mind.
Could I really sell Mum’s land? Get rid of a part of Mal’s, Daxx’s and my heritage to make a dent in climbing out of this financial hole Dad landed us in?
My heart screamed, not a chance, but my head knew this was the only way to pay out the bridging loan in full and pay for the number of heifers Fenixx believed we needed to purchase to make a go at breeding, and finally make some money and a decent living.
Sliding one hand down the neck of my horse, I sighed heavily.
“Might be the only way out, what do ya reckon old friend?”
“You do know he doesn’t talk back, right?”
Craning my neck around, I was shocked to see my sister sitting astride the stock horse she used on the rare occasion she got on a horse.
“You’re riding!”
“Nothing gets by you, does it, Mack,” Mal muttered sarcastically. “Next time pick a paddock that doesn’t have a steep ravine to get down and back up, yeah? Nelly might be old but she still likes to try to throw me when she goes downhill.”
Laughing at Mal’s scrunched up, unamused expression, I whistled for Nelly to come over to me.
“She is a gentle giant and you know it,” I argued, leaning over to grab hold of the dangling bridle and pulled her close.
“She is a giant, don’t know about gentle. She knows me for heaven’s sake and yet she still pig rooted her way halfway here,” Mal grumbled, looking as uncomfortable on the back of a horse as I felt in a city. My time in Melbourne was only made bearable because I had been with Noxx. All the constant traffic noise and bright lights not coming from the stars made me miss the quiet and the clear star-lit sky, night after night.
I couldn’t understand how Noxx lived in an apartment there five days a week, he felt the pull of the country as much as I did, yet he gave it all up, for what? Just to avoid me?
“You need to ride her more, she is getting fat and pissed off standing idle in her paddock all day long, and it will do you good to get out of the house now that—”
“Now that Noxx is here to take over the care of Daxx?” Mallory finished for me.
“Yeah, something like that,” I agreed begrudgingly.
“He is doing great with Daxx, this morning he cooked brekkie, got Daxx dressed all before I could even think about helping out,” Mal said with what sounded like pride and awe.
“It will free up some of your time, allow you to spend more time with Tim, not have to rush home and take over looking after Daxx, maybe you two can even start planning your wedding?”
Mallory hummed excitedly. “Maybe we can look at venues, but looking after Daxx has never been a hardship Mack, I love that little stinker more than anything, you know that, right?”
I smiled gently at my sister, younger than me by sixteen months, we grew up together, but so apart until our late teens, then Noxx and I moved away and the bridge between us grew again. It wasn’t until I returned home with my infant son did we put all our sister rivalry to the side and put Daxx first.
“I know Mal Bell, but I know how hard it has been for you. You gave up going to Uni and stayed here to help me with Daxx, kept the peace with Dad and me, and never took sides when it would have been easier for you if you did take Dad’s side. And you postponed the wedding—”
“Hey, we postponed it for a number of reasons, none of them had to do with you or Daxx,” Mal protested loudly, her outburst startling Nelly into a nervous prance.
Reigning the horse closer to Banjo, I waited for her to calm down before going on.
“Yeah, I know, money and Tim’s job and the travelling he does for it, but my situation hasn’t help matters.”
“Tim and I will get married one day; we aren’t in a hurry. He wants to have a decent start before we get hitched, so we can start a family straight after, and not spend the first years of married life struggling.”
“Money! It is a necessary evil my life can do
without,” I spat out, not able to help the bitterness coming out.
“Which is why we have to sell Mum’s paddock,” Mallory proclaimed, waving one hand in front of her indicating the land before us. “It will pay off some debts, and that will take a shit load of stress off your shoulders, leaving you to focus on the blue-eyed, muscled, hunky, hottie you are still married to.”
“Subtle,” I moaned, swatting a hand at her leg. “So you are on board with selling the fifty and going with Fenixx’s idea with breeding?” I asked her, deliberately sidestepping the subject of my husband. That topic I could happily leave and never talk about again.
“It is the only solution that I can see, so yeah. At the end of the day, it is just a piece of land, and Mum wouldn’t want us keeping it if we can sell it and make our lives easier.”
“It isn’t going to be a miracle cure Mal, at most it will pay off the bridging loan and buy the heifers. We will still owe the bank a small fortune, but it will give us some well-needed breathing room.”
“Then let’s do it. We go into town tomorrow and talk to Ben at the AGRI Land, ask him to talk to the Hayden’s to give them first dibs.”
“Hold on Mal; first, we get a valuation. I have no clue what fifty acres of useless flat land is worth, but I don’t imagine more than sixty grand, and that literally will just cover the costs of the cattle and the loan,” I warned my sister.
“Yeah, so you have already said, and I say we go for it. The bridging loan is a real worry for you and me, the extra money in my pay each week will be a blessing to the wedding savings.”
Guilt flooded me once again, Mallory made a comfortable wage but the amount that came out for loans each week irked her.
“Stop doing that Mack, this is our place we run it together. You do most of the work outside, and my job is to help with money, I’m not complaining, just stating facts.”
“Now,” Mallory leaned forward in her saddle, a cheeky smirk playing on her lips, “I heard Noxx telling Hendrixx he kissed you last night. Spill sister of mine, how did you manage to suck face with Hottie 1 when you two are immersed in a battle of the parents.”
Covering my face in my hands, I groaned in humiliation. Noxx would have to tell his brother; the triplets could never keep their mouths closed, always bragging to each other about their conquests.
“Oh, my god, Mal, I can’t believe what I did last night! I literally humped him in my room, grinding on his dick like a wanton hussy, sucking his tongue into my mouth and the moaning. My god, I am so humiliated,” I cried into my hands, Mal’s laughter echoing across the barren paddock, adding to my embarrassment.
“It’s not funny Mallory! We didn’t have sex exactly, but we did … you know … I kind of had an … orgasm,” I spluttered, mumbling the last word like it was taboo.
“Well, I am not surprised considering the last vag action you had was giving birth to Daxx,” Mallory, crassly but correctly, pointed out in between fits of laughter.
My behaviour last night could not be justified; my arousal for my husband a huge problem, but in my defence, he was so fucking hot, even more now. How was I meant to ignore his rippling muscles and that sexy V when he walked around shirtless, his upper body on show, all damp from his shower, and what that bulge in his pants looked like intimately showing just for me.
And what he was able to do with it.
Do not rub yourself on the saddle. Do not rub yourself on the saddle. I chanted silently, ordering myself. The last thing I needed was to give Mallory more ammunition to have against me, telling her what I did last night more than enough.
“Thank you for that, Mal, as helpful as that is, what am I going to do? Noxx wants to play happy families for Daxx, and that means sharing a room. We’re separated, we haven’t seen each other in nearly four years. How do we live as husband and wife again with all that is between us?” I begged my sister for something to help me work out how I was going to handle seeing Noxx in my space, then trust that he wouldn’t exact some kind of revenge.
“Mack, I hate to point this out, but you are still married,” Mallory said softly.
“But we hate each other, he cheated on me, Mal, he broke our vows and slept with another woman. How do I come back from that? How do I let him share a bed with me knowing he has been with someone other than me?”
“I have no idea, sweetie, but first you have to find out if that did, in fact, happen. Noxx says he never did what you accused him of—”
“How can you say that? I had the proof, I saw and heard it, there was no denying it, Mallory. He cheated, end of story.”
“I get that, but for someone that has the proof, Noxx is adamant he didn’t stray. Maybe you should consider other possibilities, maybe someone wanted it to seem that Noxx cheated on you. Planted evidence and the seed in your mind, perhaps.”
I huffed out a grunt. “Yeah, so someone doctored up a photo of Noxx’s body and a tape of him arranging a sex romp in our house, very likely, Mal,” I spat, sarcasm dripping from each word.
“Stranger things have happened. Anyway, that is something you are going to have to deal with eventually. Plus, you and Noxx need to discuss why you left and didn’t tell him about the baby once you found out. I have to admit; I am a little disappointed you chose to be so deceptive. It is so out of character for you, Mackie, not at all like you. To not tell Noxx you were carrying his child, it was a bit of a dumb-arse and mean decision to make on your part,” Mallory gently chided me. Dad’s disappointment had been one thing, but for my sister, the one person who had stood by me, no questions asked, hurt; I couldn’t have her thinking I was a horrible person. Our sisterhood, the only thing that had kept me sane since coming back, I couldn’t lose that. Not now, with all the extra turmoil in my life.
“Yeah, about that, maybe we can ride for a bit, and I will tell you about a visitor I had one day, and the threat he made that changed my life and that of my unborn baby.”
Releasing Nelly’s reigns back to Mallory, I clucked my tongue and urged Banjo on. Time to tell Mallory the true reason for my deception.
LENOXX
I watched Daxx playing on his swings in the backyard of the old farmhouse; the fenced-off area a stark contrast to the more derelict areas of the property. Where those parts had rusting wire and rotting posts, here the fence was new, with safety latches on the gate and covers over the sharp points so Daxx couldn’t hurt himself. The play gym too while not new it was top of the line child safe and appropriate, I guessed Makena bought it from a council sale in town. Even the ground had a thick layer of bark chips, so when Daxx jumped off the swing or slide, his fall would be cushioned, it gave me good ideas for what I should do for him at the Triple H.
We’d not long returned from there, giving Mum a good few hours with her grandson, now that Daxx was aware who she was, the time over there allowed him to start forming a bond with my mother, much to her delight. I knew it worried her, missing three years of his life, that he wouldn’t bond with her easily, but she really didn’t have anything to worry about. Daxx took to her like a true Hott; it took no time at all for him to leave his hiding spot behind my legs and join his granny in her vegetable garden, asking her a million and one questions about what she was growing and why. It amused me the way he went around the plants picking morsels of fruit off and popping them into his mouth and making a big deal about how yummy they all were. For a three year old to love strawberries and sugar snap peas more than a tiny teddy biscuit, but not his beloved spaghetti was a testament to his mother and how she was raising him.
His mother.
What a subject she was. Over and over last night’s events played out in my head as I went about some chores over at the HHH. I thought cleaning out the horse stalls may have taken my mind off the memory of her taste on my tongue, but no luck there. Makena was a drug I couldn’t detox from, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to either. Ruining her, or at least her heart was quickly making its way down my list of priorities. Five minutes with her in my arms, and
the reason for the sudden change in my plans from revenge to figuring out a way to make a life together to work again.
If last night proved anything, it was I was still very much in love with my wife, and that was a problem, at least for me. I was prepared to take my wife back in the bed, but trusting her with my heart was out of the question, the years without her made me leery of matters of the heart—love and all it involved.
Not my love for my son, though, that love didn’t have an expiry date, I was quickly discovering.
“Jesus Christ, will you take a look at that,” Hendrixx breathed out, pointing over my head towards the gate leading into the closest paddock.
Looking first at Daxx to make sure he was playing safely, I then looked over my shoulder and saw Makena and Mallory both on horseback, galloping at full pelt … well, Makena was, Mallory was doing a funny and awkward canter, screaming at her horse to slow down.
“God damn, no woman sit in a saddle better, I don’t know anyone that can ride better than Makena Rogers, not even Blake,” my brother mused in awe.
“Hott,” I growled, narrowing my eyes when I could see that Makena wasn’t slowing down for the gate she was rapidly approaching.
Oh no, she isn’t going to do what I think she is planning. The thought barely registered just as Makena and Banjo flew effortlessly over the four foot farm gate, the rugged stock horse landing perfectly and without a single stumble on the uneven rocky terrain.
From here I could hear her laughing when Mallory yelled out a colourful streak of cursing. Thankfully not following her sister’s dangerous lead, instead, pulling up her horse and clumsily dismounting and opening the gate. I wasn’t one to get off for a gate either, but seeing my accident prone wife sail over the gate had my heart in my throat.
“That woman has some awesome horsemanship,” Drixx praised, “what was that you growled, brother?” he asked, and without looking at him, I knew he was smirking.
Hott and Taken (The Hott Brothers Book 1) Page 17
