“Never seen you at a loss for words,” Waylon muttered, shooting Charlie a murderous glare, like this was his fault.
“We’re actually about to board the plane,” Charlie said. “It’s been nice meeting you, but if you’ll just…”
“Wait,” Waylon said. He looked at me, his inscrutable expression making me want to scream for a hundred different reasons. But he didn’t say anything else.
The intercom crackled, then the hollow voice of the flight attendant boomed out over the microphone. “Now boarding for Minneapolis-Saint Paul, flight number…”
“That’s us,” I said, my voice pathetically small as my eyes searched Waylon’s face for something, anything. If only we’d had those three hours to talk that I’d had with Charlie. Why hadn’t he come sooner?
“Amber. If you’ll just…if you’ll…fuck.” He crushed his hat down on his head.
I raised my eyebrows at him. “If I’ll just…fuck?”
“No, Christ, that’s not…” He regarded Charlie and took a deep breath.
“Sorry, man, bad timing,” Charlie said. “We’ve got to catch this plane. Maybe you can email it to her.”
He put a hand on my back and tried to steer me towards the podium where the attendant was scanning tickets.
“Amber,” Waylon growled. “Just give me a god damn minute.”
“You had five hours full of minutes since I left,” I said, my anger flaring. “If you haven’t figured out what to say to me by now, why’d you come?”
Charlie had said he loved me. He wanted a new start. He was sorry. Waylon couldn’t say one fucking word. So why was I still standing here?
I turned toward the entrance to the gangplank, my eyes aching, a scream of frustration crushing my throat from the inside out.
“Stay.”
The word knocked a hole the size of Manhattan in my back.
I paused, my heart squeezing so tight it might liquify. “What?” I whispered.
Waylon stepped up beside me, took my elbow, and turned me towards him. I stared straight at his chest, not trusting myself to meet his eye.
“If you’ll just…stay.”
I swallowed the gargantuan mountain in my throat and forced my eyes to his. “If I just stay…then what?”
“Amber,” Charlie said, sounding annoyed now. “We have to go now. Whatever you owe this guy for letting you stay, cut him a check later.”
“She doesn’t owe me,” Waylon said, his eyes never leaving mine. “We owe her. We owe you, Amber. If you’ll just stay, then we’ll…we’ll be happy. I don’t know what else to promise you. I’ve already promised you everything I’ve got. You just tell me if it’s not enough, and I’ll leave.”
Tears filled my eyes and spilled down my cheeks.
“Oh, come on,” Charlie said. “Who is this guy, Amber? He can’t be serious. You’re on your way home.”
“No,” I said, swiping at a tear. “My home isn’t New York anymore.”
“You said you wanted to give us another shot,” Charlie said. “You said you wanted to spend your life with me. Was that all a big act?”
“No,” I said. “I’m sorry, Charlie. But things have changed.”
“Like what? It’s been five minutes. You’ve known me for three years. You’ve known this guy for three months.”
“But I know he didn’t have a threesome with two other girls in those three months,” I said, wiping my face dry and turning to face Charlie.
“Amber, it was one time. One slip. I was faithful to you for three years.”
“How do I know that? How will I ever know that? How can I ever trust you again?”
Charlie reached out and took my hand, giving me his best puppy dog eyes. He looked so earnest, so sincere, that if he’d told me right then it was someone else in his bedroom that day, I would have believed him over what I’d seen with my own eyes. He could always convince me of anything. One day, he’d make a wonderful politician. “I’m telling the truth,” he said. “You know you can trust me.”
“Actually, I know I can’t.” I pulled my hand away, and Charlie’s face hardened.
“But you can trust him?” He gestured at Waylon, who stood stoic and expressionless, his jaw tight. “He doesn’t care about you, Amber. He doesn’t know you. If he did, he’d know that you belong in New York. I know what’s best for you. You know that.”
I felt the familiar fury at him building inside me. “You don’t get to tell me what’s best for me anymore, Charlie. This is my decision.”
“Then you better make it quick,” he said. “They just did the final boarding call. But you should know that I can offer you everything you’ve ever wanted in New York. What are you going to do here, become a farmer? Whether you admit it or not, I do know you, Amber. I know you’ll get bored here in another two months. I know your coffee, your ice cream, your popcorn at the movies. I know what you like. I can give it to you. I know what you’re like. If you give me a chance, I can make you happy.”
I took a deep breath. How could I choose? My future, or my past? A predictable, dependable, familiar life, or one where I never knew what would happen next, where I ended up flat on my ass as often as I succeeded?
I didn’t want to make this choice. But I wasn’t done being mad at either of them.
“Okay, cowboy,” I said, turning to Waylon. “Charlie gave me his best offer. What do you got?”
Waylon was quiet a moment, watchful as ever. Finally, he nodded and stepped away. “If going back with him will make you happy, I can’t beat that.”
My eyes brimmed with tears again. In the end, it wasn’t much of a choice. In truth, it never had been. I’d been waiting for him since the moment I left Coyote Ranch. How could I say no to a man who had offered to put aside his own happiness, and that of his brothers, if it would make me happy? How could I take the professed love of one man I may never trust again, over the love of three men I already trusted and loved, despite their mistakes. Even if Waylon had hurt me, even if he’d gone about things in the wrong way, I believed he’d had good intentions. I believed he’d done it to protect his brothers, and even me.
There was no good reason for cheating.
I threw myself into Waylon’s arms, stood on tiptoes, and planted a big huge kiss on his lips, right there in front of Charlie and the whole terminal. Waylon looked a bit startled when I pulled away, but I just grinned up at him. “I can’t believe you came.”
“I only came because your mom paid me to bring you back,” Charlie said behind me. “I was going to dump you the second we touched down in New York, anyway.”
“On second thought, you can punch him,” I said to Waylon. “But then we’d better run. I’m not trying to get arrested again.”
As if he’d been waiting for my cue, Waylon struck, quick as a snake. His fist connected with Charlie’s jaw, and Charlie crumpled like the sack of shit he was.
“And this is for old time’s sake,” I said, hurling the flowers at his groaning form.
And with that, I took Waylon’s hand, and we took off running.
4
Waylon
When we hopped back in the truck and took off, I still halfway expected to see blue lights flashing in the rearview. I wouldn’t be able to sweet-talk my way out of it like Sawyer, flirting with the lady cops and making football talk with the men. An airport was the last place you wanted to get into trouble, but it had been worth it to watch that asshole go down.
Amber must have been as hyped up as I was, because she kept twisting around in her seat to look behind us.
My adrenaline was still pumping, and I looked over at her and grinned. “That was fun.”
“Don’t you start thinking you’re off the hook with me,” she said, but she was smiling back at me. “Just because you gave Charlie what he had coming doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven you.”
“You’re mad?” I asked. I’d figured driving all the way out here after her, figuring out which flight she must have taken, and searching for he
r up and down every gate at the terminal, only to give up and wait it out, wondering where the hell she could be…I guess I’d thought that would prove to her that I wasn’t trying to hurt her.
But it couldn’t have been too late. Sure, it had taken me a while to get there. My brothers had been ready to kick my ass, so I’d had some explaining to do. Once I’d convinced them of the way I saw it, they’d had to convince me of the way Amber must have seen it. She wouldn’t have come back with me if she hated my guts too bad, though, right?
“Yes, I’m still mad,” she said slowly, like she thought I was a dumbass. “You told my mother I was about to fuck three guys at once. Do you know how humiliating that is? Do you really think I want my mother to know that?”
I glanced sideways at her. “That’s not exactly how I put it.”
Amber groaned and threw her head back against the seat. “You betrayed me. You knew I didn’t want her to know, and you told her anyway. You went behind my back.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “If that’s the way you see it, then I’m sorry. That’s not what I had intended.”
“You’re terrible at apologizing.”
“I haven’t done it much,” I muttered, gripping the steering wheel.
“You’ve probably never apologized to anyone before in your life,” she said. “I bet you always think you’re right.”
“I do,” I said. “But I ain’t too proud to apologize when I need to.”
“Wow, that’s big of you.”
“Don’t make me beg, Amber,” I said, my voice coming out more like a threat than I’d meant. “I said I was sorry.”
“Fine,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I accept your apology. But if you ever do something like that again, I won’t forgive you until you beg and cry at my feet. And I mean real tears, Waylon Westling. You will sob like a little girl in front of me before I forgive you again.”
I shot her a look. She’d once said she may not know much about ranching, but she knew people. And she must be right, because the day I cried in front of a woman would be the day after hell froze over. Most women just threatened to chop off my balls when they were pissed at me. If Amber had chosen tears as my only path to redemption, she must know me pretty damn well.
“Then I’d better be on the straight and narrow from here on out,” I said.
“I’m not asking you to be a gentleman,” she said. “I know that’s not in your nature. If I asked you to make a big romantic speech like Charlie, I’d be asking you to be someone you’re not. That wouldn’t be fair. Plus, I actually like the person you are. Don’t ask me why, especially not today. But I do.”
“I know better than to ask that question,” I said.
“What I am asking,” she said, “is for you to show me the same honesty and respect you’d show your brothers. Don’t do something behind my back that you know would piss me off. Not even if you think it’s good for me. I spent my whole life letting people make decisions for me because they decided it was best for me. I’m not looking for Charlie in a cowboy hat.”
“Fuck. You’re right. I’m a dick.”
“True,” she said, smiling out the window. “But if I’m going to be part of this, part of your family, you have to treat me like you do any of them. Well, not exactly the same. But you have to let me in. Even dicks can do that. You know, pretend I’m that little Q-tip they shove up your dick at the doctor’s office.”
“They don’t do that anymore.”
“I know,” she said, biting her lower lip to hold back a grin. “I just wanted you to picture that, so you’d know that letting me isn’t the most painful thing you can imagine.”
“I don’t know about that,” I said, shaking my head. “A Q-tip up my dick hole sounds safer.”
5
Amber
As the truck headed back along the road towards the ranch I’d almost left for good, I tried to think of what to say to the others when I got back. The truck moved with excruciating slowness while inside my chest, my heart was racing at least ten times as fast as the car. I figured it might just leap out of my chest and get to Coyote Ranch way ahead of the rest of me.
But really, my heart had never left. I had left after discovering Waylon had betrayed me—and all of us. Now I was headed back with an understanding between us. I had no idea what the others would think, though. I’d walked on them. I’d left them. In truth, I probably should have stayed to talk it over with them before I ran out, but I’d never been one to do the rational, prudent thing. Impulsivity was kinda my thing. I figured I might as well embrace it. But it was harder knowing I could have broken their hearts just like the last woman to run out on them.
At long, long, long last, the truck pulled up. My legs were trembling as I climbed out. I could see my other stepbrothers out in the field, Sawyer slapping a cow’s ass to get it moving. A glittering coat of snow covered the ground, and from the looks of the sky to the west, we might be getting more. I smiled at the thought as I headed up the steps to the wooden lodge where I’d been living with the guys for two and a half months. Apparently, that was long enough to start reading the weather.
My first instinct was to run out to the field and throw myself into Holden’s arms and tell him I’d never leave him. But I knew that if I could read weather, they certainly had. They’d be getting ready for the coming snow, and I’d already interrupted their work day. Waylon had spent the whole day chasing me down and bringing me home like a stray cow that had escaped the fence and run for the border.
So instead of barging in on the other two and demanding attention, I went up to my room. I didn’t have anything to unpack—it had been sent ahead to New York. But I was relieved to see that Waylon hadn’t immediately moved back into the big bedroom like I’d never been there at all. Instead, the room was just as I’d left it.
After letting myself admit that it was really my room, that it wasn’t the guest room, I headed downstairs. This wasn’t a game. I was in it for keeps. This was my home. And since I was here to stay, I made myself at home in the kitchen, pulling out some meat to marinate while I started on the rest of dinner. By the time I finished, fat flakes of snow were streaking from the sky and coating the glittering crust on the old snow.
Good thing I’d decided to stay. It looked like I wouldn’t be getting out for a while. Unlike New York City, the roads here weren’t cleared every night after it snowed. The last time, we hadn’t been able to get out for a week. Not that we went a lot of places. The guys usually kept to themselves rather than going into town or visiting neighbors.
While dinner was cooking, I ran upstairs and tore through the guys’ closets, looking for something to wear besides my jeans and sweater. I found a dress in the very back of Sawyer’s closet. I pulled it out and held it up, halfway hoping that I’d discovered he liked to cross-dress. But there was no way it would fit him or his mother. I wasn’t even sure it would fit me.
So it seemed they all had skeletons in their closets. I’d already rid Holden of his when I’d asked him to sell the paintings of Maria. Now it was time to knock that bitch right out of Sawyer’s mind. As tempting as it was to imagine shoving the dress in the fireplace, I figured wearing it might give him a new memory of it, one that starred me instead of her. I pulled it on, struggling to zip it. It was a little loose in the bust, a little tight in the waist, and a lot short on my legs, but I didn’t let that stop me.
Besides, I wanted to look good for the guys when I made my apology. I brought my makeup downstairs and put on some lipstick and mascara in between stirring the veggies. Who said a woman couldn’t do it all? If all went well, I was planning to do all my stepbrothers, too.
A while later, heavy footsteps thudded on the back steps, and my heart started doing backflips in my chest. I quickly raced to the table to set the salad in the middle, wondering which of my men was coming in first, and if I’d have to do the whole I-was-an-idiot speech three times instead of all at once.
A moment later, the door o
pened and Sawyer stepped in, swatting snow off his felt cowboy hat. He pulled off the ski mask he’d put on under it, leaving his blonde hair in a disheveled mess. The moment his eyes fell on me, a smile twisted his lips up and crinkled his eyes at the corners.
“Tell me my eyes aren’t deceiving me,” he said, but he strode across the room and gathered me into an embrace, his strong arms pulling my body hard against his. He pressed his lips against mine, still cold from his work outdoors. I ran my hands up his back, under his jacket. But of course he was wearing his canvas coveralls, and I couldn’t find an inch of skin.
“We’re going to have to work on this wardrobe,” I said. “It’s like the opposite of easy access.”
Sawyer cocked an eyebrow at me and unzipped his jacket slowly, turning in a circle while gyrating his hips. “The striptease builds anticipation, baby,” he said when he was facing me again.
I couldn’t help laughing. I was so glad to be back, and so glad he seemed to accept it at face value, without so much as a question. He’d welcomed me like I’d never left, like he’d always known I’d come back. As if I belonged to the ranch, was as much a part of it as he and his brothers. I wanted to be. I knew that now.
But before I could get too comfortable with Sawyer, the door opened again, and Holden walked in.
“Amber,” he said, peeling off his own hat and mask. His eyebrows drew low, and he glanced around the room as if searching for something. “Was your flight delayed?”
“What? No,” I said. I didn’t have time to explain, though, because Waylon stomped in next, kicking snow off his boots. Darkness had fallen quickly outside, and I could see how hard the snow was streaking down in the twilight when he opened the door. His coat was dusted with snow, which he shook off on the mat at the back door. Sawyer had gotten out of his outer clothes and gone into the kitchen, leaving me alone with Holden and Waylon.
“You left,” Holden said, his voice edged with accusation.
I opened my mouth to remind him that Waylon had told me to leave, but I thought better of it. “I did,” I said. “But I came back. Dinner’s on.”
Wreck Me, Cowboys_A Reverse Harem Forbidden Romance Page 2
