Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
CALEB
“ P apa, look! We got popcorn!” Camden’s voice precedes him.
I glance over my shoulder, cutting off my response to Beau beside me, just in time to see my son stepping off the stairs and into our row of seats. Ethan holds two bags of popcorn, one larger than the other, where he walks a step behind him. Camden runs along the small pathway in front of the metal bench where we sit. Instead of dropping onto my lap, though, he focuses behind me, skidding to a stop just shy of my legs. Ethan does some fancy footwork to stop in time so he doesn’t accidentally barrel over our son.
“Kid, you need to be careful,” he says. He urges Camden onto the bench beside me and hands him the smaller container of popcorn. Once Camden is settled, he slides past me and sits next to Emily on the other side of Beau.
Camden twists on the bench, propping an elbow on my arm to give himself stability, and then waves at someone behind us. I glance over my shoulder.
And then have to take an extra minute to remember how to breathe.
Melissa and Brielle stand at the top of the arena, arms locked together at the elbows. Melissa’s shoulders are tense, and she bites at her lip as she looks out over the growing crowd. How had Brielle managed to convince her to come? Because there’s no way that Melissa is the one that offered between the two of them. The urge to help ease her nerves rides me hard for a moment, a natural response of an Alpha to an Omega. But before I can rearrange Camden and stand, my eyes catch on Brielle beside her. She’s dressed in a short white dress that hugs her curves before flaring away from her legs, landing mid-thigh. It offsets her brown hair. They’re far enough above us I can’t see her eyes, but I bet they pop against the white fabric, too.
“Bri!” Camden calls, giggling. His voice cuts across the din of the crowd talking around us. Both women focus on us. Melissa relaxes and starts down the stairs, pulling Brielle behind her and blocking her from my view. But not before I see her cheeks flame a bright red.
Hudson grunts from where he’s seated on the bench behind me. He nudges my shoulder before smirking.
“He’s made a fast friend, huh?” he asks.
I shrug and shove down the surge of irritation that rushes through me at his comment.
Camden makes friends. Don’t most four-year-olds make easy friends? Besides, Brandon always had. I still do, and Ethan isn’t a stranger to it. At least until Kayla killed herself when Camden was only six months old.
Jesus fuck, why the hell am I thinking about that right now?
“Bri, you came!” Camden waves at the women, and Brielle offers a small smile and wave in return.
Beau leans closer to me, dropping his voice as he says, “You should probably tell him that she’s not available.”
This time I don’t quite manage to bury the overbearing growl. Beau hesitates beside me. Emily’s conversation with her brother fades away. Even without looking toward her, I can feel her focus on me. Hudson raises a single eyebrow, his sweeping once-over seeing too much. The smirk falls away from his lips as he leans forward.
“Shut up, Beau,” he says, low enough it won’t carry beyond a few feet. Camden doesn’t even seem to notice.
Beau’s uncharacteristically obedient, dropping the entire subject between one breath and the next. Melissa pushes Brielle in front of her as they make it to our row. Her gaze catches mine, and there’s a small smile on her lips I’ve never seen before, like she knows a secret that she’s dying to share but isn’t allowed to.
Brielle settles on the bench beside Camden, and he hugs her, launching himself into her arms before she’s managed to get her small clutch tucked behind her feet. She laughs as he dumps half the bag of popcorn in her lap.
“Oops, sorry, Bri,” he says. He tips the bag more as he attempts to pick up some of the fallen pieces.
With a sigh, I grab the bag from him.
“How about I hold this for you, bud?”
He grins at me before focusing on the mess. Brielle helps him, popping a couple pieces in her mouth despite Camden’s protest. She smiles but doesn’t apologize.
“Just helping with clean-up,” she says with a smile. Camden narrows his eyes. She pops another piece in her mouth.
Camden starts to say something, but a high-pitched squeal drowns him out.
“Oh my gosh! I didn’t realize you’d be here!”
Olivia closes the gap between us, dropping into the seat beside Hudson. He wraps his arm around her, pulling her close, and then kisses the silver scar that sits nestled in the crook of her shoulder. Brielle turns, and her smile grows larger, lighting her eyes. Olivia shrugs out of Hudson’s hold.
“Olivia!” she says. The women hug each other, Camden caught on the outside. He doesn’t seem to mind, though, picking up a few more pieces of his spilled popcorn and focusing as the first event gets set in the arena.
“It’s so nice seeing you for something happy this time,” Olivia whispers. Brielle tightens her hold even as she closes her eyes, a look of pain crossing her features. “Melissa told me what happened. I’m so angry for you. But I’m happy you’re here.”
Hudson raises an eyebrow. He asks the question that’s perched on my tongue.
“You guys know each other?”
Olivia nods as she pulls away from Brielle. She grabs a small pill from her purse and nestles it under her tongue.
“Of course,” she says after a few moments, like it’s something obvious. “We spent an entire summer together when Brielle lived with Melissa while they were in school.”
What the fuck? Brielle lived here before?
The conversation beside me dies down as the rest of our group focuses on Olivia. She flushes as she realizes everyone’s paying attention to her.
“That… Oh gods. That wasn’t a secret, was it? I thought everyone knew that.” She sends a desperate look to Brielle.
Melissa cuts in. “Brielle stayed with Brandon and me the summer between freshman and sophomore year. Not a secret.” She grabs Olivia’s hand and squeezes it before turning to focus on the arena. “Just not something that’s really brought up. It was a long time ago.”
“It was.” Olivia nods. “But, gosh, it was so much fun.”
Brielle offers a smile but doesn’t say anything.
Olivia continues, “I’m sorry I haven’t seen you since you’ve moved back. I’ve been so sick, it’s been hard getting out of bed.”
I frown. Olivia’s been sick?
Hudson chuckles. “I thought we weren’t going to hard launch it.”
Olivia smirks as she nudges his side.
Brielle’s eyes widen. “Really?”
I frown, and Beau echoes my confusion.
“Wait, you’ve been sick?” Ethan asks. “Is everything okay?”
“Getting better,” Olivia says. “Should be mostly back to normal in another couple weeks. That’s what the doctor says, at least. Though apparently some people are sick the entire nine months. That sounds miserable.”
Before I can process what she’s said, Brielle and Melissa squeal in unison, reaching across the space and hugging Olivia at the same time.
“No way,” Emily says, reaching across from the other side of me and grabbing Olivia’s leg. When she nods, her cheeks flushed and her smile wide, it finally clicks.
“Holy shit,” I say. I shove Hudson, giving him one of Mom’s looks. He rolls his eyes before smirking. “You just let us all walk into that one? What the hell, man? Didn’t we make an agreement to tell each other first?”
Hudson tosses his head back and laughs. “Mom’s been losing it all week. Shocked she didn’t spill it when you swung by Thursday, honestly.”
Beau laughs, too. “Congrats, man. When are you due?”
Olivia smiles, but the announcer cuts across the speakers before she can answer. Once he’s finished, she says quickly, “Christmas.”
The excitement settles down as the first bareback rider loads into the chute, the coaches and a couple of the other competitors climbing onto the rails to offer encouragement. After only a few moments, he nods his head, and they open the chute. Eight seconds is extraordinarily short, and the first kid doesn’t quite make it, dropping from the horse a few moments before. The audience cheers anyway, though, as the pickup men guide the horse out of the arena.
After another minute or so, the chatter builds in the stands again.
“So when does Tristan perform?” Brielle asks, her quiet voice cutting through the low din of voices.
Beau chuckles, and her cheeks flush. I swallow back the growl that wants to rip out of me.
“Oh, bull riding is the last event,” Melissa says.
Olivia nods as she snuggles deeper into Hudson’s side. “Yeah, he’ll compete first,” she says. “According to him, he drew a nasty bull. And we say they compete, not perform.”
Hudson leans forward, letting his elbow rest on his knee. His other arm is still wrapped around Olivia’s hips.
“If they make it the full eight seconds, both the bull and the rider will get a score of up to 50. Best total of 100 wins the night,” Hudson says. “Same with bareback which is what we’re watching now and also saddle bronc. The other events are timed, and the fastest person will win those ones.”
Brielle’s eyebrows climb as she looks back at the arena. Camden settles into her lap, and she wraps her arms around him, like it’s second nature to have a kid sitting with her. Was it?
No one’s mentioned her having any kids. But maybe they were killed in the same accident that killed her husband? The idea of her experiencing even more loss sets my teeth on edge, so I shove it aside.
The next rider tries his luck before I can decide what I want to say. This one makes it the full eight seconds, and Camden shows off where the score is posted on the screen positioned at the apex of the arena opposite the tunnels.
As the horse is guided into the tunnels, Cam asks, “Bri, do you want some popcorn?”
I can’t help but watch as he holds up a piece from what’s left in his bag. And then I can’t help my body’s heating as Brielle smiles and slips the piece into her mouth, not messing up a single spot of her dark red lipstick.
Fuck, I want to see what it looks like when it’s smudged.