Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Phoenix
Strapping the unicorn horn onto China’s halter, the excitement brewing outside of the stables was lost on me.
Deep down, I accepted that I was unlucky at love. Grumpiness wasn’t my facade as Atlas thought, it was my existence for having a heart that was destined for loneliness.
Honestly, I’d gotten over getting dumped. In retrospect, there had been a lot of disconnects. True love was too elusive. But Penny… she was different. I was different because of her. I was better and more hopeful.
Or maybe I was just a dreamer. “Guess we lost her.”
“Not yet. It was too real to let this stupid-ass blip ruin the whole thing.” Atlas stood still while Everest helped him into the knight’s armor the theater department provided for the party. “We just have to give her time.”
Everest and Atlas switched places. Everest said, “How ironic for us to dress up as knights. Where is our honor?”
Not wanting to think about that, I said, “All that effort not to ruin Penny’s time at Rawhide Ranch… I hope she doesn’t miss the unicorn party because of us.”
“Let’s just do our jobs.” Atlas took China’s reins and waited for Everest to help me get suited up.
Everest lamented, “I hate that we fucked it up.”
I said, “I wanted to make her happy, not make her cry and hide in her cabin. Should we see if they can find someone else to stand in as the knights? Have Catherine let Penny know we’ll banish ourselves to our rooms so she can enjoy the party? We’re the ones who deserve to be punished right now.”
Atlas put his helmet on. “If they can’t replace us, we can put the visors down so she won’t have to see us.”
The three of us led the horses to the party, creaking and clanking stiffly in our metal costumes. And aside from being noisy, it was damned heavy. How the hell did anyone fight in these? It was hard enough to walk. I had to give the theater department kudos for being authentic.
“Do you think she’ll ever trust us again? And does she really think she’s unlovable? How can she think that when all three of us fell for her?” I had too many questions.
Everest asked, “Do you think we should tell Dad to let her mom know that Penny knows who we are? That’s so complicated. We really need to meet her mom.”
Atlas grumbled, “Yeah, and we can throw in that we practiced kink with her, asked her to call us Daddy, and want to marry her.”
Although the original problem stemmed from our parents, we were complicit. My brothers and I had spent the counseling session and the entire night coming to the realization that we loved Penny and wanted to marry her… one big happy family, not one that keeps secrets and snoops on each other.
“I’ll call Dad as soon as I get a break—tell him that we have to meet her mom and that she needs to trust Penny more.”
“Yeah, cause we’re going to take over as her protectors.” Everest’s comment would have been sarcastic if it wasn’t how we really felt.
“Wait, is that her car?” Atlas pointed.
All of our heads whipped toward the road.
“She’s leaving?” I reached for a fastener on the armor but that wasn’t going to happen without help. I sure as hell couldn’t run. “We’re never going to catch her.”
“Get on the horses,” Atlas said, but how the fuck was that supposed to happen? “Samuel, help us. We have to stop Penny.”
Aside from being shocked that Atlas asked for help, I was thrilled with his quick thinking. Samuel helped Atlas, and two service subs helped Everest and me.
“We’ll bring the horses back, but for now, the party has to wait.”