Chapter Twelve
Monty
Monty had showered quickly, and he’d managed to avoid Rue thus far, because he was more confused than ever by the recent turn of events. Why had he thought that Rue would somehow be different? No one could give an asshole a transplant personality overnight, could they?
No!
Slipping on his boots, he grabbed his Stetson off the bed and ran out the door.
He was eager to face up to the music and then move swiftly on.
The sun blinded him for a second, and he collided with a solid chest as hands took hold of his arms to steady him.
For a brief second, he thought it was Rue, but the smell was all wrong.
“Hold up there, little fella,” said Cranny, a large lion shifter on the ranch.
“Sorry,” Monty murmured, taking a step back so Cranny could unhand him. He was nice enough and had openly flirted with Monty, but after last night, Monty had no delusions about what he wanted. “Were you looking for me or Rue?”
“Rue.” A wide grin stretched over his tanned face. “But I’m happy to find you instead.”
“You’ve found me,” Rue snapped behind Cranny, who had blocked Monty’s view with his wide shoulders.
He didn’t need to see Rue’s expression to know he was pissed, his tone said it all. His voice had practically snapped like a whip on the ground.
Cranny’s smile disappeared, and a frown appeared before he twisted around to look at Rue. The anger that had not dissipated at the cold shoulder drove Monty down the steps, stalking off in the direction of where he could see men, not once looking at Rue.
He heard a muttered curse, but he didn’t know who it was directed at, and he wasn’t in the mood to stop and find out. He stomped to the busy paddock, seeing Isley and Hollis helping Ethan feed and groom horses.
“Sorry I’m late,” Monty said to the group, recalling he’d not said it to Ethan earlier. Rue’s hot and cold routine had completely turned his head to mashed potato.
“Better late than never, suppose,” Ethan muttered, stroking a hand down the chocolate mane of a horse called Bounty.
Hollis continued with what he was doing, barely giving him a look, which made Monty wince. Isley took the pressure off when he offered him a brush. “We still have four horses to groom.” He indicated with his head in the direction of Blaze, a palomino. “I was going to do him next.”
Brush in hand, Monty nodded his thanks. Manual labor was what he needed to clear his head.
Time slipped by and Monty kept his thoughts on the task at hand.
The sun beat down on his back as he followed the instructions Ethan gave them.
Dust got everywhere, sticking to his exposed skin as the heat built and the flies buzzed incessantly.
Yet Monty found a kind of peace in the rhythmic nature of the strokes and how the horse's tail flicked out.
He giggled at the horse's nuzzles when the brush occasionally hit just the right spot.
When they finished, Monty found himself feeling relaxed, the dark cloud of the morning having evaporated.
They tidied everything away, then Ethan suggested they find the others and head up to the bunkhouse for food. Monty suddenly realized he was starving.
Ethan headed off in the direction of the big house, leaving him with Hollis and Isley.
“Want to explain where you were this morning?” Hollis locked eyes with Monty, and he could tell he would not be fobbed off when they’d all been in the bar last night.
“I stayed in town.”
Isley hid his grin a second too late for Monty to notice.
“You could have messaged me to let me know you were going to be late. This is a working week and not a holiday.”
The reprimand was deserved. Hollis was a fair boss. “I should have done, and I meant it earlier, I’m sorry.”
He was sorry for much more than being late!
Hollis lost the pinched look. “I know, I was worried.”
“You knew I was with… Rue.”
“That’s why I was worried,” Hollis confessed, looking far from comfortable to be having this conversation. “He’s going to be my brother-in-law—”
“I know,”—Monty held up his hand—“and I didn’t plan for things to go down the way they did.” It was all he was willing to say when Rue was being evasive once more. And Monty had no clue what would happen later when Kendrick expected them both to go to his house tonight.
“Rue?” Isley questioned, scratching just under the brim of his hat, tilting it back revealing how wet his hair was.
“Yeah.” There was no way he was mentioning Kendrick.
“I thought you were planning to…” Isley blushed beetroot red, eyes dropping to the ground where he kicked at the dirt, “sleep with Kendrick?”
Bollocks! How the heck had he forgotten that?
Rue. Rue was to blame for this!
He resisted looking away, barely. “It’s complex.”
Complex! Complex was a Rubik’s Cube when taken apart and attempts made to put it back together.
Monty knew how complex that was. Fuck, that was so inadequate to describe what the heck was going on.
Kendrick gave Monty the chance to get close to Rue.
To witness how much Rue loved to be pinned down and fucked, while buried balls deep in another man!
Kendrick loved all the kinky shit.
Monty discovered he had a kinky side that he didn’t know he possessed.
Three in a bed was most definitely something he wanted with Rue—again.
Did the sensuality among all three happen because of Kendrick?
How did he come to terms with his new reality?
Until last night, he’d thought his feelings for Rue were the monogamous type—until Kendrick.
It was a whole heap of tangled problems, that’s what it was with no way to unravel it all when Rue wouldn’t even talk to him. He eyed Isley and Hollis speculatively.
“No…” Hollis held up his hands in a defensive move, the color draining from his face, “I mean it. I don’t want to know what… what you got up to with whoever, right?”
“Hollis, stop being a prude.” Isley smiled shyly at Monty. “It’s okay to like different things.”
Monty giggle-snorted, then burst into full-blown laughter. It was either that or cry. Laughing was better than tears. In the shower, he had shed enough and made a promise—no more.
Isley joined in, and not a second later Hollis giggled.
“What am I to do with you guys?”
“Hollis, you love us all,” Isley pointed out, amid the laughter.
“Hey, what’s going on here?” Frey said, motioning to them all as he came to a standstill, eyeing each of them with suspicion. “What’s the joke?”
“My love life,” Monty said without thinking.
“I knew it,” Frey grinned so wide he looked manic. “You and Rue not showing up this morning. And Rue not answering in the alphahole group chat could only mean one thing.”
“Wait up, alphahole? What is that?” Isley was the first to ask.
“Like our PA group chat. The brothers have one, too. It seems Jupiter named it alphaholes, and it stuck,” Frey supplied, his shoulders shaking with laughter. “It suits them.”
Monty agreed. It certainly suited Rue; he was an alphahole!
“I think ours is much classier, thanks to Ziggy.”
“Do I hear my name?” Ziggy wore a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes as he strolled towards them, his gaze shifting to the paddock with horses in it. After he had fainted the other day, Monty understood why he was cautious when horses freaked him out.
“I was saying that our group chat has a much nicer name than the one the brothers’ have.”
“The brothers have a group chat?”
Frey nodded at Ziggy. “They do, alphaholes. Booker left his phone open on the side the other morning and I noticed it, so asked what it was.”
“Did you snoop?” Hollis looked horrified.
Pink-cheeked Frey bit his bottom lip.
“Oh my God, you did,” Ziggy accused.
“It was right there, and I didn’t scroll back too far—”
“I bet it was all full of complaints about us!” Isley muttered, sounding utterly miffed.
Frey frowned at Isley. “They rag on each other, like brothers do.”
Monty suspected Frey was being vague on purpose, but as the conversation was directed away from him, for now, he kept quiet.
“Where is everyone else?” Hollis asked Ziggy.
“Coming with Taylin. I think he mentioned going to find the others.”
Monty kept the groan all in his head at who the others were and the sight of Taylin with Bowie, Lennon, Wilder heading their way.
As a group, they headed towards the stables, where Bowie informed them, the brothers were.
The sound of raised voices traveled from inside as they approached the main barn.
“Move sideways, this fucking thing is awkward to carry?” Kodi complained.
“I carried in two on my fucking own, so shut up with the whining,” Rue groused. “Why y’all stood around the pile of shit? Am I missing something?”
“Silas is engaged,” Laken announced with what sounded like glee to Monty, who tripped over his booted feet just as Jupiter spoke.
“Our brother has joined the insanity club.”
“Engaged?” That sounded like Kodi.
They all picked up the pace, Taylin leading the charge with Ziggy right behind him, giving Monty a clue who they might be referring to by the confused looks everyone else was sporting.
“What? They love me the same as everyone does,” Jupiter said, making no sense.
“I think Ethan is rubbing off on you,” came Silas’s response.
There was a pause before laughter spilled out of the doors in front of them.
“So have you told Popi yet?”
To Kodi’s question, Silas answered, “No.”
“Told Popi what?” Taylin asked with amusement as he came to a halt in the open doorway, just a little breathless.
“That I’m engaged to Ziggy,” Silas announced proudly, staring at Ziggy in a way that made Monty wonder how the heck they’d all missed it.
The barn erupted, and Monty was glad of the distraction with how Rue was staring right at him with the same look he’d worn when he’d kissed Monty senseless. It made no fucking sense. What the hell was with the hot and cold routine?
Monty had whiplash.
Why couldn’t he just be one thing and stick with it!