10. Nora
CHAPTER 10
Nora
“ Y ou’ll never guess where I am,” Kendall says to me on the phone.
I’ve showered about a hundred times, but I still feel gross. I’ve helped cows and horses give birth before, sure, but it doesn’t mean I relish the experience. Definitely chose to not go to vet school for a reason.
“Um…” My voice trails off. Kendall’s a huge star. I know that she was just in Denver, but…
“I’m in Jackson Hole!”
My jaw drops. “Kendall! That’s so close!”
“I know! I looked it up on a map and everything,” she preens through the phone. “Listen, my driver told me it’s only like an hour to get to you. There’s like a cute little inn that I just made reservations at. I’m going to come up there, and we’re going out.”
There is, in fact, an inn. It has three rooms, and I can absolutely see Kendall reserving all of them. Toweling off my hair, I sit down on my bed. “Kendall. I just helped Thunder give birth to twins.”
“And you’re a badass for doing that. Now come drink with me.”
“Kendall…”
“Please?” she murmurs. “I miss you. And I just got here, and you know I can’t stand to be alone for more than a half hour before I start to go absolutely insane. I’ve been home with my parents in Colorado, and I need to go do something. Anything,” she pleads.
It’s true. Kendall’s not exactly known for her ability to be alone. She does have a strained relationship with her parents, and if she was with them back in Colorado, she’s probably itching to get out. She’s my best friend, and I’m just dying to see her.
But everything just feels so… overwhelming right now.
Clint helping deliver Thunder’s foals was really something. The man has a gift with horses, and I need to give credit where it’s due. That was pretty freaking incredible.
“Come on, Nora. Let’s just go out and find some dumb cowboys to make out with, and then we’ll stay up all night with this new skincare stuff that someone just sent me. We can run naked around the inn if we want,” she laughs.
“I don’t want to make out with anyone,” I say automatically. My cheeks burn a little, though, because I can think of three men who I’d be more than happy to make out with.
Clint. Landon. Shane.
I can’t say that I’d pick one over the other two. In my mind, they’re some kind of a unit, like the three of them can’t be pulled apart from each other. I’ve seen the easy way they communicate with each other. The way that they talk, interact, even the way they set up their coffee in the morning, all of it speaks to an easy kind of friendship that goes deeper than just dudes who hang out. They are a unit, I guess. I’m not sure why. Heck, I’d love to know why. But I’m not going to be the one to ask them.
“Um, earth to Nora?”
I snap back to reality. “Yeah?”
“Where’d you go, girl?”
I fidget slightly. “Nowhere.”
“Oh,” Kendall breathes. “You were thinking about your hot new neighbors.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
She practically cackles with glee. “Yes, you totally were! I know that voice. Nora. Do you like one of them? ”
I don’t know how to answer that. “Not one of them.”
Kendall sucks in a huge breath. “Nora Foster. Do you like more than one of them ? ”
“Um.”
Her voice changes, becoming more serious. “Nothing wrong with that. You deserve to be worshipped after all Aaron put you through.”
Ugh. Aaron’s name puts a nasty taste in my mouth. I flop back on the bed, letting my hair fan out behind me. “Aaron was…”
“A dick, Nora. He was a cheating, lying dick.”
He was all of those things. But honestly? When we first met, that very first night in sophomore year, he wasn’t. He was nice, then. The cheating and lying was a much later transformation. I think, anyway.
“Whatever. I want to make out with a dumb cowboy. I’ll leave your three alone, but come on. I’m so close, and I miss you.” Kendall whines.
I sigh. “All right. Fine. Meet you at the Hideaway in an hour?”
“Better make it half, girl. I’m already on my way.”
I hang up the phone, letting it fall from my fingers. Going to get a drink at the Hangout isn’t a big deal. It’s the only bar in town, and drinking age be damned, I’ve been going to party there since high school.
People who care about you watch your alcohol consumption better than your boneheaded teenage friends do, anyway. Can’t get away with much when the bartender played third base on your dad’s baseball team, and the waitress cheered with your mom until graduation. They’d cut us off before things got too rowdy, but let us have our space to enact all the same teenage dramas year in and year out. I definitely want to go.
But what if you see the guys there?
I shake off the thought, a little fissure of anger motivating me to get up and walk to my closet. I have all my normal ranch wear, but in my suitcase, still packed from college…
I dig it out. When I find what I’m looking for, I grin.
Maybe the guys will be there. And when they see me in this? Maybe they’ll be having some thoughts about me, too.
Not even three drinks in, Kendall abandons me to go sing. Shocking.
It does kind of remind me of her first real break. In college, she was two years older than me, and on her graduation night, I recorded a video at the bar that people love in Boulder of her singing along to Shania Twain’s Any Man of Mine , and then when Kendall uploaded it to YouTube…
Well. The rest is history.
I don’t mind that she’s up and singing. Really, I don’t. It would be hard to be her friend if I got jealous of the spotlight. People seem pretty stunned to see her—one of the biggest names in country music—but I’m sure that any PR is good PR these days. She’s great on stage, and people are absolutely entranced with her. But I do wish we could have made it through a couple of drinks before she left me.
I order another whisky sour, turning from the bar to watch my friend. Even though I’m a little annoyed, I have to admit that she’s fun to watch. There’s a reason that she’s a star, after all.
I’m so engrossed in Kendall’s performance that I fail to notice when three certain men slide up to the bar next to me.
“Hey, Hellcat,” Landon’s voice rumbles. “Whatcha drinkin’?”
I spin back. Landon, Clint, and Shane are all lined up down the bar next to me.
Of course Landon is closest. I roll my eyes. “Funny that you three should show up here.”
“It’s the only bar in town,” Shane says dryly. “And, apparently, books world-class entertainment.”
I wince. “Yeah. Kendall’s something, all right.”
“You a fan?” Landon says.
Oh, God. Here it is. The inevitable starstruck request to get Kendall’s number…
“She’s good,” Landon shrugs. “But I think my entertainment is right here.” He winks at me.
“With a drink,” Shane rumbles, looking at the bartender again.
I flush. There’s no way they’d rather be here with me than watching my best friend sing. I don’t want them to know about the blush on my cheeks, though, so I raise an eyebrow at Shane. “What, you don’t keep your own stash of private Japanese whisky locked up in your weird evil genius hut?”
Landon cackles. “He absolutely does.”
“But drinking alone is pathetic,” Shane says. “At least here it’s social.”
“Well, I can’t deny you that,” I say, a small smile playing across my lips. I reach for my glass, pulling it up for a sip.
“Whisky sour?”
Landon turns to me again, and I nod. “Sure is.”
“Great. We’ll have what she’s having,” he calls to the bartender.
The bartender, a nice man named Edgar who did, in fact, play third base on my dad’s baseball team, gives us a smile.
“So. You show up here to stalk me?” I ask the guys.
The way that they’re looking at me, all three of them, makes my heart pump in my chest.
I need to get laid.
There’s no way that I could be entertaining this kind of a fantasy. I’m not dumb. I know that people have all kinds of arrangements with all kinds of numbers of partners. I just didn’t really ever consider myself interested in that. Until recently.
The drinks come, and Landon holds up his glass. “To twin foals,” he says.
“And the mare who refused to give up on them,” I add.
“And to Nora,” Clint’s voice rings out.
Landon, Shane, and I all look at him. Clint, for the first time ever, looks… embarrassed. He glances down, and I’m sure that if he didn’t have that beard, his cheeks would be red.
“She did a hell of a job in a situation that would scare the shit out of the average person,” he grumbles.
“I’ve grown up on a ranch my whole life, Clint,” I say dryly. “I know how to help when livestock are being born.”
He shakes his head. “Still. That was… it was a lot. It was one of the hardest births I’ve ever seen, and I’ve worked around horses since I could walk.”
That is a strong endorsement, then. It also explains why he has such a touch for the horses. He’s just good with them .
I give him a sharp nod. “Okay then. Good. Yes. Thank you.”
“Well, I’d like to drink. Never thought I’d say that Clint needs to shut his trap and stop yapping,” Landon says.
Clint grunts, but we all drink.
“I could probably guess that you’re not really a talker,” I tell him. In response, he gives me a sharp nod.
“Clint’s a man of few words and strong actions,” Shane says smoothly. “He’s definitely not a talker.”
“You are, though.” I give him a little look.
Shane’s eyes smolder with something that has nothing to do with talking. “I mean what I say. Every time. But if you want someone who likes talking, Landon’s your guy.”
“That I can see,” I laugh.
Without skipping a beat, Landon smiles. “I can talk all night if you need me to.”
“Oh, Lord.” I sip my drink. “Someone come get him. He’s doing too much again.”
“At this point, we just usually buckle up and go bottoms up,” Shane says, offering his drink up in a ‘cheers’ gesture. Laughing, I join him. The four of us down the drinks, and Shane signals the bartender for more.
“So.” Landon leans back, looking at me. “What’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?”
“As you said, it’s the only bar in town.”
He laughs. “That it is. But seriously. Why today?”
I jerk my thumb up toward the stage. “Hard to deny your best friend a chance to hang out when she’s at a show in Jackson Hole an hour away, and she wants to come see you.”
“Kendall Sutton is your best friend?”
The drink comes, and I take a little sip. “Yes. Ever since she told me I was going to fail English Comp 101 unless I got my shit together.”
Shane lets out a low whistle. “So, she’s here to see you? I was shocked to see her in this place.”
A fissure of something awful ripples down my spine. “Yeah. It’s hard to escape her these days. You a fan? ”
“You’d have to be living under a rock not to be,” Landon snorts. “Didn’t she make the cover of Vogue last month?”
Yes, in an incredibly skimpy outfit that she looked amazing in, to boot. “You read Vogue ?”
Shane leans in, looking at me with sparkling brown eyes. “Are you jealous, Hellcat?”
“No. I’m not,” I say shortly. “And don’t call me that.”
“Why? Landon calls you that.”
“Yeah, but… It’s…” I’m halfway to saying that it’s something special with Landon and me, but then I don’t. Because it’s not. There’s nothing special between Landon and me.
Keep telling yourself that, Nora.
I’m opening my mouth to tell Shane to go somewhere with his assumptions when a couple of loud jeers catch my ear. Shit.
In front of Kendall singing on stage, there are two drunk guys. I don’t recognize them. They’re probably hired seasonal workers to help out on one of the ranches nearby. One of them is making all kinds of lewd gestures at her. When the other one tries to climb up on the stage to look up her skirt, I spring into action.
“Hey! Shithead!” I yell at the guy. “Leave her alone!”
“Well, look at this,” the one who had been yelling stuff at Kendall says. “What are you gonna do, half-pint? Take her place?”
“I’d swap her out for you any day,” the other man says. “Especially if you’re… willing.”
He approaches me. His hand manages to reach forward before something hits him like a hurricane.
Clint.
“Better back up, motherfucker!” Landon yells. Clint and the man are rolling around on the ground, and his buddy has squared up to Shane.
“Landon, get the friend!” Shane yells before delivering one hell of a punch to the man.
Landon scoots up on stage. “Sorry, miss,” I hear him say. “Let’s get you and Nora out of here.” Gently, he tugs on Kendall’s hand, then comes to wrap his other hand around me and smiles. “Ladies? ”
Kendall gives me a shocked look, and I return it to her. “Um, I think your boyfriends are starting a bar fight,” she whispers.
“They’re not my boyfriends,” I respond.
But as Landon dumps us outside and goes back in to retrieve the other two, something feels… unsettled in my chest.
Because I think that I like all three of them. Exactly the same.
The bar fight ends with the two hecklers being thrown out and the Wild Spur guys lauded as heroes, despite the fact that I’m certain none of them need the ego boost.
They take Kendall to the inn, where her grumpy security is absolutely pissed that she abandoned them, and me home, after Shane deems the both of us too drunk to drive. I try to argue, pointing out that I’ve only had two more drinks than they have, but my point is kind of lost when I trip on my own boots, and Clint has to catch me. The impression of his strong arms around me is one that lingers the whole way back to the ranch.
When we finally get back, it’s dark. Clint drove my SUV back, and Shane drove Landon and me in his truck. When we get out, Clint looks at the 4Runner with a sour look. “You drive this thing?”
“Every day.”
“Nora, this is not street legal,” he grumbles. The way he says my name makes shivers race up and down my arms.
“It turns on every time.”
“Turns on and functions are two entirely different things.”
I shake my head. “I can’t buy a new car, Clint.”
It’s the closest I’ve come to admitting our financial state in front of all three of them, and all three of them tense. Realizing that I might have just said too much, I kick at a tuft of grass.
“Well. Thanks for getting Kendall and me out of there and home,” I murmur. “I… appreciate it.”
“Shane loves bar fights.” Landon grins. “Anytime.”
“If those guys decide to press charges?—”
“They won’t,” Clint says with a glare. “They better fuckin’ not, anyway.”
The ghost of a smile traces my lips before I look over at the house. It’s dark.
My dad is in bed, and my heart shivers. I don’t want to wake him.
In the drive, I turn back to the guys. “Can I stay at your place?”
Shane looks mildly shocked. “What?”
I’m shocked that I said it, too. “Can I… Look, my dad is… he’s recovering. He was sick, and now he’s a lot better, but I don’t really want to wake him. Can I just stay with you? I’ll sleep on your couch. Won’t make any noise, and I’ll walk back in the morning. Please?”
I don’t want to beg them, but also…
Okay. I don’t want to wake my dad up, but even more than that, I’m not quite ready for the night to end.
This has been the most fun that I’ve had in basically forever. My shitty college boyfriend cheated on me. I graduated, then found out my ranch was in trouble. Came home. Found out the ranch was in even deeper trouble. And that my dad was recovering from cancer.
I’d say that I’ve earned some fun, and darn it, tonight was fun.
I want to keep that momentum going, and I really want the guys to be there with me. Something about them makes me feel… like I’m not alone.
The guys exchange a glance before Clint gives a sharp nod. “You can sleep in my room.”
“You don’t have to do that. I’ll sleep on the couch,” I protest.
His head swivels. “Nope. You can sleep in my room,” he says again.
I sigh. But we all get back into the truck, leaving my SUV behind.
The ride over to Wild Spur seems to go by fast. Mostly because as we go, I’m… joking with the guys. Chatting. Laughing. Even Clint seems to crack a smile, and when we get there, I’m almost completely sober, but my mind is made up.
I can’t pick just one of them. I like them all. Together .
What I have in mind? It’s crazy. But crazy just might be right up their alley.
When we get inside, I look around with new eyes this time. “You really didn’t change much from the old owners,” I breathe, looking at where the furniture is even the same.
“Didn’t need to.” Shane shrugs.
“Hmm,” I murmur. I look over at him and try to give a sexy smile. “How about that whisky collection?”
Shane shakes his head, laughing. “You really want to try it?”
“Bring out the big guns. Show me what you got, cowboy.”
He lumbers away, and I hear him go up the stairs. Clint is leaning in the corner, and Landon’s sitting on the couch. I sit next to him.
“So, you three,” I say, looking at him and Clint. “What’s the deal?”
Landon shrugs. “No deal. We kind of grew up together.”
“Kind of?”
“Clint’s dad ran my parents’ horse program,” Shane says, coming back down the stairs. He fills four glasses with a smooth, almost luminous brown liquid. Taking a sip, my eyes nearly roll back in my head.
“Okay, that is good,” I admit.
“I like the finer things in life.” He smiles.
I take another sip, letting the whisky roll down my throat. “What kind of program?”
“My parents bred racehorses and reining horses.”
I let out a low whistle. “Any that I’d know?”
“We had a Derby entry ten years ago, but the reining horses made up the bulk of the business.”
Shane’s looking at me like he’s trying to assess my reaction. Someone who dabbled in racehorses is either dead broke or rich as Croesus, and I think I know which camp he falls into.
“Do your parents still raise horses?”
Shane’s eyes darken. “They died,” he says shortly. “Car accident. Drunk driver.”
“Oh, Shane,” I whisper. “I’m so sorry.”
He looks away, and Clint grunts. “They raised all of us.”
“Okay. So. Clint, you were there a lot because your dad did the horses. ”
“And Landon…” Shane looks at Landon.
He smiles, but for once, it looks sad. “My parents went through a nasty divorce. When it was all said and done, I had no home. They both just… left.”
Meaning they left him behind. “Shit. Landon…”
“After that, we couldn’t get rid of him,” Clint says gruffly.
“And you like that, you salty son of a bitch,” Landon chirps.
The comment seems to take some of the tension out of the room, and I smile. “Well, however you found each other, it seems to be working out for you now.”
They exchange a look, and Landon nods. “If you call being stuck with these two losers working out, then yeah.”
It’s teasing, but I can tell there’s affection there.
I take a hearty sip of my whisky. “So, how does this work? Y’all are just roommates?”
“Yes,” Landon says quickly.
“You share a house, you share work…” Shoot, this is the part I’m nervous about.
Of course it’s Shane who picks up what I’m trying to say. “You’re asking if we’ve ever shared a woman?” he rumbles. His voice is almost as low as Landon’s, and it makes my heart beat about fifty times faster.
“Is that what you want to know, Hellcat?” Landon says, his voice just as gravely.
“Yeah,” I whisper.
The three of them exchange a look. Shane raises his eyebrows, looking at Landon. “May the best man win, huh?”
“It’s not like that,” I blurt.
They all look at me. I shut my eyes, because if I’m looking at them when I say this part…
I don’t have the courage to look at them.
“Look, I’ve had a really shitty last couple of months. My college boyfriend cheated on me. My dad is sick, and the ranch is…” I cut myself off. “I just want… fun. I want to have a good time. I want to forget, just for a little, that my whole world broke apart,” I say. My voice cracks on the last word, and I have to take a breath before I continue. “I want to… but I don’t want to pick. I want all of you.” I whisper .
There’s complete and total silence in the room.
I refuse to open my eyes. What have I done? What will they say? What if?—?
“Nora,” Shane says softly. “Open your eyes.”
My eyes snap open. All three men are staring at me. They look at each other, and something unspoken passes between them.
It’s Landon who speaks. “You want us all?”
I nod.
The smile that curls across his face makes my lower belly tighten.
“You got it, Hellcat.”