Chapter 2 Colt
Chapter two
Colt
I’d told myself more than once over the last few years that I shouldn’t have gotten mixed up with Angus Angel.
A long-time neighbor, he and his late wife, Lucy, had been friends of my parents.
Growing up, I saw him occasionally when I helped out on his ranch.
At that time, he’d been a robust man who’d always had a smile on his face and a jest on his lips.
He loved his wife and bore the death of his son and daughter-in-law with quiet grief.
He loved his grandson, Maddox, although it was obvious he wasn’t sure what to do with him.
When Lucy died six years ago, the light left Angus’ eyes.
I felt his loss every time I looked at him.
Then, as though the Universe had one more terrible test for him, an accident on the ranch left his legs mangled.
Crippled and still grieving, Angus stopped trying.
It took weeks for Maddox and me to get him to use a wheelchair.
I knew Maddox was restless under the vast skies of North Platte country, and although I didn’t feel that way, I could understand it.
Angus and I shared a love of fishing, so I started asking him to go with me.
The day he finally agreed and I took him to the river had been a triumph.
Next, I started needling him to let me help him with his physical therapy, since he’d run off the lady who came to the house to do it.
While I put him through his exercises, we talked about books, work on the ranch, and life in general.
I’m not sure when it happened, but I fell for him.
It was crazy—there was a large age difference between us, and we were both alphas.
Unsurprisingly, Angus and I butted heads all the time, but instead of making me dislike him, it…
well. It turned me on. And one day during one of our physical therapy sessions, I went too far.
I still don’t know why Angus didn’t punch me in the face that day, but he didn’t.
And, somehow, after that mutual hand job, our friendship turned into a friends-with-benefits arrangement.
We never kissed, or did anything other than jack each other off, but it was sex, and it meant something to me, if not to Angus.
I had a feeling I was just a way to let off stress.
Maddox started taking side jobs for a private investigator, and was gone from the ranch for days at a time.
Then he was gone for weeks, and his cousin Doug took over watching Angus .
I almost didn’t make it through that. Doug was the most complaining person I’d ever met.
Then Maddox came home with an omega mate.
Angus and I were shocked. But nobody who met David—the omega—could possibly dislike him.
He had a sweet nature and was eager to help anybody do anything in order to earn his keep.
I quickly saw that his presence was good for Angus.
Things got a little better, and Angus and I kept up our friends-with-benefits activities.
David was very worried about a friend of his, another omega, who was on the run.
One day, he showed up on the ranch, cute as a button with his dark hair and sienna-colored eyes and deep dimples.
That very night Angus bonded with him. Not on purpose—Angus heard Ben having a nightmare and went to see about him.
He didn’t even realize that, by comforting Ben, he’d started a bond.
I couldn’t say for sure that he even realized it now, although my guess was that he was beginning to.
So, I backed off from Angus. I stopped coming around as much, and when I did, I didn’t stay to eat dinner. I still helped Angus with physical therapy, but I left his bedroom door open and got out of there quickly.
And Angus was thriving. I don’t know if he got a second lease on life or what, but he both looked and acted younger. He got out of the wheelchair and started using a cane and doubled his efforts exercising his legs.
And all for Ben.
I knew when I was the loser in a situation.
I was sitting on the fence of the horse pasture thinking all this over while watching David, Ben, and Trey—Bert Jenkins’ omega—work in the garden.
It was a warm spring day, and we were all glad the long, snowy winter was over, although it was mud season.
David and Trey’s babies, Ollie and Bertie, were asleep side-by-side in a portable crib under the elm tree a few feet away.
Angus had gone to town to have lunch with his buddies, and Maddox and Bertram were out checking fences on the property.
I’d just spent an hour cleaning out the hogs’ area before washing up in the outdoor shower and changing my clothes.
I enjoyed watching the three omegas work diligently to get the vegetables planted, laughing as they talked.
Blond, brunette, and auburn heads leaned close together over the soil as they planted rows of carrots, lettuce, and radishes.
The animated looks on all three of their young faces made me smile.
Although it was warm, Ben had on short sleeves, and he had a tendency to either burn or freckle.
From where I sat, I could see the tip of his nose was getting pink already.
Jumping off the fence, I jogged to the house and inside.
In the mud room, which doubled as a laundry room, I found him a long-sleeved shirt in the basket of clean clothes sitting on the dryer.
When I returned, I called his name, and when he looked up, I held the shirt out to him. “Put this on. You’re starting to burn.”
After brushing the dirt off his knees, Ben walked over to me. His allure used to get to me, but not anymore. I didn’t know if I’d gotten accustomed to it, or if Angus’s bond with him had negated it over time.
“Thanks,” he said, slipping his arms into the sleeves.
I pulled out a tube of sunblock I kept in my pocket. “Let me put some of this on your nose. It’s getting red.”
Ben stood still while I applied it to his face.
Belatedly, I realized I probably should have let him do it.
He was watching me with solemn eyes, and I saw uncertainty there, but I couldn’t stop mid-task and hand him the tube without looking awkward.
So, I continued until I’d completely rubbed the lotion in, enjoying doing it for him a little too much.
“I probably would have just gotten more freckles,” Ben said, looking up at me. “So, thanks.” He smiled briefly before stepping back.
“I think your freckles are cute,” I said, having obviously lost possession of my both tongue and my sanity.
At Ben’s answering wide smile, I couldn’t regret it, though.
“Colt!” Angus’s voice rang out from the front of the house. When I looked that way, he raised his hand and waved me to come inside.
Pocketing the sunblock, I nodded to Ben and headed for the house just as I saw Maddox in the distance walking along the fence line.
Good. He’ll be around to keep an eye on the three omegas.
We all feared that any moment an unmarked car would pull up carrying unwanted government visitors, although Trey wasn’t in any danger.
The government had redistributed him to Bertram.
“Have a good lunch?” I asked Angus when I met him at the door.
“Yeah. I brought you some salmon and rice.” Angus didn’t move, forcing me to scoot past him into the house. His close proximity didn’t go unnoticed by my cock.
“That was nice of you,” I said. I also wanted to tell him that he smelled nice, but I kept that to myself.
“Come and eat it. I want to have a talk with you.”
A feeling of dread settling over me, I followed him into the kitchen. He was barely using the cane, it now being more an assurance of stability than something he needed to walk.
We sat down at the kitchen table. I opened the container of food and dished some out on the plate he’d provided me with.
“It’s still hot,” I said.
“I warmed it up for you,” Angus said. “But it’s fresh. I didn’t order it until we were almost ready to leave.”
I took a bite of salmon and rice. “It’s delicious. Thanks.”
He smiled back at me, and for a few seconds, our eyes locked.
He’d had his hair cut and his beard and mustache trimmed that morning before meeting his friends, and he looked fantastic.
The contrast of his light blue eyes and coal-dark hair was striking.
I wondered what had happened to all the gray.
Had the hairdresser colored it out? I couldn’t imagine Angus asking someone to dye his hair, but maybe he was trying to impress someone.
I looked back down at my meal, suddenly not hungry anymore. Clearing my throat, I bit the bullet and asked, “What did you want to talk to me about?”
Angus was silent so long, my eyes rose to meet his again. He had a look on his face that I’d never seen before—uncomfortable and, maybe, regretful?
“I wanted to apologize to you,” he said gruffly.
My heart sank. Even worse than telling me he regretted what we’d done in the past would be his telling me he was sorry we’d done it at all. Like I was some kind of victim in the situation. Hell, I’d been the one to start it all!
“You don’t have anything to apologize for,” I said.
“Yes, I do. I should have been honest with you.”
Did he mean he should have told me he didn’t want to bring sex into our relationship? Oh, Gods, had he never wanted to do it at all but given in to me because I wanted it?
“Why do you look like you’re going to throw up?” Angus asked, frowning.
Desperate to change the subject, I blurted out, “Did you color your hair?”
Angus looked taken aback. “What? Did I—no! Why would you ask me that?”
“Where’s the gray? You had gray running through your hair, and now you don’t.”
“I don’t?” Angus reached up and passed his hand through his hair like that could tell him something. “Well, I don’t know. Why are we talking about my hair all of a sudden?”
“I thought maybe you got the gray colored to impress Ben.”