CHAPTER 8 BEN
“Motherfucker,” I mutter as I navigate back toward home. Of course he’s not home. Putting the pressure on in person would’ve been way too easy to solve this shit before I take off for a month.
Maybe falling off the grid is exactly what I need right now. It might all resolve itself by the time I get back and it’ll just be a blip on my record. Somehow I don’t believe that, but it’s a real nice thought.
All I know is that things started getting complicated the moment feelings came into the picture. I keep telling myself it’s all unrelated—Kaylee and my feelings for her have nothing to do with manipulative women who clearly want something from me.
But then I realize that’s just not true.
They wouldn’t be after me like this if I would’ve just given them the parts of myself I can’t give them because someone else owns them. They’re like children throwing tantrums. They just want attention, and they don’t care if it’s negative.
They want to be where she is. They want to be the one I go home to, the one I love, the one I share my bed and my life with.
All this shit started when I fell in love.
And maybe that’s my answer. Maybe that’s the only way I can protect Kaylee in all this. But the selfish side of me doesn’t want to believe that. I want things to be the way they were when we were in Montana together.
And that’s where we’re headed, anyway. We meet Luke and Ellie, who have Nolan with them, at the airport along with Josh and Nicki, who are missing their kid.
“Where’s Warner?” I ask.
“Elizabeth just took him to change his diaper,” Nicki says. She leans back in total relaxation. “She really is the best.”
“You track down Eric?” Ellie asks.
I shake my head. “I don’t like leaving with this shit unresolved but I’m also ready to get the hell out of here.”
“His place in Montana is fabulous,” Kaylee adds. “The perfect getaway.”
I have the sudden urge to grab her hand and squeeze it—hell, to grab her into my arms and squeeze her—but I don’t.
Sure, we’re in public, but we’re in the private terminal at an airport.
Security is tight here, and it’s not like anyone in here cares who we are or what we’re doing.
There’s hardly anybody around and doing the things that come naturally to me would only create suspicion in the people she’s not ready to tell.
But I need to have a talk with her. Maybe it’s time to tell.
I wait until we’re on the plane in our own little row of first class.
Ellie and Luke are two rows behind us, and Josh and Nicki are across the aisle from them.
Kaylee is next to the window, and she’s staring out it in what seems to be some pretty deep, focused thought.
I almost don’t want to interrupt her, but I do it anyway.
I lean in close to her ear and ask in a low voice, “Can we tell your family?”
Her head whips over to me in surprise, and her eyes are wide. “When?”
I shrug. “Maybe once Jack and Kate get here?”
She blows out a breath. “Ellie’s pregnant,” she blurts, and then she slaps a hand over her mouth. “Shit. I wasn’t supposed to tell.”
“Remind me not to tell you my deepest, darkest secrets,” I say dryly.
She raises a brow at me. “I think you already have, haven’t you?”
I snicker a little sarcastically. “Most of them,” I offer honestly.
She narrows her eyes at me for a beat but lets it go. “I’m not sure if she’s telling, but I don’t want to overshadow her news. Let’s allow her to make her announcement and then we can share our news.”
“Or you could talk to her and find out if she’s planning to tell everyone while we’re up in Montana,” I point out.
The flight attendant starts talking about airplane safety, but I ignore her in favor of this conversation.
Interesting given the fact that if this was six months ago, I probably would’ve already put a smile on that flight attendant’s face by now in the tiny bathrooms that we’d barely have fit into.
Which gives me an idea…
“Want to meet me in the bathroom for a little mile-high quickie?” I proposition.
Her brows draw together. “No! My brother is literally right back there.”
I lift a shoulder. “So? You think I’m not going to fuck you every night in my bed and on my patio and up against a tree and on a horse every chance I get while we’re up north?”
Her brows seem to tighten at every location I mention until I get to on a horse.
“On a horse!?!”
“Oh yeah,” I say, nodding slowly as a sly grin spreads across my lips. “On a horse.”
She shakes her head as her eyes move forward to her locked up tray table.
“Oh, you better believe that’s happening. You already know I’m hung like one, so why not ride the stallion while you’re on a horse?”
She giggles then squirms a little, and even though she’s pretending she isn’t interested, I have a feeling it won’t be long before she’s begging me to take her out riding.
Once we land, everyone else heads to the car rental while we head toward the parking lot to my truck.
I gave Luke the address with all the gate information and some extra details about how to get up to the house once he finds my street, and we decide to get a head start to check on Buddy and, you know, make out a little before the rest of them arrive.
Thankfully, they check in with Kaylee once they get their cars and they’re on the road, and it sounds like we’re an entire hour ahead of them.
Any guesses what we do with that hour?
Aside from showering Buddy with attention, we don’t go horseback riding, exactly, but there’s definitely riding involved. And tits. And my mouth. And her mouth.
And lots of come shooting off inside her tight, sexy little body.
Being with her in this way helps melt the stress of what we just left behind. I’m not sure how yet, but it’ll be resolved at some point. Eric can’t hide forever, and Calvin wants the truth. As much as my boss can be a total dickwad, I feel like he’s got my back this time.
Doris set up the guest rooms and accepted some deliveries while we were out of town, so each room has a crib for the kids and plenty of space for the adults.
Once our guests arrive, they put the kids down and Elizabeth stays upstairs to listen for them while the adults gather down around my kitchen table.
“Help yourselves to anything in the fridge,” I say.
“I’m pretty stocked but might not have everything you need.
The closest grocery store is about an hour away, but it’s better to drive the extra twenty minutes into Helena or Great Falls.
George runs my stables and he’s pretty good about bringing shit if we need him to when he stops by to care for the horses, and Doris, my housekeeper, will pick up anything we need and bring it on Tuesdays or Fridays while we’re here. ”
Luke stands and checks out the offerings in the refrigerator. “Beer, anyone?”
I raise my hand, and so does Josh.
“Any seltzer in there?” Nicki asks, and Luke pulls out a can.
“Anybody else?” he asks.
Kaylee and Ellie shake their heads, opting to stick with water. I know why Ellie’s doing that, but it seems odd Kaylee would. Maybe her stomach’s bothering her again.
We chat around the table and they ask me all sorts of questions about my place here, my land and the area, and the animals—both that I own and the wild ones who we might run into while we’re here.
We talk about playing a game or playing poker, but everyone’s pretty beat after a long day and traveling here.
We each stop at one drink and head up to bed, and as soon as everyone else’s doors click shut, Kaylee joins me in the master bedroom.
We’re lucky in that it’s pretty far down the hall from all the other rooms except the one Kaylee is staying in.
We slide into bed together as has become our habit, and we fall asleep with her back snuggled against my front.
When I wake in the morning, though, I realize she left sometime in the middle of the night.
A certain sadness washes over me.
If we could just tell her family, we wouldn’t have to do this in my own home. I don’t like it, but she wants to wait…and so we’ll wait.