Page 37 of Down in Flames

“What’s wrong with this one?” Michael asked, examining the snake coiling lazily around West’s bicep.

“He’s missing his tail.” With those big green eyes of hers, it was no wonder she had her daddy wrapped around her little finger. “I think one of the builders accidentally caught him with a shovel. So, I’m going to take care of him until he’s all better. Celia said I could!”

Michael cocked an eyebrow at his foreman. “Did she now?”

“I said she could ask you,” Celia protested.

“I was trying to help!” Abby explained earnestly. “Aiden wouldn’t be so scared of snakes if he petted one. But then it slithered up his arm and..."

"He freaked out," West finished for her.

“I’m not scared of them,” Aiden interrupted indignantly. He gave West a disgusted look. “I’m just not going to act like Tarzan, strolling around half-naked with a slimy reptile on my arm. What are you even doing here this early?”

“I crashed on the sofa after dinner,” West muttered, rubbing the back of his neck where goosebumps prickled.

“Bullshit. I was here at dark o’clock because I forgot to tell Whit about the freezin’ troughs, and there wasn’t no one on the couch when I poked my head in.”

“Maybe I was in the john,” West said, annoyed.

“With your blanket and pillow?” Aiden glanced between him and a silent Michael, a knowing smirk pulling at one corner of his mouth.

West glanced wildly at Michael, silently begging him to jump in and dig them out of this hole, but Michael just shrugged as if to say: they’ll find out anyway.

Aiden began to laugh. “Hell, yeah! You’ve been following him around like a puppy for years. About time you got yourself some, ol’ son!”

He slapped West hard on the back, chortling, and West hissed as a shockwave of pain rolled through his shoulder.

Cal was silent, regarding them speculatively from over the rim of the coffee mug he’d rescued off the porch rail. His eyes were razor sharp as they took in the pattern of fading bruises from his shoulder to hip. He’d been looking at West like that a lot lately. So had Derek.

“What did West get?” Abby asked, her face screwed up in confusion. “What’s he got?”

“He grew a pair,” Aiden snickered, wiping tears from the corners of his eyes. “Finally.”

“Now you just need to grow a brain,” Cal drawled, smacking him upside the head so hard his hat went spinning to the dusty porch. He jerked his head pointedly toward the little girl and said, “Stop running your mouth about things that are none of your business.”

Aiden took one look at Abby, and then at the fire in Michael’s eyes, and choked on his last spate of giggles. He coughed into his fist. “Sorry, Boss.”

Michael cocked his head, unamused, and said, “I’m driving Abby to school this morning. We’ve got some things to talk about. So, you can take my place down in the pit.”

“I still ain’t got the dirt out of my ears from yesterday!” he sputtered.

At the same time, Abby said, “But I wanted West to bring me!”

“I’ll pick you up,” West suggested, shifting uncomfortably. The weight of their stares made him itch, and he was eager to get off the porch and back into some clothes. He’d never been much to look at, and the bruises made it worse. He looked like something the cat dragged in, and even though everyone at the Triple M was like family to him, he knew what they were thinking. What they couldn’t help but think when they looked between him and Michael with uncertainty in their eyes. The same thing he’d been telling himself all these years any time he caught a glimmer of warmth in Michael’s eyes.

He could do so much better than West Owens.

Ranch life got such an early start that he was able to swing by his folks’ place and load a dump run before his mother had even started breakfast. He was sweating despite the cool morning by the time he washed up at the kitchen sink.

“You’ll stay for breakfast.” His mother said it in a way that didn’t make it a question.

“Sorry, Ma.” He kissed her sallow cheek and snatched a biscuit from the cooling rack. “I’ve got too much on my plate today already. I still need to stop by Derek’s on my way into work.”

“Nonsense. You’re not doing your body any favors running around without a good, hearty meal. You’re not a normal boy, West. You never will be.”

“Not with that attitude,” he said with a wink.

She huffed worriedly. “Jasper, talk some sense into him!”

---