Page 26 of Cowboy Triplets Next Door

I wanted to hit him. “You spent the night with her.”

He glared at me like I’d been the one buried in Billie’s sweet body the night before. “Yeah, I fucked up.”

“You didn’t say that to her, though, right?” I thought about the wild glint in Billie’s eyes when she’d approached me and already had the answer. “You did. You really did, didn’t you?”

He looked away. “Yeah, I did. She made me feel about two feet tall over it and I deserved every bit of her anger.”

Gray let out a humorless laugh. “Alright. Well, that relationship is fucked all to hell and back. Good job everybody. If she didn’t fully hate us before, she does now.”

“She left.” I watched the panic bloom in Owen’s gaze and wondered for a moment if we weren’t kidding ourselves about staying away from her. We weren’t ready for her to get away from us but we didn’t think we could have her for ourselves. We were in a weird limbo where Billie would continuously get hurt if we didn’t keep our hands and mouths and dicks to ourselves. “I saw her take Turtle and drive out of here. We’ll be lucky if she comes back.”

“She has to come back.” Owen pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Where else would she go? That asshole Brad’s place?”

Gray took his phone away and thumped him on the forehead with it. “What are you doing right now? Going into another jealous fit? Stop it. I don’t like the idea of her crawling into his bed any more than you do but it’s not our business.”

I shifted from foot to foot at the image that created. “If she does it just as a ‘fuck you’ to us, isn’t it our business?”

Gray pulled out his own phone while we watched and growled at the look on Owen’s face while he dialed. After around a minute, he hung up and grunted. “She’s not answering.”

I pulled out my own phone and dialed. When I saw the annoyed look on Gray’s face, I shrugged. “What? She doesn’t like you all that much. Maybe she’ll answer for me.”

He was smug as I got her voicemail, too. We were all quiet for a moment and then Gray pulled out his keys. “Come on. Let’s just look around to make sure she’s safe.”

Jamison came out onto the porch as we headed towards Gray’s truck. “Where are y’all going? It’s nearly dinnertime.”

Owen waved back at our little brother. “We just need to run to town for a bit. We’ll be back.”

“Is this about sweet little Billie Myers racing through town earlier? Looked to me like she was headed out of this place as fast as possible. She didn’t even stop in town for muffins.” Smirking, he tipped his hat at us and let the screen door slam behind him as he went back inside.

I was quiet for all of ten seconds. “You don’t think she really left, right?”

Owen yanked open the truck door. “She can’t leave. She’s got…responsibilities here.”

Gray nodded. “Her house. The cow. That raccoon. I’m not taking care of that raccoon. It doesn’t like me.”

I leaned forward in the back seat as Gray sped towards town. “What are we even doing?”

“Just…be quiet. If we don’t acknowledge how insane we’re being, we don’t have to deal with it.” Gray cranked the AC higher and turned the vents towards his face. “Jesus. Is this what hell feels like? I’m losing my mind.”

“It was the best sex you’ve ever had, wasn’t it?” I didn’t know what made me say the words out loud but I couldn’t stop thinking about Owen being inside Billie.

The truck was silent and then Owen’s thick swallow sounded like a small bomb. “Yeah. She’s…everything. It’s never been that good.”

Gray swore and pulled over in the parking lot next to The One and Only. He slammed his fist into the steering wheel and then twisted around so he could face me and Owen. “We can’t. Right? We can’t?”

I couldn’t face him because I couldn’t make myself agree right then. When I looked out the side window, though, I saw Billie’s beat up old truck a few cars over. “Look at that.”

And with that, we were out of the truck, headed into the diner, the question still hanging in the air unanswered. Could we? None of us seemed ready to answer, which should’ve been a sign.

Inside the diner, Billie was sitting in a booth by herself. Her face was a picture of bliss as she scooped a bite of chocolate pie into her mouth. As we watched she even wiggled in her seat, happy as could be.

Gray growled and marched over to her table, sliding into the seat next to her to block her in. “Thought you were making a run for it.”

I slid in across from her and grunted when a cold, wet nose shoved itself into my crotch. I looked down and saw Turtle’s dark brown eyes peering up at me. “You brought Turtle in here? Is that allowed?”

Billie’s mouth turned down and she pulled her pie closer to her chest. “I’m friends with the owner.”

“What made you decide to stay? We heard you were driving out of Harmony Valley like a bat out of hell.” Gray crossed his arms over his chest and leaned closer. “Was it just the pie?”

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