Page 7 of Cowboy Triplets Next Door

I shot him the finger and didn’t slow down until I was at the old barn, hugging Betsy. I wasn’t meeting with them. I wasn’t going anywhere near them. They knew. They’d watched me kiss Keaton and allowed him to manhandle me. Gray knew about my dream and I was sure they all thought I was dying to touch them.

Embarrassment came creeping in, overpowering my anger. I’d had his tongue in my mouth. I’d been sucking that tongue and moaning. I slumped into a pile of hay and groaned.

“Betsy, I think we have to move away. I can never face them again.”

She shuffled over next to me and slowly lowered herself to the ground. She rolled over and I barely had time to move before she crushed me. I held her head when she shoved it onto my lap and sighed.

“I won’t actually make you move. I know you love it here. I do, too. At least, I used to.” I stroked her head and stared up at the ceiling. “I can’t believe I kissed him back.”

Brutus came scrambling out of one of the stalls, his masked face dusty with whatever he’d been rolling in. He scurried into the cuddle session and the three of us stayed in the pile of hay for way longer than I probably should’ve. I still had work to do, but I needed comforting.

CHAPTER 7

Owen

I didn’t mean to spy on Billie. I was mending part of the fence behind the old barn and when the wind carried her voice to me, I was curious. She was talking to someone and I wondered if she was talking to the raccoon again. Part of me wanted to make sure she was safe and another part of me wanted to see the insanity for myself.

A part of me I didn’t feel like inspecting, just wanted to see her. Since she’d rushed off after kissing Keaton the day before, I hadn’t spotted her.

The closer I got to the old barn, the clearer I could hear her. It didn’t take me long to realize she was on the phone.

“That Scottish daddy? Oh, yes. Joanie, he’s so hot. If you don’t do something with him, I’m going to climb his bagpipe myself.” Billie laughed easily and the sound was so carefree and unlike anything I’d ever heard from her that I was instantly jealous. I wanted her to laugh like that around us.

Then, her words sank in. Who the fuck was the Scottish daddy? She was calling some guy ‘daddy’? My veins felt like they narrowed as my blood rushed past my ears like rapids in the mountains.

“If you do, just call him daddy for me. Just once. Okay? I want to know if he’s into it. I bet he is. Have you seen those thighs? Those are daddy thighs.” Laughing even harder, Billie sounded like she was having a blast. “Fine! Fine. I need to stop anyway. It would be my luck I run into him and accidentally call him daddy, for real.”

I’d never been in a serious relationship and I’d never been a jealous guy, maybe because I’d never really cared about a woman. Something about hearing Billie joke about calling another man daddy made me want to break shit, though. I stormed into the barn like a madman and glared at her with my hands on my hips. It wasn’t lost on me that a big raccoon went running from her lap.

“Um. I need to call you back.” Billie shoved her phone into her pocket and frowned at me. “What are you doing in here? You scared Brutus.”

I fumed over to her and narrowed my eyes. “Who the hell are you calling daddy?”

Her expression was priceless. Her entire face went blood red and she looked like she wanted to crawl into another time. “What? Were you…were you listening to my call?”

I waved her valid question away. “I’m just asking. You’ve always seemed so innocent and now I hear you calling some guy daddy? That’s crazy.”

“Why does it matter if I call someone daddy? It’s none of your business!” She looked like she wanted to hit me and I might’ve welcomed it. I was being an asshole and couldn’t seem to stop.

“You can’t just call men daddy. You know that, right? You can’t just walk around and call a man daddy!” I threw my hands up. “Jesus, Bumble B. Is he even safe? Do you know him? Is he what you’re looking for?”

She raised her eyebrows and stared at me. “What does it matter?”

“It matters.” I skirted closer to her, moving around so she had to keep turning to watch me. “We’re responsible for you here. As your…bosses. If you get mixed up with someone awful, we’ll have to help you clean up the mess.”

She really looked like she wanted to hit me then. “You’re responsible for me? Have you lost your mind? I don’t know what you’re smoking, but it’s messing with your head. Get out of here.”

I growled. “Leave that guy alone, Bumble B. I mean it.”

She just rolled her eyes at me. Her silence made me even crazier and I reached out for her hand and dragged her into my chest. I needed some semblance of control back.

“If there’s something you need, you come to me. Do you understand me?” I held her gaze and nodded when her eyes widened. “Anything.”

Her lips parted and then snapped shut. The internal argument was clear on her face and I watched the moment she decided to throw caution to the wind. Her eyes got just a bit crazier. “Are you volunteering to be my daddy?”

I choked on my next breath and reared back. “No, I…I’m not…”

She smirked and turned back to Betsy. “Go away, Owen. Don’t spy on me again. I was talking to a friend about her love interest. Not that it’s any of your business.”

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