Page 53 of Claimed By the Cowboys

“Give me those.”

Tate holds out the flowers, and I snatch them up, careful not to let our fingers touch. He follows me into the kitchen, where I tiptoe to grab the vase off of one of the top shelves in my open shelf plan.

“So, is that a sign you accept my apology?”

“No,” I retort, my fingertips just grazing the edge of the vase. Normally I’d get out a stepstool for this, but Tate’s standing in the way of it. If I just move forward slightly, I’ll be able to…

Big hands scoop the vase off the shelf and hand it to me. “Here, Piper.”

I sniff, but I take the vase and start preparing the flowers.

Tate watches in silence.

When they’re arranged, I put them on my kitchen table. Stiffly, I turn to Tate. “Thank you for the flowers. You can go now.”

His face shutters, and he looks down. “Piper. I’m sorry.”

I sigh. Tate is one of my closest friends. This is not the first time we’ve had an argument.

“Look, I know you’re sorry. But like… why even say that? It was rude. It wasn’t funny, and it wasn’t cute. It was just plain rude, and it really hurt me,” I say.

Honesty. That’s something we agreed to. Something I can give them.

Tate looks up, then back down at his hands.

“I was jealous,” he says softly.

I blink.

Tate shifts, coming to sit at my kitchen table. Following his lead, I sit with him. I stare at him, willing him to continue.

Tate frowns. “Look, I was jealous that you slept in Brent’s bed. I was jealous that you do want someone to help you with the water heater. Not—” He holds up a hand at my protest, “—that I think Brent should do it. But Piper, it’s just… I want more,” he says quietly.

“What?”

“I want more than just one day a month with you. I… shit. The other day was the best day of my fucking life,” Tate growls. “The fact that it feels like it wasn’t even important to you at all… that sucks, Piper.”

“So you decided to be mean to me because it sucks?”

He shakes his head. “No. I was an asshole. I’ll own that, and you’ll never see me fuck that up again. I’m sorry, Piper. You’re not in charge of making sure I’m feeling okay, and you’re setting the rules. I’m happy to follow them.”

His apology has taken some of the wind out of my sails.

“Okay. I understand. Kind of. But Tate… I don’t know if we should do more,” I whisper.

Tate’s head snaps up.

I take a deep breath. “All this… it’s already changing us. Changing what we have. It’s a lot, and I’m not sure that it’s a good idea to even do another month. The only reason I came to all three of you was that I didn’t want you to fight or be jealous or make things weird. But I guess it doesn’t matter. Things are already weird.”

Tate gulps. “Piper. Seriously? You just… you wanted to make sure it was fair?”

I shift. “Well, I mean…”

“Please don’t tell me you had sex with me because you didn’t want Brent and Dalton to make me feel bad,” he murmurs.

I wrinkle my nose. I have to tell him the truth. We agreed to tell the truth.

“I didn’t want things to be weird.”

---