Page 55 of Claimed By the Cowboys

Do I need to apologize, too? I mean, I guess I could have punched Tate in the face or something?—

“Tate apologized for being a dick. He did a really good job at it,” Piper says with a shy smile.

Blood riots through me.

“Oh, did he?” I ask.

It must come out as more of a growl, because Piper shakes her head. “Not like that, Brent. He genuinely apologized, and then… the plumber came.”

God damn it. The fucking plumber.

“Good news or bad news?” Tate asks, giving me a shit-eating grin that makes me feel like even the good news is bad news.

“Bad news,” I grunt.

Piper sighs. “My whole house is going to be out of hot water for at least a week. He took the old one apart today, and he ordered a new one. Best case scenario is a week, worst case is a month.”

Shit. “A month? Piper, I could fix?—”

“You would literally have to watch a YouTube video, and while I’m sure you could figure it out, this is a nice old man who is part of our community. I’m happy to pay him to fix my water heater,” Piper cuts me off.

I glance at Tate, who shrugs. “Okay. We’re stimulating the local economy. So what’s the good news?”

His smirk tells me everything I need to know. “Piper’s staying with us.”

“For a month?”

“A week,” she clarifies. “If it turns into longer, then it turns into longer, but for now, a week for sure.”

A week. One full week of Piper in our space. A week of her, constantly being around. A week of…

I frown. “Piper. There’s no way you can sleep on the couch for a week.” Our couch isn’t that comfortable to begin with, and after a few days she’s going to go crazy sleeping on it.

Piper bites her lip. Her nose wrinkles. I can tell I’m either going to love or hate what comes out of her mouth next.

“Tate suggested that I… take turns. Sleeping in the same bed with each of you.”

My heart feels like the horse kicked me all over again. “Piper, that’s okay. I’ll sleep on the couch?—”

“You literally got kicked by a horse, Brent. You can sleep in your fucking bed, and Piper will sleep next to you. You already did it once, so what’s the problem?” Tate grins.

The problem is that I barely survived last night.

Piper was so close to me. I didn’t get any sleep between that and the fact that my fucking ribs were aching like a motherfucker all night. Having a rock-hard erection while your whole chest feels like it’s falling apart is not exactly ideal.

“Okay.” I can do this. I can figure this the fuck out.

“Okay. Well. On that note, I did bring some things, so I’m going to hang them up in whatever closet has the most room. Oh. By the way. I’ll need to go back every day to check on the girls and Reginald.”

That goddamn rooster. “We can do that for you, Piper.”

“Why would you check on my own chickens for me?” she says with a small smile.

Fuck.

“I think what Brent is saying is that one of us would be more than happy to accompany you to see your gorgeous flock of specially bred French chickens,” Tate says. “I know that I could use the eggs in some of the meals I have planned.”

Piper stands, snapping her fingers. “Great idea, Tate. We can do that and showcase some of your recipes, so that we can get them ready for the Harvest Bash.”

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