Page 12 of Somewhere We Belong

Was that what bothered me? People wanted to help Nova and no one helped my mother when she was struggling. I had spent the last five years wondering why she bothered me so much. The more I thought about it, the more annoyed and upset I became.

I took a deep breath, then headed back to the ranch. It was calf season. A lot of heifers were pregnant, and I knew we needed to move the herd again. The ranch had a never-ending list of things that needed to be done and I had fucked around enough.

The drive was soothing as I listened to Van Halen, Pink Floyd and Pan!c at the Disco. If anyone asked about the last artist I would deny it until my dying breath. I couldn’t be intimidating,and no one would fear me if they knew I still listened to emo punk. There was something soothing about listening to whiny lyrics and possibly belting them out by myself.

I pulled up to our small cabin that was close to Nova’s cabin. We were separated by a fence and some trees that kept the properties secluded. It was easier to walk across than to take the car around to her house, and Sol liked that little fact, walking over every now and then to see the animals.

It was a fucking zoo around here, but Theodore didn’t believe in turning animals away and I don’t think I could turn them away either. Growing up, we didn’t have money for a pet, even though I constantly begged for one. When you could barely feed your kid, it made no sense to have an animal suffer along with you. Thankfully, the only animal that was allowed in the house was our dog, Sable. Anything else was a hard no from me, but we built an enormous barn to house all the animals during the winter and our horses too.

It was too quiet by the cabin, and I assumed Theo had already left to herd the cattle or he was still busy with some pregnant heifers. I walked to the barn, seeing some cats laying out in the sun with our Aussie Sable.

“Hello, gorgeous,” I said, patting her stomach. “You ready to get to work?”

She licked my hand as she got up. I kissed her head, scratching under her chin before I walked to get my horse, De Ville, saddled up. If anyone would have told me I would be working at a ranch when I was younger, I would have laughed in their face and asked what the hell they were smoking.

Atlas and Theo saved my life, pulling me from the bad crowd I had gotten mixed up in, but when my mistakes caught up with me, they still stayed with me. I went to prison for a year and a half, and it could have been for more than twenty years had I not complied. Those days were the worst in my life and every day Iexpected them to forget about me. The day I was released, I still expected them to not show up, but Theo and Atlas never left.

So, while I wasn’t the biggest fan of working the ranch, I took it in stride because I would do anything for them. After a few years, I grew to like it a little better and working on the machinery helped, as did working in the garage. The life we had built here was growing on me and now that Atlas was coming back, I knew it would be even better.

After years of being apart, we could build our life together and it made all the pain and suffering worth it. I would do anything for Atlas and Theo, even if that meant getting my hands dirty.

5

nova

The salon was busy,for a Tuesday. Roller set after roller set was scheduled and I was ready to snap at the front desk for giving me so many in one day. I longed to do a big color change or even a fucking haircut would feel like paradise. Small town hair was so different from city hair, but it paid the bills, and I couldn’t say no to cold hard cash. Thankfully, at the end of the day, I did a haircut and a style with an actual curling iron, that felt like heaven.

The other hairstylists were gossiping in the break room as I entered.

“He is no longer a boy, I swear, he turned into a man overnight,” Lou Ann said, fanning herself.

“Can you believe he is going to be our doctor here?” Sally waggled her eyebrows. “Wonder if he does breast exams?”

I cringed at the thought that these women were making light of breast exams because they wanted to be felt up.

“Who are we talking about?” I asked, too curious to let it go as I opened my locker.

“Didn’t you hear Atlas is coming back into town?” Lou Ann asked like it was an insult not to know.

“Oh yeah, I heard that,” I said, grabbing my bags.

“Well, he’s going to be helping Dr. Gordon at the clinic,” Sally said. “He might be the youngest doctor we’ve ever had and I’m not complaining. That man can play doctor with me anytime.”

I scowled that they were objectifying him, but Atlaswasgorgeous. I could see the appeal of playing patient with him or even his nurse, but Sally and Lou Ann sounded dirty saying it out loud.

“You know he’s gay, right?” I closed my locker, grabbing my keys. “And he’s?—”

“That man is bisexual because I see the way he’s looked at some women,” Lou Ann said confidently. “Plus, if you opened your pretty brown eyes, you would see that he’s also checked you out.”

I scowled. Atlas had not checked me out, he only had eyes for his sexy boyfriends.

“Ok, well, even if he is bisexual, he has two men who he goes home to,” I said, feeling defensive.

“Girl, that's no problem, I can share,” Sally giggled and Lou Ann giggled too. “Plus, they already know how to share, so it would be perfect. How could they say no?”

“Wait, they?” I snapped. “What do you mean, they?”

“I’m sure they do group activities,” Sally said, fanning herself. “Can you imagine how?—”

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