Page 71 of The Pieces We've Lost

“I’m coming in, Carson! You two better not be fucking!” Mikey’s voice yelled from behind the wooden door.

“For the love of God.” Colter rolled his eyes as he got up and put on a pair of shorts, tucking his still hard dick to the side. “Stay here, I’ll take care of this,” he told me before he closed the bedroom door.

Well, that officially killed the mood.I decided to get dressed for the day, knowing if Mikey was here, Colter and I probably wouldn’t have any alone time to finish what I had started.

I was pulling on my jeans when Colter came back into the room.

“Sorry about that. They want us to come by Reid’splace this afternoon. Not sure why he had to come all the way to the house to tell me, but Mikey’s nosey,” he explained before he flopped face down on the bed.

“Oh, okay,” I said, sitting on the bed next to him and running my nails gently up and down his back.

“Baby, you keep doing that and we aren’t going to leave this house today. Unfortunately, we do have to leave the house to see them, otherwise I would have had other plans.” He groaned as he reluctantly hoisted himself off the bed to go get dressed to see the boys.

Reid lived only about fifteen minutes away, in between Silver Creek and Miles City. He had a big arena next to his house where he and Colter practiced when they were home. It was built before Reid had bought his house, the previous owners having been a rodeo family. Colter mentioned he wanted to build one someday, but until then, the one Reid had was more than enough.

When we pulled up to the metal fence, Colter’s friends were already standing around. Before we left we had loaded up Bullet and Trigger, since Colter also wanted me to rope with him, despite my claims that I didn’t know how to. I was lying of course. I’d helped with roping the calves many times at brandings.

“Hey, Colter, Ellie!” Reid called out to us after we stepped out of the pickup.

I wasn’t going to correct Reid on my name. Usually, I reserved the nickname for the people closest to me—Isabelle and my mom—but I wanted Colter’s friends to like me. And I knew from what I had heard about Reid and our small interactions that I could trust him.

“Hey, man.” Colter gave him one of those bro hugs, where they didn’t fully hug, but they almost did and then they slapped each other on the back.

“Hey.” I gave him a smile before he caught me off guard and pulled me in for a hug too.

“You’re part of the family now,” he whispered in my ear. “Anyone who makes Colter this happy is one of us.”

“Carson, come over here!” Mikey yelled at him from across the arena.

Colter grinned at me and shook his head a little before he took off.

“So, how are you liking Montana?” Reid asked as he helped me get the horses out of the trailer and tied up.

“It’s definitely not Texas,” I joked. “But I do like it here. It’s different in a good way.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re here and I know Colt is too.” He looked at me with a genuine smile, but there was something else behind his eyes that I couldn’t pinpoint, maybe a tinge of concern. The look quickly faded, though.

We tied the horses to the trailer and then walked into the arena where Mikey, Hayden, Jake, and Colter were all standing in a circle and talking. Mikey was making wild gestures, which seemed to be a norm for him, and the rest of the boys were just listening to him, occasionally shaking their heads with disbelief or amusement.

“And then she stormed out of my house and I haven’t seen her since!” Mikey exclaimed as we got close enough to hear their conversation.

“Damn, bro, maybe you should think about not being such a whore,” Jake joked as Mikey flipped him off.

“Well, boys, are we going to stand around all day or are we going to do something?” Reid clapped his hands together.

Jake and Hayden walked off, having their own conversation between themselves. I noticed Hayden was a lot quieter than the rest of them, more reserved. I liked him.

“Do you want to rope with me?” Colter asked.

“Do I have a choice?” I raised an eyebrow, and he smirked.I guess not.

We tacked up our horses and watched as Hayden and Jake roped together. I learned that Hayden was a team roper but Jake wasn’t, so that explained their dynamic. It wasn’t that Jake wasn’t good at roping—he was because he did tie-down roping—he just wasn’t used to roping with another person and being the heeler.

Mikey was the one who opened the chute for the steers because he was solely a bull rider and didn’t generally rope.

“Mikey, you gonna get out there?” I called out to him.

“Nah, sugar, I use my ropes for a different purpose.” He winked, and I frowned, trying to get the image out of my head.

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