Page 113 of Knot Her Cowboys
“He can stay for dinner, but I think it would be better for him to stay in a hotel until he leaves,” Levi said.
“He can stay with us,” Carter blurted out.
I turned from Bryan to him, taking in the flush of his cheeks and the barely visible tremble to his body.
“If he wants to, I mean,” Carter amended. He looked at both of his alphas, neither making a peep against Carter’s offer.
Bryan let out an exhausted, bitter laugh. “Sure. Why the fuck not? I can’t go back to Berlin, and Bruce is going to destroy myentire network in New York so I can’t go there either. My whole life is basically over.”
“Well,” I said gently, “I know what it’s like to stare into the darkness, feeling that exact same thing. Lucky for you, the folks around here are pretty big on second chances.”
“He’s settling in well?” I asked Carter over our phone call. It was weird as fuck he’d taken in Riley’s ex, but I was trying not to question it too hard. Carter had his own ideas about things, and if he wanted to take in a stray, that was up to him and his alphas.
“Wellmight be generous,” Carter replied with a sigh. “He’s trying to hire a company in Berlin to get his and Riley’s stuffback, but he doesn’t speak German very well, and the guys he was staying with are being dicks about everything.”
“If they were anything like the other jackass, I’m not surprised. I’m thinking at this point we’ll just buy anything Riley needs. Doubtful any of her stuff will actually make it back here.”
“That’s what I’m thinking for Bryan, too.” I couldn’t see Carter, but I could imagine his face pinching just from the particular silence that came across the line. “Bryan updated his family. We could hear them yelling all the way upstairs and he wasn’t even on speaker.”
“Jeez. Whole bushel of peaches in that family.”
Carter snorted. “Yep.”
“You doing okay with him out there?”
“Yeah…um, about that. I think…” Carter whispered. “Cash, I think he might be my scent match.”
“Youthink?”
What the fuck?
Carter groaned. “I feel so bad because he’s so stressed out and scared of everything right now, and I don’t want to overwhelm him. Plus, I’m not evensurebecause he’s so committed to scent neutralizers. Sometimes I catch a hint of something amazing, but it’s not like I can just throw him in a horse trough to actually get to his scent underneath.”
“I mean…youcould. I vote horse trough. Do it for me so I can imagine the abject horror of him getting his Italian leather shoes wet.”
“Be nice,” Carter admonished. “His parents probably gave him the verbal equivalent of a belt to the ass for scuffing his shoes as a kid if this is how they talk to him as an adult.”
“Okay,fair. He upset my girl, so I don’t have the fondest feelings for him, but I can concede he was dealing with a shit situation and struggling to get through it. I’ll learn to love him if you’re going to add him to your pack one day.”
“That’s ’cause you’re the best brother in the world.”
“You’re so correct, and I still have the trophy you bought me in sixth grade to prove it.”
Riley’s anxiety flooded the bond, making my chest ache.
“I’m gonna have to talk to you later. My lady needs a de-stress.”
“That had better not be code for middle-of-the-day fucking.”
“Code for hugs, you perv,” I said with a laugh. “I’ll talk to you later. Good luck with your stray pup.”
“Hilarious.” I could practically hear Carter’s eye roll. “Later, gator.”
“After a while, crocodile.”
I ended the call and sprinted my way over to the kitchen so I could pop in on Riley while she was preparing dinner. She was on speakerphone with Morgan, updating her on the recent drama with the exes.
“Hey, Morgie! I need to borrow Riley.”
