Page 14 of Knot Her Cowboys
“We start serving at seven,” Dakota told me. “Please don’t feel obligated. You should get some rest.”
“Compromise on letting me see how I feel when I wake up? Either I’ll be a nice surprise to assist and lighten the load, or you’ll see me shuffling along the breakfast line with everyone else.”
“Compromise accepted. But I have to insist you sleep. You traveled all day and you need your strength.”
“Okay, okay, I’m going.” I hoisted myself out of my chair before stretching and turning to wave at the three of them. “Sweet dreams, boys.”
“Don’t fucking make a peep,” Cash said when Riley was safely out of earshot.
“About what?”
“Cooper. She doesn’t know he works here and I don’t want her to get spooked and bolt. Her alphas already tried to make her leave, and if she gets scared to see him, they’ll convince her.”
“Why would she be afraid to see him?” I asked.
“Because she knows she fucked up and we all know Cooper is stubborn as hell. She’s not in a headspace to see him and Cooper will have an aneurysm and die over her showing up engaged.”
“Does that mean we’re not telling him she’s here?” Levi asked.
“Damn right that’s what it means. You didn’t see him after she left. That man willneverfucking recover if he finds out she’s engaged and moving away. I don’t think Cooper slept through a full night once for at least a year after she left. We have to die with this knowledge.”
That seemed a bit extreme to me, but Cash knew both of them. Levi and I hadn’t come into the picture until Riley had already been gone for a few years. I didn’t necessarily think Cash was wrong to keep it from Cooper because that man had a gift for crashing out.
“What if she changes her mind on wanting to see him?” I prompted.
“That’s a bridge we cross when we get to it. We can tell him in that case, but it’s going to be all hands on deck to manage the fallout.”
“Okay.” I sighed. “We’ll keep quiet. Won’t he see her name in the bookings, though?”
“Nope. She booked it under Anne Harris, not Riley Fletcher. It’s possible he might put two and two together, but he won’t be looking for it.”
“I feel bad,” said Levi as he doused one of the fires. “What if this is their last chance to see each other?”
“Vi, look at me and give me a list of whatgoodthings could come from Cooper knowing she’s here? He’s gonna take one look at that rock on her finger and lose it. And then her alphas are going to lose it. He’ll get depressed and sleep-deprived, and it’ll put him through hell fornothing. He can’t change that she’sleaving. The only thing in his head for the rest of eternity will be those fucking city slickers with their paws all over his girl.”
“Okay, okay. Picture painted,” Levi conceded. “We’ll save Cooper from himself.”
“Good.” Cash huffed and took care of another of the fires.
I didn’t blame Cooper for struggling with losing Riley. She had a brightness I didn’t see too often, an energy that pulled you in. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see how easily someone could get attached to her. Even a few hours in her presence had me craving more.
“I’m going to get to bed since I have to be up at the ass crack of dawn.”
“Go ahead,” Cash insisted.
They would take everything else inside, at the very least getting the containers rinsed out, if not washed. I headed back to the big house, the sprawling rancher I shared with my pack.
I showered off my day, scrubbing down, and re-braiding my hair, focusing on positive thoughts instead of all of the niggling worries surrounding the situation with Riley. Collapsing into bed had the world disappearing.
My alarm for the morning woke me much too quickly. With a quick refresh on my braid, I made some coffee and took it out to our wraparound porch, sitting in the quiet and giving myself a few minutes to wake up. Before the others stirred I was already heading over to the kitchens, finishing the cleanup they had started and making sure I had clear space to work.
Riley rolled up at six a.m., looking surprisingly bright eyed and bushy tailed. “Good mooorning.”
“Hello there. I wasn’t expecting to actually see you. I thought you’d be cuddled up in bed.”
“We struck a compromise. My workaholics are going to do whatever they have to do until breakfast so I figured I would come here. They went to bed way earlier than me and they arenotquiet people getting ready in the morning. Or maybe I’m just a light sleeper, who the hell knows.”
She pulled on the apron I offered her, shielding the front of her shorts and tank top. Her long dark hair was pulled up in a bun, not an ounce of make up on her face. She hadn’t worn much yesterday, but enough that I noticed the lack of it today.
