Page 37 of My Three Mountain Men

But something had changed in my dynamic with Knox, who suddenly was at my side as much as Brooks, rarely sneaking off to take his usual alone time. I noticed how he snuck Ryder daggered looks, as if there was an underlying issue between the pair that I didn’t understand.

Even Brooks didn’t seem to know what was going on when I asked about it.

“Yeah, I’ve seen it, too, but Knox insists that there’s nothing,” he said, shrugging.

“I think they’re fighting or something,” I pushed. “Maybe you should find out what’s going on.”

Brooks offered me a gentle, reproving look, propping himself up on his arm as he studied my face against the pillowcase. A pipe rattled as Knox finished his shower in my bathroom across the hallway.

“Babe, I know you mean well, but you have to remember that we’ve all lived here in something of a delicate balance for almost ten years.”

I smiled wryly, trying not to be offended. “Is that your way of telling me to mind my own business?” I replied.

“No. That’s my way of telling you not to kick an already active hornets’ nest. You don’t know Ryder, but his temper is not to be trifled with. If he and Knox are having a disagreement, let them work it out.”

“Even if that disagreement is about me?”

“I know it feels that way, but believe it or not, not everything that goes wrong around here is about you,” Brooks reassured me. “We had plenty of fights before you came along.”

Knox pushed the door open, a towel swathed around his perfectly sculpted hips, droplets of water catching in the crevices of his abs. But my eyes trained on his shaggy, dark hair and scruffy face.

“Oh, fighting was our regional pastime,” Knox agreed, overhearing the last of his cousin’s words. “What are we talking about?”

“Please tell me you have a pair of barber’s scissors around here somewhere,” I said, sitting up to peer more intently at Knox and then at Brooks. Amusement colored their faces.

“For murdering us, or…?” Knox asked innocently.

“Let’s start with a haircut and shave, for starters,” I offered. “Do you guys just allow yourselves to turn into bears all winter?”

Brooks snickered, and Knox shrugged.

“We’re basically bears,” Brooks said. “May as well act the part.”

“Ryder told me to find a hobby,” I muttered, more to myself than them. “Why don’t I play hairdresser for today?”

* * *

Moving the deerskin rug from in front of the fireplace, I bared the living room floor and spread out a bedsheet. For all their off-grid living, they still had high-end everything, including sheets.

“I don’t know how I feel about cutting hair over Egyptian cotton,” I groaned at Brooks. “Don’t you have some kind of ratty tarp or something?”

“If I bring an outdoor tarp in here, Ryder will have my head on a spit,” Brooks replied. “It’s better to ruin a hundred-dollar sheet.”

“Better for who?” I grunted. “This sheet could have fed my family for an entire month.”

Brooks gave me a sympathetic look, but Knox was a little less compassionate. “Or bought your father a day’s worth of smack, right?”

“Knox!” Brooks hissed, and I glowered at him.

Ryder padded down the main stairs, pausing at the threshold to look inside the living room.

“What’s going on in here?” he asked suspiciously.

I smiled at him warmly. “Free haircuts. Today only. Want to make an appointment?”

His hand moved up toward his beard absently, and as his cuff rose, I noticed the tattoo on the back of his forearm for the first time. I hadn’t realized he had tattoos before.

“You really should, Ry,” Brooks added before he could say anything. “Apparently, the yeti look is very last year, according to what’s trending on the internet.”

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