MomsListening:
Are you looking for someone to ride and call a good girl?
Chapter 45
Wyatt
“Soyouguysaretogether, together then?” Boone asks through the video call we’re on.
He’s got his phone sitting on the pony wall in his horse Maple’s stall while he mucks it out. Boone was such a big fan of maple syrup when she was born and Dad gave her to him, that he named her after it. She nips playfully at the back of his jacket while he works. I’m not sure if she’s going for his back or the unruly curls poking out from under his baseball hat, but every once in a while, he bats her out of his way, and she just takes it as ammunition to try and rile him up even more.
“Together, together,” I confirm, kicking out my legs in front of me while I sit on the front bumper of the fire truck. It’s quiet in the bay with everyone having lunch in the kitchen.
Part of me still can’t believe it. I was always positive it would happen, that we’d get back to this point, but now that we’re here, I feel like I’m floating on cloud nine. Nothing can bring me down.
It was hard leaving her in bed this morning. Completely naked, hair fanned out over the pillow, sleepily looking for my body heat when I slid out from beneath the covers five minutes before the alarm went off. The way my cock begged me to get back in bed and start playing was nearly overpowering, but I managed to get myself into the shower instead. An ice-cold shower.
“I can’t wait to meet her,” Boone calls over his shoulder.
“Meet who?” a new voice grumbles from behind the phone. A voice I know all too well.
My brother whirls around, seeing something out of frame, then looks at the phone, eyes wide. “Noth—”
My stomach bottoms out when my dad’s face comes into view. Fuck. I wasn’t anticipating having a conversation with him today.
Salt and pepper scruff marks his face, but that’s one of our only differences. The same curls sit atop his head, though his are covered with a cowboy hat, and his eyes are the same as mine as they stare at me from the other side of the screen.
“Well, if it isn’t the son who deserted his family,” he grunts. “When are you giving up that bullshit behind you to come home and do what you’re supposed to be doin’?”
That bullshit behind me is the fire truck. And when I think of home now, the ranch isn’t it. It’s where I grew up, where I became a man, and where most of my family still is. But home is with the men and women in this firehouse. It’s with Ruby when I’m working in the backyard or fixing something she’s purposefully broken.
Most importantly, home is anywhere Bryn is.
I recall the way she came inside the day she spoke to her mom. The contentment in her eyes, even if there was a bit of heartbreak that seeped in when her mom didn’t join us. She stood strong and fierce without being unkind.
Maybe it’s time I led by example with Boone there to bear witness.
“I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing,” I reply, letting my tone stay even and calm.
“Bullshit. You should be working the ranch.”
“No.” The word is firm, not laced with anger like I’d have inthe past. It has my dad’s eyes narrowing a fraction, something in him noticing the difference. “I’m a Dalton first and foremost, yes, but I’m a firefighter, Dad. Not a rancher. That doesn’t erase who I am or where I came from.”
His jaw ticks, teeth grinding together, but he doesn’t say anything. Because I’m not getting upset or because he doesn’t know what to say, I’m not sure, but his silence fuels me.
“I’m gonna plan a trip home,” I say, the words tumbling out before I can fully think them through. But they feel right, even though I never thought I’d set foot in Montana again. “I’m gonna bring someone with me that I want you all to meet.”
“A girl,” my dad scoffs.
“Yeah, a girl. An important one.” There’s a smile on my lips when I think of her, despite the scowl my dad stares at me with.
“We got girls here in Montana, you know.”
My smile slips. Refusing to rise to any bait, I keep the neutral tone. “I’m going to give you one warning and that’s all you get. If you say one bad thing about her or are rude to her in any way, I will take you out back and beat your ass the way you beat all of us. And not one person will be able to stop me. Not Beau, not Boone, not Gage. You’ll be the gentleman you taught us to be when we were younger. Are we clear?”
The wheels turn. Anger simmers beneath his thoughts. I can see it churning there, not liking being spoken to like this. But something stops him from lashing out, and a second later, he shows his cards.
“It’ll make your mother happy.”
