AllFreeNovel
Share Us
ChapterEight
After a shit nightof fitful sleep in a bed that felt far too big, I dragged my sorrowful ass to the big house to tell the owner what kind of stupid I had engaged in last night. Better he hear it from me. Then I could find Nate and repeat the tale. As I waited at the front door, I wasn’t sure which would be worse. No, that’s a lie. I knew. It would be Nate. Landon would be polite and understanding because he was a nice, understanding guy who had a gorgeous husband who loved him well and often. Nate, on the other hand, was a grizzly bear who was missing his sexy paleontologist boyfriend badly.
Mona opened the door. I smiled and quickly removed my hat. My second best hat as my first had been lost in the brouhaha last night.
She looked up at me, her face stern.
“Morning, ma’am. I was hoping to speak with Mr. Reece?” I asked in my bestest humble cowboy manner.
“Come in, please. Perhaps you can help clarify a few things.” She left the door open and pattered off at high speed. For such a petite woman, she sure did move quickly. I rushed inside, closed the door, stomped the light snow from the bottom of my boots, and hurried along after her like a recalcitrant duckling. Landon, Montrell, and Nate all looked up at me when we entered the warm and cozy kitchen. The smell of cinnamon and coffee was on the air as Roxie was just removing a pan of cinnamon buns from the oven. She gave me a look that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
“Mr. Abbott is here,” Mona announced me, then took her seat next to Landon. She shook out a cloth napkin, placed it over her dark brown skirt, and then pinned me to the wall with a dark look through her wire-rimmed glasses. “Perhaps he can shed some light on things, as he is second in charge here and knows the hands better than any of us.”
“I…uhm…well sure. If I can help. Look, before we get into anything else, I just wanted to let you know that there may be some rumors about me floating around this morning.”
Nate sighed dramatically. Mona’s eyes narrowed. Man, she did not care for us ranch hands at all. Someday I’d find out why. Landon and Montrell exchanged looks over their big white mugs of coffee. Both were in robes and slippers, so whatever was going on must be rather big to have pulled them from their bed. Montrell’s robe was frothy and peach-colored, while Landon’s was a thick flannel type with deep pockets.
“What did you do?” Nate asked in the tone of a weary mother of a toddler.
“I might have punched Morgan McCrary in the face, broke his nose, and started a bar fight at Marble Mary’s.”
All eyes widened. Nate pinched the bridge of his nose. “Was the sheriff called?”
“Yeah, but on the plus side I passed the breathalyzer test and I wasn’t charged with anything. Also, did I mention I broke Morgan’s nose?” I gave my buddy a smile that I prayed would smooth out the wrinkles on his brow. It didn’t. If anything they got deeper. My grin sort of fizzled out. “I know, it was stupid of me to get into it with McCrary but—”
“What brought it on?” Landon sleepily enquired.
“Okay, so here it is.” I paused to let Roxie place the freshly iced cinnamon buns on the table. She shot me a look and left the kitchen in a hurry. My stomach snarled in hunger. Mona dished up a bun and passed it to me. “Oh, how kind. Thank you, ma’am.”
“Ms. Ito, please,” she replied and passed out buns to all the men at the table. “Not to be rude, but I think our time would be much better spent discussing how we plan to address this latest theft instead of frittering about with Mr. Abbott’s assault on the elder brother of the man he’s sleeping with.”
My mouth hit my chest. Landon and Montrell gaped at me. Nate closed his eyes and rubbed at his nose even harder.
“How did you know?” I finally asked. Mona cocked a thin, dark eyebrow. “We’ve been keeping it on the sly.”
“Sly is hardly what I’d call being seen by every person on this ranch leaving each other’s cabins at the ass crack of dawn,” she stated as she picked up her knife and fork. “You also leave suck marks on each other.”
“Wait…” Landon said as he lowered his mug to the table. “You and a McCrary?!”
I chuckled. “Yeah, go figure. He’s really an okay sort. Well, I mean, once you get past that snooty exterior of his.”
“I asked them to stop,” Nate interjected while Mona huffed and cut her bun into tiny bites. “I knew knucklehead here…” He waved a hand at me standing there with my hat in one hand and a delicious cinnamon bun in the other. “Would end up running into Morgan somewhere and throwing a punch.”
“Hey, I just did what everyone in this state wishes they had the guts to do.” There. Told him. I chucked my hat to the counter, picked up my bun, and bit into it. Oh, holy hell and the tiny fat angels in heaven Roxie knew how to bake. Warm glaze tickled my tastebuds. “After all that he’s done to so many people and gotten away with a crooked nose is the least he’s owed,” I said around my mouthful of cinnamon delight.
Mona rolled her eyes. I swallowed, mumbled an apology for talking with my mouth full, and shoved the rest of the sweetness into my face.
“So you and Shepherd are…lovers?” Landon asked.
“Yes, babe, they’re doing the deed. Now, if we can move past that and get back to our missing crystal candy dish?” Montrell sniped, then sighed. “Sorry, that was cold, but I don’t care who our hands take to bed as long as it’s not one of the horses or cattle. What I do care about is my Baccarat Mille Nuits candy bowl.”
Nate gave me a long, hard look that said he had more to say about the Shepherd and Kyle situation. I wiped my sticky fingers on my jeans. They would have worse things on them than some glaze when I was done with my eight hours in the birthing barn.
“What did it look like?” I asked as an uneasy feeling settled in my belly.
“It was about six inches across, and two inches deep made of cabbage rose crystal,” Montrell quickly replied.
“Was it pink?” I asked and got a nod from Montrell.
