Page 50 of Eight Seconds to Fly

A girl could really, really get used to this.

20

Looking Branch and Beau in the eye the next morning sent my face redder than a baboon's butt. Beau gave me a knowing look and a wink. Branch looked like he wanted to tie me to a bed somewhere and make me forget every other dick except his.

Thanks to some kind of divine intervention, no one mentioned it though. We went to a diner for breakfast, and made the waitress almost swallow her tongue at the sight of them. We all ate too much and talked about the coming day. Branch had a thing with the promoters, Beau wanted to pick up some more supplies and Frankie was going to see his cousin up in Denver.

That left me with Dylan, and the excited look in his eyes had me both excited and nervous. I hadn’t spent a lot of time alone with Dylan, and he was right. I did have a long and complex history with the other three guys. Dylan was a fresh start, more like building a relationship from the very beginning rather than adding a new facet to an old friendship. It made me nervous that I’d screw it up.

When I’d asked what I should wear on our first date, he’d said I should put on sneakers and whatever else I was comfortable in.

So I was dressed in an oversized Rolling Stones t-shirt that I’d stolen from Frankie years ago but was my favorite, a pair of yoga pants, a WBRP ballcap and my nikes. I looked like I was one pumpkin spice latte away from being a basic bitch.

Beau shook his head. “I can’t take you seriously without your hat, Nugget. You’ve worn a Stetson every day since you were four. You look like you should still be in high school or something dressed like that.”

I pointed my fork at him. “Pretty sure that makes you a pervert, Beau Larkin.”

He waggled his eyebrows and I couldn’t help but laugh. Branch had his arm along the back of the booth and me tucked tightly into his side. Frankie's hand was on my thigh as he spooned his eggs into his mouth with the other.

The elderly waitress noticed the position of their hands, because not much got past a good waitress, and her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. I resisted the urge to shift out of their hold so she wouldn’t think I was some kind of whore.

Then I decided it didn’t fucking matter what anyone else thought, and ignored her scandalised looks as she refilled everyone’s coffee but mine. Sorry lady, but more caffeine wasn’t going to make any difference to my promiscuity. Well, I guess I’d have more energy for mass orgies and shit, so maybe it did.

When we left, I dropped a twenty on the table for her anyway. Kill them with kindness, that’s what Branch’s mom had always told me. It was hard to be a bigot when you were in their face and giving them compliments instead of venom. It reflected their own ugliness back at them like a mirror. I wasn’t sure that was true, but I’d followed the principle for most of my life. Well, most of the time. I was only human and there were a lot of seriously stupid people out there.

Frankie’s cousin Lucia stopped by the hotel to pick up Frankie, three of her five kids in the back of her minivan, and I waved. I like Lucia and her family, but visiting her house was like going into a fun house of savages. They were cute but the last time I was there, her third oldest had bit me. Frankie still thought it was hilarious. So I was happy enough to wave them goodbye, and I swear the biter kid eyed me like Hannibal Lector.

Branch and Beau headed into Denver and that just left me and Dylan. I handed him the keys to my truck and he held the door open as I climbed into the passenger seat. I was actually really excited. “Are you going to tell me where we are going yet?”

He shook his head and laughed. “Nope.”

Dylan drove us out of the suburban areas into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Houses got fewer and further in between and I sang along to classic rock songs. We talked about bull riding, because honestly, what else would we talk about, and he told me he got started riding broncs but he liked the thrill of riding bulls. He started young, hell we all started young, on his family's horse ranch. It was such a familiar story, one you heard time and time again on the circuit. I guess we were a special breed, some would say devoid of the good sense God gave us, but I didn’t care. I loved it.

“What about you? How’d you get started? Do you remember your first ride?” My heart seized in my chest as I remembered that day. “Yeah, I remember. It was like flying. Finally being free. I had to sneak and do it, convinced some poor kid to sign up in my place. Branch knew, or was at least suspicious. And Beau was my ropeman, but he didn’t know it at the time. When I wiped out, you should have seen their faces. I was pretty sure Branch wanted to strangle me.” I didn’t expand on what happened afterwards. I didn’t want to ruin the day. So much happiness and sadness was rolled up in my memories of that day.

“You guys were good friends back then, hey?” I hesitated. We were closer than friends, we’d grown up basically as siblings until we hit puberty. Then Branch had been a teenage asshole and Beau had become someone I dreamed about kissing instead of pushing in the mud. I guess, if I looked back, we were bonded. We fought with each other as much as we had each other's backs. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. We didn’t always get on, especially when the guys had girlfriends. But we were fiercely loyal. I punched Luanne Schmidt when she’d called Beau a bastard whose mama didn’t even want him. Broke my thumb too.” I grinned at the memory. It was worth it. No one talked that way about my Beau, even if he had been dating Luanne’s best friend Tina and hadn’t talked to me in a month because Tina said he wasn’t allowed. “Branch once got suspended from high school for punching the quarterback in the face when he said he would nail me in the bathroom for a bet, but he wasn’t gay and didn’t fuck boys.” I shook my head. Branch had told me that it was my fault James McCoy had said that about me because I was always running around in boots and dirty jeans instead of dresses like the other girls. I told him if he wanted to get under a skirt, than half the cheerleading team wanted to fuck him, so he could get the hell out of my face. “Branch and I had an explosive kind of friendship, and Beau was always the mediator. Always the buffer between our two hot heads. They made my childhood something worth remembering anyway,” I said to Dylan back in the present.

“You love them?”

I sucked in a deep breath. “I did, once upon a time. It's been a long time since I’d seen them up until a few weeks ago. But they’re ingrained in me deep. So yeah, I guess I do.” I turned and looked at his profile, trying to judge what he was thinking. “But I love Frankie too. I’ve put myself in a position to break my own heart and I don’t know what to do about it. Because I really, really like you too, Dylan. You know that right?”

He gave me a huge smile; it lit up his face and knocked the air from my lungs. “Yeah, I know. And I’ve always liked a challenge, Baby Girl. Don’t you worry. I’m not out of the running yet.” He switched his eyes back to the road. “Besides, I don’t see why you have to choose. Bull riding is lonely and dangerous. Being stomped on the head puts a few things in perspective. You see some of the wives who travel with the riders. When shit goes bad, they’re there, trying to hold it together with no support. I wouldn’t want to inflict that on any woman.” He shrugged. “Instead of going back to my hotel by myself after I got a concussion, being stuck in Fort Worth for the next month being miserable and staring at a hotel ceiling, I can travel with my girl and my best friends. Like a family, right?”

I swear, I forgot how to breathe for a moment. “Are you serious?”

He shrugged. “Sure. I’m not sure if you noticed last night, but I don’t mind sharing at all. It was hot as hell. I’m not some kind of Alpha like Branch. I think there's more than enough of your stubborn ass to keep us all on our toes.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Are you calling my ass fat?” I teased as my brain whirled.

“Hell yeah I am.” The hot look he gave me left no room for doubt that he really, really liked my butt. “I just think it’s unrealistic to assume that one person can be everything another person needs. Especially women. You guys are complex as hell. Men are simple. We want a warm body at night and to hang with the boys. With this arrangement, I get both. Sounds like the perfect solution to me.”

I shook my head, my brain whirling as I tried to comprehend what he was saying. The possibility of having them all. It was a well known fact that Branch and Beau liked to share anyway, but would that expand to include Frankie and Dylan? Would Frankie be happy sharing me, when up until a few weeks ago, he had me all to himself?

The questions were endless and I was going to drive myself insane. “You don’t think it's unfair? That I have the four of you, but you have to be monogamous to just me? Because Dylan, I don’t share.”

He laughed, and raised his eyebrow. “I just bet. Why would I need another girl? Girls who are happy coming second to bull riding are few and far between. At least I know everyone comes second to bull riding for you too.” I couldn’t argue with that. “We’re here.”

We pulled into a trailhead and he parked the truck. Climbing out, he raced around to the passenger side and held my door open for me. Chivalry, it wasn’t dead. He held out a hand for me to hold as I climbed out, and it was cute as hell. He opened the back door of the truck and pulled out a backpack.

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