I wake up to the dulcet tones of my girlfriend screaming.
And not the kind of screaming she was doing last night. This is the banshee-esque, furious kind she does when she’s pissed off.
God bless whoever the victim of that scream is.
Sighing, I roll out of bed and amble towards my ajar bedroom door, remembering I’m butt-ass naked at the last second and quickly tugging on some sweats. I yank the door open just in time to catch Luna kicking Cass in the shin, simultaneously socking him in the gut. “You little shit!”
Cass yelps, trying and failing to evade her attack. “I’m sorry!”
“Liar!”
My second sigh in the space of a minute escapes me as I hook an arm around my girlfriend’s waist and scoop her up. Perfectly manicured hands slap at my forearm, sharp nails digging into my skin. “Let me go!”
I drop my head, brushing my lips against her cheek because that usually calms her down. Not today, apparently, because her escape attempts don’t cease. “Explain why you’re beating up Cass first.”
“He fucked my sister!”
Well, fuck.
Wasn’t expecting that.
For the first time, I notice Pen lurking in the hallway too, lingering just in front of Cass’ open bedroom door. One of his jerseys is draped over her body, so big on her it slips off her shoulder slightly and reveals an array of reddish-purple marks scattered across her neck and chest. She’s trying not to laugh, a hand slapped over her mouth hiding her smile but there’s no doubting the humor sparkling in her eyes.
Really? I mouth at her. Cass?
Pen winks and holds up her hands, palms facing each other as she positions them a generous distance apart, wiggling her brows at me. When I cringe at her implication, she erupts into silent cackles.
Yeah, it’s a bit too early for that kind of information.
Distracted by Pen and trying to shake off the nausea that hits when my friend’s dick is the subject of conversation, I accidentally loosen my grip on Luna. The second she wriggles free, she launches herself at Cass. The poor guy is completely defenseless, trapped between the wall and the very angry fake-brunette pummeling him. “One person, Cass! One person you were supposed to keep your nasty dick away from!”
“Hey!” Cass’ face tightens in a scowl as he batts Luna’s slapping palms away, thumping her back for good measure. “My dick is not nasty!”
“I second that,” Pen chimes in, shoulders shaking with the effort of stifling her laughter, and Cass’s scowl shifts into a smirk that he directs her way.
In the blink of an eye, Luna steps into his line of sight, rising up on her tiptoes like she’s trying to hide Pen from his view. “No!” She shoves him backwards with a frustrated groan before screeching again. “Amelia!”
It’s comical, how quickly Cass’ smirk disappears and morphs into pure panic. “Don’t! I’m-”
The door of Nick’s recently vacated bedroom creaking open interrupts Cass, and I swear the guy shrinks about a foot in height as a rumpled Amelia creeps out into the hallway, face creased in confusion as she rubs her eyes. Behind her, an equally disheveled, considerably angrier Nick follows. “Why the fuck is everyone yelling?”
An accusing finger jabs Cass in the chest. “Your brother put his dick in my sister!”
A bark of laughter disguised as a cough escapes Nick while Amelia cringes. “Seriously, Cass?”
“It was an accident!”
“Tell me, Cass.” I’m not even remotely surprised when Ben appears at the end of the hallway, Kate hovering behind him, the former cracking an amused smile while the latter sighs and shakes her head. “How do you accidentally put your dick in someone?”
Oh, if looks could kill.
“Shut up,” Cass snaps at Ben before turning to Amelia. “You can’t say shit, Tiny. And you,” he directs at the Brazilian contingency of our friend group, “stop enjoying this.”
Nick’s Cheshire cat grin goes nowhere. “I’m sorry, I was just remembering something,” he drawls sarcastically, pretending to think. “Sisters are off-limits, was it?”
“I wanna punch you.”
I grab Luna before she can deliver on her growled remark, clamping her arms to her sides. “Don’t punch him.”
“Let her,” Nick calls out. “He tried to punch me.”
“That’s true!” Ben nods in agreement. “It’s only fair.”
“Okay, enough.” Before fists can fly, Pen reigns in her laughter and steps between her latest conquest and her sister. “I appreciate the love, Lu, but I’m a big girl. I can fuck who I want.”
Luna wrinkles her nose. “But it’s Cass.”
Cass throws out his arms in bewilderment. “Hey?”
Pen’s cheeks twitch, her lips pressing together to hide the smile that’s begging to curl her lips. “Jesus Christ, Luna, we’re not getting married. It was just sex.”
“But we’re moving in here,” Luna reminds her with a groan and a pout. “It’s gonna be weird now.”
“No, it’s not.” Pen cups her sister’s face, hitting her with a no-bullshit deadpan look. “It was a one-night stand, LuLu. Let’s not act like you’re unfamiliar with the concept of sleeping with someone once and only once.”
Luna’s defensive stance softens under my fingers. “Low blow.”
Pen chuckles as she pecks Luna’s cheek. She grabs her hand, tugging her out of my grip and towards the stairs. “Come on. I was promised breakfast.”
Luna bristles at the expectant look Pen tosses Cass over her shoulder, even more so when he attempts to follow them downstairs. She darts in between them again, ushering Pen down the stairs and walking backwards after her, mouthing stay away from her at Cass with narrowed eyes.
The second Luna disappears from sight, I’m taking her place, flicking Cass on the forehead. “Seriously?” I flick him again for good measure.
Cass howls dramatically, scowling as he lifts a hand to rub his head. “God, you two are fucking violent.”
I roll my eyes. “Of all people, Cass. C’mon.”
“What? She’s hot. I’m hot. Together, we were very, very hot.” A smirk curls his lips as he pumps his brows. “All night.”
“And on that note,” Amelia shivers before practically throwing herself down the stairs, “I’m leaving.”
Nick follows, giving Cass a shove and a smug smile on his way past. “I fucked your sister, you fucked Luna’s sister. Funny how the world works, huh?”
Cass gags. “Ew, Nick.”
“Sorry, my bad.” His smile widens. “I fuck your sister.”
“Nick!” Amelia screeches from somewhere downstairs. “Stop antagonizing him!”
Nick just laughs, unfazed by the anger in his tiny redhead’s voice, or the steam practically pouring out of Cass’ ears. Mischief written all over his face, he leans forward and pats Cass on the cheek. “But it’s so easy.”
It feels like old days again, my house destroyed from a party and filled with my hungover friends.
Breakfast was kind of hilarious. It involved a lot of Luna glaring at Cass over her coffee cup and him avoiding her gaze, looking downright terrified. Honestly, I don’t think Lu has to worry about them living together being weird; Pen and Cass get along ridiculously well. There’s none of that lingering awkwardness that happens sometimes after you’ve seen someone naked, and when all your friends know you’ve seen each other naked. And they clearly did more than just see each other naked so it’s a miracle, really.
I think, deep down, Luna is fine with them hooking up. She’s not the kind of person who polices sex. I think she’s just focusing all her attention and energy on this one thing, instead of letting other things cloud her mind. Namely the fact she’s going for lunch with the girls with the intention of telling them everything.
She’s nervous as shit and she’s not even trying to hide it. The girls are doing their best to reassure her but since they have no idea what they’re reassuring her about, it’s not exactly helping. I tried my hand at calming her down too; in the shower, and then on the bathroom counter, and on my bed a couple of times, too.
And it worked, on some level. By the time the girls cleared out of here, she was too wrecked to be stressed.
I’m changing my sheets when my phone rings, the ringtone specific to Lux filling my bedroom. I dive for my phone, snatching it off my desk before the first ring even finishes. “Everything okay?”
“Everything is fine, Dad,” Lux groans. I can just picture her rolling her eyes. “I’m just calling to tell you that the ad you put up got a few responses.”
My shoulders slump in relief. The ranch hand position. I forgot about that. I swear, every time she calls—or even if she doesn’t, honestly—I get this voice in the back of my head convincing me that something’s wrong with her, or the baby or the girls or the ranch.
I like to think I’ll calm down a little when the baby arrives, but really, I have a hunch that when the new tiny, incredibly fragile addition to our family arrives, the permanent pit of worry in my stomach is only going to expand.
“Okay.” I balance my phone between my ear and my shoulder as I toss dirty bedsheets in the laundry basket. “I can come up sometime next weekend to interview some of the applicants.”
Like I knew she would, Lux objects. “I can do it.”
“I wanna be there.”
“But I get the final say.”
“Stop being difficult.”
“I’m-”
“Enough,” I cut her off with a huff. “This isn’t up for discussion. If we’re inviting a stranger to work on our land, to live on our land, to constantly be around my nephew and my sisters, you bet your ass I’m going to be there to vet them.”
It’s a testament to how tired my sister is, proof she really is in desperate need of some help, that she doesn’t argue further. She just sighs and mutters a reluctant agreement before swiftly changing the subject, launching into the latest gossip floating around our hometown.
Unsurprisingly, most of it pertains to her new situation; once that belly started showing, word got around real quick. And God, did those words get twisted.
One version of the story is that she got pregnant on purpose to trap Mark. Another is that she was cheating on him all along with not one but both of the ranch hands and the baby isn’t even his. It sounds like the newest one claims that he found out she was pregnant when the rest of the town did, and now she’s trying to keep the baby from him.
It’s funny how, in every tale, Mark escapes unscathed.
Fucking small towns.
Lux is a better person than I am because she laughs it all off, like she does now. Her cackles drift through the phone as she recites an encounter with the matriarch of the town’s gossip hierarchy, a woman I’m pretty sure is older than all my sister’s and I combined. “God, I thought Sue Allen’s ancient head was gonna pop off when Line threw her out of the store for talking shit about me.”
“Wait, what?” Line? As in Caroline? The way Lux suddenly shuts up answers that question before I can even ask it. “Since when do you hang out with Caroline?”
“I don’t hang out with Caroline,” Lux snorts a little too dismissively. “She’s our flower supplier. I was just picking up an order.”
“You called her Line.”
“Did I?” She clears her throat. “Weird. Anyway, it was badass. She basically grabbed the old bat by the scruff of her neck and tossed her on her ass.”
Caroline. Badass. Manhandling old women for the sake of my sister’s name.
Weird.
“You know, if you’re friends with Caroline you can-”
“So, next Saturday works best for me,” Lux smoothly changes the subject, cutting off what I was about to say. I roll my eyes but I don’t push, mostly because pregnant Lux is even scarier than regular Lux and I really don’t want to set her off. “The twins are coming down so everyone will be home.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“Will anyone be joining you?” God, Lux fucking sucks at subtlety.
“Maybe.” I haven’t asked Luna yet but I plan to. My gut feeling says she’ll say yes; she loves Serenity Ranch, and her and Lux have that weird bond thing going on so she’ll probably want to see her, and the bump.
“Have you told her about the ranch yet?” Lux asks the same thing she does every time we talk, as consistently as I ask about her wellbeing.
“She knows I’m moving back when the baby’s born.”
“That’s not what I was asking and you know it. You have to tell her, Oscar.”
“I know.” And I will. I’m just letting us have a little bit of uncomplicated, undramatic time together first.
Honestly, I’m worried she’ll freak out. It’s very… permanent. I just think it’s a good idea to wait until we’re a bit more settled before I drop the ‘hey, I bought a massive ranch and will probably be living there for the rest of my life’ card on her. Shit, I barely even managed to convince her to kind of move in with me. I can’t imagine she’ll be willing to move to the ass crack of nowhere halfway across the state, and I don’t think we’re built for distance.
As if my thoughts summon her, knuckles rap against wood and Luna appears in my bedroom doorway. Perfect timing. Perfect timing. Bidding a hasty goodbye to Lux, I hang up and gesture my girl over.
“Hey, sweetheart.” My desk chair creaks as she settles herself on my lap, curling into a ball and clutching my t-shirt. “Everything go okay?”
She sniffles into the crook of my neck. “It went well.”
Her weak tone is less than convincing. “Lu.”
“I’m okay, I promise. It was just…” She trails off, her sigh heavy. “Overwhelming.”
I bet. “I’m proud of you for telling them.”
“Don’t,” she whines, her voice all wobbly. “I’ll start crying again.”
Wisely, I don’t mention the tears already brimming. “Wanna get some food? See a movie or something?”
“Can’t. We’re doing a girls night. Do me a favor and keep Nick occupied?”
God, that’s an almighty fucking favor. Keeping that guy away from Amelia is a borderline impossible task. I find myself promising I will anyway, even though we both know the first chance he gets, Nick will be scampering home to smother his girl with affection. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
“I have class. And work. And then class and work again.” A groan escapes me, coaxing a laugh out of her. “But I’m free the day after tomorrow. I’m gonna need help packing my stuff up. If you haven’t changed your mind, that is.”
I snort. Un-fucking-likely. “Haven’t changed my mind, and I’m not gonna.”
“Okay.” I hear the smile in her voice as much as I feel it against my neck. “I love you.”
Not in a million lifetimes do I think I’ll get tired of hearing that. “I love you, sweetheart.”
