9781631051289TemptedbytheCowboySullivan (16 page)

“We
ll, what else is he going to
do while he’s in a cast for six to eight weeks?” Nina moved to where she stood
near the head of Joel’s bed. “You’ll have to suck it up, buttercup.”

The entire family laughed until the doctor came in through
the curtains with a
soft, “Whoa. Okay. I didn’t
realize the whole family would be here.”

“He’s one of ours, so yeah, you get all of us,” Jeff
replied from his spot near the sink. Terri must have stayed home with the boys
since their little one wasn’t very old yet.

Jason also
noticed Paige wasn’t
there either, but then again with her twin pregnancy moving along at a rapid
pace, she probably didn’t need to be out here either.
Since when did I become such a mother hen with the women of
our family?
He tucked Peyton’s hand into th
e
crook of his arm. “How are you feeling, bro?”

“Hurts like hell, but they’ve given me pain medicine.”

“That’s right and we’ll be taking him to surgery soon,” the
doctor added, looking at the chart in his hand. “He’ll need a plate or two to
stabilize the b
reak. It’s a pretty bad fracture since
the dashboard was shoved up into his lap. I’m surprised both legs aren’t
broken.”

“Surgery?”
Mesa asked, her grip
tightening on Joel’s hand.

“Yes. It’s a must.”

“Don’t worry, baby. I’ll be fine.”

“You’d better be. We
have some
planning to do.”

“I
know,
darlin’.”

“Planning?” Nina asked, hope shining in her eyes.

“We didn’t want to announce it this way, but we are
expecting a baby in about eight months.”

“Another grandchild!”
Nina clapped before
she bent over Joel, kissi
ng him on the head and then
doing the same with Mesa. “It’s about time. You two have been together for a
while.”

“It’s hasn’t been that long, Mom.”

“Long enough to expect
a grandchild.”

Joel and Mesa both laughed as they shook their heads.

Jason shook his
brother’s hand
excitedly. He wasn’t sure he wanted kids of his own, certainly not yet, but he
was happy for his brother who he knew wanted several children. Mesa had been
such a good thing for Joel when they’d gotten together even though when the
whole th
ing started, Jason wasn’t sure she was the
right girl. The day they’d been married was a joyful occasion at the ranch and
one he wouldn’t forget.

“Well since everything is fine here, I’m going to head back
home.”

“You aren’t staying for the surgery,” James
asked from his spot near the wall.

“Do I need to?”

“Had plans, did you?” Joel asked, eyeing Peyton as she
stood near his right side. “Sorry I interrupted things.”

“It’s fine now that I know you’re going to be okay. I
couldn’t have my brother coming to the
hospital and
me not seeing how you are even if it’s nothing major.”

“It could have been,” Jeff said.

“I know, Jeff. That’s why I came. He’s still family even
though he’s my squirt of a younger brother.”

“By fifteen minutes, for God’s sake!”

“Still younger
.”

“Asshole.”

“You’ll be fine if you’re cussing me out.”

 
The nurse came
through the curtain. “Everyone is going to have to clear out. I need to prep
him for surgery, get another IV started and draw more blood.”

“Damn woman. You already took two tubes.”

“S
uck it up. I need five more
before they take you to surgery, plus the anesthesiologist will be coming in
soon to talk to you.”

“We’re gone then,” Jason said, moving toward the curtain.
“Are they going to keep him for a couple of days afterward?”

“At least
tomorrow, yes.”

“I’ll be back by in the morning then.”

“Thanks for coming, Jason. I know you were busy with
Peyton. I didn’t mean to ruin your plans.”

“It’s okay. No problem. We were done with dinner already
anyway so we’re going to, ahem, watch a movie.”

Joel’s eyebrow shot up over his eye.
“Movie?”

“Yeah, a movie.
Right Peyton?”

“What movie?” The whole group laughed as she
blushed
so hard the roots of
her hair turned red too.

“Come on, babe. Let’s go home.”

Nina grinned as they all walked out of the curt
ained area and back down the hall toward the waiting room.
The rest of the family left, leaving Jason, Peyton and his mother and father.
Mesa, of course, stayed at her husband’s
bedside
until they wheeled him
out toward the operating room. Then she joined
his
parents to wait.

“He’ll be fine.” Jason hugged Mesa. “I know he will.”

“I know, but I’m worried. What if something happens? What
if he goes into cardiac arrest or what if he has a reaction to the anesthesia?”

“Is there any reason to worry? No. Quit
freaking yourself out.”

“I know. I’m being silly, but I love him so much and now
that there is a baby on the way, I don’t know what I’d do without him.”

Nina put her arms around Mesa, cradling her almost like a
lost child. Jason felt out of touch with the
whole
scenario even though it was his triplet brother in there. They didn’t talk
about it much, but the three of them had a bond. When one hurt, the others
hurt. When one was sad, the others could feel it and when Joel had fallen hard
for Mesa, Jason knew
in his heart she was perfect for
his brother in the end.

“We are headed out. Call me when he’s out of surgery,
please, or I won’t sleep a wink tonight and I’ll be back up here before
morning.”

“Of course, son,” his dad answered before his mother could
as s
he stood there rocking Mesa and whispering to her
that Joel would be fine.

Jason put his arm around Peyton as they walked toward the
door. “Thanks, Dad. See you at home.”

The ride back to his house was made in silence as he
contemplated the turn of events
for his brother, his
triplet. Joel was going to be a daddy himself and man did it make Jason feel
old. His younger sibling was married with a baby on the way. Wasn’t it time he
settled down too? He glanced across the truck at Peyton. Was she the one? Shoul
d he give up his wandering ways for the love of one woman?
What if she didn’t love him? What if she cheated on him? What if she didn’t
want anything more than sex like they’d talked about in the beginning? Did he
want more now?

“What are you thinking about
?”
she asked, cocking her head to the side.

“Lots of things.”

“Like?”

“What if I asked you to marry me?”

“What? Are you nuts?”

“Maybe am I. I’m thinking about my future and I think you’d
be a good fit.”

“I’m not marrying you, Jason.”

“Why not?”

“We’ve been
dating for what? Two
weeks and you want me to marry you? You’re crazy.”

“No I’m not. My brother did it. He seems happy. I want that
too.”

“Not with me, you don’t.”

“Sure I do. You’d be as good as any, I’m thinking.”

She punched him in the shoulder.
“As
good as any?
You ask me to marry
you without even professing to love me and I’m as good as any? Why don’t you
just go to The Dusty Boot, grab the first woman who walks through the door and
ask her? It’d be about as romantic and caring as the proposal I jus
t got.”

“Now just wait a minute, Peyton. I mean we get along good.
We’re good in bed together. We seem to have some things in common. You’re
pretty enough.”

“Thanks, for that, but
no.
Take your proposal and stuff it up your ass.”

They pulled into the
driveway in
front of his house. The truck hadn’t even come to a complete halt and she was
out the passenger side door headed for her car.

“What the hell? Where are you going?” he asked, rushing
around the front of his truck as the headlights reflected off
the porch. He grabbed the door to her car before she could
shut it.

“Let go.”

“No, let’s talk about this.”

“There isn’t anything to talk about. I’m not marrying you.”

“Fine.
Then let’s keep going
the way we are.”

“You know, I don’t think so. You want somet
hing I can’t give you apparently. You’ve changed, Jason.
You said you didn’t want a wife and I was good with that since I didn’t want to
be a wife, but now you’re asking me to marry you out of the blue.”

“Come inside.”

“No. I’m going home. I don’t want to
see you anymore. We obviously want different things in
this.” She waved her hand back and forth.
“Whatever this is.”

“Don’t go, Peyton.”

“We’re done, Jason. I’m sorry, but this isn’t going to
work.” She slammed the door shut, started the car and then backe
d out of his life in a spray of gravel.

Chapter Twelve

Jason twirled the rope he held over his head before tossing
it expertly over the horns of the bull he intended to move to the barn. He had
some cows he needed to inseminate. The work on a ranch
never ended, never took a break nor did it stop for a broken heart.

Broken heart,
bah!

Joshua helped herd the bull through the panels to the
holding pen Jason had fashioned so he could collect the sperm from the bull.
The steer he planned to use to get the bull ready was already in place. Joey
stood nearby waiting with the ejaculation kit fo
r
when the bull mounted the steer. Joshua threaded another rope through the ring
on the bull’s nose as Jason dismounted from his horse and removed the one
around the animal’s neck. “I’ll take it from here.” He took the ejaculation kit
from Joey as the bull
jumped to mount the steer. He
easily got the false vagina on the bull, capturing the bull’s semen. “See.
Easy as pie.”

“Do you know which of your cattle you’re going to
inseminate and your schedule?” Joey asked. He usually handled the horses on
their pare
nt’s place, but today, Jacob manned the
horses and took the guests out. Jacob needed to stay close these days as Paige
could have the babies at any time.

“Yeah.
Got them penned in the other side of the barn already
waiting.”

“Perfect,” Joshua said, releas
ing
the rope on the bull’s nose ring so they didn’t tear it out by accident. The
nose ring helped to control the bull during the ejaculation process.

This bull was Jason’s prized possession and his ace in the
hole for having prime livestock for the PBR in
the
coming years ahead.

“How are things with Peyton?” Joey asked, moving the steer
they’d use for bait.

“Who?”
Jason didn’t want to
talk about how shit had gone down with her. He didn’t want to talk about her,
didn’t want to think about her and certainly
didn’t
want to tell his brothers he’d fucked up royally by asking her to marry him in
a nervous fuck up.

“Peyton?
You know. Pretty, nice
rack, works at The Dusty Boot? I thought you were fucking her?” The look in
Joshua’s eyes as he brought up Peyton made
Jason want
to punch him.

“I was. Drop it.”

“Ah.” Joshua and Joey exchanged amused glances.

“Quit acting like you two are laughing.”

“We aren’t laughing at you, Jason. We’re laughing with you.
I bet she was a great lay.”

“Maybe, but it’s none of your
business
anyway.”

“If you aren’t fucking her anymore, you can tell us.” The
brothers leaned over the metal fencing with their arms under their chins.

“Yeah, spill it,” Joey said, his eyes gleaming with
curiosity.

“I don’t fuck and gossip.”

The two brothers
looked at each
other and then back at him. “Sure you do. You always have before, what’s so
special about her?” Joshua asked, putting the toe of his cowboy boot on the
bottom rung of the fence in preparation for a longwinded discussion about
women.

“I’m no
t talking to you about
Peyton.”

“Why not?
What’s the deal?”

Jason stored the sperm in a container to inseminate the
cows in a little while. He needed to take care of the bull and the steer first.
He wiped down his hands with disinfectant.
“Because I don’t.
What happened between
us is private.”

“I don’t believe you. You always talk about the women
you’ve been with.” Joshua elbowed Joey. “Didn’t he talk about, what was her
name? Sheila?”

“Oh don’t get me started on her. She’s trying to say she’s
pregnant with
my child.”

“She what?”
Joshua asked, shock
clearly written on his face. “Didn’t you use a condom man?”

“After we’d been
together a few times, no.
She said she was on birth control.”

“And you fell for that shit?” Joey shook his head. “Never
fall for that c
rap. She’s a user if I ever saw one.”

“I know. Right now I’m not even sure she’s really pregnant,
much less if it’s mine. I know she’s been with other guys since me so who
knows.” Jason grabbed the rope to lead the bull back outside into the holding
pen he
would be housed in until they’d extracted a
few more sperm samples from him.

“What did Peyton say?”

“What the hell does it matter? Peyton and I aren’t together
anymore so let it go.”

“What happened between you two? You seemed happy before,
now you’re lik
e a bear with a thorn in its paw,” Joey
said, lifting his hat off his head and wiping his brow from the sweat
collecting under the brim.

The heat today was almost unbearable especially in the
stuffiness of the barn. Sunlight filtered through the hayloft s
lats to the floor below, reflecting the dust floating in
the air. The bull stomped his feet, stirring up the dirt from beneath his hoofs
as Jason got him situated in his pen.
“Easy boy.
You’ll get your treats and feed in a
minute.”

“Yeah, Jason.
Tells us w
hat happened.”

He shut the gate behind the bull. “I asked her to marry
me.”

“What?
Seriously?”
Joshua slapped him on
the back. “I guess since you aren’t seeing each other anymore, she said no.”

“Not just no, but hell
no.”

“Why’d you do something so stupid?” Joey stood with his
hands on his hips and his legs braced apart like he planned to jump on some
bucking
bronc
to bring him to his
knees.

“God love you, little brother. I really hadn’t figured out
how stupid I was before
now.”

“Well?”

He shrugged as he coiled the rope he’d been using. “I don’t
know why I asked her. After what happened with Joel and realizing all of this
could be gone in a split second, I thought about having someone permanent in my
life instead of fucking
anything that moved. I really
want that for some
unfucking
godly reason.”

“With Peyton?”
Joshua
asked,
his stunned expression
almost hilarious.

Jason laughed as he nodded his head.
“Yeah, with Peyton.”

Joshua nodded, clapping Jason on the back. “Good for
you, brother. I can see you two together. She seems like a
nice girl.”

“Wait. Did you miss the part where we aren’t seeing each
other anymore? She turned me down flat right before she sprayed dust and gravel
all over my front door in a hurry to get out of
my
life.”

“You’ll convince her.”

“And just how the hell
am
I supposed to do that? She won’t even
talk to me. I’ve tried. I’ve sent her text message after text message. I never
get a reply.”

“Have you lost what little sense Mom and Dad gave you?”
Joey asked
. “You don’t do this kind of shit over text
message, you dumbass. Go to her house. Corner her. Fuck her.
Talk to her.
Whatever.
If you really want
her, you need to get right in her face and make her listen to you.”

“Oh and you’re an expert on relationships
? You don’t even have a girlfriend.”

“But if I did, I’d know how to treat her. I would make sure
she knew she was the most important thing in my life the whole time we are
together. I’d bring her roses. Take her to lunch just because. Buy her special
littl
e presents. You know, all those things girls
like.”

Jason rubbed his chin, the whisker scraping against his
palm. He hadn’t shaved in a couple of days, hoping he’d have a chance to talk
to Peyton. He thought she liked the five o’clock shadow and rough whis
ker burn on her skin. He knew he liked seeing it on her.
“Maybe.”

“Maybe?
You really need to
pull your head out of your ass, brother. Do you want her?”

“Yes.”

“No, do you really want her, like as in permanently?”

“I think so. I mean I can’t picture my bed
or my life without her in it these days.”

“Then go to her.”

“Okay. I will.
After
we’re done with this shit this afternoon.
I’ll go to her house
and make her listen to me so she’ll realize, I was a bit desperate when I asked
her to marry me and maybe that is in the cards down the road, but we can go
back to what we had before I blurted that out.”

“There you go!” Joshua punched
him in the arm. “Now you’re on the right track.”

“I’m not sure I am, but what do I have to lose. She won’t
talk to me now so it can’t hurt anything by going over there unless she’s got a
shotgun or something.”

* * * *

Peyton stared at the television wit
hout conscious thought of what actually played in front of her face.

Paige swiped her hand in front of Peyton’s eyes. “Where are
you?”

“Huh?”

“You are totally not here right now.”

“Sorry. I know we are supposed to be having a girl’s night
out, but I’m not
into this.” Peyton got to her feet,
spilling popcorn from the bowl as she sat it down on the coffee table. “My mind
is elsewhere.”

“Yeah, we know,” Mandy said, picking up the popcorn bowl.

Her phone beeped.
Another text message.
She knew who it was from wi
thout even looking. Jason. He just didn’t give up although
he didn’t bug her at the bar or come by her house, he still sent text message
after text message trying to get her to talk to him. At the bar, he watched
her, unnerving her to no end with his pierc
ing blue
eyes. He always stayed until she closed, never leaving until he knew she was
safely in her car. It had kind of become a game to her. See how pissed off she
could make him by flirting with guys at the bar, but she never went home with
any of them.
No, Jason Young had wormed his way into
her thoughts, dreams and life inside of a few short weeks.
Damn him
.

Being this hung up on a guy usually turned out bad. Look at
her relationship with Charles.

“Honey, what’s wrong?” Paige asked,
grimacing
a little a
s she shifted on the couch.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, my back hurts is all. Nothing new there, but it’s
been cramping off and on all day.”

“Cramping? Are you sure you aren’t in labor, Paige?”

Paige cocked her head to the side. “I still have like two
weeks before they’ll even take them
c-section
. I can’t be in labor.”

“Paige, you’re having twins. They do whatever the hell they
want. I think you should go to the hospital to get checked out.”

“Rea
lly?”

“Yeah, really.”