Monroe, Marla - The Hired Hands' Dilemma [The Men of Space Station One #3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (16 page)

“Don’t you think I know that?” Keeton stood up and paced over to the window and looked out.

Probably looking at Ashley
. Boyd put down his coffee and ran a hand over his face. He felt like he was chastising a child for squeezing his puppy too hard. Maybe he needed to back off and let whatever happened happen. As it was, he was making everyone nervous. Ashley had even told him to ease up on Keeton.

“Look, we’re all adults. I’m not going to say anything else. This is between the three of us now. We’ll all talk about it together or not talk about it at all.” Boyd got up and headed for the office.

He needed to work on the diary they were supposed to be keeping. He hadn’t updated it in several days. Either things would work out, or they wouldn’t. He wasn’t the leader of their family. If anyone was, it was Ashley. She could tell Keeton when to back off. Boyd just hoped she would tell him and not suffer wanting to keep him happy.

That’s when Boyd realized he was a little jealous of Keeton. Ashley was trying so hard to get Keeton’s attention that maybe he felt left out. But he had her attention. She came to him with everything. Boyd felt like a heel for wanting more of her attention just because she wanted some of Keeton’s. It wasn’t Keeton who needed to back off. It was him. He needed to back down some. With that, he settled down to fill in the missing days in the diary.

* * * *

“What are you doing?” Keeton walked up to where Ashley was sitting on the back porch drawing on her pad.

“Keeping a record of how the plants look as they grow. This way I’ll always know when something is wrong.”

“Good idea. So how are you feeling?” he asked.

She looked up and smiled at him. “Great.”

“Good. You would tell me if I ever hurt you, wouldn’t you, Ashley?”

“You’d never hurt me, Keeton. I don’t know why you think you would, but you wouldn’t.” She returned to studying the plants and drawing.

“I wouldn’t mean to, baby. But I can be rough.”

“And I like you rough. It’s you. I don’t want you to change, either, Keeton.” She put down her pencil and held a hand to the side of his face. “I love you, Keeton. Just like you are.”

Keeton felt something shift inside him. He didn’t feel as conflicted in that moment. He reached down and pulled her into his arms to hug her close.

“I love you, baby. I want you to be happy.”

“I am happy, Keeton. I’m happy with you and Boyd. I don’t want anything different. I just want for us all to be a family.”

“Me, too, baby. Me, too.”

Boyd walked outside a little later and Keeton waved him over.

“Look what our Ashley is doing.” He pointed at the drawings of the various plants.

“Hey, these are really good. And you’ve dated them on how old they are and everything. They need to go in our diary I’m working on,” Boyd said.

“Oh, well, if you think so. I was trying to keep a record so I’d know if something was wrong from year to year.”

“You can just look back at the diary and see what was different. I’m keeping all the pertinent facts about the day in it, like the temperatures and general weather conditions.”

Ashley shrugged and handed her drawings to him. “Go ahead. When I make new ones, I’ll give them to you to put in the diary.”

“Good girl,” Boyd said.

“I’m really tired for some reason. I’m going to go lie down for a while.” Ashley stood up and brushed off her jeans before grabbing up her drawing pad and pencils.

“You okay, baby?” Keeton asked.

“Yeah, just need a nap, I guess. I ate a big breakfast and it’s nearly noon now. Do you mind fixing something for lunch on your own today?” she asked.

“We can always fix our own, Ashley. Go lie down and get some rest,” Boyd said.

Keeton watched her walk inside and turned to Boyd. “She’s taken naps almost every day for the last few days. Do you think she’s okay?”

“I don’t know. Maybe we should ask Andrew or Danny if Rachel takes a lot of naps. It could be this atmosphere.” Boyd looked back toward the door.

“Or it could be a result of that fucking rat acid that got on her,” Keeton said.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions. We’ll talk to them first and see what they think. Then we can always call the doc up and ask his opinion.”

“You know, not only is she working harder physically than she’s ever worked before, but we have an extra hour in our day here than on Earth. It could just be getting used to things here. You and I are used to being out working all the time. She isn’t.” Keeton began to feel marginally better about her needing so many naps. Still, he worried.

“I’m going to deal with the horses today. Why don’t you go up and nap with her, Boyd. You didn’t sleep well last night.”

“You’re sure?” he asked.

“Yeah. I’ll wake you both up in a couple of hours if you’re not already up.” Keeton waved him off and headed for the barn.

He found the horses were doing well, but he let them out into the corral for a while, giving him plenty of room to give the barn a thorough cleaning. He cleaned out each stall and added fresh hay as well as food and water. Then he cleaned out the tack room. He took the brushes out and pulled one of the horses up to brush.

He thought about being a family and what that meant to him. He had never really had much of a family. His parents had split by the time he was eight years old and he lived with his uncle on their ranch. He had met Boyd in school and they had worked together ever since then. Boyd had been his family for so many years, he couldn’t count. Now he had Ashley to add to that. And, if Boyd had his wish, children someday.

Children. That scared him. He had never really thought about having kids, and that part of the agreement in coming to the space station hadn’t really bothered him. Boyd would be the father figure. He’d keep them safe and fed. That worked for him.

Then he thought about Ashley round with their child, and he realized he would like to see that. To feel a child moving in her belly would be really awesome. Maybe that wouldn’t be so much Boyd’s duty after all. He’d like to see a child grow up and get strong, or beautiful like their mother.

He finished up with the last horse and had them all back in the barn. He checked his watch. It had been nearly three hours. He wondered if the others were up yet, or if he needed to wake them.

Keeton walked inside and didn’t hear anything at first until he got outside the bedroom door. Then he heard the unmistakable sounds of the bedsprings. He grinned. They were fucking. He’d leave them alone for that this time. Instead, he went to the other bathroom and took a shower. By the time he was finished, they were quiet in the bedroom, so he walked in and found them dressing. Ashley had that just-fucked look about her, and Boyd was grinning and relaxed looking.

“Did I miss anything?” he teased.

“Only the best sex since last time we had sex,” Boyd said with a snicker.

“Well, you get to do the barn next time. I completely cleaned it and brushed all the horses.” Keeton walked over and pulled Ashley into his arms for a kiss.

He took her mouth when she opened to him and sucked her tongue into his mouth to tease with his. Then he thrust his in and out of hers before pulling back and kissing her nose.

“You look rested. Do you feel better?” he asked.

“I feel fine. Don’t know why I need a nap every day now. It seems like I just run out of energy.”

“Don’t worry about it. You can always take a nap when you’re tired, baby,” Keeton told her.

“I’m going downstairs to start dinner. I’ll see you two in a little while.” Ashley hugged them both and walked out of the bedroom.

“She really okay?” Keeton asked.

“She was fine when she woke up. I wouldn’t have had sex with her if she hadn’t been.”

“Whoa. I’m not accusing. I’m just worried that she had to have the nap. There’s a big difference in her. She was fairly droopy earlier, and she bounces now.

“Sorry for jumping at you.” Boyd looked embarrassed.

“That’s okay. We’ve been at each other a lot lately. We need to work together to be sure that Ashley is taken care of. She’s the most vulnerable of us,” Keeton said.

“I want to check with Andrew and Danny to see if Rachel is having more trouble with needing more rest than usual.”

“We’ll ask tomorrow,” Keeton assured him.

“Better go downstairs and see what she’s cooking for dinner. I’m hungry.” Boyd headed toward the door.

“Boyd,” Keeton said.

“Yeah.” He stopped and turned around.

“Thanks for sticking with me through all of this.”

“Hey, that’s what family’s for.”

Chapter Thirteen

Several weeks later, Ashley stood outside looking over her garden and feeling pretty good about it. Everything was growing just like the books had said it would, with the exception of the tomatoes, which were trying to take over the garden. She had even been able to corner the zucchini into behaving, but the tomatoes were turning out to be a problem.

She shoved her hands on her hips and figured out that next year she would plant them a little bit away from everything else if they were going to grow so wildly. She’d even pruned them, which didn’t really help much.

“We’re heading out, baby. Got your gun?” Keeton asked.

She patted her holster. “Yep, I’m loaded and ready for rat,” she teased.

“We’ll see you tonight.” Boyd pulled her in for a kiss.

“Be careful for me, you two.” She watched them head for the horses and then watched until they were out of sight.

She had thought about going with them and visiting with Rachel, but decided to work in the garden instead and maybe go tomorrow. She needed to get the tomatoes to act right. She picked up her stakes and string and started the arduous task of tying them up even more. They were full of blooms and baby tomatoes. She would have plenty to put up if they all came in.

She finished staking them
again
and returned her supplies to the cellar. She looked up and noticed that the sun seemed to have moved faster than she had been out there. That was weird. She checked her watch and couldn’t believe it. Where had the time gone? According to her watch she had been out there for over three hours. It had only felt like forty-five minutes at the most. No wonder she was so tired.

She walked back inside and poured a glass of tea. She would take a quick nap before lunch. She hated getting tired all the time, but she worked hard, too. Sometimes she ended up taking two naps a day, though. It was one of the other reasons she wanted to visit with Rachel. She wanted to know if she was feeling the same way or not.

She drained her tea and set the glass of ice back in the fridge before going upstairs to lie down. She took off her boots and padded sock footed upstairs. By the time she finally got on the bed, she was almost asleep. Once again, she worried that something was wrong with her. Then she slept.

* * * *

Boyd and Keeton made it home a little after six and took care of the horses before going inside. They could smell dinner cooking, but Ashley wasn’t in the kitchen. Instead, they found her on the couch napping.

They exchanged glances before Keeton knelt and kissed her awake. She yawned and stretched.

“Goodness, what time is it?” she asked.