Page 23 of Knot Her Cowboys (Big Sky Omegas #2)

T hey announced my birthday to the other guests when we gathered around the campfire for the evening. Cooper had bought enough cupcakes for everyone, plus a few extras.

I moaned as I bit into mine—a chocolate cake base with strawberry icing. They were quite the upgrade from the grocery-store variety we used to eat on my birthday.

“You like them?” Cooper asked as he sat down in the camp chair next to me.

“Fucking delish.”

“They’re from a shop in town. They mostly cater to the businesses, I think, but their stuff is top-notch.”

“This was sweet. Thank you for getting me birthday cupcakes. I’ve missed this tradition.”

He pressed his lips together, and I was pretty sure he was holding in some snark that I wouldn’t have had to miss the tradition if I hadn’t disappeared into the night.

“Be nice,” Cash said, sitting down next to me in another chair.

“I didn’t say a word,” Cooper defended.

“You didn’t have to. It’s written all over your freckled, stubborn-ass face.”

Cooper flipped him the bird and I leaned over, chomping the digit and making Cooper yelp. “Goddamn, I forgot you do that.”

Morgan howled with laughter. “I almost forgot about that too.”

“Save that gesture for assholes,” I said, “not for sweet angels.”

Cash beamed. “I’m the sweet angel.”

“Oh, fuck off,” Cooper said with a laugh. “I can express myself how I want, but keeping my mouth shut is an important part of this process.”

“I’d rather you just tell me off,” I lied. “Get it out of your system.”

“No, you wouldn’t.” Cooper took a long drink from his cup. “You got too many people ‘getting it out of their system’ in your direction, and I will never be one of those people.”

I stared at him for a while, trying to figure out how to respond to that. I supposed it wasn’t really a preference for people to tell me off, but it did let me know where I stood with them. That was the only part I liked, even if where I stood wasn’t a good place.

Tempted as I was to push him, I chose not to. Getting into something in front of all these people was probably a terrible idea. I could wait for privacy.

Instead, I asked, “What do you think about me working in the kitchen while I’m here?”

“You want to?” He raised an eyebrow in question, staring into my damn soul.

“You guys don’t have a chef right now. I may not have done a lot of work recently, but it’s not like I forgot how to do everything. I’ll work for room and board.”

“Like hell you will,” Cooper scoffed. “The job comes with that. We’ll pay you the regular salary.”

“All right. I do have my omega trust, so it’s not like I’m hurting for money.”

“We pay fairly here. If you’re doing the work, you’re getting the money,” Cooper insisted. “If you don’t need it, you can do whatever you want with it.”

“How did you end up with an omega trust?” Cash asked. “Doesn’t really seem in character for the assholes you rolled up with.”

“Bryan insisted on it, so I made it my condition to quit working. Bruce didn’t love it, but Bryan played into Bruce’s obsession with public perception, asking him how it would look if it came out that they weren’t taking care of their omega.

People might think it was because they couldn’t afford to , and that was about all it took.

Bryan was always the more reasonable of the two, and even if he was a jellyfish with Bruce a lot of the time, he did try, and I’m grateful he pushed for my financial security. ”

“I’ll set you up a trust too,” Cash offered. “Only condition is you have to meet my parents and tell them we’re bonded so they can stop being up my ass about finding someone.”

“Cashy, I don’t need your money, but I would love to say hi to your parents.”

“Well, you’re getting my money anyway, so deal with it. What name do I have to put on it?”

Cooper sat up. “What do you mean? You know her name. Why wouldn’t you put that?”

Cash tapped my ankle with his. “Our little miss changed her name when she bolted.”

“Why?”

“Easier to hide.” I shrugged.

“But what did you change it to? Should we not be calling you Riley anymore?”

My cheeks warmed. “I still like Riley. The name change was more a necessity, and I just got used to it.”

“Are you being a little chickenshit on telling Cooper what you changed your name to, honey bun?”

Cash looked so fucking smug. If I were a less evolved person I’d smack that shit-eating grin right off his pretty face, but luckily that was one habit I had never picked up from my mama.

Morgan leaned forward in her seat, eyeballing me. “Why are you being so evasive? Did you change it to something ridiculous?”

Oh, for fuck’s sake. I wasn’t going to get out of telling him. I took a deep breath, trying to control the twist of nerves in my belly, but it did little good. “I changed it to Anne Harris.”

Cooper couldn’t have looked more surprised than if I had gotten up and kicked him in the balls. “Anne Harris ?”

My cheeks were so damn hot I was surprised they didn’t incinerate right off my face.

It took Cooper two attempts to form actual words before his question finally came out. “You took my last name?”

I couldn’t quite tell what the expression on his face was, maybe some amalgamation of awe, frustration, and desire.

“Yes.” I swallowed hard. “I know you probably thought it was easy for me to let go, but it wasn’t. I kept pieces where I could.”

Cooper huffed out a breath and took another long drink. “I guess that’s why I could never find you in the papers.”

I tilted my head, examining him. “Why were you looking for me in the papers?”

“I was looking for your restaurant that I assumed you would open one day. I didn’t have any other way of finding you, but I knew you wanted to do that, so I checked every so often.”

Cash laughed. “And by every so often he means daily. We had a whole trip planned for the day you’d pop up.”

I turned back to Cash, trying to figure out how I felt about all of that, and how it might have gone if things had turned out differently. “You were going to come to New York?”

“That was the idea. Been on the back burner for years, but ready to roll out if his snooping ever led to something.”

I spun back to Cooper. “I’m sorry I never committed to it.”

He shrugged, staring into the campfire. “Wouldn’t have found you even if you did.”

That shrug didn’t fool me. His mind was running a mile a minute; I could see it in his eyes.

“I’ll do up the paperwork for the job tomorrow,” he told me. “Temporary contract, I assume?”

I didn’t like how much that assumption hurt, no matter how correct it was. “Thanks.”

“Why don’t we get you settled in the big house?” Cash suggested. “Come back out after if you want, but no sense trying to get yourself sorted when it’s dark and you’re already tired.”

“Sounds good.” I let Cash bustle me away.

He didn’t say anything until we were inside. “I’m sorry things are weird as fuck. It’ll get better.”

I sighed, pressing myself to his chest and looping my arms behind him. “I fucking hope so.”

I got my things unpacked into the guest room, filling only one drawer. I wasn’t entirely sure how to get the rest of my stuff since it was on its way to Germany right now.

“Are you a shop-in-store kind of gal, or have you embraced online ordering?”

“Bit of both. Depends if I’m already familiar with the brand and styles.”

Cash nodded. “Order whatever you need. We can go into town for the rest.”

I took my time arranging my few toiletries, and Cash caught on that I was stalling.

“We don’t have to go back out.”

“But Morgan is leaving tomorrow morning.”

“Bring her inside. If you need a break from Cooper, and lord knows that happens on occasion, take it.”

I stared at the flower crown on my head in the mirror, adoring the play of color between the coral of the Indian paintbrush and the blues and purples of the lupines. “No, it’s okay. I can be a big girl.”

“All right, but you just say the word and I’ll push him off his camp chair so you can run.”

“You’ve got it.” I smiled up at him, and he dipped down for a kiss that both lit me up from the inside and steadied my nerves.

“Cooper will come around,” he promised. “I can feel how sorry you are in the bond when you look at him, when you talk about having left us. I know it wasn’t easy for you.”

“You’re just forgiving me this fast?”

“Honey bun, I forgave you when you walked in the door.”

I kissed him again so I didn’t start crying, clinging to the absolute sweetheart I’d had the fortune of tying myself to. But tears slipped out anyway. “You’re so lucky I love you or I would be very annoyed at how often I cry around you.”

He gathered me even closer, squeezing me until I wheezed, pressing out my anxieties like they were toothpaste squished out of the tube.

His next kiss was soft, traveling from my lips, over my cheek and up to where he planted it in the middle of my forehead.

“It’s the right kind of crying, and sometimes you need that.

If I ever make you cry for the wrong reason, I give you full permission to let Grizzy trample me. ”

“You’ve never done anything in your life to warrant trampling.”

“Let’s keep it that way. How about an hour more outside, then you plead a headache, and I take you for another ride on the Cash cannon?”

I dissolved into giggles against his chest. “You’re ridiculous. But also, yes. I’m very in favor of this plan.”

I made it through two hours, rather than one, before a legitimate headache started to burrow at the base of my skull. Morgan hugged me fiercely, promising to see me at breakfast before she and her pack headed out.

“Might have to take a rain check on that ride,” I whispered to Cash on our way back to the big house.

“Happy to cuddle instead.” He scooped me off my feet, cradling me to his chest. “Thoughts on a nice bath? Maybe a massage?”

“Is a massage just foreplay in this situation?”

“Girl, your shoulders are like fucking granite. Pretty sure that’s where your headache is growing from and I don’t like you being in pain.”

“Then I’ll take the attention.”

Cash offered it so freely. Maybe it was because I was a novelty and we were still in the early days, but Cash had always been sweet.

I had no idea how long it would continue.

It wasn’t that I was unused to attention from alphas.

Bryan had been good at taking care of me, if a little inconsistent while trying to manage Bruce’s mood.

Bruce had phases of showering me with gifts and affection, usually after he’d pissed me off and was trying to win me back over.

Cash dropped me suddenly, making me squeak before he caught me again.

“What the fuck?”

“Felt you thinking too hard. Had to spook it out of you.” He set me on my feet and flipped on the tap for the tub. “Cuddle bath or lonely, Cashless bath?”

“I’d be down for a cuddle bath.” I stripped, leaving my clothes in a pile around me, and admiring every inch Cash exposed as he removed his own clothes.

He wrapped me up in his arms after we sank into the warm water. “Opposition to me digging out these nasty muscle knots in your shoulders?”

“Not if you give me your knot after, assuming you’re successful at tackling the headache.”

“I’ll do my best.” He laughed. “And not because I want to get laid. Just because I want you to feel better.”

He worked his magic, fingers forcing the tension out of my shoulders. “Oh my god.”

“You’re way too stressed out.”

“I embody stress.”

“Quit it.”

“I’d love to.” I shivered, Cash’s lips brushing over my throat.

“Should I get my omega to bed?”

The door downstairs closed, alerting us to the arrival of the others.

“Want me to drag Cooper in with us to cuddle away all the weirdness between you two?” Cash asked.

“Only if you think it would actually work.”

“He can’t stubborn his way through snuggling. He’ll fall asleep first.”

“You know what? Sure. Can’t be any weirder than it already is, right?”

“Exactly. Now, scamper that gorgeous ass into bed, and I’ll wrestle him into submission for you.”

I dried off quickly and tossed myself into Cash’s room before there were audible footsteps on the stairs.

I could’ve used the guest room, but it didn’t have nearly enough of Cash’s scent woven into the sheets.

A quick rustle in his drawers provided a T-shirt soft enough for me to sleep in, though I was already missing the potential for skin-to-skin.

Cash might be able to wrangle Cooper, but being naked might push things too far.

Cooper squawked his way down the hall, cussing out Cash before he was pushed into the bedroom. He froze when he saw me.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” I said quickly.

He hesitated for a couple of seconds before giving in with a sigh and stripping off his outermost layers. “You two are going to give me an aneurysm.”

“Better lie down then, just in case.” Cash hopped in on one side of me, leaning over to pat the empty space behind me for Cooper to join.

“Using my weakness against me,” Cooper grumbled as he climbed in next to me.

Relief poured over me. Cooper might be mad at me, but not mad enough to resist this small connection, and I was so fucking grateful for that.

I’d hurt him, and I couldn’t undo it, no matter how much I wanted to.

He brought with him the scent of autumn leaves and aged oak, more mellow than the boy I left behind, but somehow suiting the man I’d found upon my return.

I still loved him. Honestly, I’d never really stopped, wasn’t even sure if I was capable of not loving him. I could acknowledge that to myself even if I couldn’t say it out loud. That felt like too much for him right now and I didn’t want to risk him leaving now that he was wrapped around me.

My whole body tingled as I lay between Cooper and Cash. I didn’t have any expectations. Cooper always came to things in his own time, and everything between us was still precarious.

Their bodies were warm around me, and Cooper’s arm looped over my waist, drawing me closer to tuck my head beneath his chin. For a brief glorious moment, I felt more centered than I had in years. Hopefully it would last beyond tonight.

“Sweet dreams, honey bun.” Cash wiggled closer, planting a kiss on my forehead.

Cooper sighed, pulling me tighter against him. “Sweet dreams, Riley.”