Page 3 of Knot Her Cowboys (Big Sky Omegas #2)

H oly shit. Ho-ly shit!

Cooper was going to lose his fucking mind when he found out Riley was here.

He thought I didn’t notice the timing, how every year on Riley’s birthday he’d go visit Morgan, as if to console himself he had made the right choice in staying behind to protect his sister instead of racing across the country to follow the love of his life.

She was here . And somehow even more gorgeous and vivacious than when she’d left. Those alphas, though? Gag .

Should I call Cooper and tell him about Riley?

I wasn’t sure how hard it would fuck him up if he knew she was engaged and about to leave the country.

It would probably be healthier for everyone if I let him live in blissful ignorance, let Riley go on her way, and never make a peep to Cooper she’d been within his grasp.

“Why’d you come back?” I asked.

“Figured I’d make one trip in before I probably never came back ever. Any trips back to the States after we were settled in Berlin would just be to New York, so it felt like a last chance.”

I didn’t want it to be a last chance. I wanted her to come home, even though I knew she couldn’t.

Hell, it was already a risk for her to be here at all when everyone who’d made her bolt to begin with was still kicking around.

Not super close by, but close enough they’d probably hear she was around eventually.

“Why’d you choose here?”

“I didn’t know you were here when I did. It was the first thing that popped up when I was searching this really cute tourism guide I found.”

“Was it the one Morgan made?”

Riley paused, looking up from the parsley she was chopping. “Could be. I didn’t notice her name on it, but I wasn’t looking for it either. Didn’t really skim past the travel info to find the author.”

“She’s been trying to highlight a lot more options in the state for tourists, but obviously we get dibs on the good spots since she knows us and we’re awesome.”

Riley laughed. “You’re definitely that.”

She was unfairly pretty, always had been, but it wasn’t remotely the most alluring thing about her. Riley had a spine of steel and she was smart as a fucking whip. She could talk circles around anyone in town—and often had—just for the fun of watching them struggle to keep up with the debates.

Back then she’d been Cooper’s girl, but if I was honest with myself I’d always hoped she’d be our girl one day.

Too bad all the fuckers in her life had driven her out the hot second she turned eighteen.

I’d had another year of high school to finish or I’d have probably followed her.

Cooper kicked himself every day for not doing that, even though he’d had a damn good reason to stay.

If she hadn’t gone no contact with everyone to stay off the radar, maybe things would’ve been different. Long distance wasn’t so terrible when it was all you had.

Hearing her voice again scratched an itch I hadn’t realized was still bothering me. For a long time after she left, everything had just felt weird and wrong, like she had lopped off one of my arms and sprinted away with it. We’d learned to function without her, but it was never the same.

“Keep talking.”

“About what?” She laughed again.

“Anything. You’ve been gone a long time. Surely there’s some things to update me on.”

She chatted while she whipped up a batter for dessert, telling me about her first year in New York, the thousands of culture shocks she’d navigated, the classes she remembered being her favorites, and how she had cried herself to sleep more than once after leaving.

“Fucked me up for a long time to be so happy for my freedom and miserable missing you guys all at once. The campus had decent therapists and I’m sure they got sick of me by the time I graduated, but I figured I might as well go all in on healing from the bullshit I went through. ”

“That’s awfully healthy of you.”

“I know, right? It helped a lot getting that professional outsider perspective. Gave me coping tools so I didn’t self-destruct.”

Goddamn. I needed to touch her right the fuck now. I wrapped my arms around her, resting my chin on top of her head, and her whole body stiffened.

She squeaked. “Cash?”

I stepped back quickly. “Sorry. Just got overwhelmed by how much I missed you. Got twelve years of hugs to catch up on.”

“It’s okay.” The short distance between us disappeared and she leaned heavily against my chest, lacing her fingers together behind my back. “Guess I’d better get you started on the catch up then.”

She fit so perfectly in my arms. Fate was an absolute bitch to have brought her home engaged, and not even to people I could contemplate inviting into our pack so she might stay.

I didn’t make a peep about that part. Cooper and I had formed one with Dakota and Levi—our equine vet and equine therapist—a few years ago.

I loved my pack, but I knew we were missing something .

Now that Riley was back in Montana, I knew exactly what it was.

We were missing her .

I wanted to tell Riley, but I didn’t want her to pull back. If she was weird about Cooper, then being in a pack with him might make her weird about me too, and I couldn’t handle that right now.

She’d be gone in a couple of days and it wouldn’t matter anyway.

Maybe it was a massively dick move to hide her and Cooper from each other, but she had explicitly said she couldn’t face him, and it would be just as dickish to force him in front of her.

“What omega scent did you get?” I asked. “You’re hiding it. Rude.”

Riley giggled, the cutest fucking sound. “Lupines.”

“The best flower. And not just because they smell weirdly like grape soda.”

“Funnily enough, I got a tattoo of lupines before my scent came in.”

Every inch of me tightened at the thought of a tattoo on her skin. It wasn’t anywhere visible or I’d have seen it, and she wasn’t wearing that much for clothing.

“Where?”

“Someplace I have no business showing off in the middle of the kitchen.”

“Goddamn, woman. When did you become such a tease?” I said with a laugh.

“Always have been, always will be.” She grinned up at me. “I have to cut the hug short so I can pour the batter into the pans.”

I pasted my most dramatic pout onto my face, getting another giggle out of her.

Riley scraped down the sides of the mixing bowl on our industrial stand mixer and I hoisted it onto the counter to pour it into the two pans she had already greased.

“What’s this turning into?”

“Bastardized black forest cake. I saw you guys had a bunch of sour cherry preserves so I’ll do a layer of that in the middle and top everything with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.”

“That’s it. You’re never allowed to leave. All our guests are going to starve without you.”

God, I fucking loved her laugh. Coaxing it out of her when we were teens had been one of my favorite activities, and I was thankful I hadn’t lapsed in my skills. “One gourmet weekend is all I can spare.”

“Fair enough. Do you think I could steal you away from your fiancés tomorrow night?”

“They probably wouldn’t like it, but what for?”

“There’s a bar in town that does line dancing. Do you still like that?”

“Oh my god. Absolutely the fuck yes. I’m probably rusty as all get out, but sign me up.”

I sent up a quiet thanks to the universe. I didn’t have plans to steal Riley away from her relationship, but her fiancés were going to get her every damn day, so I was going to claw up any time I could get.

I kept her chatting, letting her tell me all the things she loved about the East Coast. I’d lived there as a kid before my parents had taken their millions and bought up a ranch in rural Montana, trying their hands at being cowboys.

They were not good at it, but they had the money to hire people who were, so things didn’t completely fall apart.

I learned a lot from the staff, enough that when Cooper had suggested we go in together and start our own business out here, I felt like I was useful beyond providing the financial backing.

I didn’t know as much as Cooper, who had grown up on a working ranch, but I wasn’t anywhere near as bad as my parents were when they came out here.

“You’ve lived in New York for this long and you’ve never seen a show on Broadway? Riley, that’s criminal.”

“I know, I know. Bruce and Bryan don’t like live theater.”

“So? You don’t need them to go with you.”

“I know that too. I did a lot of other New York staples; I just never made it to that one. All the people I hung out with were locals, so the tourist stuff never appealed to them.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re at least forcing the tourist stuff on those uncultured city slickers.”

“Oh god. Cash, they’re gonna ride horses in suits. What was I thinking, bringing them out here?”

“I think all of us deserve the opportunity to see them looking like hoity-toity buttmunches on horseback.”

Riley cackled. “They’re going to hate it so much. I feel bad.”

“Don’t. They’re grown men. They could’ve packed appropriately.”

“I did everything short of packing their suitcases myself.”

“Gross.” I said it and I meant it. “Please don’t tell me you do that for other stuff. You’re their omega, not a parent.”

Her shoulders hunched a little as she poured whipping cream into the freshly washed mixing bowl. “They’re both used to having an executive assistant handle most things.”

“Riley, you’re not their assistant. You’re their partner.”

“I know that.” She huffed, shoving the bowl into the locking mechanism a little harder than necessary. “It’s just easier not to cause a fight.”

I stared at her long and hard. “Okay, I am painfully aware it’s not my place to say anything, but I heard that phrase a lot from you in high school when you didn’t want to get into it with your family.”

Riley bristled. “You’re right, Cash. It’s not your place to say anything. Fuck you for trying to compare my fiancés to my family.”

I raised both hands in surrender. “I’m sorry. I just love you a whole fucking lot and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Her face pinched.

“You deserve the damn world. You always have. I’d be a shit friend if I didn’t make sure that’s what you finally have.”

Her anger melted a fraction. “Relationships are complicated and imperfect. I promise I’m not unhappy.”

I chewed my lip, opting to keep my mouth shut this time. Not unhappy wasn’t the same thing as being happy, but I wasn’t about to start my own fight with her and lose out on what little time I had.

She loaded the cake pans into the oven and stood next to the mixer, keeping an eye on the churning cream. “I’m sorry I snapped.”

“It’s okay. We both know I have a habit of sticking my foot in my mouth.”

“It’s kind of a relief to know you didn’t grow out of that. You’re still you.”

“That I am.” I beamed at her. “Good to have me back?”

Her eyes got far too shiny before she tucked back against me. “Yeah. It’s really good, Cash.”