Page 21 of Single Mom’s Mountain Men (Mountain Men Reverse Harem #1)

Patty

I have a dream about Keegan for the first time in a long time.

I know it’s a dream because the twisted memory is of the first time Keegan ever hit me.

He was agitated that morning, searching around for the expensive watch that he always wore for important business meetings.

I didn't know the name of the watch and was too much of a simpleton to really tell one shiny watch from another, but I knew it cost ten thousand dollars because Keegan said as much.

“Maybe you left it at the office,” I suggested as I ironed his shirt, trying to be helpful. “Didn’t you tell me that sometimes you like to take it off when the cops come snooping around?’

“It's not at the office. I already had Eva search the whole place and she said it wasn’t there.”

I tightened my lips against the words that threaten to burst forth.

And how much do you trust Eva to tell you the truth?

I wanted to remind him that Eva had sticky fingers back in high school and I wouldn’t put it past her to take this chance to snag that watch and sell it for however much she could get for it.

But of course, I didn't say what I was thinking because Keegan wouldn't believe me anyway. He'd just accuse me of being jealous of Eva because she’s younger and prettier than me. And to be fair, she was, but I didn't see why he kept bringing it up every time I raised my concerns about the woman.

“Damn it, where the fuck is it?” He tossed the throw pillows that I spent ages deep cleaning to the floor and tore off the rest of the sectional cushions.

“My love, you’re making a mess,” I said, coming up behind him.

“That's not the fucking problem. The problem is that I can’t find my damn watch."

I sighed. "Alright, I'll help you look." I tried to retrace his steps from when he came in last night, leading me into the kitchen and close to the backdoor.

He'd come in, kissed me, and then rushed upstairs while taking off his clothes, insisting he needed a shower desperately for a meeting he'd had.

I now walked up the stairs to the bathroom, and immediately spotted it, glinting on the floor by the sink.

I leaned down and picked it up, groaning at the cracked surface.

He's not going to like that.

“I found it," I announced and in two seconds, Keegan was at my shoulder. I flinched a little as he grabbed the watch roughly, his thumb running over the screen reverently.

“It’s broken,” he said, sounding so horrified you would have thought someone died. “Did you break it?”

“Of course not,” I said. "That’s how I found it.”

"What do you fucking mean that's how you found it? It wasn't broken last night. Did you drop it when you were cleaning or something?"

"No," I responded defensively. "Maybe you dropped it when you rushed out of here last night on whatever secret meeting you were having."

His eyes sparked but I was too young and naive to tell the danger then. I thought we were simply having a disagreement, one that we could easily resolve. I rolled my eyes and reached for the watch. “Don’t worry. I know someone who can get this fixed in a jiff."

My hand had barely touched the surface of the watch when a blow landed on my cheek, throwing my back hard against the porcelain of the sink.

I braced myself against it as pain exploded in my head, stinging on my skin.

My ears rang for seconds, but I could still hear Keegan rage in my face.

"You know a guy? This is a ten thousand dollar watch and you think some guy you know can fix it?”

Tears sprang to my eyes, mostly from the shock than the pain in all honesty.

Keegan just slapped me. The words were singing in my mind, but they didn't feel real yet.

Nothing felt real. I felt like I was stuck in a nightmare where Keegan, the love of my life, the father of the baby I was carrying, had just slapped me.

Suddenly hands were on my shoulders then a finger on my chin.

“Oh baby,” he said and steered my face so I could look into his apologetic eyes. “I’m so sorry, for that. I don’t know what came over me. I… I’ve been having a stressful week… Jesus, baby, I can't believe I did that. I didn’t mean to hit you. Are you okay?”

I nodded numbly, cold seeping into my chest. Keegan just hit me . I knew it was wrong and that I should tell him it was wrong or cry or do something here. But I just sat there numbly, while he pressed kisses to my hair and promised he would never do it again.

Eventually, I tried to get over it. He took me to a nice restaurant for dinner that night and we had great sex afterward. He was super sweet to me for months after, and never so much as raised his voice.

We never spoke about that incident again and I chucked it up as a onetime thing.

But it was the beginning of the end.

A noise jolts me back to the present and my eyes fly open. I orient myself noting that I'm cuddled up with my girls, Maddie in one arm and Katie in the other.

But there's a sense of wrongness in the atmosphere, beyond the nightmare I was having.

It's probably paranoia, I think, and decide to go back to sleep.

I’m right on the cusp of slumber when I hear a commotion in the form of a faint clatter and a crash, followed by a dull thump.

I'm suddenly wide awake.

Instantly alarmed, I slip out from between my sleeping girls and rush out, making sure to lock the door behind me.

I head to the main house where the thumping sounds are coming from, like two sacks colliding with each other, accompanied by various higher pitched crashing and smashing sounds.

I walk into the kitchen just in time to see Wes drive his entire body into Charlie, wrapping his arms around his brother's waist.

Charlie barely budges. With Wes bent over, he brings his elbow down on Wes's back and Wes retaliates by driving his fist into Charlie’s side.

“Oof!” Charlie grunts from the pain as Wes grabs him around my middle again, tackling the bigger man to the floor .

“Stop it!” I scream, but they don’t listen to me.

Charlie soon seizes the upper hand from his brother.

He grabs Wes's head, driving his forehead into it and this discombobulates Wes enough for Charlie to push him off.

Before he can get up though, Wes grabs his leg causing Charlie to stumble and fall.

“Both of you stop!”

Again they ignore me. Wes gets Charlie with an uppercut and Charlie drives his knee into Wes’ gut, before punching him back in the eye.

Oh God, they’re going to kill themselves if this keeps going on.

“What the fuck is happening over there?” A door slams and a shirtless Mitchell emerges from the dark hallways.

When he sees his brothers fighting, he doesn’t look alarmed, merely irritated.

“God, y’all couldn’t wait till morning to pull this bullshit?

Take it the fuck outside before you break our good china. ”

The boys don’t listen to him either. Wes shoves Charlie against the wall and then with an angry cry, he starts raining his fists on him. Charlie put his hands up to block, sneaking punches here and there.

I’ve finally had it with them. I head to the sink and grab the largest pot we have from the cabinet above it. I fill that pot with cold water, growing angrier as the sounds continue behind me.

By the time I turn around again, Charlie has Wes in a headlock and Wes is slamming his fist into the side of Charlie's face. Mitch is trying to separate the men, but he’s not doing a great job and is somehow getting dragged into it, ending up catching a stray blow from Wes.

“Damn it Wes, calm the fuck down,” he snarls, and then his eyes catch mine as I move into position.

I send him a signal with my chin. He nods and steps out of the way, right before I send the cold water flying into the air, and onto the two men.

“Fuck!” Wes barks as Charlie releases him and they both stop to stare at me. Wes has a swollen eye and a cut on his lip. Soaking wet now, he looks ridiculous. “What the fuck was that for Patty?”

“That’s for acting like an asshole,” I yell back at him. “What on earth were the two of you thinking, fighting like a pair of zoo animals? Are you insane? You’re lucky you didn’t wake up my girls because then there would have been hell to pay."

They both blink at me, chagrin growing on their expressions. Mitch stands off the side with his arms crossed, grinning almost like he’s impressed. But I’m still too mad to enjoy the comical picture they make.

“Sorry,” Charlie is the first to apologize. He looks better off than Wes, although it looks like his jaw might be swollen and he definitely took some hard hits to the ribcage.

“Yeah, I’m sorry Patty,” Wes says too. “We didn’t mean to disturb you.”

“You disturbed me as well,” Mitch says, letting his hands drop.

“And I’m annoyed because if y’all got enough energy for this bullshit, then you have enough energy to finish your work on time.

” He turns to head back to his room. “Get some sleep after she's done chewing you out. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow with the upped quota.”

The men don’t respond to him. Wes is still glaring at Charlie and Charlie is pretending not to notice.

“What was that even about?” I ask. “Why were you trying to kill each other?”

Neither of them chooses to answer me. They both avoid my gaze, but then I see something sticking out of Charlie’s pocket, something black and lacy .

Oh no.

My anger drains out of me turning into a churning horror.

Wes’s eyes also drop to the panties and his face flushes.

“Were you guys fighting because of me?” I ask quietly.

“No,” Charlie says too quickly to be believable. Wes shakes his head too, but he doesn’t meet my eyes as he pivots to the hallway.

“I’m going to bed,” he says. “Mitch is right. It’s going to be a long fucking day tomorrow.”

The brothers’ moods haven’t improved by the next morning.

Charlie and Wes skip breakfast and when I take them their early lunches, their smiles of thanks are welcoming but strained.

At dinner, Wes doesn’t pull his usual jokes and even Charlie is quieter than normal.

Mitch ignores both of them, talking to me and my daughter instead, and listening to their stories about their day.

It doesn’t get better as the week progresses it’s affecting my girls too.

Usually, on the weekend, when the daycare is closed, the girls alternate spending time with all three men as they work (unless of course, what the men are doing is too dangerous for my little ones to tag along).

They like to follow the brothers around, whether it’s marking trees with Wes, or peppering Mitch with questions as he sorts the wood or watching Uncle Charlie load logs.

And when they’re not doing that, they’re helping me cook.

But this weekend, the two girls spend most of their time with Mitch and me, which only tells me they can sense the strain from the other two men.

I only really see the men during meals but from what I’ve noticed, Wes and Charlie are still not talking to each other and the tension in the atmosphere only grows and grows to a point where I can’t take it anymore.

I need to do something to fix this, especially since it’s my fault that it's broken in the first place.

I never should have hooked up with either of them, and I regret that I did. I should have known better than to come between the brothers, especially since they’ve been so kind to me this whole time.

And now, I may have ruined everything. I may even have to leave because I don’t feel right staying here, being the cause of their problems.

I just hate that my careless actions brought all this about.

At the end of the week, I head to the woods to find Mitch climbing out of his logging crane. He’s shirtless once more and I give myself a second to admire his sculpted muscles before I call out. “Mitch.”

He glances at me, taking off his earpiece. “What’s wrong?”

“Um…” I twist my fingers together as I wonder how to start. “I think I might be the reason why Charlie and Wes are fighting.”

“Really?” he frowns. “How so?”

I take a deep breath, my gaze falling from his.

“I…kinda hooked up with Wes weeks ago. And then I hooked up with Charlie on the day of their fight. I think maybe Wes found out and he was mad and…I’m so sorry Mitch.

It wasn't supposed to happen and it was a mistake. I told them it was, and I’m so ashamed of my actions–”

“Is that it?” Mitch interrupts. When I look up, he's grinning.

“Yeah," I answer unsure, because his reaction confuses me. "I’m sorry. I swear I wasn’t trying to cause any harm.”

“Nah, don’t worry.” He waves his hand like it doesn’t matter. “It’s not your fault. Those two go about it every few months and with how stressed out we all are, they were due for a fight. It’s normal amongst boys.”

“You sure?”

He nods. “And even if they’re fighting over you, that’s not your fault either.

You didn’t promise commitment to any of them – at least I assume you didn’t – and they’re grown ass men who should be able to deal with their emotions like adults.

You don’t need to be ashamed of anything.

” His gaze turns gentle. “Don’t worry. I’ll talk to them. Set them straight.”

I nod, feeling a sense of relief that I’d got that off my chest. Now that everything's out in the open, maybe it will get settled.

I just need to control my hormones better and never sleep with any of the guys again.