Page 11 of The Triple Threat

Ellie’s head turned in my direction and she glared at me.

“In what?” Bronte asked, as she began to walk toward the kitchen.

“Hunter offered to help me with the hospital fundraiser,” Ellie answered quickly.

I was glad that she’d thought on her feet, but I also realized that she would finally get me to do what I’d always said I wouldn’t. Now she’d said it to Bronte, I’d have to agree and actually take part in the damn calendar. She had me. When I looked over to her, the sneaky little witch was grinning like a Cheshire cat and I knew I was right.

“Oh my God, Hunter.” Bronte stopped in her tracks. “You always say no.”

“Yeah,” I muttered. “I know.”

“Ellie, what did you do to make him finally agree?”

Ellie shrugged. “Nothing, he just agreed.”

I looked at Ellie with narrow eyes, warning her that something would definitely be coming up that would mean I’d regretfully have to pull out.

“Hey, what’s going on?” a voice half-way between boyhood and manhood croaked behind us.

We all turned to see Bronte’s youngest brother, Austen, sloping out of his room with a pair of huge earphones hanging around his neck. He was thirteen and tall for his age, and by the sound of his voice, his balls were about ready to break free from the confines of his abdomen.

Bronte squealed with excitement and clapped her hands. “Hunter has agreed to help Ellie with the hospital fundraiser.”

“And that’s exciting, why?” Austen asked, blinking through his blond bangs.

“Because he always says no,” Ellie replied as she gave me a sneaky wink.

Austen shrugged. “I’ll help.”

The way he looked at Ellie I had a feeling we had another little crush going on.

“You’re too young buddy,” Ellie said, roughing his hair.

“If Shaw was home, you’d ask him,” Austen grumbled, evidently a little pissed off that his elder brother was probably everything he himself wanted to be.

Shaw was nineteen and currently at Harvard Law no less. Not only did he have brains, but he was a good-looking bastard too; a smarter version of Jax Teller with his buzz cut was how I’d heard him described by more than one of the Dayton Valley ladies when he came home during his college breaks. He was also Austen’s hero. The poor kid had cried for almost a week when Shaw had first gone off to school.

“When you’re eighteen,” Ellie said softly. “You’ll be the first person I ask.”

Austen’s pout slowly disappeared, and he stared at Ellie, silently swearing her to promise.

“Hey,” Bronte shrieked and slapped a hand against her leg. “I have an idea.”

“No,” I replied and wagged a finger at her. “I’m not doing it naked.”

“No stupid,” she said and rolled her eyes. “Why don’t we get your dad to do it with you. Two Delaney’s for the price of one.”

Ellie’s quiet groan sounded pained as she clutched at her stomach.

“Oh God, yes. Hunter and Jefferson Delaney, Mr. January and Mr. February respectively in the ‘Hunks of Dayton Valley’ calendar. And,” she said with a gleam in her eye. “Both of you naked for December. It’ll be epic.”

I knew then that I’d get Carter and Bronte together if it was the last thing I did. If I remembered correctly, I had two months to do it until the calendar started shooting

It had been a week since Hunter had agreed to help me with the Bronte situation and I hadn’t seen neither hide nor hair of the stupid cowboy. It was pissing me off.

He’d promised to help get Bronte and Carter together but staying up at the ranch and not even calling my brother was not helping. I knew he hadn’t spoken to Carter because I’d called at my brother’s apartment twice over the last week to ‘hang out’ and find out what I needed to know. When I’d asked Carter the first time if he’d heard from Hunter, he’d looked at me suspiciously and then accused me – yes me – of crushing on his best friend.

Ugh. As if.