Page 35 of The Triple Threat

“I’m good thanks.”

With one last smile, I went to find Bronte, feeling a deep ache in my heart for Hunter.

“My dad chewed me two new ones this morning,” Carter complained as he skimmed over the menu in Café Au Lait. “He actually told me I was fucking grounded.”

“Is that so,” I replied, barely listening to him.

He’d been bitching since I’d picked him up, about his dad calling him about the trick he’d played on Ellie. To be honest, I’d switched off after the tenth time of hearing it.

“If I’d known that she was scared of them, I wouldn’t have worn it,” I added, sitting back in my chair. “It was a pretty shitty thing to do.”

Carter clutched a hand to his chest and stared at me, his mouth wide open.

“What? It was.”

“I know, that’s why I did it and you’re supposed to be on my side. Since when have you ever been on Ellie’s side?”

Since I realized she was fucking hot and kissed like a porn star—not that I’d ever kissed a porn star, but I had an imagination.

“Since that was the shittiest thing you’ve ever done to her. She was real scared and it made me feel bad.”

“Hey boys, the usual.”

I smiled up at Delphine who ran the café with her husband Garth and earned myself a beautiful one in return. Delphine and Garth were in their late fifties and didn’t have any kids, so for the thirty years they’d been running the café, every kid in town had been unofficially adopted by the sweet couple.

“Hello, darlin’,” Delphine said, scuffing my already messy, Sunday morning, had a few drinks and delivered a calf the night before, hair. “How’s your pop doing? I haven’t seen him in here for a few weeks.”

“He’s good, Delphine. We’re busy on the ranch and when he’s not busy, he’s kinda busy if you know what I mean.”

Delphine’s cheeks blushed a pretty pink; she was another one who thought the sun shone from my pop’s ass and dimples.

“What about you, sweetheart?” She turned to Carter. “Has Lance decided it’s time for you to take over yet?”

Carter pouted and shook his head, earning him a hug.

“Oh, my lord. When will that man see sense?” Delphine pulled away from Carter and took a pen from the mess of hair on top of her head. “Usual, boys?”

Carter looked at the menu again and I knew he was contemplating going healthy, as he did every other Sunday when we went in for lunch. But like every other Sunday…

“Yep, all-day breakfast, and some of your amazing coffee please, Delphine,” he said, rubbing his stomach.

“Coming right up.”

Once she was out of earshot, I nudged Carter with my foot.

“So, tell me, who’d you hook up with last night?”

“Who said I did.” He frowned. “Did Ellie tell you, because she’s a sneaky little liar if she did.”

What the fuck was wrong with him? He normally couldn’t wait to tell me every last little detail of who he’d banged or nearly banged at a party.

“Well did you?”

“No. After you bailed on me, I spent the night talking to Minnesota, well listening to him cry into his beer to be more truthful.”

“Really?” I asked. “Rather than get your hands into some girl’s panties you spent the night talking to Minnesota who’d just been dumped. Jeez man, way to have a good night.”

“Tell me about it. He cornered me. You should have asked me to come help with the calf.”