Northern Exposure: Compass Brothers, Book 1 (5 page)

“Then why—?”

“I don’t have all the answers, Colby. And I’m not trying to bust your balls either, just talking. This next bit will be rough for us all. More so for you. Make sure you’re ready to grab the bull by its horns and sit tight. I have faith you’ll tough it out. Hell, you’re the only one of my sons that stuck. Every other one couldn’t put up with this life. Took off the second they turned eighteen.”

“They’re morons. Every one of the Compass Brothers. I wouldn’t have picked anyone else to be my father. No other place to call home.” Pride at the man’s compliment filled him with awe and gratitude. JD put his sons above all else. To be counted among them meant something. Something huge.

They pivoted as if by mutual agreement, standing shoulder to shoulder against the rail so they didn’t have to look into each other’s eyes. “You and Victoria raised your kids right. Nothing like my shithead sperm donor.”

JD grunted his agreement.

Colby had always suspected it’d been the head of Compass Ranch who’d kicked the living crap out of his father to encourage the asshole to leave town. The sick bastard had limped from Compton Pass, never to be seen again, abandoning his teenage son. An hour later Vicky had showed up to claim the malnourished, beaten kid Colby had been and welcomed him into their lives. She’d tamed him like a wild animal, inching closer until he finally believed in the reality of their generosity, kindness and love.

The Comptons had given him shelter, a job and so much more. Family. A home.

A life worth living.

“I’m not planning on leaving Compass Ranch anytime soon if that’s what you’re working toward. I would never abandon you or Vicky or Lucy. Not after what Silas put you all through. I’ll give him a chance to heal up, but we’re gonna have words about it. That I promise.”

Another long silence followed, this one easier as the firm set of JD’s shoulders relaxed a hair. As they often did while catching a break, they shared the silence, watching over the ranch as they kept their own company.

Colby had become fast friends with all four Compass brothers—as the locals referred to them—overnight. Still, there’d always been something about Silas and Lucy. The three of them would take off on adventures, exploring the land and the bond growing between them.

Until things had spiraled out of control.

“Remember Jack Newton?”

Colby searched the recesses of his memory at JD’s random interjection. A lot of wandering men had worked the ranch a summer or two but…Jack?

“Tall, skinny like a bean pole, mean as a bear with a tooth ache?”

“Ah, yeah. I remember that fucker. Never did trust him.” More like he’d hated the way the man had appraised him with lurid intentions blatant in his stare.

“When I fired his ass, he tried to throw it in my face how he’d seen you and my ‘fag son’ going at it in the barn. How little Lucy caught you and bolted the night before Silas hightailed it out of here.”

“Son of a bitch.” Colby crashed his fist into the rough-hewn rail, regretting it as a spike of sensation traveled through his knuckles. “I fucked up, JD. Shit, I’m sorry. All these years. It’s my fault he left. You knew, and you didn’t kick me out?”

“Don’t go getting stupider than you’ve already been, son.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He shook the sting from his hand.

“You three kids have been pissing away time like it goes on forever.” JD rubbed his side, a gesture Colby had spied him making a few times lately. “Quit screwing around and set things straight. Whatever it takes. You’re only given so long around this place. Use it well.”

A million other questions tumbled through Colby’s mind, but by the time he recovered, JD had already handed his horse to Jake—who worked the stable this morning—then headed inside to his wife. Despite Vicky’s spine of steel, she probably wished for her husband at her side. Colby hoped his marriage, and Lucy’s attachment to him, was half as strong as the extraordinary relationship JD had forged with his woman.

Anything less would make the fledgling plans kicking around in his brain unravel in a heartbeat. Phase one entailed corralling Lucy alone. Isolated from the herd of folks gathering on the front porch bearing pies, and hoping for extra gossip, as the news spread.

Less than a half hour had passed since their lives flipped inside out yet several pickups already cluttered the yard. The drone of more engines approaching along the winding drive from the main road, a few miles in the distance, insured extra casseroles and gossip headed this direction.

Colby should have realized the flaw in his plan when he had to stop twice on the way to the house. “Is there anything I can do?” Cindi, the cute bookkeeper who worked from a little office in the barn, stepped in front of him, swiping a stray lock of hair beneath the pencil wound in her hair.

“How about putting together a list of supplies from Lucy? She might need equipment we don’t have here and can’t find in town.”

“Good idea. I have it covered. We’re expecting a shipment tomorrow morning from Laramie. I’ll make sure anything else comes with it.”

“Great, thanks.” He accepted her hug but didn’t make it more than ten feet before he bumped into Leah Hollister.

“Whoa.” Colby snagged the covered dish about to smash on the rocky yard.

“Nice catch, foreman.” Compton Pass’s sweet kindergarten teacher reclaimed the dish with a sad smile. She refused to let him help her carry it, always trying to prove herself. Someday he’d ask her why that was. “Are you hanging in?”

“Yeah. Need to find Lucy, though.” He kept one hand on her elbow as they climbed the stairs. Such a tiny thing couldn’t possibly see where she stepped around the comfort food she’d carted over in record time. How the hell did women do that?

“I think you missed her. She ran past while you were talking to Cindi. Said she was headed to the storage shed to dig out a few of Silas’s things.” The door opened before they reached it. Someone piled Leah’s offering with the rest. The crowd swallowed her before he could slip another word in edgewise. He tried to break out, follow Lucy. No use. Someone else interrupted. Damn!

And so it went.

Despite valiant attempts, he didn’t manage to isolate his wife until after midnight. All day, prying eyes and pointed comments had eroded his confidence. Lucy’s infatuation with Silas had been no secret growing up. The entire community wondered what would happen if the chemistry zinged between her and Silas when the pair reunited at last.

Colby most of all.

What if she only wanted Si? Nothing—no one—more?

It had damn near killed Colby not to chase after Silas and beg him to come home. Survival without both halves of his soul would prove impossible. Only Lucy had made Silas’s abandonment bearable.

Sometime in the last couple minutes his wife had sunk onto the floral-patterned sofa in Vicky’s parlor and crashed. He studied her even breathing across the bar that opened into the family room of the ranch house while he finished drying glasses.

“I can clear these up.” Vicky reached up to pat his back.

“I’ve got them.” He smiled over his shoulder but couldn’t hold her assessing gaze for more than a moment. “Almost done.”

“If you squeeze a little harder you’ll shatter it. I’m fond of that pattern.” She
tsked
then applied pressure on the bunched muscles of his forearm until he paused. “Things will be all right.”

He set the final cup on the counter then absorbed Vicky’s hug. She didn’t hound him to speak. Instead, she hung on until some of the tension seeped from him.

“There, that’s better. Now, take that girl of yours home. She’s exhausted herself.”

“I can’t believe she got Silas’s old room ready so fast.”

“That isn’t what wore her out.” Vicky stared at him as though he were slow. “Enough hiding, Colby. JD promised he spoke with you this morning. Maybe he didn’t do a good enough job?”

“It’s not fair for you two to gang up on me.” He laughed then kissed her cheek. “JD did fine. It’s just…”

“What?”

“It’s been so long. If Si had taken her immediately maybe it would’ve been different. I wouldn’t have known what I was missing. If I lose her to him now, I’ll never survive it. But I want them to be happy. Both of them.”

“So I guess you’ll have to make sure all three of you win now, won’t you?” She squeezed Colby as though she weren’t condoning an illicit arrangement for her own son.

“How did you guess what I was thinking?”

She withdrew a fraction of an inch, one brow raised. “Why do men always think they’re so subtle when they’re after something?”

“You’re okay with…?” He didn’t how to describe the relationship he had in mind. He needed the three of them to be together, equals bonded permanently.

“It’s called a triad, Colby.” She chuckled when a blush heated his cheeks. “Plenty of people enjoy ménage. Shoot, in our day, JD and I—”

He choked. Christ, what was he, thirteen again?

“Yeah, well, you get the point.” She grinned, relishing his discomfort a moment more before turning serious. “What’s in your heart? Don’t listen to anything else. A hell of a lot of people objected to JD and me when we first started dating.”

“Why?” His head tilted as he absorbed the sincerity of her statement. He couldn’t imagine two people better suited. What could society have possibly objected to?

“‘Cause I was so young. He was handsome as sin, wealthy and nearly twenty years my senior. People couldn’t believe affection or tenderness was involved.” She grinned. “And he had quite a reputation for having a dark edge in bed.”

“Okay, enough!” He didn’t need to picture JD’s dominant personality translating to sex. It reminded him too much of his dreams of Silas. He shook his head. “It’s funny, I don’t see any of that when I look at the two of you. I can’t imagine either of you with anyone else.”

“Exactly, Colby.” She patted his cheek then nodded. “Folks might gawk or run their fool mouths at first. In time everyone else will accept you. I can’t picture the three of you any other way.”

“He’s been gone so long.” He wished he could kick his own ass when his whisper caused his surrogate mother to wince and the sheen of tears glistened in her eyes. “What if things are different?”

“If I know my boy at all, he’ll be the same as ever. Headstrong, noble and hard-working.” Vicky nibbled her lip as if debating whether to speak her mind. He waited her out, glad when she continued. “You needed this time, Colby. To grow into your own without Silas here. I think if he’d stayed, you never would have become so independent. You’re a man to be proud of, honey. You earned your position as foreman and the other hands respect you. Lucy adores you. JD and I are lucky to have you. Silas would be too.”

“Thank you.” He hated the sting behind his scrunched eyelids.

“Now put your wife to bed right. She’ll need her energy tomorrow.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He grinned as he rounded the bar and scooped Lucy into his arms.

She snuggled close to his chest and sighed, a perfect fit for his hold.

Chapter Four

Lucy blinked at the hairline crack snaking across the plastered ceiling above her and Colby’s bed. How had she gotten here?

The foreman’s lodge lay half a mile east of the main house. She didn’t remember the trip home. They certainly hadn’t raced their mounts along the well-used trail as they did when they couldn’t wait to crash into bed—or onto the kitchen floor—together. Neither did she recall driving herself in her Jeep as she did when she returned from a long day of tending to her elderly or terminal homebound patients.

It would have been impossible to forget riding double with Colby in the moonlight and crisp air as they did on occasion to relax after a long day. The security of her husband’s muscled arm around her waist, his powerful thighs bracketing hers and the promise of his hard cock in the small of her back always had her eager for attention by the time they walked his gelding—Couper—bareback out of the farmyard, never mind along the entire trail to their house.

Sometimes they had to stop along the route.

She smiled to herself as she realized Colby must have driven her home sometime after she’d surrendered, promising to take a miniscule five-minute break before washing the mountain of dishes that had piled up. Nearly the entire town of Compton Pass had swung by the ranch at some point to show their support. The whole day melted into one long blur of activity.

The brush of supple cotton sheets on her breasts as she lay naked confirmed Colby had tucked her in. Undressing her infatuated him. He’d peel her clothes off as though he performed a sacred ritual intended to worship her body. The man treated her like a goddess.

Running water caught her attention. She rolled to her side and checked the clock on her nightstand. Nearly two in the morning. She considered joining her husband in the shower as he soaped his ripped muscles, honed by daily manual labor.

Every ridge and line would gleam beneath the slick suds.

Memories of many shared washings had her humming her approval. Despite the stress of the day, she couldn’t shake the low level buzz that had haunted her since the news of Silas’s homecoming. Her thighs parted a bit, and she ran one palm low on her abdomen. Engrossed in the recollection, she didn’t notice Colby had finished until he strolled into their room.

“What’s going on out here, naughty girl? Can’t leave you alone for a minute.” The twinkle in his eyes as he emerged with a towel slung low on his trim hips proclaimed he’d caught her thinking of him. With one glance, he read everything she felt. Exactly what she needed.

He ruffled the terrycloth over his damp hair, granting her a world-class view of grade A beefcake.

“Like what you see, Mrs. Peterson?”

“Mmm. You’re one mighty fine cowboy.”

A glimmer of doubt crossed her husband’s face. “Was it me you were thinking of?”

Lucy levered onto her elbows, the sheet pooling at her waist. Things were serious when her bare breasts couldn’t distract Colby. He had a thing for her tits, especially when her nipples stood straight out as they did now. He would spend hours ravishing the sensitive peaks.

He didn’t glance away from her stare. His throat worked as he gulped. She patted the bedspread beside her hip, and he crossed to her in two moderate strides of his long legs.