“The whole thing stinks to high heaven,” he said. “People want omegas gone. And by people, I mean betas. At least it seems that way.”
“Well, we’re too tired to hash it out tonight. Let’s go to bed,” I said.
“Sounds good.” Colt covered a yawn with his hand.
I don’t think two minutes went by after I crawled into the warm bed with my mates before I was sawing logs.
Chapter twenty
Colt
With Ben’s help, it only took a week for me to get all my stuff out of the cabin and a “for sale” sign in the front yard. The following Saturday, I decided to celebrate this achievement by taking Ben and Angus to the market in Jessup. Not to sell anything—Maddox and David were going to do that—but to walk around and have fun. Like a date.
The day was beautiful, warm and sunny as opposed to chilly and wet, an equally likely scenario in these parts in late spring. As we climbed out of my Outback in the outdoor market parking area, I said so to my mates.
“I’m looking forward to summer and swimming in the river,” I added.
“That sounds like fun,” Ben said.
“For sure, we’ll do it, then,” Angus promised him. “Although Colt is sure to dunk one of us.”
“Do you guys go swimming a lot?” Ben asked as we walked across the gravel lot toward the covered booths in the near distance.
“Not a lot,” I answered. “But a couple of times a summer, usually. I don’t know if we got to do it last year, did we, Angus?”
He shook his head. “Last year was pretty busy. Colt and I like to fish, too. What about you, Ben?”
“I’ve never been fishing,” Ben said. “I’ve never lived near water.”
“Do you know how to swim?” I asked.
Ben shook his head.
“We’ll teach you,” I said. “Won’t we, Angus?”
“Yup. Don’t want you drowning on us.” He grinned at Ben fondly, but I could see the worry in his eyes. Not for Ben drowning, because we would watch him like hawks, but for his health in general. A week had gone by, and he was still sleeping way more than was normal. One day when Ben and I had been working in my cabin, I got a phone call and went outside to take it. I was out there a while because the utilities company was being difficult about my bill, and when I came back in, Ben, who had been sitting on a rug on the floor, had gathered the boxes around himself and was fast asleep. He looked so cute, I took a picture. Then, I started worrying that I was overworking him.
Another time, later in the week, Ben disappeared after breakfast and Angus and I found him on our bed with about a dozen pillows from around the house surrounding him. He’d only been up a couple of hours.
Angus had been working so hard doing both his own work at the ranch and going over to the Borders’ to help them repair everything, we hadn’t had time to talk about Ben’s health. But we’d communicated our concern with our eyes on many occasions, so I knew he’d noticed it same as I had.
Before Laura had left for home, she’d asked Angus to watch over Nova and Eric and their kids. She seemed to have gotten awfully close to the little family in a short amount of time, but I guess that came from being there for them when their littleboy was so sick. Now that she was back in Hudson City, she was probably worried about them. Angus would have gone over there today if I hadn’t assured him that Grant Cheevers and his boys would be there.
“Hey, they’re selling honey!” Ben pointed at a table covered in jars with bright labels on them. He ran ahead of us, and Angus and I smiled at his excitement.
“Good to see him so lit up. This was a good idea,” Angus said.
“You’ve been worried about him, too,” I said.
“Hard not to when he suddenly wants to sleep every minute of the day.” Angus stopped walking and turned to me. “But I think I know what it’s about, Colt.”
Heart in my throat, I waited for him to tell me. Was Ben sick?
Angus smiled. “You look like you’re gonna puke. It’s not bad, it’s actually kind of good. I’m pretty sure Ben is having our baby.”
“Huh?” Dumbfounded, I could only stare at Angus like he’s spoken in Mandarin.
“I said, I am pretty certain that Ben is pregnant. I didn’t really think about it until that day we found him with all the pillows. David did that all the time when he was pregnant with Ollie. It’s callednesting.”