Cowboy Love

Chapter 9

The next day is like the rest - up at 4 a.m., work, take Emery to school, work, do my schooling, pick Emery up from school, and return home. The only difference today is I picked up his friend Nora, too. 

"Can we have a snack before riding, Echo?" Emery asks as we enter the house. 

"Sure, I think Rebel made cookies today," I grin, walking into the kitchen.

"Yeah!" Emery and Nora cheer while following behind me, and I have them sit at the table while I pour them each a glass of milk. 

Sitting down with them with a glass of water, I listen to them talk while my attention is drawn out the sliding door by Rowan and Aspen. Both men are shirtless with their worn denim jeans on as they fix the roof of the horse barn. The three of us talked last night, and I told them I would give them a chance, and they promised to take everything slow with me. 

I wasn't very surprised when they told me they are in a relationship, but I was surprised by the fact they had been for seven years. That means Aspen would have been 22-years-old and Rowan 28-years-old when they started dating, so now I'm dating a 29-year-old and a 35-year-old. We haven't told my granpa's yet, but we're doing it tonight at dinner since they already know that Aspen and Rowan are dating. 

"Echo?" Emery asks, bringing me from my thoughts. 

Bringing my gaze to them, I find both of them done with their snacks, and their dirty dishes are already in the sink. I grin as I stand and leave my glass on the counter by the sink; "Sorry, let's go riding, huh?" 

"Have you rode before, Nora?" I ask, saddling Leaf.

She eagerly nods; "Yes, my sister Nova has taken me a few times."

"Perfect," I grin at her. "This is Leif, and he's awesome, so up you go."

Giving her a boost onto the saddle, I then help Emery onto Rainbow's saddle, I quickly saddle Rain, who is Rainbow's mum.  

"Alright, we're gonna ride along the fence line of the property," I tell them. "Em, you and Nora can ride next to each other, and I'll follow behind." 

They nod and start off on a walk as I follow behind them, and when I pass the barn, I look up and find both men starring down at me with bright smiles. Grinning up at them, I decide to be a tease, and wink at them before focusing on Emery and Nora. Half-an-hour into the ride, we turn back toward the ranch since Nora's sister will be in forty-five minutes. Once back and the saddles are off, and the horse are brushed, and back in the corral, we're watching all the horses while leaning against the fence. A black, two door Chevy S-10 pulls into the driveway and parks by the house before a young girl around my age steps out of the truck, and I instantly know she's Nora's sister as they look identical. 

Nora eagerly waves at the girl with a bright smile, and the girl joins us as Nora says; "Hey Nova."

"Hey, did you have fun?" she asks Nora, who instantly grins wider, and tells her yes. 

Nova turns her attention to me; "Thanks for picking her up, and letting her hang out."

"Not a problem, and she's an awesome young lady," I reply with my own smile; if I was straight, I would ask her on a date, and she's around 5'6" with long wavy brown hair, and dark brown eyes. 

"I'm Echo, Emery's brother by the way," I introduce myself with a large smile.

"I'm Nova," she replies with a shy smile. "You're cute."

Raising an eyebrow at her, but Emery speaks before I can; "Echo likes boy."

Nora's eyes widen as she asks with a pout; "You're gay?" 

When I nod, she pouts  even more; "Why are all the cute guys gay or taken?" 

Chuckling lightly, I shrug while saying; "No idea, sorry."

"Hey Echo, tomorrow morning, I'm gonna need your help with Firecracker," Tenysi says walking up from behind me.

Turning my head to look at him while saying; "Sure. Are you having problems training him?"

"Yeah, he seems to respond well to you, so I want to see if he will tomorrow," he replies eyeing Nova. 

"Tenysi turns to Nova with a bright smile; "Hey, I'm Tenysi, and you are?"

"Hi, I'm Nova, Nora's sister," she replies with a shy smile; they step off to the side to talk for a few minutes before Nova tells Nora they need to leave, so Nora hugs Emery goodbye and thanks us before leaving. 

"Boys, do you want to help me make dinner?" paw-paw asks, stepping out of the house.

"Sure," Emery and I agree, heading toward him. 

"What are we making, paw-paw?" I ask while Emery and I wash our hands. 

He grins as he says; "Tacos."

Yum. Tacos is one of Emery and my favorite dinners. 

"Yum," I grin at paw-paw, and Emery seconds this comment with a bounce in his step. 

"Thought this would be well received," he chuckles as he pulls out ingredients from the fridge. 

Thirty minutes later dinner is done, and everyone is inside for dinner. Once everyone has their dinner, I sit between Rowan and Aspen, and I'm nervous for everyone to know, but especially paw-paw and papa. 

Halfway through dinner, Aspen clears his throat, and once he has everyone's attention, he says; "Um, Rowan and I are dating Echo."

The table falls stills, and the longer paw-paw and papa remain silent, the more I feel as if I'm going to vomit.

"Please say something," I whisper to my granpa's while my entire body shakes with fear that they're gonna yell, and kick me out.

"If you two hurt him, you're gonna wish you hadn't," paw-paw growls with a small smirk. 

"You're not mad?" I question with my mouth hanging open slightly in shock.

"No, because I know they'll treat you right,and love you," he replies with a huge smile.

"Papa?" I question since he's still silent, and starring open-mouthed at us. 

"I, uh, I'm okay with this," he stutters. "I'm just surprised is all."

"There are some ground rules though," paw-paw states seriously. "You're not sleeping in the each other's room, no sex until you're 18-years-old, and I'm sure there are other rules, but I can't think of any right now." 

"Okay," I nod completely understand this as does Rowan and Aspen. 

Well, that went better than I thought it would.