12. River

twelve

River

" H ow are you guys holding up on the goat farm?" Tate slings his arm over my shoulder. Out of the three brothers, Tate is the most outgoing.

He's Aubree's cousin, so I can't exactly tell him that we've been fucking her every chance we get. So, instead, I say, "Good. Goats are good. The farm is good. Everything is good." My ramblings have caught the attention of not only Bowen and Kyson but also our head coach and Aubree's other cousin, Cooper.

Aubree dropped us off at the ice arena only minutes ago, and I already miss her. Maybe one of these days, she'll let us claim her publicly, and she can attend all of our games, but until then, we need to keep our relationship a secret like we promised her.

"I bet it will be a nice change of pace to be on the road for a couple of games," Tate says, his eyes roaming between the three of us.

"It'll be nice to have something to do besides bale hay and milk goats for a change." We all laugh at my joke.

"Maybe pick up a couple of puck bunnies or two," Tate adds.

The thought of touching anyone besides Aubree makes my stomach turn, but I can't let her cousins know, so I say something even more stupid. "Yeah, that's just what we need to unwind after a game—a puck bunny." This time, only Tate and I laugh. Cooper is studying me closely. When I turn my gaze to Bowen and Kyson, their faces look like they've seen a ghost as they look at a spot behind me. I turn around to find Aubree standing there with my wallet in her hand.

"It's okay. I give you my permission to pick up as many puck bunnies as you want." She gives us a watery smile as she blinks back the tears. "I have a date tonight anyway. So there's no need to worry about me. I'll be having just as much fun as the three of you will be having." She places my wallet in my hand, and I want to kick myself for saying the things I did. "You left this in the truck."

I didn't mean them. If anything, I'd rather have her at the games and after the games in our hotel room. It felt natural to have her cheering us on at the home game. Then, we all rode home together and had sex until it was time to milk the goats. But now I've cheapened our relationship by trying to sound like a player in front of her cousins.

"Goodbye, River." She kisses my cheek before turning to Bowen.

"Goodbye, Bowen." She kisses his cheek before finally turning to Kyson.

"Goodbye, Kyson." She kisses his cheek, and I can't help but wonder if her goodbye kiss is permanent. "I'll see you around." She turns and walks away.

The three of us stand there frozen, unable to move. None of us knowing what to say.

"That was odd. I didn't know she was dating anyone." Tate steps in front of me with a shrug. "Good for her. She needs someone to fuss over beside all those goats for once."

"Hmm." Cooper nods, his eyes still staring at the three of us. "As long as she's happy, I don't care who or how many guys she dates."

I glance at Kyson and Bowen only to see they look as confused as I feel. Does Cooper know about the four of us? Is he giving us his blessing?

I'm still trying to figure out what he means and if we should run after Aubree. I don't want to embarrass her in front of her family. She was the one who wanted to keep it a secret.

The decision to run after Aubree is taken away from me as Sam strides over to our group, informing us that it's time to get on the bus that will take us to the airport.

"What the fuck was that shit about puck bunnies?" Bowen snarls when we're finally able to move around the charted plane.

We're huddled in the tail end of the plane, as far away from Aubree's cousins as possible. "I don't know. I panicked. Aubree was the one who wanted to keep our unconventional relationship under wraps. I was trying to protect her." The words feel wrong—hiding our relationship feels wrong. And now, because of my stupid words and our extended road games, I won't have time to fix this anytime soon.

"We can't even text her until we land." Bowen angrily stuffs his phone in his front pocket before punching the empty seat in front of him, causing it to jerk forward. "What if she does have a date tonight?" Bowen's voice has a worried tone that I've never heard from him. "She's ours—I'm not sharing her with anyone other than the two of you." The anger is back in his voice, and if we're not careful, we might revert to our old ways and pick a fight with one of our teams.

"Calm down," Kyson whispers. "I put cameras all around the farm and in the house."

"You did what? Aubree is going to be pissed if she finds out we're spying on her." I cringe just thinking about our little independent goat girl giving us hell for spying on her.

"I don't like her living on the farm all by herself." Kyson holds up his hand as Bowen opens his mouth to speak. "Before you say anything, I'm well aware that she has been living on her own in that farmhouse for years, but that was before she met us. From now on, we'll hire someone to tend the goats while she comes with us to all our games, home and away, like the other wives and girlfriends do."

"But she's not our wife or even our girlfriend." I point out. "And after what I said today, I'm not sure she would even consider us her friends."

I can still see the hurt look in her eyes, which my words caused. She deserves better than three angry hockey players. She deserves a man or men who she will love enough to tell the whole world she belongs to them.

"You sound like you want to stay in Iowa and play for the Poseidon instead of earning our way back on the Minnesota Norse as we planned." I try to keep my voice normal and my breathing even. I want to stay in Iowa with Aubree more than anything, but I don't want to jinx it.

"I do now that we have someone special worth fighting for."

I glance at Bowen, gauging his reaction, still too anxious to believe we could have a future with Aubree. "We've only known her for less than two weeks." I prompt. When neither one of them speaks, I press on. "Don't you think that 's a little crazy to fall that hard, that fast, for someone we barely know.?"

"She's worth it," Bowen answers. Kyson nods his agreement.

"Alright, if we're going to do this, we need a plan."

It's a good thing we still have an hour left on our flight before we land so we can figure out how to win our girl back.