Chapter 11

Nora stirred and looked at the bedside clock. She hadn’t slept long, fortunately. Austin was gone; he’d left her a note that Maverick needed a wingman for the church girls, and he would see her the following afternoon.

In her mind, she realized her new addiction to Austin’s massages needed to end. Nora envisioned stuff spiraling out of control to the point she would lose her virginity. She vowed it wouldn’t be with a Montana cowboy. Nora would figure out what to say between now and when she saw him again.

Austin walked into the cabin and froze in shock. The four Christian girls were putting on the show of their lives as Hard To Handle played. As they danced, they showed off moves that professionals would be proud of.

Maverick walked up to him and handed him a beer.

“Told you,” Mav said with a wink.

“Austin!” the slightly overweight one called out, who he thought might be Blair or maybe Clare.

That got the girls’ attention. The cute brunette, Suzanne, grabbed his hand to get him to join them. Beer in hand, Austin raised his arms and shook his booty inexpertly but with gusto. Standing in the center, the girls turned him so he could watch them make their best moves.

Then Leslie, the plainest of the four, turned her backside to him and rubbed his crotch with her butt.

“Go, girl!” Travis called from the couch.

Since he’d just left Nora lightly snoring in his bed, it didn’t take much for Austin’s pants to tighten uncomfortably. Jenna, the busty redhead, turned him and began to twerk against the lump in his pants. Her bottom jiggled in the best possible way, making him forget who these girls were.

“That’s what I like,” Austin called out, grabbing her hips to increase the pressure.

“Oh, yeah?” Clare asked—he’d finally remembered her name.

It became a game of ‘I can do it better,’ and Austin was the beneficiary. Clare tied her t-shirt tight under her breasts to expose her midriff and push her boobs together. She sashayed up to Austin and put her index finger under his chin to make him look her in the eyes. Then Clare lifted her leg, wrapped it around his hip, reached her hand behind his neck, and simulated them having sex.

Austin wondered if Mav and Travis might have slipped something into the straitlaced girls’ drinks. He also considered the possibility that the girls had been under lock and key for so long they were going wild. Either way, he approved of the change.

“Slut,” Suzanne teased as she pushed Clare off him.

Austin stopped swaying to the music when Suzanne kissed him, and not one of those chaste, innocent kisses, either. Her tongue pushed between his lips, and his hands naturally reached for her hips as he blocked out everything else happening around him.

“Break it up,” Clare said with a big smile. “We drew names earlier. Suzanne and Leslie get Austin, Jenna gets Travis, and I’ll take one for the team, leaving me Maverick.”

Suzanne and Leslie each grabbed a hand and pulled Austin to the master bedroom. On the way in, he noted that Travis looked like he’d won the lottery, while Maverick wore a neutral expression. Austin figured the older boy, being a jock, had never been picked last in his life.

The youth pastor stormed into the cabin before Austin had an opportunity to even think about what was about to happen behind closed doors. Suzanne and Leslie dropped his hands like they’d been scalded.

“Not on my watch,” Bradley said.

The girls and the pastor left quickly.

“We’re fucked,” Maverick said. “We better clean up and hide the beer before Kelly and Dad show up.”

Austin had resigned himself to this becoming a big kerfuffle, but he’d never experienced Maverick in crisis mode.

As predicted, the youth pastor marched up to the main house and confronted Zeb and Kelly, who, in turn, called Clay when they found out Austin was involved.

Austin’s dad wasn’t happy when he came into the apartment.

“Zeb wants a word with you boys,” Clay said.

His dad became quiet, never a good sign: Austin had learned that was usually the calm before the storm. As he walked into the living room, he remembered Travis telling him, “Say nothing and let Maverick do the talking. If asked, deny everything.”

Zeb asked, “What exactly happened here tonight?”

“It’s no big deal. We found some beer that Jimmy left and decided to have a little party. I’m sure neither Austin nor Travis had more than a sip. In my opinion, they’re a couple of wannabes, nothing but lightweights,” Maverick said.

“The youth pastor said he thought you boys were taking advantage of the girls ... in ... ah ... inappropriate ways,” Kelly said.

Maverick looked aghast.

“If it were just me, I guess I could understand that. But Austin and Travis wouldn’t know what to do with a girl if they had one, let alone take advantage of them,” Maverick said.

“Then why...?” Kelly began.

“Are you saying,” Zeb said, interrupting his wife, “nothing happened?”

“It was a party,” Maverick said. “The girls danced, and one kissed Austin, but nothing untoward happened. It’s not like one of them forced their hand down any of our pants. These are good Christian girls, and I take offense to anyone who would say any different.”

Kelly’s eyes had snapped toward Austin’s when Maverick made the pants comment, but she quickly looked away. She had her own secrets to keep.

“More like Bradley interrupted things before they got out of hand,” Clay said.

Apparently, Austin’s dad wasn’t buying Maverick’s BS.

“That may be,” Zeb said. “But for the business’s sake, I’m going to support my son’s version of events. From what I heard, the boys in the group told Bradley the girls were up to no good; he didn’t see anything because nothing happened. I think those boys were just jealous they weren’t invited.”

“If that’s how you want to play it,” Clay said.

“That doesn’t mean all these parties don’t end right now, though. If I catch wind of one more, there will be consequences. And the Executive Cabin is off-limits. Is that understood?” Zeb asked.

He looked each boy in the eye to get his point across. Austin nodded his agreement and was on the way back to the apartment when his dad turned around and backhanded him hard enough to knock him on his ass.

Clay had never laid a finger on him before, so Austin didn’t know how to react. He just sat in the dirt with his hand over the coming bruise as he watched his dad walk away.

Nora hid in the kitchen to overhear what had caused Bradley to be so mad. Once Clay and Austin left, Zeb tore into her brothers. She’d seen this movie before, so she slipped out the back door to see if Clay was doing the same to Austin.

She arrived in time to see Austin’s father hit his son hard enough to knock him down, then leave him in the dirt. Nora wanted to run to him but held back. Guys were funny about stuff like that, and she didn’t want to embarrass Austin.

She watched Austin get up and dust himself off as he walked into the barn.

Nora returned to the kitchen with tears in her eyes.

“Don’t worry. You brothers will be fine,” Kelly said, startling her.

“It’s not that. I just saw Clay backhand Austin and leave him sitting in the yard, and I don’t know what to do,” Nora said.

Kelly looked solemn and determined.

“It’ll be okay. Let me deal with this,” Kelly said. “Now go to bed.”

Nora nodded and headed upstairs. She wondered if she’d done the right thing by telling Kelly. She didn’t want her stepmom to fire Clay because that meant he and Austin would move out.

Kelly’s heart went out to Austin. She’d been in an abusive relationship before she met Zeb.

The first time Chet hit her, she’d almost pulled the ejection cord. Kelly wasn’t the type of woman who would tolerate a man laying hands on her. Then she second-guessed herself. Was it really all that bad? After all, they were good together—really good, in fact.

Chet owned a real estate company; she’d met him at a Chamber of Commerce mixer. He’d fit all her criteria for a prospective life partner: tall, handsome, owned his own business—which he made good money at—and made her laugh.

The first time they’d made love, Kelly was hooked.

Back in college, she and her best friend had lived together for the first three years. At the time, Kelly thought she might like girls more than boys. She’d assumed Marie felt the same way because of her friend’s solemn demeanor and that she never dated.