Amanda’s Patient Hunks Read online

  “We were hoping for a Valentine’s baby, but that didn’t happen,” Storm said as rose from his chair. He stepped over to the island where two coffee urns had been set up. “However, we should be parents by the end of the month.”

  Jimmy had been afraid of being around people who were expecting. There was an awkwardness that he couldn’t get past, his thoughts always going to the past. However, now that he had decided to move forward with his life, being here with Lyndee wasn’t so bad.

  “Well, good luck.” Jimmy helped himself to a travel mug and filled it with regular coffee. He doctored it the way he liked as he picked up a slice of pumpkin bread.

  The bread was something that rivaled Ruth’s, but Jimmy wouldn’t tell the woman that. He might not eat anything for a week if he did so.

  As he waited for Ozzie to get his own coffee, Jimmy leaned back against the counter and watched Trey dote on Lyndee. A quick glance over to Storm, Jimmy found the man watching his wife interact with his brother.

  There were so many poly relationships in the area now, including his own sister.

  The men had to get along especially well to be able to be involved in a family unit where the woman was the center of the family. They weren’t just friends—they were brothers in a sense.

  Jimmy had watched several of the groups while at his barbeque after Lily’s rescue, and he had been observing others. While he was assisting nearly a couple years ago when they were helping to find the human traffickers, he got a glimpse of how the relationships worked.

  The men might have been the leaders of the family, but the women were the center, the glue. They doted on her. If there was danger, the men made sure the woman was out of the way.

  He recalled when one of the women who was pregnant during the incident a couple years ago was insistent on helping, and her men were adamant about not allowing her to. She was going to be front and center with the scenario they were putting together, and her men, along with the sheriff of Lake County and one of his deputies, made Jimmy swear to protect her at all costs.

  Angela had been a good actress when in the presence of the Russian white slavers, playing her part to a T. Jimmy made sure she was safe at all times, even if he did get his truck all scratched up because of it.

  During that time, he had thought how special these men were, to be able to love a woman and respect the other man or, in Lyndee’s case here, men. Of course, the men were family here, and the other polys out there, if they weren’t family, they had been friends for a long time. The only ones who weren’t extremely close beforehand were Connor Lawton and Jared Pierce. They were husbands to Gina and couldn’t be happier.

  Jealousy had no room in one of these relationships. It couldn’t if the woman was the center of the family. Of course, Jimmy’s biggest concern was one a lot of men probably had. Coming in contact with the other man.

  What happened if they crossed swords or hands brushed against each other? They would see each other naked. A lot.

  Thoughts raced through his mind as the scene continued in front of him as he still tried to accept the dynamics. Then, a thought hit him.

  Taking a sip of the strong bitter brew, Jimmy had to wonder what was happening with Amanda. Terence had been a surprise. After all the times she had turned Jimmy down, not once had he thought about another man being interested in her.

  By the looks of things, Amanda hadn’t realized Terence had been interested in her, as well. Jimmy had seen her eyes light up when Terence had arrived. She seemed attracted to him as she had with Jimmy, but she denied them both. What the hell was she hiding?

  “Oh my gawd, that was a strong one,” Lyndee exclaimed as she placed a hand on the side of her stomach.

  Storm rushed over to her and placed his hand over hers. Trey looked up at his brother and smiled. There was nothing in his eyes or demeanor to indicate he was jealous or didn’t want his brother there. If Austin were here, he would probably be doing the same thing.

  Feeling as if they were interrupting a personal moment, Jimmy nudged Ozzie and, with a toss of his head toward the door, indicated they needed to leave. The two exited the warm house into the bitter cold of a February midmorning.

  He stood on the porch and looked out over the front yard and into the pastures to the south of the house. The outer buildings and barns were off to the east and north of the house, leaving an unobstructed view of mountains in the distance from where he stood.

  A decision had been made in December after his meltdown. A new house was being built. Of course, it was slow going due to the weather, but it was a start.

  He was having a house built about a quarter of a mile away from the house he currently occupied. The back of the house was to face west, letting someone take in the sunset and the splendor of the mountains from the deck he would have added.

  It was going to be a large one-story creation with an open floor plan and a large kitchen with appliances from this century. He was certain Ruth would like that.

  There would be enough room for him to move around in, and for a future family. When he had chosen the floor plan, he had Amanda in mind. He just wished he knew what Amanda liked in a home. What colors, knickknacks, materials for the furniture, all of those issues a woman would decide on in a new home. It would be roomy and airy—a place a woman could call her home.

  The decision on what he was going to do about the original farmhouse his grandfather had built was something he needed to make. At one point, he had thought about moving Ruth into it. It would give her more room than her mobile home, and she would have better heat in the winter. Lunch and dinner could still be served there for the ranch hands instead of having to build a mess hall. However, he still had time to think about that since the house he was having built would take a while.

  As he entered the horse arena, Jimmy took it all in. The building was big enough to have a circus in, but for the moment, five horses were lined up, a handler at the head of the animal. The handlers were talking to the horses and petting them.

  Running Wolf came in from the doorway that led to the horse barn. He stopped short of the first horse. “All right, everyone,” he began, his voice echoing in the large space. “The five kids are arriving. They come from different backgrounds, so patience is needed. Today, they were going to get the kids used to the horses, and vice versa. Talk to the kids, get to know them. Let them know you are there for them.”

  As if on cue, a young boy of about eight or nine walked into the arena pulling on the hand of a woman, presumably his mother. He seemed eager.

  Behind them was a man leading a girl by the hand who was pulling backward. It was as if she didn’t want to be there. The girl appeared to be about ten or eleven and looked as if she had Down Syndrome.

  A young man, one Jimmy knew, in a wheelchair, was pushing his wheels while his mother tried to keep up. They were neighbors of Lily’s. He was nine, and his name was Richie. He had been in an accident when he darted out into the street on his bicycle. The car coming down the street didn’t have time to stop when Richie appeared. The family took responsibility for Richie’s actions, for he was in the wrong. He was paralyzed from the waist down.

  The fourth arrival had Jimmy perking up. Blond hair, hanging loose around her shoulders is what caught his attention. He had seen that hair nearly every day since he began following Amanda home from the hospital. Of course, her hair was kept back in a braid when she worked, but he knew his woman from a distance.

  She was wearing a light blue parka and blue jeans. A pair of sneakers adorned her feet, which she needed to learn weren’t ranch footwear.

  Jimmy felt like a schoolboy who couldn’t control his body. As soon as he had seen her walk in, his cock came to attention in his jeans. His heart was doing a dance in his chest, acknowledging its mate. He was glad he was off in the shadows so that no one could see him.

  Beside Amanda was a boy, about fourteen, maybe fifteen. He looked like Amanda. He had her bone structure, their faces similar. He had light brow
n hair, cut short, and was the same height as Amanda. Jimmy knew they had to be related, but there was no way that she was his mother. Perhaps her brother? He didn’t look as if he had any kind of disability—in fact, he looked a bit defiant.

  The other child who had arrived was another teenager, a girl. She seemed shy as she tried to hide herself against her mother.

  It was hard to watch Amanda and not be able to go over and talk to her. If she had been there alone, he would have attempted it, even if she shot him down.

  The boy was dressed in blue jeans, and he wore a gray hoodie instead of a coat. He too had sneakers on.

  Jimmy couldn’t understand his feelings, but he felt protective of them both, as if he needed to watch over them. He would suggest they get the proper footgear, and the boy needed to wear a coat in this cold weather, even in an enclosed area such as the arena.

  The handlers moved in to introduce themselves to the kids. Several of the kids were a touch standoffish, which was to be expected. They had to have time to learn to trust the person as well as the animals they would be working with.

  Amanda’s boy had wound up with Elsa, and Jimmy was hopeful that she minded.

  As he continued to watch, he noticed the boy do something with his hands after turning toward Amanda. She spoke to him, but when he wanted to communicate, he did it with his hands. If the boy was deaf, Amanda would be talking with her hands also, but she wasn’t. Just the boy was doing it. What the hell was that all about?

  Jimmy shoved off the wall with a push of the booted foot he had been resting along the wall. He had to get closer to ease his curiosity. Keeping close to the wall, he made his way over to where the parents sat on benches provided for them. Amanda was sitting on the one closest to her child.

  The kids were petting the horses by the time Jimmy had moved around to the benches. Richie, the boy in the wheelchair, was on a platform that had been devised so he could get up close and personal with his horse.

  Amanda’s attention was fully on what her boy was doing that she didn’t notice Jimmy moving toward her. He slipped onto the bench to her left and just sat there taking in what was going on around him. He didn’t want to disturb her if she needed to communicate with the boy.

  It was a few minutes before she turned in his direction. Surprise filled her soft features, her luscious lips forming a perfect O before she finally asked, “What the hell are you doing here?”

  Chapter Four

  All activity stopped around her, voices going quiet when she voiced her question. Amanda felt ashamed for speaking that way to Jimmy, but he had surprised the hell out of her. Heat filled her face, neck, and chest at her embarrassment as she turned her head away.

  Jimmy cleared his throat, and Amanda could hear everyone going about what they were doing before her outburst. She was thankful for that.

  It was hard for Amanda to explain about Jasper. Only a handful of people knew about him, and the story of why he was living with her was difficult to tell. She felt as if her time had come to finally reveal to Jimmy why she couldn’t go out with him.

  Turning back to where she could watch Jasper, she took a deep cleansing breath.

  “Our dad had PTSD.” She heard the quivering in her voice as she spoke. It was still so hard even after all the years that had passed. “My dad was in Desert Storm. He was on a team that was chasing the Iraqis that were setting the oil wells on fire in Kuwait. He said that it seemed like they were at least two wells behind them, until one afternoon. They came to a well that was burning, but they could see the next nearest rig hadn’t been hit yet. Before they could set out for the next one, hoping they could put a stop to the fires, they were set upon. Shots rang out, and the guy next to my dad went down. He was dead from a bullet to his face before any of the others could get off a shot.

  “Dad was young, and it was pretty much the first time he had been in an engagement. He froze. The men on his team were shouting instructions at each other, and trying to get him to move, but he said he just couldn’t get his body to move. Then, he felt a burning in his leg. He had been shot in the left thigh. He was in shock, and all he could do was watch his blood staining his fatigues. A guy removed his belt and wrapped it around my dad’s thigh to help staunch the blood flow, but it didn’t seem to help. It wasn’t too long before my dad faded away. When he woke, the man who had tried to help him was lying across my dad’s legs. He too had been shot.”

  Amanda paused. Her breathing was shallow and quick. She knew she needed to get it under control, or she would wind up hyperventilating. As she took some deep breaths, she felt a strong warm hand on hers where it was resting on the bench. Looking up at Jimmy, she found he was watching her with concern. She couldn’t bring herself to pull it away.

  “It was nearly night when my dad had come to, and the remaining men on his team were nowhere to be seen. The oil rig that they had been heading to was burning. Weak from losing a lot of blood, my father couldn’t get the guy off of him, so he was stuck. He said that he drifted in and out of consciousness all night long, and it was nearly noon by the time he was found. His team had radioed in that they had to move out, but that there were three dead at my dad’s location. He had been left for dead.

  “He was practically dead. He lost his leg due to the tourniquet being left on for so long. Of course, after that, he was shipped home, not quite the twenty-year-old man he had been when he had left. My parents had been married for a year before Desert Storm. Mom said she had been prepared to be a career army wife, but that wasn’t meant to be. They moved back here to Montana to be near family because Mom was already pregnant with me. My dad was okay, at first, my mom had said. Jobs were tough for a man with one leg, but he worked hard to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads. Then, 9/11 happened.”

  The events of that day had changed a lot of lives. The thought that the enemy had infiltrated American home soil had people on edge. Men enlisted to defend their country, to fight for a freedom that had the possibility of disappearing from the face of America.

  Amanda went on. “Something happened to my father, like a switch had been flipped. He began having nightmares. There were times that my mother would wake up with Dad’s hands around her throat. She wanted him to go for help, but he refused. After Jasper was born, my dad became irrational during the day. He thought that Jasper was an insurgent’s child, that my mother had cheated on him. Then, when Jasper was eight, I got a call. My dad had thought they were being invaded. He shot my mother so they wouldn’t get her, and then he turned the gun on himself. Jasper would have been killed, but he either got away from my father before he could get to him, or he was hiding. A neighbor heard the gunshots and called the police. By the time the cops got to the house, they were both gone. Jasper hasn’t spoken since then. He refused to go outside alone even for therapy for the longest time. Getting him here was a feat in itself.”

  Tears were streaming from her eyes as she recalled the past. It hurt to think her parents were gone, that Jasper could have died also. It also hurt that she hadn’t had a life in the past six and a half years. Somehow, she had managed to get through nursing school, but that’s all she had accomplished. She was a twenty-five-year-old virgin. She hadn’t even been out on a date before.

  Pulling herself from the reverie, she found herself in Jimmy’s arms. Her head was against his chest, his heart beating strong beneath her ear. The muscles her head leaned on testified of his hard work on the ranch. His arms were strong, as was evident by him picking her up and putting her on his lap. She felt safe as he held her.

  “You shouldn’t have to be dealing with all this by yourself, baby. Do you go for therapy also?” he asked softly.

  Amanda shook her head. She knew she should have moved away from him, but she liked being held, especially by him. “I don’t have time.”

  He sounded surprised. “You’ve been holding all this in?”

  “Yes.”

  Jimmy was providing a warmth that had been lacking in Amanda�
�s life for the past six and a half years, and she found she really did like it. She knew that people needed human touch, and she hadn’t had very much in her lifetime.

  Feet shuffled in the dirt before the bench gaining her attention. Pushing against the hard ridges of Jimmy’s abs, she struggled to get out of his arms. He released her a little, but not all the way.

  Jasper was standing in front of her, concern on his face. Are you okay? he asked, signing to her.

  Again, she pushed against Jimmy, this time finding her freedom. She straightened herself up and moved to sit back on the bench as she smiled up at Jasper. “I’m good. Jasper, this is a friend of mine, Jimmy.”

  Introducing Jasper to another person was risky, but he seemed all right with it. He stuck his hand out to greet Jimmy. The two shook hands as Jimmy said, “It’s nice to meet you, Jasper. You have a real special sister.”

  Jasper blushed before nodding his head in agreement. He then returned to his horse and handler.

  Glancing up at Jimmy, she found she liked when he had held her. Oh, she had liked the times when they had been thrown together also, but those were brief, light touches. She liked what he was doing to her girly parts. Her nipples were tight, like pebbles, and she had to be thankful her coat covered them. Her pussy was wet also, and she had to hope there wouldn’t be a large wet spot on the bench when she got up.

  “Seems like a good kid,” Jimmy observed. “Are you homeschooling him?”

  She nodded. “Yeah. After everything happened, he was out of school for a few weeks. They called me into the office the second week after he went back. They said if he couldn’t participate like the other students, he’d need to be homeschooled.”

  “Is that why you work nights? Do you have someone who is there with him, or does he stay there alone?”

  There was real concern in his voice as he spoke, and it pleased her that he cared. She was constantly worried about how people perceived her, not just because she seemed standoffish, but also because of her body. Her body had too many curves. Her hips and thighs were too big, and her breasts, well, they were way too big. Whenever she spoke to men at the hospital, whether they were patients or relatives, their eyes always seemed to zero in on her breasts.