Page 86 of Knot my First Rodeo

Clint snorts immediately. “Yeah. Little bit.”

Briggs glares at him, and I laugh despite myself.

Clint glances toward Tripp. “You wanna explain yourself, too?”

Tripp points at himself immediately. “Me?”

“Yes, you.”

He exhales dramatically before rubbing the back of his neck.

“I panicked.”

I blink. “You panicked?”

“A little,” he admits. “Okay, a lot.” His mouth twists slightly before he looks away for half a second. “You looked scared, and everybody suddenly got real serious, and I figured somebody should probably do somethin’ helpful before we all started spiraling.”

My brows pull together slightly. “So, you went to the basement?”

“There’s a very good listener down there,” he says immediately.

Silence.

“…Who the fuck is in the basement?” I ask slowly.

“No one,” Tripp admits. “It’s a Santa decoration, but he was still very helpful.”

I laugh again and he shrugs one shoulder, suddenly quieter.

“I just needed a second to get my head straight.” His eyes flick back to mine then. “Didn’t leave because I didn’t wanna be here.”

“Now that it's all settled, we wanna be here.” Clint grabs me and sets me in his lap at the kitchen table. “Before instinct starts makin’ decisions for everybody, we’re gonna talk.”

Oh, God.

Immediate embarrassment.

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Please, no.”

“Yes,” Tripp says, dropping dramatically into the chair next to us. “Very important meeting.”

I groan. “I hate all of you.”

“No, you don’t,” Clint says easily.

Unfortunately, he’s right.

“Darling,” Clint says softer this time. “We’re not doin’ anything you don’t want.”

“Nothin’,” Briggs adds quietly. “You say stop, we stop.”

“If you’re uncomfortable?” Tripp says. “We stop.”

“You wanna just sit here and complain about life?” Clint asks. “We’ll do that.”