The Consequence of Loving Colton (Consequence 1)

That I’d stayed away as long as I had was an absolute miracle.

“Yeah.” I tilted her face toward mine and captured her mouth, tugging at her lips before pulling back and sighing. I wanted her so damn bad I would have sold my freaking soul in order to have an hour, minutes, seconds with her.

But the timing—was off.

Story of our lives.

I kissed her again. “We should—”

“—go rescue Jason, tell Max he can stop pretending to be in love with me, and make sure Reid’s safely tucked away from the watchful eye of Grandma.”

Defeated, I sighed, not wanting to move an inch.

“Hey.” Milo turned around, her dress slipping off her shoulders.

Damn it, just a bit farther.

“Zip me up?”

“No.” I pouted, crossing my arms.

“Colt . . .”

“Jason will be fine.”

“He can barely see out of one eye, Colt, and—”

Loud footsteps interrupted what she was about to say. With a curse I pulled her back into the box castle and looked around the corner.

Jayne made her way up the stairs, her wild eyes looking around the room until, with a curse, she finally located something.

Ah, her phone, she must have left it up here when she was pouting.

“Damn.” She checked messages, then quickly made a call. “No, no, no, I just lost my phone.” She snorted. “God, I need a strong drink. Are you kidding me? He doesn’t even know there is no baby, and by the time he finds out, it won’t matter anyways. Dr. Boomer would do anything for my family. It wasn’t hard to get him to back me up.” Another snort. “No, he won’t get fired because nobody will know. Besides, it’s not like sleeping with the good doctor was a chore, right?” Her laugh was so loud I winced. “By the time he even finds out there’s no baby it won’t matter.”

Milo shifted next to me as Jayne gave us her back.

I tried to grab Milo but it was too late. She had that look in her eyes—the crazy one that said, Don’t mess with me or I’m going to make you look like my brother.

With an evil grin, she popped out from underneath the box castle.

And tackled Jayne to the floor.

The cell phone went flying.

Jayne started screaming.

Milo was koala-ing Jayne’s back as she got whipped one way, then the other.

“Get off of me!”

“No!” Milo shouted. “You don’t even love him!”

“I do too!”

“Do not!”

“Girls,” I interrupted, holding my hands in the air—the universal sign of peace.

But not for women.

For women I may as well have held a sign that said, “You’re fat.”

“Stay out of this, Colt!” Milo snapped.

“Milo—”

“Aghhhh!” She finally tackled Jayne to the floor and managed to straddle her.

Someone else ran up the stairs.

Max. Of course.

“Sorry, it’s just—” He looked down at Jayne and Milo, nodded, then took a seat and patted the spot next to him.

“Care to help out?” I pointed as Milo started pinning Jayne’s hands down.

Max tilted his head. “No, no, I’m good. Have a seat.”

“But—”

“Do you really want to be known as the guy that breaks up a chick fight?”

The man had a point.

“Wish we had beer.” Max pouted. “Oh, and my money’s on Milo.”

“Yeah.” I pointed to the girls. “But Jayne’s scrappy.”

“Ooo!” We both winced as Jayne used her nails to scratch down Milo’s arm.

“What the hell!” Jason appeared at the top of the stairs.

“Have a seat.” Max smiled and patted the spot next to him.

“Jayne! Milo!” Jason went over to grab Milo.

“Really, really bad idea,” Max said under his breath.

Sure enough, he was able to get Milo unlatched from Jayne’s body but the momentum of his pulling her from Jayne’s body sent them both flying backward—directly into the box castle.

Boxes went everywhere.

And that’s when Jayne started screaming again.

Like something out of The Shining.

“Calm down.” Max rolled his eyes. “They fell in a pile of boxes, big deal.”

“H-holy shit.” I ran over to Jason’s side.

He shook his head and winced. “Man, that hurt.”

“Don’t move!” I pulled Milo to her feet, only to have Jayne stumble into her arms.

Max got up and approached the scene of the accident.

“Is that blood?” He pointed to Jason’s arm.

“Yup.” I quickly assessed the situation.

“I don’t like blood.”

“Yeah, well—”

Max hit the floor—and took a now-stable Jayne down with him.

“Get him off of me!” Jayne yelped. Max’s head had fallen directly between her breasts.

Milo pulled out her phone and snapped a picture.

“Could you not!” I hissed.

“What?” She shrugged. “It’s evidence!”

“That your fiancé, who isn’t really your fiancé, was sleeping with your brother’s fiancée in the attic while your brother was impaled by a ski pole?”

“Holy shit! That’s a ski pole!”