Free Triple Dog Dare [Triple Trouble 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) by Tymber Dalton Page A

before.
    The breeze picked up a little. She took a deep breath and enjoyed the scents of morning dew drying on the cypress and pine trees in the nearby woods. The sweet scent of the backyard grass, which had been mown the day before. Even the faint but still detectable aroma of the cows in the pastures beyond the woods.
    Maybe I should take a ride. Brodey had bought her two horses. She still wouldn’t consider herself an expert rider, but the men now let her venture around the ranch by herself without worrying themselves to death. A ride would help me clear my mind.
    She had a house full of people, over half of which she’d just met. All of them, apparently, related to her in some fashion. One of the things she’d always wished she had—a large, supportive family—and now…
    Sigh.
    She had no clue what to do with all of them.
    The sliders opened again a little while later. When she looked, Liam offered her a tentative smile. “May I join ye?”
    She nodded. She wouldn’t tell him no. She just wasn’t sure what to say to him yet.
    He took a seat in a chair facing the lounger. “Are ye doing okay?”
    “Honestly?”
    He nodded.
    She shook her head. “Not really. It’s all so overwhelming.” Why not tell him the truth? “I’ve had my world upended several times already over the past few weeks. Meeting the guys has changed my life and my perception of the world. Now I’m finding out all this other stuff.” She shrugged. “It’s like what is going to fall out of the sky on me next? I don’t know what I’m supposed to be thinking.”
    “No one expects ye to act a certain way.”
    “I expect it from myself. I had my life pretty much planned out. Then I met the guys. Okay, great, shape-shifters are real. Fine. I love them. I’ve been processing that. I was just starting to get the hang of that. Then all of…this.” She focused on the woods again. Maybe what she really needed was a run. Not to be chased, just to…run.
    “Can ye ever forgive me?” he softly asked.
    His question startled her. She refocused on him. “What?”
    “For leaving your mum. For not being there for ye.”
    “There’s nothing to forgive. You did what you had to do. I’m just…overwhelmed,” she repeated. It was the only word that seemed to apply.
    “I can understand Carla being mad at me all these years. In her place, I can’t imagine I’d think much different. All I’m asking is a chance to get to know ye, be a part of yer life, if ye’d consider giving it to me.”
    Over. Whelmed.
    She took a deep breath and let it out again. “I feel like I’m losing my mind. Like I’m going to wake up and find out I was stuck in a coma or some weird stuff.” She thought for a moment. “Of course I want you in my life, Liam… Dad.” She smiled. “I’m sorry. That feels weird saying it. I’ll get used to it.”
    He returned her smile. “I won’t lie. It sounds good hearing ye say it.”
    “So why Bolivia all these years?” It was a question she’d neglected to ask the night before. She’d been too busy processing and crying to think of many questions.
    He smiled. “It’s one of the last places any Abernathy would ever set foot on the planet. There’s a large jaguar Clan there who despises them.”
    “Why?”
    “Because Rodolfo stupidly thought he could have his way. About a hundred years or so ago, at a large Gathering, he tried throwing his weight around. He ended up insulting one of the jaguar leader’s daughters. His youngest daughter, who happened to be nineteen at the time.”
    “Ouch.”
    “Exactly. One of Rodolfo’s sons showed up the next morning with scratches across his face. His story was she attacked him. Her story was he tried to rape her and she barely got away. Rodolfo called her a lying…eh, rhymes with runt.”
    Elain smiled. “Didn’t go over so well, huh?”
    Liam rubbed his chin. “It was only because everyone else held back Ortega, the leader of the jaguar Clan, that Rodolfo and his ilk