“Okay, so she likes long walks on the beach and getting railed in a dungeon, what else?” Atlas fumed.
Everest looked like he was going to come unglued, a sure sign he felt something deep for her. He was clear competition and Atlas knew it. Plus, if Penny was interested in a guy like Everest, she might not be intoalpha male world burners.
Everest took a moment to consider what to say. “She does like long walksin nature. That’s how she calms herself, because when she’s in groups of people, it’s stressful. She likes to be alone or with small groups she knows well and likes… and she’s okay with being near groups of people as long as there’s no pressure to join. So when you two jackasses rolled up wanting to jump in on a massage, you freaked her out.”
“We didn’t know. You could have said something.” Atlas entered full defend-and-blame mode.
“I did, but you were too busy trying to stop me from having time alone with her. Not everyone wants to fuck the first person who offers just because we’re at a kink ranch. You could respect boundaries and give me a minute once in a while.”
“Fine. You had your minute. Now it’s my turn.”
It seemed like a good point to force them back to the other consideration. “What are we going to do about telling her who we are? Take turns having fun while we’re here, then when we head home and our parents want us to get together, we’ll be like, hey, imagine seeing you here.”
“It’s too far-fetched. Plus, her mom could reveal the whole fucking plan. We’ve got to get on top of this while her mom is the bad guy.” Atlas finally moved into semi-rational mode.
“Slow down. Nobody has to be the bad guy.” I wasn’t sure I believed that.
Atlas shook his head. “Really? You think a parent snooping around in your sex life wouldn’t make them a bad guy?”
The complexity of the problem weighed on me. “Okay. Yeah, it’s not going to be comfortable, but how do we tell her who we are without telling her that her mom knows she’s here and sent us? Sounds like the best way to ruin her stay at Rawhide Ranch.”
That seemed to bring us into agreement.
“Let’s sort out what we know,” Everest said. “It was her choice to come here.”
“Right, and she only has five days. We can mitigate that time by curating how much knowledge we share.”
“Don’t you sound fancy with your five-dollar words, little brother.” Atlas laughed.
“I can use smaller words if it will help you follow.”
“Fuck off.” Atlas shoved me playfully. Finally, we were back to normal—brothers with plenty of differences, but always there for each other.
Everest sounded more enthused after picking up on the renewed energy. “Penny’s on a mission. Let’s help her fulfill that mission. It’s not going to do any good to tell her that her mother asked our father to ask us to keep an eye on her… too complicated, even if it is because her mother worries that Penny’s a little different.”
“Curate the fuck out of that statement.” Atlas came fully out of his defensive mode and showed the more admirable side of his personality, getting down to business.
“That’s not what curate means.” Everest’s comment drew a glare from Atlas.
“She needs time and space.”
“We only have five days.”
“Then we have to use them wisely,” Everest said. “So are we in agreement that revealing what her mom is up to isn’t going to enrich Penny’s experience?”
“Agreed,” Atlas said. “She doesn’t know who we are. We didn’t know who she was. Why do parents meddle so much? Dad’s been sneaking around with Penny’s mom then sent us on this mission before we meet either of them. I don’t get why he’s being so secretive about his relationship.”
“It’s like we’re not getting the full story.” I had to agree with Atlas. “That’s a problem for a different day.”
“Key takeaways.” Atlas assumed control. “None of us breathe a word about being her stepbrothers. Let her stay on her terms. We make ourselves available. If she doesn’t like any of us, we back off. We don’t interfere with each other’s time, and we respect her decisions.”
I wanted to tell him to go screw himself for summarizing, as if the whole thing had been his plan, but that was the wrong battle.
Everest added, “We haven’t mentioned that we’re brothers, so let’s keep that quiet.”
We’re in sync, but time was not our friend. “Sounds like a plan, and we should read up a little more on kink, just in case she does want a Dom. We could do some of the workshops or talk to one of the counselors to be sure we understand the roles.”
“I’m not going to a fucking counselor.” Atlas retreated to his corner.
