Angel of Mercy| Yellowstone| Lee Dutton

Current State of Affairs 2

Two: Truth Be Told

"Well Beth, I am saying never. He had his shot and he never took it." Spencer returned as she picked up her robe and towel, "he respects Kayce too much." Beth's eyebrows knitted together in confusion as she dropped down on the chair that had been pulled out from the vanity. "What do you mean he had his shot?" There was silence as Spencer went into the bathroom and turned on the water for the shower.

"Just that, he had his chance and didn't do anything." She went to shut the door to have some sort of privacy but was stopped just as quickly by Beth, this was all news to her.

"Whoa, whoa, you can't just drop a bomb like that on me and then not say anything else."

"Remember that weekend that Kayce and I broke up?"

"Yeah."

She remembered it all too well, Kayce and their father had gotten into a fight, and Kayce decided that he was done with everything. He had snuck out in the middle of the night and went to the Abbott Ranch and talked Spencer into leaving with him. They were at the gas station when Rip and Lee found them and Spencer had her choice and she had gotten into the truck with Lee and Rip. And three days later Kayce showed up with Monica and shattered whatever was left of their relationship. Spencer had stormed out of the house and Lee had followed her but not after throwing a couple of punches at his brother.

"And how he followed me to the barn?" Seeing her friends nod, Spencer carried on, "We had sex and then the next day, it was just business as normal. I don't know what hurt worse. Kayce marrying Monica or Lee doing that. And honestly, Beth, if Lee would have said the word, I would have stayed no questions asked." Without waiting for a reaction from her best friend, the girl turned to shut the door to shower in semi-peace.

**

Beth waited until the shower was on fully and she could hear Spencer singing along to the Elvis song that was playing on the Bluetooth speaker before she picked up the phone to call her brother with every intention of cussing him out. If he had manned up and done something about it, then Spencer wouldn't have had to run to the East Coast and stayed away longer than Beth herself had.

Not doing anything right or about their feelings seemed about right with her brothers. Lee threw himself into his work at the ranch. Kayce joined the military and Jamie, well he was a whole different sort that she really tried not to figure out.

She dialed her oldest brother's phone number, her anger getting the best of her.

It rang once, twice, and then Lee's voice filtered the room. "What Beth?"

"You fucked Spencer then left her?!"

"She is here?"

"Of course she is idiot! Her dad is getting married! She is the maid of Honor." She had seen the series of pictures from Spencer's Instagram of Spencer, Leighla, and several others going shopping in New York for the bridal fittings and knew that she was taking part in the wedding as the maid of honor, and for once she was happy that her friend was in the same time zone, it was going to make their weekly facetime calls so much easier.

"You need to make this right Lee, her boyfriend is here and he is." The unspoken words about Spencer's relationship hung in the air. The whole Dutton family knew about the man who was with Spencer and how much her father and stepmother hated him. On more than one occasion John had encouraged Lee to go out to Yale and get Spencer.

But for whatever reason Lee refused. Now, though, there was silent hope that he would do something about this. "You need to man up and do something before that son of a bitch kills her." The water shut off and Beth quickly disconnected the call and popped the cork on the bottle. She quickly filled two glasses and was ready to hand one over when she came into the room.