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When my balls were finally drained, my muscles relaxed. I dropped my forehead against Adan’s chest and gasped for air.
“Oh God.” I shook so much my teeth chattered. “Oh God.”
“Shhhh.” Scott gently kissed his way up my neck and petted my back. As if by instinct, he scooted closer to me, leaving me pressed tightly between their large, muscular bodies.
I was surrounded by their strength and scent and safety on all sides, and to my complete and utter horror, I started crying.
“We have you, baby,” Adan whispered in my ear and combed his fingers through my hair. “You can let it out. We’re here.”
“I don’t want you to leave me again.” My voice sounded weak and shaky, which was exactly how I felt. “I need you both so much.”
“We need you too,” Scott said, squeezing me tighter.
“We aren’t going anywhere, baby, not now, not ever. You’re ours and we’re keeping you.”
I had no right to ask, but I did anyway. “Promise me. Promise you won’t get bored or frustrated or decide it’s too hard or—”
Adan gripped my chin and raised it until our gazes met. “I love you.” He had never said those words to me before, so hearing them made my world spin.
Before I could get my bearings, Scott turned me around and said, “I never stopped loving you, Charlie, not ever, and these past several months getting to know you again made me fall harder.”
I gulped and nodded, filing away the moment and their promises so I could think on them later that night, when the kids were in bed.
Speaking of the kids, Stephi chose that moment to shout, “I’m hungry! Uncle Charlie! I’m hungry!”
Adan stepped back. “We’re taking you to breakfast and then swimming. Go get dressed.”
“We’ll get the kids ready,” Scott said as he opened the door.
“Isn’t it too cold to swim?”
“The pool’s heated.”
In New York, people don’t have swimming pools at home; or at least not regular people. But in Vegas, pools are almost common. My sister’s apartment complex, which had turned into my apartment complex when I’d moved there to pick up where her life left off, didn’t have a pool. Yet, somehow, Stephi and Bobby were little fishes. They both swam better than I did, apparently due to lessons at the local YMCA, and if ever an opportunity arose to take a dip at a friend’s house or anywhere else, they’d bounce and beg and plead until I had no choice but to grab some towels and hustle us over to the promised land. Or, in this case, the promised water.
Which (finally) brings me to the next picture in the album: Scott, Adan, Bobby, and Stephi, all leaping off the side of the deck and into our pool in unison. Yes, I said our pool.
Scott Boone
“I HAVE no idea how you guys can eat like that and then go swimming,” Charlie said as we drove away from the restaurant.
“Eat like what?” I asked.
“You ate an entire dead pig’s worth of bacon in there.” He snorted. “Are you kidding me with that question?”
“You’re exaggerating,” I said with a chuckle.
“Pig killer,” Adan hissed.
“Says the man who inhaled his sausage,” I replied.
“I do love to suck down some good sausage,” Adan admitted. “And I believe you’ve both begged me to do it. Repeatedly.”
“Adan,” Charlie warned.
“What?” He was trying to sound innocent but that would never happen because he had irrevocably parted ways with innocent and then gotten a restraining order forbidding it from coming within one hundred feet of him.
“You’re being a pig,” I answered.
“Oink, oink.”
“Charming,” Charlie said sarcastically. “Hey, you guys never told me where we’re going swimming.”
I had wondered how long it was going to take him to ask that question. Apparently, the answer was thirty seconds from our destination.
“Here,” I said as we pulled up to a huge stucco home with flagstone covering the lower half.
“Whose house is this?” Charlie asked.
“Stephi, Bobby, are you ready to go swimming?” Adan asked.
The car had barely stopped before the kids were scrambling for their seat belts and jumping out. The adult contingent exited the vehicle at a more leisurely pace.
“I’ll get their stuff and help them get changed,” Adan said as he picked up the bag we’d packed with the kids’ swimsuits, goggles, towels, and pool toys. Then he turned to me and asked, “You got this?”
I nodded, said, “Yup,” and I wrapped my arm around Charlie’s shoulder.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“We want to show you something.” From the corner of my eye, I saw Adan open the gate to the backyard.
“You’re freaking me out, Scotty.”
I moved in front of him and rubbed my hands up and down his arms. “It’s a good thing, baby.” I gazed into his eyes. “But first, I want to make sure you’re okay about what happened earlier.”
He blushed and dipped his chin. “It felt good, if that’s what you’re asking.”
