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Liv said, “This is Nate Dalton.” To Nate, she explained, “Vanessa Parks was a senior at the academy when we started our freshmen year.”
They shook hands. Vanessa all but swooned. “So nice to meet you,” she said. “Um . . . for the first time?”
“It’s okay that you don’t remember me. We wouldn’t have run in the same crowd.”
“But you’re a friend of Liv’s . . .” Vanessa said, looking a bit perplexed.
“Sure,” Nate said. “Just different cliques, that’s all.”
“Nate and his stepbrother, Tristan Reeves, were in the honors program. Into which I was never invited,” Liv said with a laugh.
“That makes two of us,” Vanessa told them.
“So, I think I have everything Fallon left for me.” Liv bundled up the boxes in oversized shopping bags for Nate, then collected her soiled clothing. “I’m off to the dry cleaners to get this iced coffee taken care of, then I’m meeting Chloe at the florist.”
Liv and Nate said their goodbyes to Vanessa and left the store. Outside, Liv mused, “Here we go again . . . opposite directions.” She tried to make a joke of the glaring reality, but didn’t sound the least bit convincing.
Nate kissed her on the forehead and told her, “You’re not the only one who has considered increasing the frequency of our visits.”
Her eyes narrowed on him. “That’s a rather cryptic thing to say.”
“Tristan and I are in town for a while. We’ll talk more later.” He grinned suggestively.
Liv’s pulse continued to reverberate throughout her. But she forced herself to whirl around and head off toward the dry cleaners while Nate went to the bakery.
Her mind, however, was not on the wedding. It was on Nate . . . and Tristan. And what they might be up to . . .
Chapter Six
On Friday night, Tristan and Nate mixed and mingled with their guests as they arrived on the Ariana for the cocktail reception. There was a lengthy list of people they needed to hobnob with if they were going to elevate operations in San Francisco and the surrounding area—really, the entire West Coast.
Admittedly, Tristan felt a modicum of pressure and tension when it came to building a more prominent U.S. infrastructure. They had plenty of successes under their belts, but there was something about invading the tech-heavy California valleys and the Pacific Northwest that left him with jagged feelings. Perhaps that was because this expansion meant so much to him and Nate. This infiltration of their old stomping grounds was like breaking through barriers they’d butted up against most of their lives.
Yet they’d both experienced an intrinsic pull all this time. Tristan could neither qualify nor quantify the incessant appeal. It was a living, breathing entity, one that had haunted him—and not just to stage a homecoming that might erase some of the bad memories.
The truth was, the memories weren’t horrendous. Nate would disagree, but as Tristan saw it, they’d forged their own rites of passage while suffering through an awkward adolescence. Not fitting in had been tolerable, enjoyable more often than not, because of the friends—no matter how few—he and Nate had made. Because of Liv.
And by the time senior year had rolled around, he and Nate had found themselves in a more stable position with the Bayfront crowd, particularly with Fallon, Devon, and Morgan, who were Liv’s closest friends. Naturally, just months later they were off to college, so they hadn’t had a chance to really experience a greater sense of belonging, but they had paved the way for their return. There were endless possibilities on the Bayfront horizon—something that always guided their actions, because California was where they’d always find Liv.
Which wasn’t the smartest notion to hang one’s aspirations on, Tristan knew. So he’d focused on the professional advantages to establishing a North American base in nearby San Francisco and tried to think of seeing Liv more often as an added bonus. Though he couldn’t deny the wheels had been turning in his head since he and Nate had arrived in town and they’d learned of Devon and Morgan staking a claim on the same woman. That love triangle was resilient, and from what Tristan had observed during the week, blossoming more with every passing day. They were making it work.
That gave Tristan hope for the situation with Liv. Because he and Nate were both hooked on her and she had not chosen between them when they’d all gotten together—nor had she separated out her friendships with them afterward. They were still a threesome, even when not sexually involved.
Tristan and Nate could live with a ménage scenario. Their brotherhood was soul deep and each only wanted the best for the other. That was Liv. So concessions could be made. And in all honesty, it really had revved Tristan to watch as much as to participate when they’d been with her.
But he and Nate weren’t currently attuned to exactly what Liv wanted . . . so that left them continuing to lay their groundwork and waiting for her to explain to them her thoughts on the three-way attraction and where she saw it going—if anywhere. Tristan wasn’t making any assumptions where Liv was concerned.
On the hunt for her now, he came through the floor-to-ceiling doors from the third of the vessel’s five front decks, skirted the massive black grand piano where classical musician—and Tristan and Nate’s new acquaintance—Lexington Alexander was entertaining, and bypassed the twenty-seat dining table to the left. The chairs had been cleared away and food towers were on display, along with all manner of appetizers that complemented the various carving and specialty stations strategically positioned throughout the room.
Devon snagged his attention and Tristan joined a small conglomeration engaged in conversation that included Morgan and his father, Dagney. The assembly was fortuitous for Tristan, since he’d personally invited the senior Presley for the specific reason of opening a dialogue on purchasing one of Dagney’s coveted buildings in San Francisco’s Financial District for the Dalton/Reeves international enterprise.
Morgan made the introductions.
Dagney said to Tristan, “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, son. D/R Communications has taken the industry by storm these past few years. A number of my associates have reported extremely beneficial and successful interactions with you and your people.”
“I’m happy to hear that,” Tristan told him. “Nate and I see a great deal of opportunity for some crossover work between our cutting-edge civilian communications concepts and your company’s state-of-the-art military
ones.”
