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“Ellie Hunter, you’re drunk!” Serena laughed until she cried.
“That I am,” she said, taking a hearty drink. “The guys are gonn
a have fun with me tonight.”
They laughed even more until Serena stopped abruptly. “That’s just it. I want what you have only I want it with two, not four.”
“Well, let’s face it. Not everyone is born with an inner whore.”
“Oh, Ellie, stop. You are not a secret slut.”
“Oh yes, I am,” she said, grinning sheepishly. “I’m not too proud to admit it. I’ve slept with five men in my life—the one I had the dumb luck to marry and the four in my bed now. Yet I can pass some of the biggest sluts in the city—ya know the type, the ones who’ve been in over a hundred beds over the course of a lifetime—and they’ll be the first to cast stones in my direction.”
“Do you care?”
She made a weird face and waved her hand. “Not at all. Honey, I’m the luckiest woman in the world!”
“I know that’s true,” Serena said, wishing she felt the same.
“You listen to me.” Ellie shook Serena’s hands and left them cupped between her own. “You deserve to be happy. You deserve that happiness on your own terms. Do you hear me?”
Serena slowly nodded. “So what do I do?”
“You march down to Draegan’s house first thing in the morning and you tell him what’s what.”
“Which is?”
“You said you loved him. Right?”
She groaned. “I told him right in front of Bane.”
“Did you express your feelings for the detective, too?”
“I told Draegan I was attracted to Bane, but that’s the real hell of all this. I told Draegan, not Bane.”
“He was there, right?”
“Yes.”
“So what’s the big deal?”
“I said I was attracted to him. The truth is, I think I’m in love with him, too.”
“You guys haven’t spent much time together,” Ellie pointed out.
“That’s where it gets strange, at least in my head. I see Draegan every single day at the café. I could set my watch by when he’ll show up. I don’t see Bane. We talk every evening and I feel like I know so much more about him, about his goals and dreams, about how he actually admires Draegan for the work he’s done here in Trouble.”
“Maybe start there then,” Ellie suggested. “When you talk to Draegan, stroke his ego a bit. Don’t break confidences, by any means, but maybe express to him that you think Bane admires him or feed him some information that would suggest as much.”
“It’s hard to stroke Draegan’s ego. Whenever I’m around him, all I want to do is touch him.”
“And what about Bane?”
“I haven’t been around Bane enough to know.”
Peck! Peck! Peck!
Ellie pointed at the aluminum door and grinned. “Looks like you’re about to find out.” Ellie grabbed her lightweight jacket and threw it around her shoulders. Before she left, she kissed Serena on the cheek. “Relax. You’ve been honest with both men. Now, you can live in the moment. Enjoy whatever each man brings to the table. They know the score, Serena. You’ve been honest with both of them. Beyond that, you don’t owe them anything until one or both of them ask for a commitment.”
