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“How sad,” Riva added.
“Such is life. I will miss her every day for the rest of my life, but she would never want me to wallow. So I grieved and got on with things. It was a year after I retired from the Royal Marines, which meant I was lucky to have spent the last twelve months with her at home instead of being on deployment. I cared for her right up until the end.”
Riva absently stirred the pancake mixture. “It reminds me of the cancer my mother fought when I was fifteen. It was breast cancer for her, but my family is lucky enough to still have her. I’m sorry you lost your mum.”
As I watched Jeremy and Riva embrace, I felt somewhat out of place, maybe even a little guilty. My parents had never had any major health scares. My grandfather on my mother’s side lived until he was eighty-six, Grandpa and Grandma Beachley were still living the mountain life at seventy-two, and Grandma on my mom’s side was still going strong at ninety-one, though she lived in Mom and Dad’s house now. I didn’t know what it was like to suffer or truly grieve for anyone. I’d had a pretty comfortable life so far. What it made me realize was I ought to take more time to visit my family and not take them for granted so much. It was Dad’s sixtieth birthday next year, so maybe my sister and I could throw him a surprise party.
I’d have to get in contact with Grace and see if we could work something out.
Jeremy slung an arm around me while Riva drizzled the pancake mix into the sizzling frypan. “You’re awfully quiet. What are you thinking about, sugar?”
“How lucky I am.”
“Yeah?” Jeremy smiled at me.
“Yep.”I looked up at him lovingly.
He pressed a kiss to my mouth. “So am I.”
“Me as well.” Riva flipped the pancake out of the pan and onto a plate. “Would you be opposed to Sienna and me being girlfriends, Jeremy?”
A pleasantly surprised smile spread across his face. “Not at all, baby girl. Not at all. I think it’s highly appropriate, not to mention sexy as hell.” This time he kissed my shoulder.
My smile grew bigger. “I agree.”
Jeremy went over and flipped the pancakes before he removed them from the pan, and Riva poured more of the mixture. “So, what did you two get up to in that fucking fancy hotel room last night, hmm?”
“We had room service,” Riva said.
“Uh-huh…”
“We had in-room massages,” I added.
“Sounds nice.”
Riva nodded. “We watched a niche film.”
“What film?”
“An artsy thing.” I waved my hand at him. “We also fucked too many times to count. One of the times was while the film was on.”
Jeremy released a low whistle. “How was your first time alone with a woman, sugar?”
I squirmed on the spot at the memory. “So fucking hot.”
“That is music to my ears. The mere thought of you two beauties together makes me want to fuck you both over the dining table.” Jeremy pointed the spatula in the direction of the table in the middle of the room.
I dropped my mouth open. “But then the pancakes will go to waste.”
“You want to bet?” Jeremy squeezed my ass, and I leaned into his palm.
“I have a better idea,” Riva said as she switched the stove off.
“What idea, my baby girl?”
She divvied up the pancakes evenly and made sure there was a plate for Augustus. “How about we give sex a rest for a week? Instead of fucking at the drop of a hat, which you know I love, why don’t we wait until after the gala? It’ll be the perfect send-off for me, since I’m going home for Christmas, and we will all be celebrating our joint successes of the evening, not to mention nearly all of us will be together, minus poor Ruben, of course. The wait will make us want each other even more, and we will have the best private after-party ever. In the meantime, we can all date each other.” Despite her confident words of what I considered great wisdom, Riva caught herself and glanced at us sheepishly. “Or am I being stupid and girly, and perhaps we should completely forget the idea?”
Jeremy took a minute to pick his jaw up from the floor. “No, Reeves, it’s brilliant. It’s the perfect time of the year to get to know one another outside the bedroom. It’s an important part of forming a solid bond. You’re incredible, baby girl. So intelligent. So sweet and beautiful.” He punctuated his statement with a kiss.
