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“That’s the call,” I said, reaching for the phone and turning the alarm off. “Time to get the wee ones.”
I stood and stretched, realizing that I’d been sitting for hours. I made a mental note to get in a workout before the day was over; nothing made sleeping harder than sitting on your ass, I’d learned.
Right as I prepared to get moving, a text arrived from Aubrey.
Hey! Snow’s starting to come down hard, so I figured I’d bring the kids over. That work?
Sounds good to me.
I tucked my phone into my pocket, looking over at the guys.
“She’s bringing the kids back now.”
The boys regarded one another with long looks.
Mac reached forward, closing the laptop in front of him. He sighed when it was shut, looking around at all of us.
“Boys… we need to talk.”
“About what?” Marcus asked, his voice gruff.
“You know about what,” Tyler shot back. “We’ve all been ogling Aubrey for the last week.”
Marcus shrugged. “So what if we have been? Not a crime to look.”
“That’s just it,” Mac said. “We’ve all been doingmorethan looking, we’ve been thinking.”
Marcus formed his mouth into a flat line.
“Even so,” I said. “What can we do about it? Hot girl is hot, end of story, right?” As soon as I said the words, I realized how hollow they were. Aubrey was more than just some hot girl.
Mac shook his head. “We’re about to go on the mission of a lifetime. And that means we can’t afford to haveanythingtaking our minds off the goal. If the four of us ship out all thinking about Aubrey…”
“It’ll be a distraction,” Tyler said.
“Then what the hell are we going to do about it?” Marcus asked. “Whatcanwe do?”
“We talk about it,” Mac said. “When she comes over, we sit her down and put it all out in the open.”
Marcus snorted. “You’re serious? We have a little powwow over tea about how much we all want to screw her? What possible good could that do?”
I put my hand onto the back of my chair and thought it over.
“It’s not a bad idea. I mean, not like anything has to happen. Right now, there’s confusion and mystery about it. If we were to sit down and talk it over, get it out there, we might dispel that, you know? Nothing kills mystery faster than dragging it out into the cold light of day.” I glanced over at the round window, snow coming down hard. “Or into the gray light of this shitty afternoon.”
Tyler leaned forward. “Guys, what if she says she feels the same way?”
“Huh?” Marcus asked. “What do you mean?”
“I mean what I just said. What if we sit her down and tell her about the way we’ve all been feeling toward her and she’s just… cool with it, you know?”
None of the other guys said anything. What was there to even say to something like that?
“No way,” I said. “No way would a woman be cool with four guys.”
“Why not?” Tyler said with a shrug, sitting back and draping his arm over the couch.
“Too damn weird.” Marcus shook his head. “That’s what she’d think. Managing four different guys.”
