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He could prove her wrong and hoped he had the chance to do that tonight. “You don’t understand men then. We’re pretty simple creatures. If we tell you we think you’re hot and want to get to know you, we probably do.”
“Well, I believe you. I’m not so sure about all men. Hale is… Well, I’ve never met anyone quite like him before. I like him a lot. I like you, too. I’ve definitely never met a man with your background.”
“Oh, there aren’t many of us out there. Even the ones who start out going nomad tend to give up after the kids come. Not my parents.” He brought her a bit closer. “Sometimes I wonder if we’re doomed to repeat our parents’ mistakes.”
“My therapist swears the answer to that question is no,” she promised and then let her head drop down to his shoulder. “Is this okay?”
“It’s perfect.” He swayed with her, enjoying how easily she moved with him, following his steps.
“It does feel that way,” she said quietly. “I am going to try very hard to trust that it’s okay to feel this way for a little while.”
“It is.” Even though he’d been worried earlier, he knew what he was saying was correct. It was okay to live in this particular moment. In this tiny slice of his life, he still had a best friend who was waiting for him, and he had this place and he had her. He probably wouldn’t have any of those things later. Time moved and stole and never seemed to give back, so all a person had at the end of their days were the memories they made. He intended to make a few right now. “Do you think you want to come back to our place for the night?”
Her head came back up. “I would be with both of you?”
He wasn’t sure why she was asking, but he intended to be honest with her. “Yes. Have you decided you only want one of us? If it’s Hale, I can back away.”
He wanted her badly, but he wasn’t sure he could hurt Hale that way. If he was the one she wanted, he might have to choose his friend.
“No, I want you both. I’m just wrapping my head around the idea,” she replied. “I’m trying to picture it, to think about how it would work.”
He reached up and cupped her cheek. “Don’t. Let it happen. Understand that if you decide you don’t want it, we’ll stop. No questions. No trying to change your mind. You’re in charge of this. But give us the chance to show you how good this can be. Give us the chance to learn what gives you pleasure. That’s what will give us the greatest pleasure—knowing we’ve given it to you.”
Her skin flushed a pretty pink. “Okay. Then I think I would like to go home with you and Hale.”
His whole body felt alive suddenly. “Then let’s get Hale. I’ll grab a bottle of wine and some beer from the bar and we can go home and get comfy. We’ll go at your pace, Elisa. If all you want to do tonight is talk and cuddle, then we’ll be happy for it.”
She stared at him for a long moment. “I’m pretty sure I’ll be up for a little more than that, but I don’t mind the idea of talking. I’d love to know how you and Hale met. I’d really love to know about the first time one of you suggested ‘hey, let’s share a girl.’”
“Now see, that’s a fun story because Hale didn’t get what I meant and…” He was about to go into how that night had gone when he realized this one had gone straight to hell.
The music was still playing, but everyone else on the floor had gone perfectly still, all eyes on something—or someone—behind him.
It was Bliss. It could be anything. It could be a deranged biker gang coming into town to start WWIII and he wouldn’t be surprised.
He moved to get in front of Elisa when he realized they weren’t in danger. Though his plans for the night definitely were.
“Who is that?” Elisa asked as she caught sight of the man standing at the edge of the dance floor.
“That’s your dad.”
Chapter Five
Elisa wondered what had gone wrong. One minute she’d been kind of floating along and perfectly comfortable with the decision to sleep with two hot guys and the next, the world seemed to shift. Van stepped in front of her like she needed a shield. The music was still playing but it was obvious something had gone very wrong.
Or not. She didn’t actually feel a threatening presence. She’d been in the military long enough to have developed pretty good instincts as to when danger had entered the building, and she didn’t feel that. No. Van was wrong. This was more an air of anticipation.
