AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Thank you! Back up!” Liam said, tipping the mouth of his beer bottle accusingly at Chris and Justin. “I’ve been telling them that for days.”
Justin glared at him. “We want to work it out between ourselves, find a solution we can present to her.”
“She’d probably appreciate being able to help with the problem,” Adam pointed out. “Isn’t the whole point of a relationship being able to work through things together? Don’t you think she’s going to be pissed when she realizes she’s been left out of some important decisions?”
The pair looked at each other, a little uneasily. Adam didn’t envy them. This whole relationship business was hard enough when he was half of a couple and trying to find his way. Being part of a permanent threesome added a whole new set of issues, and it seemed like every time the trio worked through one, another one would pop up in their way.
“Besides,” he added, “you’ve only been with her for what... nine months? Not even a year? Don’t you think it’s a little bit early to be talking about this anyway?”
“Not really,” Chris said with a shrug. “We’ve been talking about it with each other for about two months now, trying to figure out a solution that won’t leave either of us feeling left out. It’s not like we’re going to ask her the second we figure things out.”
“We want to figure them out before we ask her,” Justin finished.
“Hell, I’ll probably end up asking Hilary to marry me before these two idiots figure out an equable scenario,” Liam said with a snort. “I told ‘em to flip a coin.”
“You’re already thinking along those lines too?” Adam asked, surprised. Liam and Hilary had been together even less time than Jessica, Justin, and Chris. Although, granted, their relationship dynamics were a lot easier in general.
Liam grinned at him. “ I’ve known since... hell, probably from almost the beginning I wasn’t going to let her go. Ever. And in Hilary’s world, that means marriage. I want it all official and locked down too. We’re working out some of the kinks now that I’ve finally convinced her to move in with me.”
“Some of the kinks?” Chris waggled his eyebrows lasciviously, making all of them groan at the pun.
“You know what I mean,” Liam said. “Bickering over how to put the dishes in the dishwasher, what we’re going to watch on television every night, when we need our own space... that kind of thing. We might move to a new apartment though, I think she feels a little bit like an interloper in my place even though I made room for her.” For someone who was describing the little issues in his relationship, Liam sounded almost smugly content.
Trying to picture Angel living in his house, Adam had to admit he liked the idea of having her there. All the time.
“Ah ha!” He blinked and looked up to see Justin pointing at him and grinning. “I know that look! See? You haven’t known Angel for long, but you can’t help thinking along the same lines, right?”
Shrugging, Adam shifted, feeling a bit exposed and uncomfortable. “Yeah, but I’d rather take it slow.”
“Oh, I’m not asking Hilary to marry me anytime soon. But that doesn’t mean it’s not on my mind.”
Later, home in his own bed, Adam realized Liam wasn’t the only one thinking about marriage. If he and Angel continued down the road they were on now, he could see him thinking about it in the future. Sure, there were little things to work through first. Not the least of which was his own issues when it came to marriage and worrying about unhappy revelations.
As Adam knew, he hadn’t done anything to piss Angel off or upset her. It was completely smooth sailing. Which was seemed ridiculous thing to worry about, but he didn’t remember his parents’ fighting much before the divorce. His mother would shove down all of her emotions until they came out in passive-aggressive little snippets his dad didn’t notice, right up until the day she got fed up and left.
Angel hadn’t said anything to him about the way he’d treated her when she’d first come to Stronghold and he’d realized who she was. In fact, she’d pretty much taken everything he’d dished out. Sure, he’d searched her out and apologized, but she hadn’t insisted on it and she’d forgiven him immediately.
Had she not been that bothered by it? Or was she not the type to hold a grudge once she’d received an apology?
Or had she sat on her emotions, the way his mother always had, rather than standing up for herself?
The various scenarios whirled around his head, eventually dragging him down into an uneasy sleep where his dreams were filled with running through fog, a glass slipper in his hand, trying to find Angel, knowing she was nearby but refusing to answer when he yelled her name. It was not a restful night.
Angel
“And tonight’s gonna be a GOOD GOOD niiiiight!” Angel sang, bouncing as she parked the car in front of the apartment building.
She could understand why Lexie hadn’t wanted to share the address with Patrick or any of her other “sentinels.” It wasn’t a terrible neighborhood, but it wasn’t the best either.
As much as she wanted to sit in her car and finish out the song, she also knew it wasn’t the best idea. Sometimes the whole proactive self-defense thing could take all the fun away from simple things. Was it likely someone would come and car jack her while she was sitting and dancing in front of an apartment building? No. But she didn’t want to be a statistic either.
Lexie had better be the first person enrolled in her self-defense class, Angel thought. Yesterday she’d talked on the phone with Patrick about it, they were going to start advertising soon. Monday and Wednesday nights. Which was good because it gave her something to do while Adam was at Liam’s dojo on Wednesdays.
Silly, but she’d missed him this week even though she’d ended up seeing him yesterday. It was probably a good thing they’d had an evening completely apart. Things were moving fast. And by things, she meant her emotions. Yesterday it had seemed like he’d pulled away a bit. There was nothing she could put her finger on. But she didn’t like feeling like she was falling in love with him—okay, was probably halfway there if not more—without knowing how he felt.
Not that she had any idea how to bring up the conversation.
Sighing, she grabbed the folding chair she’d brought from her backseat, along with the bottles of wine—one white, one red—and headed toward the front of the building.
