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“Reid,” Lola called over my shoulder. “Why don’t you take the bags and show Jamie to their room? Hope and I need to catch up.” The guys looked at each other.
“Nice to see you, too, sis,” Reid snarked. Before I could turn around, he’d enclosed me in a bear hug and lifted me off my feet. I laughed even as the tears leaked out of me. He put me down, spun me around, and planted a kiss on my forehead. Then he snatched up my bag from the porch and they headed inside.
Lola and I followed at a distance.
I was surprised to find the huge house empty.
“Reid took the day off so he could be here to greet you guys.” She looped her arm through mine. “Everybody else is at practice,” she explained as she guided me into the kitchen. As soon as we were alone, she pushed me down into a kitchen chair and pulled another one up beside me. “Okay, tell me everything.”
I covered my face with my hands. Then I took a deep breath, and jumped in with both feet.
51.
Jamie
“Well, why didn’t you bring him?” Reid asked with a grin. I could feel the heat radiating from my face. I’d just told him about our situationship with Rowan.
“I think Hope wasn’t sure how you would react,” I said with a shrug as I slung my duffle onto the bed and he dropped Hope’s bag beside it.
“I mean, I’d be a major hypocrite if I didn’t support her,” Reid said. And then he walked around to the headboard to fluff the pillows. I stared in disbelief. Lola had clearly been good for him.
“That is true,” I smirked
He threw the pillow he was fluffing at my face. I caught it with a laugh.
“What about you? Are you okay with all this?”
I could hear the shift in his tone, the move to serious. We hadn’t been texting as much, and we sure didn’t see each other as often as we used to given that at one time we were inseparable. The divide was understandable. Just this year, he had committed himself to a very complicated relationship with Lola, plus he took a big-paying job on the Prospectors and moved to a different state. We’d gone from being in very similar situations, to very different ones, almost overnight. But when we were together, it was like nothing had changed. And he was one of the few people who actually knew what I was going through.
“I think I’m good with it,” I said, putting the pillow back into place.
“Really?” Reid asked with raised eyebrows. “Because last time I checked, you weren’t real big on sharing.”
“People change,” I muttered. I’d always been protective. Borderline possessive. When Reid was getting together with Lola, I wasn’t exactly the most supportive. But Reid wasn’t the only one who had changed this year. “When we brought Rowan in, I was sure I would be jealous but I’m not, even as I watch her fall in love with him. I just want her to be happy,” I said. I looked at the brother of the woman I loved and saw that he was watching me critically, almost warily. “I mean it. I can see that she’s falling in love with Rowan, and maybe with her boss, too. But I don’t feel even the slightest bit jealous. I’ve realized that her heart and her life can accommodate multiple men, just like Lola’s did. And if that’s what Hope wants…”
“What doyouwant?” Reid interrupted. He was still giving me that hard stare. I smiled. I knew he was trying to get the truth out of me, to cut through any act I might be putting on. But there was no act.
“I want Hope,” I said. It was just that simple.
52.
Hope
The house was pure chaos when all the guys were home.
Will, former head coach of the Ice Hawks, was carving a roast chicken at the kitchen island while Huck and Nate argued over the strategy for their upcoming rematch with a rival team. Lola sat in Dallas’s lap on the couch while Xander rubbed her feet with a look of pure devotion on his face. Reid, Erik, and Jamie were playing darts in the family room. I stared around in awe. What woman wouldn’t want this? An army of gorgeous hunks eager to attend to her every want and need. What was most incredible to me was that they all seemed to be happy and satisfied. They joked around with each other. The mood was congenial, warm and inviting. Based on the drama between Lola and Reid alone, which stretched back to their high school days, I never expected this dynamic to work out so well. But my brother was the most changed of all. Back in Casper, he was full of misplaced anger, never able to just settle down and be, but here, in Denver, he was downright content.
If Lola was a man, or anyone other than my oldest friend, I would have been sure that she was a very effective cult leader. And maybe that’s what this was. The cult of Lola. I mean, a woman with this many rich, handsome professional athletes at her beck and call was surely worth worshipping. I was ready to kneel at her altar myself if she could teach me her secrets. Because the longer I spent in this house, with my best friend and her, yes,haremof lovers, the more I realized two things. One—three was more than enough for me. I was tired just trying to keep the seven of them straight. And two—I would be lucky to live this life. Lola had successfully rejected the bonds of monogamy, the expectations of society. She lived her way, unconcerned with who might know her business or what they might think of her. Was that really all that stood between a woman and her wildest dreams? The courage to claim them?
“Dinner’s served,” Will announced from the kitchen. When I walked up, he gave me an apologetic smile. “Not sure it will live up to the standards of a chef, but I did my best.”
“It smells amazing,” I said, and I meant it. My mouth was watering. Dallas lifted Lola off his lap, placing her carefully on her feet, and she grabbed my hand and pulled me along toward the kitchen as the crowd of men closed in behind us.
53.
Hope
“Do you really believe that they never get jealous, never get in fights?” I whispered. I was curled up against Jamie’s side in the massive guest suite. He raised his head to look at me.
