Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 58470 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58470 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
I nodded. “I’m glad you told me. I won’t say anything. And these two, hell, they’re too busy with the Italian meat combo to care,” I said.
I thought about it all afternoon, to be honest. It wasn’t a possiblitiy I’d considered, but I needed to talk to my brothers about it. I messaged them about meeting at the house for dinner at seven because we needed to talk about Julie. That I had an idea.
By the time I got home, Darren was already searing steaks in the kitchen and Jeremy handed me a beer. While we ate, I told them about Dylan’s arrangement.
“They share her?” Darren asked a little incredulously.
“Says the guy who wouldn’t even trust me to borrow his truck in high school,” Jeremy said.
“You drove like a dumbass,” Darren said, and Jeremy shrugged.
“I’ve improved with practice,” he replied.
“Is that what you tell the ladies? You’ll get better with practice?” I asked. He snorted and flipped me his middle finger.
“In all seriousness,” I said as we put the food on plates and sat down to eat.
“You? Serious?” Darren quipped with a chuckle.
“I might surprise you. In fact, I think I will. When I found out about you and Julie spending the night together—” I began.
“Jesus, Jer, did you rent a fuckin’ billboard?” he said, aggravated.
“No, I just told Rory. I didn’t tell Kendall or anyone else. I know how to be discreet. I just thought our brother had a right to know.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. You didn’t have a right to know either. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Darren said.
“Anyway,” I continued. “Now that I know, I thought you were one lucky asshole, but I didn’t feel jealous. And it got me to thinking. There’s a spark with Julie and me, and I didn’t imagine that. It was a hell of a kiss.”
“So was ours. Don’t act like you’re so special,” Jeremy joked, cutting his steak. “Medium rare, perfect. Darren, you got the culinary skills out of all of us.”
“My chili is—”
“A one way ticket to diarrhea town,” Jeremy supplied and we laughed.
“If your elderly gut can’t take the spices, that’s your problem.”
“No, it’s everyone that uses the staff bathroom at my office’s problem,” he returned, laughing.
“Before Jeremy introduced the topic of his excessive shitting, I did have a point,” I said. “I had been thinking about Julie a lot, and how we’re all attracted to her. How she’s obviously into each of us, too. And I don’t mean that like to say anything bad about her at all. You got to understand that, okay?”
“Of course,” Jeremy said.
“Yeah,” Darren agreed.
“What I couldn’t figure out was what to do about it other than, I guess, try and ignore the feelings and hope they go away. Then the thing happened with her and Darren,” I nodded in his direction. “And I thought, well crap, she’s gonna be hanging out at the house and shit, and it’s gonna be wicked uncomfortable for a while. Now I know we all have our own floors so we wouldn’t have to run into each other, but I didn’t like the idea of avoiding you and her. Then I was having lunch with the guys at the station and Dylan got to talking.”
“Dylan the big guy?” Darren asked. I nodded.
“Yeah, well he was saying that a couple years ago, he was out with friends and this girl beat their ass at pool and they all hit it off. They hung out, and she went home with them. All three of them.”
“That’s different,” Jeremy said. “They’re all really happy. They live together, the four of them. They get along great, and she fits right in and they all three have a relationship with her, romantically I mean.”
“You’re saying this woman is in a polyamorous relationship with her three male roommates, right?” Jeremy asked.
“Thanks, counselor,” Darren rolled his eyes. “I think we all got his meaning.”
“I wasn’t sure,” Jeremy said, “what with our baby brother using words like romantically. I thought maybe aliens replaced him with a decoy to trap us. But the vocabulary on it was too good to fool us.”
“Nice, real nice, see if I share a hot woman with you,” I said, taking a bite of steak.
Still, they both got quiet for a few minutes and not just because we were all eating supper. Finally, I had to ask.
“So what do you think? Could we do it? I mean, if Julie was up for it.”
“I think that’s a question for her,” Jeremy said, ever the diplomat.
“Darren, you gotta tell us, what was the sex like? Was it good?” I inquired.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” he shot back wryly.
“Yes, I would. That’s why I’m asking,” I said lightly.
“I guess you should find out for yourself,” Darren replied without missing a beat.