Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 133878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
Trev nodded. “Two. And at least one basket of all the accessories. Are you thinking about setting up a room for her? I thought she wasn’t staying long.”
“Maybe she stays longer if she likes the theater gig.” Shane sounded surprisingly positive. “I don’t like the idea of her coming home with the Farley brothers. I think we should pick her up.”
Jamie sighed. “We’re going to have to walk them through this, aren’t we?”
“I told you,” Trev replied with a shake of his head. “They know how to get a woman in bed, but I don’t think they’ve ever tried to get a woman to stay with them outside it.”
He wasn’t saying anything untrue. “We never wanted one until we met her.”
Trev put a hand on his shoulder. “Then let’s make sure you know how to tempt her to open up and view you as something more than a fun time. It starts with not letting her sit up at the theater alone. She’s got to eat dinner, right?”
“She said she would get something from Stella… We should take her dinner,” Bay said, finally getting the point.
Shane smiled at him like he was a toddler learning to use his words. “That’s good. We should take a whole picnic, and while we’re waiting, we should set up a place for her to work here. We can split the upstairs room. I bet she would like that light, too. If someone will give me the code to the storage locker, I’ll get started. My stepmom used to sew, and I think I remember a little about how her room was set up.”
Not that Shane had been allowed in there. “I’ll help. And I’ll call the bee lady. I hear she does picnic baskets now.”
Jamie pointed his way. “Now you’re talking. But you should also know that how you handle sex is going to be important.”
Trev snorted. “Yeah, listen to him. He thought it would be better to hold out, and his brother got in there first. He never lets Noah hear the end of it.”
“Oh, we did her at the same time.” Bay frowned. That sounded bad and not at all like the passionate intimacy they’d shared. “That didn’t come out right.”
“We began as we mean to go,” Shane corrected. “She knows we’re a packaged deal, and I feel like most of our intimacy should be the three of us for now.”
“Good.” Trev nodded as though he approved. “Then it seems like you know what you’re doing. Now let’s talk about how you can pay us back for giving you this lovely house to live in and access to a ridiculous amount of toys. You see we haven’t been on a date alone in six months.”
“We can watch the kids.” Bay wasn’t going to pretend to not understand. He liked Miranda, and honestly, he was good with kids. They tended to think he was a weirdo, but kids were way more tolerant than adults. Would Brooke think it was a good thing that he probably fit better with kids than normal adults who didn’t view the world as one big art project?
He could feel the sculpture that had been playing in his head. Feel the wetness on his hands as he smoothed the clay, running over and over until he got her curves right. Until he could see in a piece of art what he felt the night before. Love and lust, and an odd sense of peace he’d never had before.
“I promise we won’t abuse it,” Trev said solemnly. “Normally we switch off.”
“But Hope’s been so sick. This kid might be an only,” Jamie said with clear worry in his eyes.
“We don’t mind helping out. Brooke likes kids. She’s got so many pictures of her niece and nephews on her socials,” Shane said.
Trev winced. “You have to stop that, son. You sound like a stalker.”
Shane shrugged. “Well, how else am I supposed to keep up with her? I can’t call her up and ask how the designs on the fall line are going. Though apparently someone should have because that went south.”
“Yeah, I’d like her to tell us something more than it all went to hell,” Bay admitted. “How can we help solve the problem if we don’t know the extent of it?”
Jamie’s head shook. “Nope. Don’t you put it like that. Have you spent a lot of time around women like Brooke? I suspect not. They don’t want you to solve their problems. They want you to listen to them. To be sympathetic and then feed them chocolate or whatever their preferred sweet of the week is. They definitely don’t want you making reasonable suggestions.”
“You told a pregnant woman you thought the tea she was drinking was upsetting her stomach,” Trev shot back. “Rookie move, my man. Because she came right back with ‘oh, it’s the green tea and not the eight pound baby.’”