by Sabrina York
“You going to get it or should I?”
Paul shrugged off the thoughts. They’d have the rest of their lives for doubts and recriminations. “I will.” He tossed the silvery stuff on the tree and wiped his sweaty hands on his jeans. Turning in a circle he took in the results of their two hours of work. They’d forgotten the pot roast in their artistic frenzy until the smell of smoke drew it to their attention. The charcoal mess rested in the sink.
But a winter wonderland waited to greet the woman willing to spend the night with the two of them. Garland strung from beam to beam and twined around the staircase spindles, candles lit every surface, the tree decorated from top to bottom. He cut off the overhead light on his way to the door.
At Rex’s questioning frown, he said, “Romantic, remember?” But really the low light made him less self-conscious. Hand on the knob, he muttered a prayer to Saint Nick and tugged the heavy portal open.
Rex joined him, facing the bundled up snow angel shivering on the porch. He reached past his friend and took her arm. “Welcome, come in, you must be chilled to the bone.” The hooded woman nodded and he led her to the fire. “Let us help you off with your coat and boots.”
Rex, always the gracious one, even when uncomfortable or out of his element. Nobody would know when he was uneasy…except Paul, of course, and maybe Andie.
Joining the pair by the fire, Paul took the woman’s coat. She sank down on the wide hearth, the fire casting her face in shadow, and bent to pull off a heavy boot. He dropped to a squat and helped her, his focus on her calves and small feet, then looked up. And fell on his ass.
Behind him, Rex made a choking noise.
She grinned. “Hi, guys. Merry Christmas.”
Rex stumbled until the armchair hit the back of his knees and then dropped into it. “Andie?”
Paul scrambled to his feet. “How did you get here? Are you here for the holidays, too? Do you—oh no, you didn’t win a date, too, did you?”
She looked back and forth between them, tension in her jaw he’d never seen before. “No, I didn’t.” Tucking her legs up onto the ledge, she wrapped her arms around them and rested her chin on her knees. She muttered something.
“What?” Paul loomed over her like an interrogator. “I couldn’t hear you.”
“I said—” She dropped her stockinged feet to the floor and rose to her full height of five foot two. “I am your date. Both of yours.” Her helpful clarification sent Rex’s heart into the pit of his stomach in shock.
He moved closer. “What are you talking about? Do your folks know where you are?”
“I’m not a child, Rex, they don’t need to know everything I do. But I did tell them I had plans for the holidays.” She brought her gaze up to his, and he fought not to smile at her set jaw or her hands fisted on her hips.
“This is impossible…a mistake.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way.” The tremor in her voice belied her defiant stare, and he longed to comfort her, but was too stunned to behave like a normal person. “I thought we could spend a nice Christmas Eve together, the three of us, but I guess I can see if they have a room in the lodge available.” She reached for her boots.
“Don’t be silly.” His mind raced, trying to assimilate her presence and determine the right way to respond. “You just surprised us.”
“Big time,” Paul said. “Give us a moment to absorb the…err…surprise.”
They bracketed her. She was even shorter than usual without shoes, dressed in a red sweater that just met the top of her low-rise jeans. Her dark curls fell around her face, cheeks pink from the cold.
“I hoped it would be a good one, but I guess I misread the signals. I thought you both wanted me.” She took a step away. “Let’s just forget it, okay? But if I stay here, you might feel odd bringing girls back from the big party. After…this.”
Rex reached for her hand and warmed it between his. “Why would you think we’d do that?”
She shrugged, refusing to meet his gaze. “You were expecting a date tonight, you came all the way here for it…and you were disappointed to find me.”
He stopped trying to think what to do and let his heart lead. “Never disappointed, Andie. Nothing about you could ever disappoint me…us.” He tugged her against him, and she rested her head on his chest. “We just don’t want to hurt you in any way. And, sweetie, you’ve never struck me as the two-guys-in-bed type of girl.”
“It would be a first,” she mumbled into his sweater.
Glancing past her to Paul’s stricken face, doubt infused him one more time. Neither of them would survive a night with her unscathed. A one-night stand with the girl of both their dreams?
He needed to buy time.
Squeezing her tight, he dropped a kiss on her soft hair and set her away from him. “We haven’t eaten all day.”
She looked at him then at his friend’s guilty expression. “All day?”
“Well, since lunch. Paul burned our dinner.” He waved toward the kitchen and as he’d known she would, she brightened and headed in that direction. Feeding them had become an obsession with the girl, who seemed convinced they would starve if she didn’t take care of them.
“What is…oh, heavens.” She held the pan up and grimaced. “One of you take this outside, it’s nasty.” He grabbed for it. “What was it?”
“Pot roast.” He moved toward the door. “And it came with reheating instructions.”
She shook her head, curls bobbing, and pulled an apron off a hook, wrapping it around her twice. “I hope there’s something else in here I can whip up, or we’ll have to go to the lodge.”
The two men grinned and sank into the chairs by the hearth. Just like at home, when she came over and cooked for them. “Do you think you might make us a few cookies? It is almost Christmas.” Paul had balls…and a sweet tooth.
“Leave it to me. I swear if I hadn’t come up here, you’d just be living on junk food—what would that be up here? Bear jerky?”
Staring at the fire, Rex welcomed the normalcy. If all went well, she’d make them a great meal, and they could all go the party and then to sleep, and forget the madness of the early evening. She was their friend, no matter what fantasies they entertained. And she didn’t have a clue about their relationship. How the hell could they take her to bed—assuming they took that route—without her finding out?
He leaned against the high back, listening to her rattle around in the kitchen area. As always, she began to sing as soon as she started to cook. Although she wasn’t a trained vocalist, her happiness came through, even when she stood at her station in the fancy restaurant where she made her living, arranging lettuce leaves topped with half a bite of lobster or mini toasts piled in creative disarray between dots of fois gras.
Not what she liked to cook, but it paid well enough and as long as she was doing that, the happy tunes warbled forth. He’d asked her once if she wanted her own restaurant, and she’d said no. When he pressed her, she’d smiled and clammed up. She knew them too well—they’d have bought her one and she valued her independence.
“Whatcha making?” Paul asked, craning his neck to see her.
She broke off her rendition of Little Drummer Boy. “This and that. The lodge stocked this place so well…. While the chicken roasts, I’m thinking of using the other oven to bake a few cookies.”
Rex turned to the side. She bent double rummaging in the refrigerator, her sweet fanny swaying. He watched the girl he—they—had wanted for years, now theirs for the taking. His cock got rock hard in his pants.
He struggled to remember why they’d never made a serious move before. Two big brutes in bed with little, innocent Andie. Such a bad idea. He pictured her shock when she found out they were lovers as well. Would she be horrified at the idea or just angry they’d kept it from her?
Dancing from one counter to another, she peeled potatoes and wrapped garlic in foil to roast with the bird. Her garlic mashed potatoes were the best thing to eat on earth.
>
“Want biscuits, too?”
He wanted a lot of things. “Sure.” But biscuits weren’t tops on his list right that moment. And why hadn’t they just taken her right to bed? Oh, right, bad idea. “We’re going for a walk and bring in some wood while dinner cooks.”
“What?” Paul stared at him.
“Let’s go, buddy.” He beckoned toward the door, widening his eyes. Hint.
“Sure.” Paul jumped up
She waved them away. “Hurry back so dinner doesn’t get ruined.”
“Okay. You know we never want to miss a meal of yours.” They bundled up and ducked out the door. As it slammed behind them, Rex raked his hair back from his face. “We have a problem.”
Paul trudged through the drifts on the side of the cabin toward the woodpile.
“Where are you going?”
He faced Rex, exasperated. “To get the wood, remember? As you suggested?”
“There’s a lean-to full of logs right off the kitchen. We don’t need any more tonight.”
“Then why did you say we needed to go get some?”
Rex shook his head. “We’re in way over our heads here. I wanted time to figure out what we’re going to do.”
“Okay.” He could see that. “So, any ideas?”
“Let’s go to the lodge and get a present—the bottle of fancy perfume we got for our mystery date isn’t good enough for our girl.”
“You know you call her that all the time—our girl?” Paul stepped on the cleared path and together they headed for the lodge with its gift shop.
“Dammit, do I? Well, she is. Our girl, I mean.” Rex turned onto the main road, thankful he didn’t have to stumble through deep snow. “And you call her princess.”
Paul laid a hand on his bicep and spoke in a quiet tone. “I guess I do.” He moved in closer and wrapped his arms around Rex’s shoulders, hugging him. “She just offered to be our girl and we shoved her away so fast she nearly fell on that cute ass of hers.”
“We didn’t mean to hurt her.”
Standing so close together, Paul could almost forget the worries they had about her. He and Rex had a good thing going, but the issue of their feelings for the third in their happy trio hung over their heads. Inseparable since kindergarten, was it really possible to take their friendship to the next level?
“Of course we didn’t. But it worked out the same.” With a quick squeeze he released Rex and started toward Castillo Hotels’ northernmost US location. Built a century before by a gold mining king from ancient trees of immense girth, it had been in danger of collapse when Nick Castillo snapped it up at auction. The multinational corporation used its enormous bankroll to restore the lodge to its former glory. A wilderness treasure. Rex’s version of heaven.
“Paul, are you listening?”
Shoot, what did I miss? “What, oh sorry, woolgathering.”
“Look at the tree in the front window—must be twenty feet high.”
Paul blinked. “What were you saying? Before the part about the tree.”
“This evening could affect the rest of our lives.”
He swallowed hard. “I thought we were just looking for a present.”
Andie put the pot of potatoes on the burner and switched on the gas. The biscuits browned and a pan of shortbread cookies decorated with some of the silver dragees she’d found in the cupboard waited for room in the oven. All alone in the cabin, with dinner under control, she dropped onto a stool at the counter and buried her hands in her face.
Could they have been clearer? Andie wants sex? Oh no! Quick, get her to cook something and distract her from such an unthinkable idea.
Done. Finito. She’d given it her best shot and her last dollar, but it looked like another platonic weekend with her buddies. They had been kind, but clear. Two of the hottest guys on earth had no desire for their old friend in their bed.
They’d been willing to take a woman there, but not her.
Okay. Fair enough. She had a party to go to, even if Paul and Rex weren’t interested in her the way she’d hoped. The grandfather clock chimed. Five times. Plenty of time to finish cooking, get all dolled up in the pretty red velvet dress she’d intended to wow the boys with, and head over to the lodge for the big celebration. I can’t let them see how much it hurts when they turn me down.
Christmas Eve—her favorite night of the year. She thought of the gifts in her bag and shrugged. What a dreamer I am. The timer buzzed, and she hurried to pull the golden biscuits out and replace them with the cookies. She made quick work of preparing the other dishes and stopped. Her suitcases. Hadn’t the hotel guy said they’d be delivered by now?
At a knock, she trotted to the door, relieved to find a hotel employee bundled in a parka, holding her luggage.
“Just put it in the second guest bedroom.”
He stomped the snow off his boots and came inside. “Ma’am? There’s only one bedroom in this cabin. I can call the front desk if there’s a problem.”
“Oh, no.”
“When the gentlemen checked in yesterday, they didn’t say anything was wrong. They commented on how well they liked the place.” The man pushed his hood back, hat hair making a bird’s nest of his red locks. In his early twenties, he had freckles across his nose and an anxious expression.
“Umm, no. We’ll be fine.” She couldn’t afford to get another room or a bigger cabin even if one was available. But—she looked around the room—where had they slept? Maybe they could order a rollaway bed or something? Someone was going to get stuck on the floor or in an armchair by the fireplace. Why hadn’t she thought of what might happen if the guys rejected her offer?
Because the idea was almost as devastating as the reality.
You can’t show it, though. It’s your chance to give the guys the best Christmas ever. Then it’s time to head home and move on. Or better yet, move away, where you won’t see Rex and Paul every day of your life. Won’t have to watch them meet and court their future wives, have babies, while you work at that pretentious excuse of a yuppie restaurant and yearn for a life. Maybe far away you can make your own.
In Houston or Toronto, or maybe the North Pole.
Chapter Three
The cabin might have had a single bedroom, but it took up the entire loft, with plenty of space for a huge bed with room for three and a tub the size of a small swimming pool. Tempted beyond measure, she filled it and, tossing aside her clothes, sank into an ocean of bubbles.
She imagined Paul and Rex’s long legs tangling with hers under the water, like summers past at the lake, when each boy took one of her hands and they leapt together off the dock into the water’s chill.
Football stars, both of them, excellent students, outgoing, friendly, and popular. She’d been shy and introverted, but they chose her over the cool kids to be their constant companion. Protecting her from bullies, cheering her on when she’d been coerced into a saxophone solo at the band concert. Girls fluttered around them like bright butterflies, but they’d taken her to the prom. Both of them. As friends. The two most popular guys in school took a friend to the prom.
But were they ready to take their friendship to the next level—all three of them together?
They’d gone for wood…an hour ago…but she knew why they left. They’d gone off to decide. Would they take her to bed? Or try to let her down easy?
With her eyes drifting closed, and the water cooling around her, she allowed herself one more fantasy before giving it up forever.
“I’ve never taken a bath with two hot guys before.”
“Don’t worry.” Rex, always protective. “We’ll do everything, make it good for you.”
“Good for all of us.” Paul, fun, intelligent, and inventive. “I have some ideas.”
She gasped as each man took one of her feet and massaged from her toes to her heels until her muscles went limp and her worries faded away. Magic fingers stroked over her ankles to dig into her calves, then her thighs, while her blood pressure rose and
her breath hitched.
“Sit on my lap.” Rex again. “And tell me what you want for Christmas.”
A door crashed closed and boots thumped on the hardwood floor downstairs. “Andie, something’s burning.”
“Oh, shit.” She scrambled out of the tub. “My cookies!” A huge bath sheet hung on a hook, and she wrapped in it before hurrying down the ladder.
Pulling the oven door open, she peered inside. “They’re ruined.” She lifted the charred mess from the oven with a hot pad and dropped the tray in the sink with a groan. “Can you believe I burned something? Just like Paul.”
She turned away from the sink. Paul and Rex stood in the middle of the room, still in outdoor clothing, dripping snow onto the clean floor. She opened her mouth to make a comment, a patented Andie smart-ass remark, but it wouldn’t emerge.
Both men gaped, their eyes darkening in color. She looked from Paul’s midsummer sky blue to Rex’s deep gold. “What’s wrong?”
Rex swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Not a thing.”
Paul shook his head, back and forth. “It’s all good.”
Something had changed, the air crackling with tension. She held her breath. Hope sprang anew. Could it be…? Don’t push it, Andie!
“Okay, then. If you’ll help me get the food out of the warming drawer, we can have dinner before the party.” She turned back toward the kitchen.
Paul cleared his throat. “If you want to have dinner, you’d better get dressed.”
“Because otherwise, it’s all going to get cold.” Rex’s husky tone raised goose bumps on her arms and bare legs.
Bare. The towel. Ironically, considering her plan for the night, she was overcome with modesty.
“Oh, no. Give me a minute.” She headed for her suitcase in the loft. “I was just taking a swim…a bath in that huge tub.” Imagining you were with me—
“Andie, wait.” God, if Rex didn’t shut up she’d throw the towel aside and fling herself at them. “We’ve been talking.”
