Her Mountain Home

by Marla Monroe

  “I have Maggie and my books. Guess they’ve been all I needed.”

  “Well,” Caleb said. “Now you have us, as well, and I plan on us being all you need.”

  Selena smiled. “Sounds like you’re getting serious, Caleb. Don’t make this into more than it is.”

  “What do you see it as being?” Austin asked, watching her face as she answered him.

  “A great friendship with two amazing men,” she said.

  “And what if we want it to be more?” Caleb asked.

  Austin could have kicked his friend for pushing things. She was skittish. He didn’t want the other man to push her away.

  “I can’t promise anything, guys. I told you I move around a lot. I can’t guarantee that I’ll still be here in six or even five months,” she said.

  “But until then, you belong to us,” Caleb said, still pushing.

  “I don’t know about belonging to you, but I like going out with you guys. Can’t that be enough?”

  “For now,” Caleb said.

  The band started playing their first set, and Austin wanted a change of subject before Caleb pushed Selena too far.

  “Let’s dance,” he said.

  Chapter Twelve

  Selena laughed and clapped her hands as she and Austin danced to the music. She loved to dance and hadn’t gotten much of a chance over the last few years. She occasionally would go out by herself and dance with whoever asked her, but it wasn’t as fun as this was. She liked dancing with the guys. They were good and didn’t complain about their feet hurting, Of course, she had two to choose from so one could rest while the other danced.

  “I need a drink,” she finally confessed after the second dance.

  “Thank God. I was about to beg for a beer,” Austin told her with a huge grin brightening his face.

  They returned to the table, where Caleb was guarding their drinks. He smiled at them.

  “Looks like you guys are having a great time. Don’t wear Selena out before I get my chance to dance,” Caleb said.

  “Not a chance,” Selena said with a laugh. “I’m just getting started.”

  They laughed and danced and teased each other all night. Selena was having a ball. The guys were perfect, and that bothered her to some degree. If they were always this great, why hadn’t some woman snatched them up before now? They were in their mid-thirties like her but were still single. It didn’t add up.

  “How is it that two such handsome men are still single?” she finally asked after several beers.

  “Not many women out there are interested in taking on two men at one time,” Caleb said.

  “You’re serious. You really do want to share a woman? Like permanently?” Selena asked.

  “Yeah. We’re serious about it, babe,” Caleb said.

  “We aren’t looking for one woman each, but one woman for the two of us. It’s our dream and why we moved here and bought land on this mountain,” Austin said.

  “The other guys who live up there with us are of the same mind. We all want a ménage relationship and figured if we all lived in one area, it would be easier to deal with the speculation in a small town like where we live,” Caleb said.

  “So you’re saying that all the men living on that mountain are looking for one woman for the two of them? That’s wild. I figured you guys were just unique in how you felt,” Selena said.

  “There are ten other men living on that mountain. That’s five other potential families,” Austin said. “They all want what we want, a woman to share and make a home with.”

  “I guess I haven’t been taking you guys seriously. I’m sorry about that. I figured you would eventually get over your need to share and settle down with a woman of your own,” Selena said.

  “Does this mean you aren’t willing to give us a chance?” Caleb asked, his voice sounding much less enthusiastic.

  “No, I haven’t changed my mind. I really like both of you and enjoy spending time with you guys,” she said.

  “Then how about let’s dance?” Caleb said as he stood.

  Selena smiled, glad that he’d accepted her answer, and took his hand to let him draw her to her feet and lead her to the dance floor. She hadn’t meant to upset them. She should have accepted that they were serious about their choice of relationships.

  The rest of the evening was spent dancing, chatting, and occasionally kissing. The two men seemed to have eyes only for her and never once looked at another woman while she was around them. Even when she’d escaped to the bathroom to freshen up, when she’d walked back toward them it was to find them relaxed and talking to each other despite the number of sexily clad women milling around them. It impressed her that they were that loyal when they really hadn’t known her for more than a few weeks.

  “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m beat,” Austin said around midnight. “They’ll be closing this place down soon. Are you ready to go?”

  “I’ve had the best time, but you’re right. I’m ready. I think my feet are going to bark at me tomorrow,” Selena said.

  “Be sure and soak them when you get home. That’ll help,” Caleb said.

  “Or we could massage them before we leave,” Austin offered.

  “Oh. My. God.” Selena popped her hand over her mouth. “If you offered to do that after like six hours of sweaty cowboy boots, you have to be the real thing.”

  The guys chuckled as they stood. Selena let Austin pull her to her feet as she laughed with them. Despite the crowd, it wasn’t difficult to make their way to the door and outside. Most everyone was resisting the impending hour of closing.

  Once they arrived at Selena’s place, both men walked her to the door. She unlocked and opened the door but stopped to turn around. She didn’t want the night to end, but she’d had a little too much to drink and didn’t think it would be a good idea to let the men inside this time.

  “I had a great time, guys. Thanks for taking me out,” she said.

  “We had a good time, as well. How about a picnic cookout next weekend?” Caleb asked.

  “Really? A picnic?” she asked.

  “Yeah. There’s a great spot not too far from our house where there’s a stream and an open meadow that would be perfect for throwing out a blanket and setting up a meal,” Austin added.

  “That sounds really nice. I’d like that,” she said.

  “Great. It’s a date,” Caleb said before pulling her into his arms.

  She smiled up at him before he lowered his head and kissed her. She responded as he licked along her lips so that she’d open to him. His mouth was hot and wet and amazing as he licked along the inside, then sucked on her tongue. She moaned as his hands squeezed her ass with the kiss.

  When she thought she’d have to pull back to get some air, he released her and turned her toward Austin. She barely had time to catch her breath before he was kissing her and pressing her back against Caleb’s chest. She felt cushioned instead of trapped between the two men. Austin licked and sucked her lips before spearing his tongue deep inside to tangle with hers.

  “You’re so fucking sexy, Selena,” Austin said when he’d released her and rested his forehead against hers.

  “You guys are too much. God, I don’t think I could handle one of you, so two of you are devastating,” she admitted.

  “But in a good way, right?” Caleb pressed.

  “Yeah. In a good way.” Selena sighed and closed her eyes for a second. “I’d better get inside. I need to soak my feet and get some rest.”

  “Night, honey,” Austin said, giving her cheek a peck.

  “Good night, baby girl,” Caleb said.

  “Good night, guys. See you next weekend.” She waved at them, then closed the door.

  Selena thought long and hard about them as she ran the bath with hot water and Epsom salt for her feet. They were serious about a relationship. She needed to be aware of that. Was it fair to date them knowing that she would probably want to move on in a few months?

  She decided it
was, since they knew her history. She’d been nothing but honest with them from the start. Why not have a good time for a change? She’d never met a man she’d been interested in enough to take her away from her writing. Selena didn’t mind spending time with them instead of with her books.

  Having made her decision to continue dating Austin and Caleb, Selena relaxed and let her poor feet soak while she fantasized about the two men who might just mean a different direction for her life.

  * * * *

  Selena parked her car in the lot outside the local diner. She’d decided to eat lunch there, then do a little shopping on Thursday. She wanted to make chili for the weekend and planned to make brownies for the picnic on Saturday with the guys.

  The diner wasn’t full, but there were a fair number of people still there despite it being nearly one on a weekday. She seated herself at a table near the front and perused the menu while she waited on the waitress to make her way to her.

  “Afternoon. What can I get you to drink?” the woman asked. It wasn’t the same one from when she’d had lunch with the guys that day.

  “Ice tea please,” she said.

  “Interested in the daily special?” the woman asked.

  “No thanks. I think I’m going to order off the menu today.”

  “I’ll be right back.”

  Selena decided on the grilled chicken salad by the time the waitress had returned with her drink. The woman nodded and took her order, then left to put it in. Most of the people still in the diner were older adults. She didn’t see anyone under forty, other than herself and maybe the other waitress manning the counter.

  By the time she’d received her salad, she felt as though someone was watching her. She took a bite and while she chewed, she looked around and noticed a couple of women near the back staring at her. She didn’t recognize either of them, but then she didn’t know anyone other than the guys in town. She stared back, waiting on them to look away, but they didn’t. Selena shrugged and continued eating.

  When she’d finished eating and had paid her tab, the other women had already left. Selena drove over to the grocery store and parked close to the door. She had her list and didn’t plan on being inside very long. She wanted to get back to writing. A scene for the book she was working on had popped into her head, and she wanted to get it down before it went away.

  “You’re the woman who moved into the old Marshall’s house, right?” The voice jarred her out of her head as she pushed her shopping cart down the vegetable aisle.

  Selena looked up and found one of the women from the diner looking at her. “Um, yes. I’m Selena.”

  “I’m Katherine. I saw you at the bar the other night with those guys from off the mountain. Are you really seeing both of them? That’s what everyone in town is saying,” the woman said.

  “Yeah. I’m dating both of them. They’re really nice guys,” she said.

  “But you can’t date two guys at one time. I mean, you can date two different guys while you decide who you want to see more, but not at the same time,” Katherine said.

  “Why not? I like both of them and they want to spend time with me. If it works, what’s wrong with it?” Selena asked.

  “It’s just not right. People are going to talk about you if you keep doing it,” she said.

  “I don’t care. If I want to do it, it’s my business. I’m not hurting anyone, so why should it matter to anyone else what I do with my life?”

  “Personally, I don’t give a rat’s ass, but there are plenty of people in this town who are going to give you grief over it. They don’t like change, and this is really kind of out there, you know?”

  Selena smiled. “Yeah. I guess it is kind of out there.”

  “Don’t they argue over you? I mean, if you dance with one of them for two songs and the other one only one, don’t they get upset?” Katherine asked.

  “Nope. They aren’t trying to compete over me. They’re just there to have fun with me like I am with them. There’s no arguing about anything. They treat me like a queen and are very attentive. More so than I can say about any single man I’ve been out with.”

  “You looked like you were having a blast the other night. Can’t say as I blame you, but I just wanted to give you a heads-up that some of the women in town are talking. You know how women can be with gossip,” Katherine said, rolling her eyes.

  “Yeah. I know. Thanks for the warning.” Selena nodded at the woman and continued down the aisle to gather what she needed for her chili and the brownies.

  Once again, when she checked out, the cashier gave her the hairy eye. Obviously, she was part of the gossip squad who’d heard all about her dirty dancing with the guys at the bar. She was sure that by now she’d taken her bra off and danced on the tables.

  Shaking her head, Selena carted her bags to the car and drove back home. She put away the food and hurried back to the office to write. She had to wrestle Maggie off her office chair so she could sit down. The cat always knew when she was in work mode because she aggravated her on purpose. Like now, she’d just scooted the cat off the chair but had to do it again before she could finally sit down. Then the feline jumped up on the keyboard and lay down with a “dare you to move me” look in her eyes.

  “You have a perfectly good bed to sleep on right next to the keyboard. Use it.” She scooped Maggie up and dumped her on the bed. The cat hissed at her, then circled several times before planting herself on the bed and starting her bathing ritual.

  Selena settled in and opened her manuscript to begin putting down the idea she’d had for a scene at the grocery store. By the time she’d completed it, it was nearly seven at night and she was starved. The grilled chicken salad had filled her up, but it hadn’t lasted very long.

  She glanced at Maggie, who looked completely out of it. She had no doubt that the second she stepped into the kitchen, the cat would be under her feet as if she hadn’t just been dead to the world. She had some sort of sixth sense when it came to food. Selena could spend an hour in the bathroom, but let her step one toe over the kitchen doorway and Maggie’d be right there meowing for scraps.

  Selena shook her head and decided to be proactive and aggravate the cat for once. She scooped the fat thing up, narrowly avoiding a claw to the chin, and carried her to the other room. After setting her on the floor, she opened the refrigerator door and pulled out the ingredients for a sandwich. She didn’t feel like cooking.

  She gave the cat a few small pieces of ham and settled at the table to eat her meal. She couldn’t help but think about the odd conversation she’d had with Katherine at the grocery store. The other woman hadn’t seemed judgmental about her decision to date the two men, just curious. Although she hadn’t needed the heads-up that she was being talked about, it had been nice of Katherine to warn her.

  Would it bother her more if she was planning on staying in the little town? Maybe. She wasn’t sure. She’d gone into the odd relationship she had with the guys with the idea that she’d be moving on in another four or five months. If she didn’t and planned to stay longer, yeah, it might bother her to always feel as if someone was watching her.

  I’ve never let what other people think bother me before. I don’t need to start now. If I decide to stay longer, I need to remember that.

  Still, Selena mulled it over in her mind. Was she thinking about staying longer, and was it because of the men or just because she wanted to?

  She finished her meal and cleaned up, wiping down the counter and the table before turning off the kitchen light and walking down the hall to her bedroom. She planned to take a quick shower, then read for a couple of hours. She’d get an early start on writing in the morning.

  Selena curled up in her chair after the shower and began on chapter ten of the current ménage book she was reading. Really, it sounded like the perfect relationship for a woman if the books were to be believed. The woman always had at least one man around to take care of her, and the sex with both men was explosive. Would it be that
way in real life?

  “Nothing is that perfect,” she said out loud.

  Meow.

  She looked down to where Maggie was curled up on the floor looking up at her. The fat cat seemed to have a lot to say lately.

  “What?”

  Meooow.

  “You think they’re too good to be true?” Selena asked.

  The cat just blinked up at her, then tucked her nose back under her tail and closed her eyes.

  “Crazy cat.” Selena set her e-reader onto the little table next to the chair, turned off the light, and climbed over the cat to head to bed.

  Maybe she’d dream about her two men and figure out what was next in their relationship. Was she ready for more, or should she put an end to it before someone got hurt?

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Ready, babe?” Caleb asked when Selena had opened the door.

  She chuckled. “Yeah. I can tell you are.”

  “Missed you this week. Wanted to call you but hated to interrupt you while you were writing,” Caleb said.

  She stopped in her tracks for a beat, then continued to follow him to the truck. Had he really meant that? He hadn’t wanted to bother her while she was working? Caleb wouldn’t know it, but that meant a lot to her.

  “I missed you guys, too,” she admitted.

  “Hey, hon. How are you?” Austin called out from the cab of the truck.

  “I’m good. You guys should have let me drive up there instead of making the trip down the mountain like this.” She settled next to Austin and let Caleb fasten her seat belt.

  “Don’t want you driving down the mountain in the dark all alone, babe. The curves can be dangerous, especially when you never know if an animal might jump out in front of you,” Caleb said.

  She felt that little flutter in her heart at his words. They truly cared about her. She doubted her ex would have thought twice about it if it would have saved him some time. She shook her head.

  “What?” Austin asked as he backed out of her drive.