by Lynn Stark
“I don’t deserve you,” Cherry whispered, tears stinging her eyes. She tried to tug her fingers from Collin’s hold, but he wouldn’t release her.
Mick, on her left, slid an arm around her waist. “I can’t say it didn’t hurt like hell, but we understood. We were willing to wait until you were better.”
“It was hard to let you be by yourself,” Cody told her. As he stood behind her, his hand came up to softly stroke the side of her neck until she found herself wanting to lean into the caress and soak it up like a sponge. “But we checked on you all the time. You’re not the only one who knows how to use snitches.”
Cherry chuckled. “My mother gave you updates, I take it.”
“She and a few other people who love you did.”
She should have known. She didn’t mind. It just proved how much these men truly did care for her, loved her. Could they really love her? She wondered. How had their love survived after the treatment she had given it? How had it survived the long separation?
There was one huge subject Cherry had to bring up. It was one none of them could avoid. Somehow their love had managed to survive her abuse of it. How that had happened was a miracle, pure and simple. Swallowing hard, she looked across at Collin. She wished they were all facing her, but she took comfort in their closeness.
“What about children? We used to talk about having them. Now I’m not sure I can get pregnant, though my doctor said everything seemed fine.”
Hearing her ob-gyn say the words and believing them for herself were two very different things. Was she deliberately throwing obstacles in the way? Was she trying to sabotage her relationship with these men? Even as everything deep inside of Cherry was telling her to throw herself into their arms and never let them go, old insecurities were doing a bit of clinging of their own.
The hands on her shoulders tightened gently but firmly. “Don’t go borrowing trouble, baby. Sure, we used to talk about the children we’d have one day. You might have noticed that family is the theme for most of Silver. But there’s more than one way to have children.”
Jake moved closer, if that was possible. “We just want you, Cherry, just you. You still have a ways to go before you’re completely fit. When the time is right, we’ll talk again about having kids.”
Stop being a wuss. You’ve been calling these guys all week, and it wasn’t just to apologize for being a total ungrateful bitch. You want to be with them. What the hell have you thought about all this time, if you weren’t going to give yourself and them a chance?
“Okay,” Cherry whispered, absolutely terrified.
She jumped away, startled, when Jake whooped loudly and launched himself away from the picnic table. Strong hands lifted her seconds later when she couldn’t get her breath. She could hear Jake’s apologies and his brothers’ angry growls as they worked with her through the panic attack.
Chapter Three
Mick shoved his brothers away, angrier than he had been in a very long time. He knew he was in the wrong. They loved Cherry as much as he did. But right now there were too many of them in the way and he needed to help her calm down.
Lifting Cherry into his arms, he walked over to a park bench and sat down, cradling her on his lap. He kissed Cherry and rocked her gently. It felt so good to have the woman in his arms again. It was definitely something he hadn’t expected, but something he had never truly given up hope of. It disturbed him that she was so thin, making his heart ache with worry.
“Sssh, sweetheart,” he whispered against her temple even as he felt her body begin to relax. They sat there for a long time, his brothers eventually gathering enough courage to sit beside her. With Jake crouched down in front, and Collin and Cody on either side, they soothed their woman with gentle words and touches.
Holding her in what he hoped was a comforting and not a smothering manner, Mick continued to hold her close until he felt her body sag against him.
“She’s asleep,” Jake said in an astonished whisper. “Maybe we should take her home with us.”
Cody chuckled beside them. “Yeah, I can see that happening. Right after Logan breaks us into little pieces.”
“Well, I don’t know about you guys,” Collin said, leaning back, his hand stroking her soft hair, “but I’m willing to sit here all night with her.”
Shaking his head, Mick smiled. He loved his brothers, but they were all nuts. As the oldest, he was supposed to be the responsible one. So that’s what he was. With Cherry still in his arms, he stood and began carrying her toward the street.
“She’s gotta go home. Logan’s been driving around the square for the past five minutes. I imagine our time’s about up.”
“Yeah, he’s like some great white shark.”
They walked to the sidewalk and waited until Logan’s big SUV glided to a stop in front of them. The door opened and Ryan got out. They each kissed her soft lips before passing her into the center seat beside Peaches, laughing when she made a face in her sleep and vigorously rubbed her tickled nose. They really would have to lose the beards, but not until she agreed to be theirs forever.
“Come over for Sunday dinner, guys,” Peaches said, giving them a gentle smile. “Sometime around two o’clock. I’ll be sure to make her take a nap before you get there.”
“Thanks, Peaches. We’ll be there.”
As they crossed the street and walked away from the center of town, heading back to the pizzeria for their supper, Mick wondered how they were ever going to last until the middle of the following day to see their girl.
“I want to be there early,” Jake said, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “And thanks for leaving your phone at home, Collin. We could have been talking to her all week.”
“Shut up, jerk. I didn’t leave it behind on purpose. It was in my jeans and I missed taking it out.”
“Definitely something he should be strung up for,” Mick agreed, slapping Collin on the shoulder. “Hell, I’m not gonna get mad about missing out this past week. By what I saw tonight, I doubt she was really ready to see us even a couple of days ago. We’ll have to go slow with her.”
“And no more hollering,” Collin instructed, leaning forward so he could glare at his immature little brother. “You about made her heart stop.”
“I didn’t mean to do it. Now get off my back.”
Seated in the familiar pizzeria, the brothers ordered their favorite pizza and beer. As they waited for it they saw a friend who worked there as a server. She seemed to be making a point of staying away from their table. They were always chatting with her when they came in. Most of the time, she waited on them. Now it looked like she didn’t want anything to do with them. She didn’t even look in their direction, which was really strange.
“What’s up with Gracie?”
“No clue. Maybe the beards really do have to go.”
“Well, it’s not like we’re trying to attract women now. So what’s the difference?”
“Sheila didn’t seem to mind the beards. In fact, I think she kinda liked them,” Jake said, referring to a woman they had grown up with. She was like one of the guys, working cattle, riding ATVs, and playing pool with them on Saturday nights.
“What does it matter what the woman does or doesn’t like? Focus, idiot,” Mick asked impatiently.
Baffled, the men watched Gracie move back and forth between the customers at the rear of the restaurant and the window where she picked up their orders. Not once did she look in their direction, toss out a friendly wave as she normally did, or come over to their table for a chat.
“Well, I don’t know what’s up with her. Maybe she’s just having a bad night.”
“If she’s having such a bad night, then why is she laughing with those guys?”
“Because she lives on the tips she’ll make from being extra nice. Remember, she works three part-time jobs.”
Mick put a stop to the speculation, though he was equally puzzled by the woman’s behavior. They had flirted with her years ago,
before meeting Cherry. They actually got along very well with her. But once they had found the woman they wanted to spend the rest of their life with, all but the most harmless flirting had stopped. They had never once indicated that they might want more with her.
“Leave it alone. She’s a nice woman. She probably is just having a bad night, like Cody said. Eat up. I want to get home. Maybe Cherry will call us later, if she wakes up.”
That got them going. They ate their pizza in record time, washing it down with a cold beer. Then they all but dashed to the counter to pay for their meal and their carryout of a half dozen pizzas they would toss in the freezer for another night, when they were too tired to come all the way into town for supper.
They were on their way out when they saw Gracie Harper standing against the front wall of the pizzeria, her cute little pixie face streaked with tears. “Did you guys get your lady back?” she asked quietly in a strained voice.
Mick frowned as he looked down at Gracie. She was all the things physically that Cherry wasn’t. While Cherry was about five foot eight or nine, Gracie probably topped out at somewhere around five foot. Where Cherry was fair with her long honey-gold hair, Gracie had jet-black hair cut just above her jaw line, angling down to her pointed chin. She also had a scattering of freckles across her cheekbones and button nose. Cherry’s eyes were a warm brown. Gracie’s were a soft moss green. They were as different as night and day in appearance.
Puzzled, Mick tipped his head to the side as he continued to study her. “Yes, we got our lady back. Why’s that, Gracie?”
They could see the flush across her cheekbones in the light pouring out the front window of the pizzeria. “Oh, I was just wondering. I saw you leave with her. And since she was with Peaches, I just guessed that that was her. I know you guys have been waiting a long time for her to get better. Well, I gotta go. See you guys around.”
“What was that about?” Jake asked, clearly as puzzled as his three brothers as they watched Gracie hurry down the sidewalk.
“Fuck if I know,” Mick muttered, confused. “Let’s get home. I don’t want to be in the truck if Cherry calls.”
They were home an hour before a sheepish Cherry called them. They grinned at each other like lovesick fools, all positioning themselves around the phone as they talked. The conversation was kept away from personal topics. They talked about what had been happening on the ranch, about cattle, about horses, and the cost of feed. They talked about everything under the sun but what had happened in the park.
That could wait until later, when they were all together. They knew there were still obstacles to overcome before Cherry would be ready to come home and be their wife. She was as skittish as a newborn filly and they would have to approach this new phase in their relationship very carefully. The fact that she had been trying to get a hold of them was a very good sign.
After they ended the call an hour later, they were all relaxed and pleased. It had been like old times, when they had first met and had begun learning about each other. They could even hear some of the old spark in her soft, sexy voice. Yes, it had been very positive.
Mick looked at his brothers. Cody and Collin had moved off to the side of the living room where there was a small table set up with a chess set on it. It wasn’t long before they were deeply involved in the game. It was a favorite pastime for the pair. He and Jake preferred watching sports on TV. He joined Jake in the game room to watch baseball on the huge flat-screen TV mounted on the wall. The size of it was definitely a man thing.
Jake handed him a beer. He grimaced, wiping the wet bottle off on his shirt before twisting the cap off of it. They sat there in silence for several minutes until he brought up the subject of Gracie.
“What did you think about that?”
“Weird. It was almost like she was jealous or something.”
Mick shook his head. “No, I don’t think it was jealousy. She seemed sad, more than anything else.” He paused then said carefully, “You know, before we met Cherry, I had thought Gracie might be a woman we could be interested in.”
There was a stunned silence. Jake turned to look at him. “What’re you saying, Mick? That you want them both?”
The silence hung heavily as he thought about that. He knew of more than one family that was made up of two women with two or more men. The various groups of relationships in and around Silver were many. It seemed to be whatever worked to make those people feel complete. And while he knew they could be perfectly happy with Cherry, he was wondering if it wouldn’t be possible for Gracie to be part of their family, too.
“Yeah, I think I am,” he admitted slowly, waiting for the fallout.
“Well, fuck me sideways.”
Choking on his beer, Mick shook his head. “No thanks. And I really wish you’d quit saying that. It’s just sick.”
Jake laughed and flipped him off, settling back in the thickly cushioned, microfiber-covered chair, his feet up on a footstool. “Okay, I get it. Now back to Gracie. I can see how she would be perfect for us, too. She’s sweet and we know she’s been looking for the right men. Has she been flirting with us and we just missed the signs?”
“Yeah, I think we missed a whole lot there.”
“We could lose Cherry. Are you really willing to risk that?” There was a wealth of pain in Jake’s voice. It was a warning of what they could all feel if they made the wrong choices.
“No. All I’m saying is we should wait and see.”
“It’s not fair to Cherry. I’ll be honest here. She’s sweet and sexy, but I say we forget about Gracie. Even thinking about her makes me feel like I’m cheating.”
“Well, we won’t do anything about it right now. But I hate to think we did something to mislead her. Now she’s got my interest and I don’t know what to do about it.”
If they had grown up anywhere but Silver they probably wouldn’t even consider sharing one woman, let alone two. But they had and there was the fact that they had two mothers and three fathers, so the two-woman thing wasn’t such a farfetched idea at all.
“Do about what?” Cody asked, strolling in and grabbing a beer.
Mick looked at his brother. Where Cody was, Collin would soon be. The two were practically inseparable. Most people thought they were twins they so closely resembled one another. Actually, they only shared a mother and were two years apart in age. He would wait until they were both in the room before he discussed the subject of dating Gracie.
“Mick wants to date Gracie.”
Choking in surprise, Cody spit out the beer in his mouth. He stared at Jake for a moment as if he couldn’t believe what he had heard then frowned as his gaze shifted to Mick. “Are you fucking nuts? Cherry has finally come back to us and you want to fuck it up by bringing in another woman?”
“I’m not bringing in another woman. I’m simply keeping it as a possibility. We’ll see what happens with Cherry. We already know she’s been with women. She might not be averse to the idea. Hell, she might even like it.”
“If you fuck this up, I’ll personally beat the shit out of you.”
Mick glared at Jake. “See what you started?”
Jake shrugged broad shoulders. “Don’t blame me. It’s your dick that’s suddenly kicked into overdrive.”
Collin showed up then and they had to get him up to speed, which didn’t make the conversation smooth out at all. They rarely fought. If they did, it wasn’t major and was usually straightened out quickly.
“I’m with Mick,” Collin said, dropping into a chair and putting his stocking feet up. “Gracie is just the kind of woman I would pick, if Cherry wasn’t a part of my life.”
“Well, Cherry is a part of our lives. And we have known Gracie for years,” Jake said roughly, clearly getting angry. “Why this sudden interest from you two?”
“Yeah, we’ve known her, but we didn’t have a lot of contact with her for a few years until she started working at the pizzeria. Both of you guys think about how you feel when you see Gracie.”
Mick and Collin watched the emotions play over their brothers’ faces as they thought of all the times the past year or so that they had talked and lightly flirted with the cute little server. When their expressions started to sour with their inner honesty, admitting to themselves that they were also attracted to Gracie, Mick decided to play dirty.
“You know what I wouldn’t mind seeing? I’d like to see Cherry on top, wearing one of those strap-on dicks, and having a little fun with Gracie.”
Low masculine growls filled the room as the hot image blazed through their minds like a wildfire in front of a hard wind. It didn’t help that none of them had had sex since they had talked with Cherry the first time. Jerking off in the shower didn’t count.
Then Jake had to pop the fantasy bubble. The jerk. “You’re assuming, of course, that Gracie would be good for a little girl-on-girl action.”
Shrugging, Mick said lightly, “Having grown up in Silver, I’m sure the thought has crossed her mind once or twice. For all we know, she would be all for it.”
“We’ll wait and see,” Collin said, grimacing as he shifted in the chair, obviously experiencing some discomfort. “First things first. I don’t want to be scaring Cherry off. She’s more important than some fantasy any of us can come up with. We’re all in love with her. That’s a given.”
Mick had to agree with that. The time for fantasizing was over. They had to concentrate on rebuilding their relationship with Cherry, the woman they knew they loved beyond reason.
“Who’s up for shaving?”
* * * *
Jake groaned when he looked at the clock and saw the time. They were running late and it looked as if they weren’t going to get to spend the extra time with Cherry before dinner. Of course, they would stay for a few hours afterward. But that just felt so far away!
Grabbing his keys and his phone, he stuffed them in his pockets then bent down to pull the cuffs of his slacks down over his dress boots. One last glance in the mirror had him grinning. He was such a handsome bastard! Laughing at himself, he shook his head and got himself moving.
