by Lori Leger
“God help me,” she groaned. How could she possibly choose between two men who both meant so much to her?
CHAPTER 4
Nash jerked awake, realizing immediately that he wasn’t in his own apartment. He looked over at the clock and groaned. Nine o’clock? He let his head fall back against the pillow trying to remember what time he’d come in. He remembered fumbling with the key Annie and Drake had given him to get in through the side door of their new country home. Once they discovered she was pregnant, they’d decided to build about midway between Lake Coburn and Kenton. When he’d called to tell the couple he was relocating to the area permanently, they’d insisted he stay with them until he found his own digs. He was looking forward to spending quality time with his old roomies.
His plans hadn’t included waking up with a hangover, but once Angelique left the club, it’d turned into one of those ‘What the hell?’ nights old men tell their sons and grandsons about when they’re too long in the tooth to do anything other than talk.
He remembered Red taking their keys once they’d decided to discover which brand of tequila was the best for shooting. It had taken them the rest of the night to test out the shots of Cuervo Gold and Silver, Patron, 1800, and Sauza Gold – the club’s entire line of tequilas. For the life of him, he couldn’t remember the outcome. Nash rubbed a hand roughly over his face and swallowed. Hell, from the foul taste in his mouth, he could have been shooting lighter fluid.
He got up, took a quick shower and brushed his teeth. After throwing on a pair of jeans and a long sleeved button down, he slipped on his boots and headed downstairs to see what his host and hostess were up to.
He found them in the nursery putting together a crib for the baby that was due to arrive in one month. Nash stood quietly in the doorway, checking out the room’s cheery Noah’s Ark theme. His gaze was drawn to the couple, Annie, seated in the glider rocker, so similar to the one he’d last seen Kim seated upon. Drake was on his knees, completely enclosed by the rails of the crib, a cordless screwdriver in one hand and a bag filled with dozens of nuts, bolts, washers, and screws in the other. He was leaning over the crib’s schematic, studying the diagram.
“Uh, babe?” Annie spoke hesitantly, frowning over the sheet of instructions.
Drake’s head dropped back onto his shoulders. “Oh God, what now?”
“I think you put that last piece on backwards.”
“No, it shows Part A on the inside,” he replied, tightly.
Nash smiled, as bittersweet memories came rushing back at him. He distinctly remembered being in that same position and using that exact tone of voice with his pregnant wife. It had taken him hours to put that crib together. He hadn’t realized at the time that it would never be used. Thanks to a year of therapeutic graveside visits, he could now save his friends a little trouble by offering some guidance.
He walked into the room and cleared his throat. “It’s not backwards, Drake, but it is upside down.” He leaned over and pointed to a latch. “You see, that part needs to be on top, but it’s an easy fix.” He looked over at Annie, who mouthed a silent “Thank you”.
Drake took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “It already feels like I’ve been working on this damn thing forever.”
“Unless it’s been over four hours, I don’t feel sorry for you,” Nash told him. He squatted down next to Annie and placed one large hand on her considerable belly. “How’s the little LeBlanc doing this morning?”
She grinned up at him. “Very active. I think he’s a future kicker for the New Orleans Saints.”
“Or maybe she’s going to be one of the Saintsations,” Drake retorted, speaking of the football team’s cheerleading and dance squad.
“Maybe she’ll be a field goal kicker for the Saints,” Nash interjected.
Annie grinned mischievously at Nash and winked. “Or maybe he’ll grow up to be a Saintsation.”
Drake frowned at the two. “Y’all are freaking hilarious. We’d know if we were having a boy or a girl, if someone didn’t insist on not finding out.” He ended the comment by glaring at his wife.
She gave him a huge grin. “You’re just pissed because you thought I wouldn’t have the patience to last this long.”
Drake clenched his jaw noticeably. “Yeah, yeah. Now how about some help over here?”
Nash laughed and walked over to meet him. “A word of advice, pal. When you take that panel off to flip it, step outside of the crib to put the rest of it together. It’s not that easy to get out of there if you don’t.”
Drake grinned sheepishly as his wife bit back a laugh.
“Damn Nash, you ruined all the fun! I was dying to see him try to get out of that one,” Annie said, giggling before turning to Nash. “You want some breakfast?” She tried to lift herself up out of her chair.
Nash placed one hand on her shoulder. “Don’t get up, Annie. Honestly, I can’t eat anything right now, but I could use a cup of coffee, and some aspirin or something.”
“Help me up, first. I have to go pee again,” Annie said. “I’ll bring you something when I come back. Coffee’s in the kitchen.”
Mike Harper woke slowly to the sound of a baby crying and a pounding in his head. He reached over to look at his watch and grimaced at the time. He vaguely remembered the bartender dumping him and Nash into a cab and being delivered to Red and Tiffany’s place.
After a quick shower he redressed in his same clothes and popped three ibuprofens from a bottle he found in the medicine cabinet. He walked into the couple’s kitchen and grabbed the oversized mug next to the automatic coffee maker. After pouring himself a cup of good, strong Cajun coffee, he followed the sound of two adults making absolute fools of themselves over a giggling, cooing baby girl.
Red and Tiffany LeBlanc sat side by side on the couch while baby Briana sat up, supported by her daddy. The child gave an adorable belly laugh as her father made a face and a funny sound with his mouth.
“Oh man, she’s a beauty,” Mike said of the child who showed the promise of her mama’s golden brown hair and big brown eyes. “There’s nothing like the sound of a baby’s laughter.”
Red beamed at Mike as he handed his daughter over to Tiffany. “I have to agree with you there,” he told his friend.
“She’s got a set of lungs on her, too, from what I heard a little while ago,” Mike added.
“This child hates two things—dirty diapers and being hungry. I had to change her dirty diaper before I could feed her,” Tiffany explained. She stood up and walked over to meet him, holding the baby on her hip. “How are you, Mike?”
Mike hugged her fondly. “I’m good. Or I will be as soon as the ibuprofen takes effect. Man, I don’t know how long it’s been since I pulled one like that. Somewhere along the way, I seem to have lost my mind.”
Red laughed. “Yeah, I think I heard Angelique saying something along the same lines just before she limped out of the club last night.”
Tiffany swung around to face him. “What d’you do, step on her feet?”
“Nah,” he said. “We just kept her on the dance floor all night.”
“Poor Angie must have been burnt out,” Tiffany said.
Mike didn’t even have to think about it before he answered. “I don’t know why she would be. I barely broke a sweat.”
Red exchanged a look with his wife. “Could that possibly be because you sat out every other song?”
Tiffany laughed and shook her head in amazement. “Is that kind of cluelessness a man thing?”
Red snorted. “Don’t you lump us all into one. I think it’s more likely a law enforcement thing.”
Mike groaned. “It’s a ‘who’s gonna get to go home with the prize’ thing. Nash only thinks he’s as serious as I am about Angel. I plan on marrying that one.”
Tiffany clasped her hands in excitement. “You’re ready for that kind of commitment?”
Mike nodded. “Yeah, but don’t get too excited, she doesn’t know it yet. And it may take so
me time to get her to forget the past she’s had with Nash.” He looked over at his friends. “I didn’t realize he’d lost a wife and child.”
Red nodded somberly. “He told you?”
“Yeah. We both kind of spilled our guts last night.” He frowned, and placed a hand on his belly.
Red laid his hand on Mike’s shoulder. “You look like you’re about to spill yours again.”
Tiffany turned to her guest. “We have all the ingredients here to fix you up. Trust me, Mike. It doesn’t look like much, and tastes awful, but it really works.”
Mike covered his mouth as he tried to suppress a belch, then a groan. “Oh, God, please excuse me. I’ll take anything if you say it helps. I haven’t felt this bad in twenty years.”
Angelique curled up on her sofa with a second cup of coffee as she reached over with her free hand to rub her sore feet. The boots she’d worn the night before were of high quality leather, and a great fit. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t have sore feet this morning, but being the pawn between two extremely competitive males did not fit into the realm of normal circumstances. For a solid two hours she’d volleyed back and forth between the two men, until she’d called it a night and came home early. A soak in her tub and a half bottle of wine had calmed her nerves, but hadn’t done much for her old dogs this morning.
It was obviously out of the question to expect the three of them to spend any time together as friends, at least not unless she set down some serious ground rules first. She smiled to herself, thinking the old her would have enjoyed having two men fight over her. It didn’t sit well at all with the person she was trying to be today.
Angelique grabbed the notepad and pen from the end table and added coffee to the ever lengthening shopping list. She got up from the sofa, groaning as her feet hit the soft carpet, and padded to her bedroom. The last thing she felt like doing was grocery shopping but she’d already put it off too long. One thing she couldn’t face was waking up to a morning with no coffee.
Angelique threw the vacuum sealed pound of Community dark roast in her shopping basket. She scanned her list while heading toward the dairy section for a quart of milk. Still mulling over the events of the night before, she turned the corner at the end of the aisle and collided her basket into another shopper’s.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!”
“Excuse me. Angelique?”
She glanced into the familiar face. “Hey Tanner, I was totally distracted and not paying attention.”
“I’m sure all of my eggs are intact.” He flashed his brilliant smile. “It was worth it to run into someone as lovely as you.”
Angelique looked down at her faded jeans, brown leather slides, and basic long-sleeved pull over. She self-consciously put a hand up to her hair before remembering she wasn’t trying to impress anyone.
“How do you like my new look? I’m thinking of starting my own line: faded clothing, scuffed shoes, ponytail holders, and make up that replicates that just crawled out of bed look.”
Tanner scanned the lovely, smiling face and sensed something he hadn’t felt in years. A true fondness for another human being. A woman at that. One with whom he could let down his guard and treat as a friend. All without the mind numbing effort of trying to get her into bed to get in the way. “Angelique, you are truly lovely just as you are.” He stood back and shifted his feet to relax. “Besides, somebody already beat you to it. That’s called the ‘celebrity incognito’ line of fashion and they accessorize with thousand dollar sunglasses that cover half their face.” His heart warmed at the sound of her soft but sincere laughter. “So, what are you up to today?”
She leaned on the shopping cart handle. “After this, going home to rest my tired dogs from last night’s dancing.”
Tanner put a hand dramatically to his chest as though to pull out a make believe dagger. “You went out and didn’t call me? I’m so hurt.”
She put her head back and laughed. “I don’t have your number, for one thing.”
He pulled his wallet from his back pocket and removed a business card. “Here, my personal cell is on here. You have no more excuses not to call me when you need a dance partner.”
She let her head drop back and shifted on her sore feet. “That’s one thing I didn’t lack last night. So much so, that I called it a night at ten o’clock.”
He jerked his head back in surprise. “Tell me more.”
She shook her head. “It’s too long of a story to tell standing up, Tanner. I’ll tell you over a cup of coffee and a comfy chair.”
He beamed at his newest friend. “I’d love that. Where to?”
“My place is just around the corner. Let’s finish our shopping and you can follow me home.”
Thirty minutes later, Tanner was helping her put groceries away while the smell of freshly brewing coffee permeated the air.
“So, start talking,” he said, as he placed a quart of milk in her side by side refrigerator.
Angelique placed the last of her canned goods in the small pantry of her apartment and pulled two mugs from the cabinet. “I have two guys fighting over me,” she said, exhaling loudly.
“Yet, you’re complaining.”
“Truthfully, not so long ago I would have been thrilled.”
She lifted the carafe and filled the cups with the dark, aromatic coffee, placing one at each end of the table. “Sit,” she told Tanner, as she took the chair across from him.
He took a sip and nodded in appreciation. “Now, fill me in.” Within minutes, he’d heard all about her situation with Mike Harper and the recently returned Liam Nash.
Tanner leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “You’ve got yourself a genuine lover’s triangle there, little lady.” He placed his forefinger on his lip in concentration. “Since you like them both, maybe you should turn to the three P’s to break the tie.”
She raised an eyebrow, obviously clueless as to what he meant, and he grinned at her.
“An old friend of mine used this method to thin down the considerable herd she always had sniffing around her. Prowess, as in sexual, Personality, and Personal Assets. Which one’s better in bed, which one do you prefer to spend time with, which one is worth more financially,” he explained.
Angelique shook her head in a show of frustration. “It’s not that simple, Tanner.”
“Sure it is, Ang … And don’t try to tell me that all women don’t think about those things.” He suddenly remembered Tiffany. “Well, nearly all women, anyway.”
She took a sip of her coffee, seeming to think about it for several seconds. “They both have great personalities, both have backgrounds in law enforcement, both well educated, and intelligent. God knows they’re both easy on the eyes. As far as their worth, I have no earthly idea. Not that it matters to me, anyway.”
“Money may not be able to make you truly happy, but it sure can make things a hell of a lot easier. Don’t think of it as money, think of it as security. Which one has the steadiest income? Which one could more easily put a child through college, or enable the two of you to travel?”
She raised her hands. “Look, they both seem to do well enough in my opinion. Besides, I didn’t come from money like you did and their net worth isn’t important to me.”
“Well,” he drawled, “How are they in bed? And if you tell me it isn’t important I’ll know I’ve just wasted half my life perfecting my technique.”
“You didn’t,” she laughed. “It’s very important, but I’ve only been intimate with one of them, and he’s—extremely accomplished,” she said, trying to choose her words carefully.
He grinned. “As in equipment or technique?”
She turned her face away. “I am not having this discussion with you.”
“Hey, Ang, I’m only trying to help you narrow it down. Now, is he packing or is he simply adequate, but talented in all other ways?”
She gaped at him. “Oh my God, doesn’t it bother you to talk about something like this?”
He shrugged nonchalantly before answering. “Why should it? I’m not in the running. Even if I was, I’d be able to hang with the competition, if you know what I mean.”
She snorted in disgust and put her hand up in front of her face. “Come on, Tanner. I didn’t need to hear that, and you know it. You just felt the need to brag.”
“And why not? It’s taken me years to build up to my level of expertise in pleasing the ladies, and if I do say so myself, I’m well gifted. I know you girls talk amongst yourselves. I might need you to pass that information on to someone else one day.”
Angelique chuckled softly. “To pass it along, it would have to be on the merits of personal experience rather than hearsay, especially coming from you.”
He put his coffee cup down abruptly. “What the hell does that mean?”
She smiled sweetly at him. “It means that sometimes guys think they’re doing better than they actually are.” She batted her eyelashes.
“Oh, hell no! Trust me, there are no scenarios from When Harry Met Sally going on in my bedroom.”
“So, you say, but have you actually seen that movie?”
He nodded. “I’m positive; and yes, Tiffany forced me to sit through it with her after I put it in her stocking for Christmas one year. She requested it,” he threw in, at the amused expression she passed him.
Angelique raised an eyebrow. “She forced you to sit through it? Maybe there was a reason why.”
“You’re so off-track.”
“If you say so,” she said, smugly.
He gave her a wink. “Now, see, if you’d given me a chance to prove it to you the first night we’d met, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
She laughed loudly. “If I’d done that, you’d be nowhere around and you know it.”
“That’s not true. I have plenty of repeat performances.”
She nodded. “Yeah, Tiffany told me all about your repeat performances with other women.”
“When did she do that?”
“When I called her yesterday to tell her I’d met you in person.”
“Did she tell you I was good in bed?” he asked, hoping to get verification of his own high opinion of himself.
