by Marla Monroe
She swallowed and nodded. She wouldn’t argue with them about it. Instead, she walked upstairs and folded everything up, then packed them in the bags they had come in.
Before she could lug them downstairs, Bryan walked in the room and took them from her.
“I’ve got them. Go ahead downstairs.” He followed behind her.
When she got to the bottom, Tanner was there to meet her. He took her hand and led her to the front door then out onto the porch. Bryan closed the door behind them. They walked over to the truck. Bryan put the bags in the backseat. When she started to get in after them, he shook his head.
“You’re riding up front with us. I don’t want you to go. I’m sure not losing this opportunity to hold you one more time.” He helped her up into the cab of the truck, then fastened the safety belt around her. When he climbed in, he did the same and grabbed her hand.
Amber took one last look at the beautiful house with its wraparound porch and swing then they were backing out of the drive and turning around to head to her house. Bryan didn’t let go of her hand the entire drive. When they arrived, he unfastened their belts then helped her out of the truck. He held her hand all the way to her door. Tanner unlocked the door, and they all three walked inside.
They walked around with her to check all the windows and make sure she knew how to unlock and lock them. Then the guys stood with their hands in their pockets as if waiting for her to say something. What could she say? She’d said more than enough already. It wasn’t so much that she regretted saying it. It was how she said it.
Finally, Tanner sighed and pulled her into his arms. He let her go, and Bryan did the same thing.
“You have our numbers. If you need anything. I don’t care what it is or what time it is, you call us. Understand?” Tanner asked.
“I will. I’ll be fine, though.”
“We know you will,” Bryan said.
They turned toward the door and opened it. They didn’t look back. Tanner closed the door behind them. One of them knocked on the door above the lock. She threw the deadbolt, and a few seconds later she heard the truck crank, and they pulled out of her drive to go home. Amber sat down on a chair and cried.
* * * *
Neither of them said anything on the drive back. Bryan wanted to hit something, but knew it wouldn’t do any good, and he would probably break his fucking hand in the process. Why was she so stubborn?
Once they pulled into the drive at home, they just sat there, not wanting to get out. Finally, Bryan couldn’t take it.
“She’s so afraid we’ll take away her sense of self. Why?”
“Evidently her previous boyfriend did somehow. I think he was controlling and told her what she could and couldn’t do. Then he got abusive. She’s scared we’ll be the same way.” Tanner still had his hands on the wheel.
“We would never hit her. Not in a million years. If she believes that, then she doesn’t know us at all.” Bryan started to get out of the truck.
“That’s just it, Bryan. She doesn’t know us. We did everything ass backward from day one. It’s been exactly two weeks since she was nearly run down. In that time we’ve run her life for her because she was hurt and needed us. Then when we were finally going to get around to taking her out and getting to know her, she was attacked, and once again, we took over and took care of everything.” Tanner rubbed his face with both hands.
“Then, we have sex with her and have still never taken her out. She’s right. She doesn’t know us at all. She has a point, Bryan. What would you think of a woman who moves in with a man after knowing them two weeks?”
“That she was a moocher.” Bryan said reluctantly.
He really didn’t like it that Tanner was right, but he was. He sighed.
“So, what do we do now?”
“We ask her out.” Tanner said it as if it was the simplest thing in the world.
“You think she’ll go?”
“Won’t know until we ask her,” Tanner said.
They climbed out of the truck and walked into the house. Both of them headed for the fridge and a beer. They popped the tops and stood at the bar in silence for several minutes. Bryan didn’t think Amber would go out with both of them at once. They weren’t willing to settle for anything but a ménage relationship. It was how they were brought up, and they knew it worked. When one husband was ill or out of town, the other one could be counted on to take care of everything. It meant their mom never had to worry about anything. They took care of her. She had a life. She attended clubs in town and he could remember her baking things for their bake sales.
It wouldn’t be any different for them. If she wanted to work at the bank, that was fine with him. He’d rather she stayed at home, but he could understand that she wanted that. The fact that the people at that bank probably would look down at her for dating them both irked him. Only because it mattered to Amber, though. He didn’t give a rat’s ass what people thought about them. He only cared because of Amber.
He drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out through his nose. No matter how he looked at it, he couldn’t see her changing her mind. His heart hurt at the idea of losing her. But they were losing her as surely as the sun rose and set.
“I say we give her a couple of days to adjust to being home then ask her to go out with us Friday night. We’ll take her to the club. People there won’t care one way or another.” Tanner took another swig of his beer.
“Maybe she’ll go with us.” Bryan had little faith that she would.
“I think she will once she calms down. We blindsided her with taking over everything. It was necessary, but she was feeling smothered.”
“If I had five minutes with the bastard that did this to her,” Bryan began.
“You would end up in prison and force me to take care of her by myself.” Tanner crushed his empty beer can and tossed it in the trash.
Bryan drained the rest of his and tossed it as well. He looked at the cinnamon rolls and sighed. He hadn’t had anything to eat all day, and still the thought of eating didn’t agree with him. He did want another beer, but because he wanted it, he wouldn’t get one.
“I’m going out to the barn to check on everything. I’ll be back in by dark.”
Tanner nodded and left the kitchen. Bryan figured he would go to the office and bury himself in paperwork. It was how he normally dealt with a problem he couldn’t solve. Bryan worked it out doing hard manual labor. He would see what the men were doing and help. He thought they were out riding fences.
He saddled up his horse and headed out in the general direction he was sure they had taken. By the time he found them, he desperately needed something to take his mind off of Amber. He had run the problem around in circles inside of his head until he had a headache.
The men welcomed him, and they spent the next four hours fixing fences and pulling barbwire. He had several small slices on his arms from getting too close to the wire while they were working with it. All in all, he’d worked hard enough he planned to sleep well that night. He didn’t want to think or dream about Amber.
When he got back to the stable, Bryan brushed out his horse then headed back to the house. There was a note on the door that Tanner had gone in to the hospital and would be back later. Dinner was on the stove. Bryan sighed. He’d take a shower first then see what Tanner had left to eat. Now that he could smell it, his stomach rumbled unmercifully.
Bryan figured Tanner had gone in to work on his charts he always seemed to have to do something with. Then again, he might have actually gotten called out for one of his patients. He hoped not. Tanner already had enough on his mind without something going wrong with a patient.
Bryan finished showering in record time and helped himself to the roast, potatoes, and carrots on the stove. He spooned up some beans then pulled a roll out of the oven. They were a little hard, but he added extra gravy to his roast. That would do the trick.
While he finished up dinner, he thought again about Amber and hoped she
was safe in her little house. They’d done all they could to make her that way. He would have preferred putting bars on the windows. Still, she was her own woman, and evidently needed to make decisions for herself. He realized that was true, and hated that they had screwed up so badly.
He looked at the window as he loaded the dishwasher. Maybe she would give them a chance to prove they could give her all the independence she wanted. He would do just about anything for that chance. He turned off the light in the kitchen but left a lamp on in the living room. He was totally washed out. It was time for bed. He hated that he would be going to bed alone.
Chapter Eleven
Amber tossed and turned and started at every sound the house made. She finally got up at three and sat in the kitchen with a cup of coffee. Thank goodness it was Sunday. She needed rest, or she was going to be worthless at work on Monday. Every time she heard the house creak, she cringed. This was ridiculous. She was a grown woman. She shouldn’t be afraid to go to sleep. Yes, she’d been attacked, but there were good locks on the windows now.
Somehow it didn’t make her feel any better. Amber sipped the coffee and tried to talk herself into going back to bed. Finally, once the sun rose, she climbed back in the bed and lay down. She dozed off and on for several hours before she finally got up for good. She needed to finish washing her things. She still had a drawer full of T-shirts to wash, and her dirty clothes. She had hung everything up in her closet that Tanner had bought, and put away the bra and panty sets.
She knew she would think about them every time she wore any of it. She wasn’t sure if that were a good thing or not. She’d about cried herself all out the night before.
Her phone rang and she jumped. She checked caller ID and found it was the police department.
“Hello?”
“Miss Reynolds, this is Officer McKenny. I wanted to check and see if you were doing okay, and let you know we’re still looking for the guy who attacked you. He did leave fingerprints, but unfortunately, they aren’t on record. Once we find him, though, we can match the prints to his.”
“Okay. So he’s still out there somewhere.” She closed her eyes and rubbed her head where it ached.
“Yes, ma’am. Have you given any thought to who might want to hurt you? I still think these are all related.” He hesitated. “Um, I did some research, and you had a restraining order against two different men at different times.”
She sighed and sat down. “I made some bad choices in boyfriends. That’s why I left, to start over,” she said.
“Any chance one of them could be behind all of this?”
Amber stopped rubbing her head. Was it possible? Would they be that vengeful to want to see her hurt or even dead?
“Miss Reynolds? Are you still there?” Officer McKenny asked.
“Yes. Um, honestly, I don’t know if they would come after me. I don’t see why, but then, they were insanely jealous and controlling. I suppose one of them might have found out where I’m living and wanted revenge for my having left.”
“Neither one of them did any time for abusing you.” He made it a statement.
“No. I was scared of what they would do to me when they got out. I figured I was better off moving. They let me move without putting up a fuss. So I can’t imagine them suddenly wanting to come after me.”
“Well, it’s a possibility. If you were to see either of them in town, let me know.”
“Thanks, I will.” She hung up and sat there thinking about the two men who’d been the biggest mistakes of her life.
What did they have to gain by attacking her? She couldn’t guess what was going on in their minds when she lived with them. She surely couldn’t now. There was no telling what they might be thinking at any given minute. Either one of them was just crazy enough to come after her out of some preconceived notion that she owed them something.
Amber shivered. Now she had more to worry about. If it were one of her ex-boyfriends, she knew she was in trouble. They wouldn’t stop until they succeeded in whatever they wanted. She couldn’t imagine what would be in their sick minds right now.
Getting up, she went back to washing clothes. Once she had everything washed and put away, she lay down to take a nap. Once again, sleep was elusive. Finally, an hour later, she got up and decided to go to town for dinner. It would do her good to get out. She had only been back and forth to work outside of going to Tanner and Bryan’s house.
She carefully locked the door before getting in the SUV and cranking it. When she arrived at the diner that had great home-cooked meals, she realized she really wasn’t hungry. Still, she needed to eat. She hadn’t had anything other than coffee in twenty-four hours. Amber climbed out of the car and went inside. She chose a table near the back.
“What can I get ya?’” The waitress smacked gum as she stood there waiting to take her order.
“Um, I’ll have a hamburger and fries with a Diet Coke.”
“Got ya.’” She turned around and walked to the back to yell out her order.
She returned a few seconds later with her Diet Coke. Amber thanked her and took a sip of the soft drink. She noticed that several people watched her. She looked behind her to see if they were looking at someone else, but there was no one sitting behind her. Frowning, she sipped her Diet Coke. Why were they watching her? Then she realized they knew that Tanner and Bryan had shown an interest in her and were wondering if she was their girlfriend. Well, she wasn’t, and they weren’t coming in to meet her or anything. She glared at them and then ignored them.
Her hamburger came out hot and well done like she liked them. She managed two bites and a couple of her fries before she had to stop. She just wasn’t hungry. After nibbling on it for about twenty minutes, she asked the waitress for a carryout and boxed up the hamburger. She ate another fry, then paid her bill and left.
She wondered what the guys were doing then chastised herself for thinking about them. She needed to put them out of her mind for a while. Maybe if they still wanted to date her later, she would think about it, but she doubted it. Even if they did ask her out again, she wasn’t sure she was a strong enough woman to date them. Not only were they overwhelming, but she wasn’t sure she could handle the talk that would erupt.
When she arrived home, Amber put away the hamburger for another meal and got ready for bed. She climbed under the sheets and prayed that she would sleep tonight. She had to go to work the next day. It was Monday. As it was, she managed a good four hours sleep before she woke in a cold sweat, unable to remember the dream. All she knew was that she wasn’t going back to bed then.
Instead, she got up, took a bath, and dressed for work nearly two hours early. She would wait until time to go then go in a little early. With that, she took another sip of her coffee as she waited until time to go.
* * * *
Thursday night after work, the phone rang as she was undressing. She checked caller ID and found that it was an unknown caller. She almost didn’t answer it, but decided to at the last minute.
“Hello?”
“Amber, it’s Tanner.”
“Oh, hi, Tanner. How are you?”
“Doing fine. I wanted to ask if you’re not busy tomorrow night, would you let us take you out to dinner?”
“Um, I,” she hesitated.
“Don’t say no, Amber. We really want to see you and spend some time with you.”
“I guess that would be okay. What time?”
“We’ll pick you up at a quarter to seven.” Tanner’s voice held a smile in it.
“Okay, um, what do I need to dress in? Where are we going?” she asked.
“The country club. Wear something you can dance in,” he said.
“Okay. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
“Good night, Amber.”
She hung up and stood there with the phone still in her hand wondering why she had said yes. Because she liked them and wanted to be with them. You’re a glutton for punishment, Amber. Haven’t you learned anythi
ng? Evidently not. She sighed.
* * * *
Friday night arrived and Amber was so nervous she nearly threw up when she was dressed. She was wearing the red bra and panty set along with a slinky red dress that would be perfect to dance in. She wasn’t sure about the color, but it was her best choice. She didn’t have a lot of dressy clothes that weren’t for work. She thought for a second that maybe she needed to buy a couple more dresses to wear out. Then she reminded herself she wasn’t going to be dating them on a regular basis. It wasn’t a good idea to get too comfortable with them when she had no intentions of getting serious.
The doorbell rang at seventeen before seven. She grinned, then settled herself and opened the door. Tanner stood at the door dressed in dress pants and a pullover shirt. He smiled and held out his hand.
“You look beautiful, Amber.”
She took his hand and let him lead her out the door. Then he locked it for her. She’d forgotten that they had keys to her house. She briefly thought about asking for them back, but decided against it. They hadn’t hurt her, and she might need them to have one again one day.
Tanner helped her climb up into the truck. Bryan was wearing something similar but in greens where Tanner wore blues. She guessed her red dress went well with both of them.
“Hey, Bryan.”
“I love that dress on you, baby.” He smiled an appreciative smile.
“Thanks. I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate for where we are going.”
“You’ll wow them all, honey.” Tanner squeezed her hand.
Bryan backed out of her drive and headed in the direction of the Blue Springs Country Club outside the other side of town. It took them about fifteen minutes to get there. Tanner made small talk about her job and his while Bryan remained quiet.
Once they arrived, he parked and they all got out of the truck. They each got on one side of her and held her hand as they walked into the club. She almost jerked her hands out of there for worry of what everyone would think, but she restrained herself and was surprised to note that no one seemed to pay them any mind. They were shown to a table by a window. And Tanner held her chair while she sat down.
