“We did miss you, though,” he says in a gruff voice.
“Missed you back,” I reply with a grin. And it’s true. We’ve been friends forever. Once we all started working together at Caterva, we rarely took time off from work, which means we’ve rarely been apart.
“I’m pleased you didn’t let the company fall apart,” Dane tells me with a devilish glint in his eyes.
He’s rewarded with a sharp elbow backward from Avril that hits him square in the gut. He gives an oomph, and now Avril’s the one who has a wicked grin on her face.
“So want to do dinner with us tonight?” she asks. “I’ve got about fifty million photos to show you of Tokyo.”
My expression turns sheepish as I scratch the back of my head. “Actually… Brynne’s here, and I have plans with her.”
“Even better.” Avril claps enthusiastically as she steps away from Dane. “Bring her to our house. We’ll grill, swim, and hang out. We’ve been dying to meet her.”
I roll my eyes, because I’ve not said another word about Brynne since they had FaceTimed me over a week ago when I was in D.C. “You have not.”
“We have,” Dane says to back up his wife. “Avril’s posited so many scenarios and outcomes that we talked more about you and this new woman in your life than we had sex on our honeymoon.”
Avril whips her head around, glaring at him over her shoulder. “You went to bed every night with a very satisfied smile on your face, so I don’t think that’s true.”
Dane gives it right back to her. “Satisfied that for two minutes you stopped talking about Andrew and Brynne.”
Laughing, I hold up my hands. “Okay, you two. Enough. I get you’re curious but well… Brynne’s only here for another few days and I want to spend it with her.”
“And you will,” Avril turns back to me with a stern look. “You’ll spend a few hours at our house, so we can meet her. It’s not going to kill you.”
It won’t.
And I do want my friends to meet her, but not because I’m interested in their opinion of Brynne. I know they will like her a lot.
I merely want them to share in my happiness, because despite assurances to the contrary, I know they worry about me finding my own happily ever after. The mere fact I’m thinking that Brynne could be it means it’s more than time she meets Avril and Dane.
“Okay,” I tell Avril. “What time and what can we bring?”
“Seven PM and just your bathing suits,” she informs me. “I’ll handle everything else.”
CHAPTER 12
Brynne
“Is it weird I’m nervous?” I ask Andrew as we stroll up the path made of desert stone and crushed pebble. I can’t help but stare agog at the size of Dane and Avril’s home.
No, mansion.
It has to be at least ten-thousand-square feet, done in pale cream stucco, thick columns supporting a large portico, and lush tropical greenery in the landscaped beds. The double front doors are thick frosted glass covered in decorative iron scrolls.
To my surprise, Andrew neither knocks nor rings a doorbell, but rather walks right into their house.
I’m not sure why this surprises me. I know he’s best friends and business partners with Dane and Avril and with learning everything about Andrew the past two weeks, that means I learned a lot about these very important people in his life. But it seems overly forward to walk into a married couple’s home without announcing your presence first.
Or at least to my way of thinking. I mean, I never walked into Tara’s house without knocking first, nor she mine. Jesse was a little different since we were more intimately bonded, so that’s not really a good comparison.
The interior of the house is beautiful. Massive open spaces, tall arched windows, and glossy marble floors. The furnishings are overlarge so as to fill the space, but aren’t very formal given what I expect is a multimillion-dollar house. Instead, it actually looks cozy despite the vastness surrounding me.
Andrew takes my hand, leading me through what could only be considered the great room with pockets of intimate seating arrangements, then up three steps to a platform that holds the most unique kitchen I’ve ever seen. It’s set on a circular-type dais with the cabinetry built in a half-moon shape on a free-standing wall. There’s a large cream-colored gas stove, a double door stainless-steel refrigerator, and a wide ceramic sink. The kitchen island is curved outward, and is large enough to hold eight stools on the opposite side.
Standing at the counter are two unbelievably gorgeous people. Avril is a classic beauty with her golden hair tied back into a low ponytail and a thick crop of bangs that hang just above cerulean-colored eyes. Dane is tall, broad shouldered, and looks like an even better version of Tony Stark complete with goatee and soul patch.
Avril raises her head, making eye contact with Andrew. “Hey… didn’t hear you come in.”
“Stealth mode,” Andrew says with a laugh as he leads me onto the kitchen dais.
Avril places the knife she was using to cut tomatoes onto the chopping board, then wipes her hands on a towel she has tossed over her shoulder. The smile I receive is warm and inviting.
“And you must be Brynne,” she says brightly as she rounds the counter to greet us.
I hold my hand out, but I’m surprised by the hug she gives me, which isn’t overly intimate but is beyond a casual squeeze.
When she pulls back, she studies my face a moment before turning to her husband. “She’s gorgeous. Right, Dane?”
“Totally,” he agrees, and my eyes cut to him for a moment. He’s smiling at me warmly, like he’s happy for Andrew and not really making a forward comment on the way I look.
Avril releases me to turn to Andrew. He leans in, then kisses her on her cheek. She palms his own cheek with her hand as he does so, closing her eyes briefly when his lips touch her skin.
When she opens them, they’re sparkling with fondness and friendship.
“Hi, Brynne,” I hear from behind me. When I turn, I see that Dane has cleared the other side of the counter and is holding his hand out. “I’m Dane. It’s great to finally meet you.”
I find no weirdness that he’s offering me a hand rather than a hug. I think that’s just a man/woman distinction and probably the polite thing to do when greeting your buddy’s girlfriend for the first time.
I accept his handshake with a smile. “Great to meet you, too. I’ve heard so much about the two of you from Andrew.”
Dane’s eyes twinkle with mischief. “This is the part where I say something like, ‘Oh, I hope all of it was good,’ and you say, ‘Of course it was,’ but in truth we know that if Andrew told you about our college years, you’ve heard the bad.”
“If there was bad, he told Brynne,” Avril sniffs as she skirts by Andrew with a gentle pat to his stomach, “I was most definitely not included because I was quite the good girl in college.”
“You were boring in college,” Dane teases his wife, then turns from me to join her back behind the counter. He motions to the stools. “Have a seat.”
Andrew and I pull out two stools and start to sit. Dane holds a hand up to stop Andrew. “Not you, dude. You’re helping me grill the steaks. You know I suck at it.”
Andrew chuckles, foregoing the stool. “Agreed. You suck at all cooking.”
“But he makes great cocktails,” Avril says with a smirk at Andrew, then turns her gaze to me. “What do you want to drink?”
“What are you drinking?” I ask, nodding at the tall, slender glass filled with ice cubes, lime, and bubbles.
“Vodka and club soda with a twist of lime,” she replies as she picks up the knife and continues cutting tomatoes for what I assume will go into the large wooden bowl filled with lettuce next to her.
“I’d like to try that. I like vodka, but never had it with club soda before.”
“On it,” Dane says as he walks behind his wife, giving her a pat to her ass as he does. He heads off the dais, across the great room, and to a large built-in bar o
n the far wall. “Drew… get the steaks out of the fridge.”
I settle onto my stool and cross my legs. I’d chosen a lightweight maxi dress in pale yellow with peach hibiscus flowers printed down the side of one hip and slanting across the front to the hem.
“We’re going simple tonight,” Avril tells me with a nod to the salad bowl. Andrew pulls a platter of thick ribeye steaks out of the fridge, covered in a thin sheet of plastic wrap.
I raise an eyebrow at Avril. “Simple looks amazing to me.”
She laughs. “I’m a huge beef eater. Could eat steak every single day.”
“Me too.”
Avril’s blue gaze comes to mine appraisingly for just a moment, before I get another one of her warm smiles that makes me believe we could be very good friends one day. “I think you and I probably have a lot of things in common, especially since we like that big doofus right there.”
She nods at Andrew, who ignores her while he takes the cover off the steaks, but I know he heard her because his lips curve up just slightly.
Dane returns with my drink, then sets it before me with a little napkin underneath. “Cheers.”
“Cheers,” I reply before I take it in hand for a tiny sip. I savor the taste for a moment before giving a nod to Dane. “That’s awesome.”
Avril points her knife at Dane. “See… told you he’s great at cocktails.”
“And assisting in grill duties,” Dane adds. He turns a pointed look to Andrew. “Come on. Let’s go fire up that puppy and cook our meat.”
Andrew smirks but steps around the counter to give me a soft kiss. “You cool here?” he asks, bending his face closer to mine.
“I’m perfect,” I assure him, well aware Avril and Dane can hear his concern in leaving me alone with a stranger.
“Okay then,” he replies softly, then gives me another quick kiss. “I’m out of here to go grill some meat.”
I twist my head, watching Dane and Andrew leave the dais and head across the great room to the back of the house that is nothing but a wall of windows and glass that lead out to the back patio. Beyond that is a large oval pool complete with waterfalls and more lush plants in full bloom. On the opposite side of the pool is a mini-mansion that appears to be a small replica of their home.
It’s a guesthouse, I assume, and I have to wonder why it would be needed with probably a dozen empty bedrooms in the main house.
“I think it’s absolutely endearing the way you and Andrew met,” Avril says.
I swivel around on my stool to face her. “In hindsight, it seems incredibly surreal. It’s crazy how fast things moved between us.”
“Don’t doubt it,” she advises me with a sage glimmer in her eyes. “And by that, I mean trust your gut.”
I nod. “I will. I mean, I have been.”
She smiles before scooping up the chopped tomatoes and adding them to the salad bowl. “If you don’t mind me asking, how are things going now with your ex-fiancé? Andrew didn’t tell me much other than you two practiced together.”
“It’s not going,” I mutter, then take a quick sip of my vodka soda. “I clearly can’t continue to work with him, but he won’t buy me out either.”
“Can you buy him out?” she asks, moving to the sink to wash her hands.
Shaking my head, I rub my thumb on the condensation of my glass. “I can’t afford it.”
“You could force a dissolution of the partnership,” she suggests, the expression on her face going all businesslike. She nabs a paper towel from the holder and dries her hands, forsaking the towel on her shoulder.
“That will be my last resort,” I tell her. “I’m hoping next week when I return, he’ll see that I’m serious about this.”
“If you need any legal help, you just let Andrew know. We’ve got a team of sharks at the ready.”
I laugh and say, “Okay,” but there’s no way I’d ever let Andrew help me out on this. Yes, things are moving fast, but I don’t want him to ever think I’m taking advantage of him for his contacts and wealth.
“Let’s go see what the boys are doing and make sure Andrew doesn’t burn the steaks,” she suggests, grabbing her own cocktail from the counter. “It’s so nice out tonight, I thought we’d eat by the pool.”
I follow Avril out onto the patio, checking out how good Andrew looks in a pair of khaki shorts, a short-sleeved t-shirt, and flip-flops. Dane is dressed similarly except he’s got on a button-down shirt. I hadn’t paid Avril’s fashion choice much attention as she was behind the island counter but she’s wearing a pair of cut-off shorts that show a lot of leg but an oversized, slouchy t-shirt that bares one shoulder.
Andrew turns, his eyes locking with mine as soon as we step out onto the cobbled patio. The grill is built into a low half wall, then shaded by a rear portico that extends almost all the way out to the pool. There’s a beautiful table near a fire pit already set with plates, silverware, and glasses.
“How are the steaks coming along?” Avril asks as she steps up beside Andrew and peeks inside after he lifts the cover briefly. He closes it just as quickly, and she bumps her hip playfully against his. “Looking good.”
Andrew grins, giving her a playful bump back. “I’m a master chef at the grill. I can’t believe you’d ever doubt me.”
“I really don’t,” she says with a laugh. Avril steps away from the grill and heads to Dane, where he slides an arm around her waist to pull her in close.
For a moment, I don’t know what to do. The three of them are remarkably close, totally at ease with one another, and seem to almost exist as a core unit. Even though Avril and Dane are married, it’s so obvious Andrew belongs with them. It’s a friendship that extends beyond what most people have, and it has an intimate sort of feel to it. I wonder if it feels this way when they’re in business mode at Caterva, or if they close that part of themselves off from one another while at work.
There are a few seconds where I feel like an intruder, but it vanishes when Andrew sets the grilling tongs down and turns to me with an intensely personal look. It says that none of what’s around us exists right now.
It says he sees only me, and it makes me feel like Dane and Avril are now the outsiders, warming me from the center of my chest outward.
Andrew crooks a finger my way. “Come here, Brynne. Let me teach you the art of grilling.”
I don’t hesitate to take my place by his side. He doesn’t show me the grill or hand me the tongs, merely pulls me into his side so we’re pressed against each other.
“What made you want to go into dentistry?” Dane asks me, and I twist my neck to look at him, not willing to sacrifice an inch of the contact I have with Andrew.
And so begins a lovely evening getting to know Andrew’s two best friends and business partners.
♦
After dinner and in the car on the way to Andrew’s condo, he holds my hand. My belly is full, and I’m mellow from the three vodka sodas I had.
“Avril and Dane really like you,” he tells me.
I smile at him. “How do you know? I was around you all night, and you never discussed any such thing.”
“I just know it,” he tells me. “I can tell.”
“You three are really close,” I observe quietly.
“Yeah,” he replies fondly as he watches the road before him. “Ever since our freshman year, it was always just the three of us. We did everything together.”
“That’s unusual,” I murmur, facing forward again. “Two men and a woman. I mean, friendships that close usually stay within the gender.”
“I suppose,” he replies with a laugh. “Maybe it’s because we were geeks who bonded around science and entrepreneurship.”
“That makes sense, but after all those years together as friends and business partners, how did Dane and Avril just suddenly fall in love?”
There’s no immediate response, and it causes me to look back his way. He shoots me a flat smile and shrugs. “There was always love there. There’s been love be
tween the three of us from pretty early on. We were—are—probably closer than many siblings. So I’m thinking there was just a different type of love between the two of them that was dormant for a while. Something happened, and it came to life.”
“That’s sweet,” I murmur, slouching back into my seat. I start to get drowsy, which also is something that speaks to me. I’m a bit of a control freak, and I’d never felt comfortable enough with Jesse—or any other person for that matter—to where I could sleep while they drove. But with Andrew, I’m content to put my life in his hands. “So no clue what caused it to happen, huh?”
Again, he hesitates, probably because he’s unsure whether to share details that belongs to his two closest friends. Giving my hand a squeeze, he says, “I’m not really sure. Maybe it was just a timing issue.”
“Isn’t it funny how our lives can change in such unexpected ways?”
“Yeah.” His tone is husky, and I can tell he’s thinking the same exact thing I am.
That something happened in our lives that brought us together, regardless of whether we were ready for it or even looking for it.
I can’t speak for Andrew, but I’m personally grateful for it. I’ve also decided to trust it wholeheartedly.
CHAPTER 13
Andrew
I see Avril’s office light on, and I head for it rather than my own office. It’s a well-established tradition that Avril has always been the first into Caterva in the morning, followed by me and then Dane. That hasn’t changed since they got married.
Even as great as my evening with Brynne was—a wonderful meal with her and my two best friends followed by soul-entangling, mind-blowing sex—I’ve thought about nothing but Avril since I woke up at five.
Not in a sexual way.
Not in any way that has to do with things that would be between a man and a woman.
But rather as my best friend who knows me better than anyone in the world, and that includes Dane. I woke up this morning, wrapped around Brynne and breathing her scent in, knowing deep down that “she’s the one,” and I couldn’t think of anything other than getting into the office to talk to Avril about it.
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