Beautiful Triad (14 page)

“Mind if we go out and fish for a bit then?” Drew touched her lightly on the shoulder, his dark blond brows lifted in question.

“No, of course not. Have fun.”

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100

Kate Watterson

“You’re invited.” His blue eyes held a teasing glint.

“I’ll skip it if you don’t mind,” she remarked dryly. “Fish is fabulous fried, baked, broiled, or grilled. Otherwise, I am not interested.”

“Is that a challenge for us to catch dinner?” Rob grinned, bending over to deposit his tackle box in the boat. In tan shorts and a simple white tee-shirt, he looked pretty incredible.

Drew, dressed with similar simplicity, was also pin-up calendar boy material with his unruly blond hair and dazzling smile.

Good God, what woman on earth could resist either one of them?

She certainly couldn’t. Or hadn’t, anyway. “I’ll thaw out some hamburgers, just in case.”

“Oh ye of little faith.” Drew jumped in as Rob clambered to the motor and started the craft. “Still, it might be best though to have a back up plan.” He frowned then. “Maybe you should come along. I mean it doesn’t look like anyone is around, but—”

But—he meant—a woman was missing.

Lauren shook her head. “I’ll be fine. It’s broad daylight, I’m paying attention, and besides, you can’t live that way, Drew.”

“Don’t talk to strangers.” Rob gave her a rueful smile. “Sorry, all I could think of to say.”

Lauren laughed. “Bye. Go. See you later.”

She watched them pull away and decided to go back up to the cabin—if one could call four thousand square feet a cabin at any time—and take a long bath. She was sticky with sunscreen and a little solitude might help her with some interesting decisions.

Well, one anyway.

A big one.

After an hour soaking in warm water in the oversized tub smack dab middle of the afternoon, and a failed attempt to concentrate on her third romance novel of the week, she decided to make a phone call.

Carolyn was a teacher, so in the summer she was actually around, and she answered the phone on the third ring. “Hey, sis.”

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Beautiful Triad

101

“Hey.” Lauren smiled at the sound of her voice. So normal, in a time when her own life seemed anything
but
normal.

“How’s the vacation going?”

What a question
. “It’s…interesting, let’s say that.”

“Hmm. Where are you again?”

“Picture Smoky Mountains, fabulous lake, gorgeous house. I just had a glass of wine on the deck.”

There was a snort. “Thanks. I’ve weeded the garden, did dishes, and balanced my checkbook this morning. Not good there, by the way, but it never is,” her sister said dryly. “I take it you and Drew are having a good time.”

“Yes.” She hesitated and then said neutrally, “Rob’s girlfriend didn’t come so it’s just the three of us.”

“Well that’s too bad, but you like him, right? I met him once at that barbeque. Tall, dark, got the brooding gorgeous poet look going?

He seemed like a nice guy. He and Greg started talking computer speak, though. That always makes me wander off as fast as possible.”

Did she like Rob? No. Nothing so simple. She had a feeling she was as in love with him as she was with Drew.

“I think Rob is a great person in every way.” It was the truth.

“That’s kind of the reason I’m calling. I need some advice. Or an opinion, anyway.”

“That’s what big sisters are for.” Carolyn sounded amused. “Not that you ask very often but go ahead and shoot.”

Lauren sat down on one of the barstools by the kitchen counter and took a quick breath. “Rob wants to buy a house and has asked Drew if he wants to invest and move in. A very nice house. Big, swimming pool, that sort of thing. Drew told me he has been thinking about asking me to live with him anyway, so…well, I might move in, too. What do you think?”

There was a brief pause. “Well, you
do
hate living in an apartment.”

“I know.”

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102

Kate Watterson

“And you and Drew seem to be doing well, or at least it seems like it to me.”

Oh, Carolyn had no idea. Apparently, their relationship was solid enough to withstand her having sex with another man. Actually, she couldn’t think of Rob that way. He wasn’t “another man” he was another…love? Lover? Friend?

All of the above. The night before had been pretty fantastic. They were still discovering each other she knew, but the chemistry had always been there, which had brought on this whole situation. Drew was intense, teasing, and inventive in bed. Rob was not at all the same, but it didn’t matter, just thought of either of them made her a bit weak-kneed.

She managed to say in an even tone, “We get along great.

Actually, all
three
of us seem to get along just fine. As you know, Rob and Drew have been friends for years. I don’t see how we couldn’t get along as roommates. So you don’t think it would be a bad idea?”

“Mom and Dad might freak a little at first at the idea of you living with your boyfriend, but that’s inevitable. I am sure they tell themselves you and Drew have separate bedrooms on this trip.”

If they only knew…except God forbid, Lauren thought with an inner sigh. “They can’t be that naïve.”

A chuckle came across. “Probably could be, but I can’t say for sure since we’d never talk about sex. Anyway, if you and Drew are at the place where you’re thinking about living together, I say go for it.”

After she ended the call by asking after the kids, Carolyn’s husband, Greg, and some other small talk, she snapped the phone shut thoughtfully. If her sister didn’t think it was too odd she was considering a communal living arrangement, then maybe it could work. Everyone would think she and Drew were together as they had all along, and there would be no questions.

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Until everyone realized Drew was gone three weeks out of every month and it was she and Rob there alone together seventy-five percent of the time.

She wandered over to the French doors and gazed outside, only abstractly seeing the trees and water.

* * * *

The bass was a nice size, at least four pounds, and Drew took a quick picture of it with his phone, forwarding it to his father who he knew would a get kick out of it. Then he gently removed the lure from its mouth and settled it back into the water, shaking the droplets from his fingers and watching as it recovered and disappeared in the water with a quick swish of its tail. “I can’t keep a beauty like that.”

Rob didn’t disagree, one dark brow cocked upward. “Hey, I like burgers, anyway, and this way we don’t have to clean it. If you have a picture and a witness, Lauren can’t say we were just wasting our time.”

“No, we aren’t wasting our time.” Drew gave him a meaningful glance. “Not fishing, which I like to do whether we catch anything or not, and not with her either. Did she say anything last night while I was zoned on the couch?”

“About the house? We talked a little bit.”

“I’m sure not too much,” Drew said dryly. When he’d woken up to total disorientating darkness and managed to finally figure out where he was and that the power was out, he’d fumbled out of the family room. Somehow he’d found his way to the kitchen with only one stubbed toe, which was actually impressive in a strange house.

Rob had pointed out where the flashlight was kept when they arrived, and Drew used it to make his way upstairs. He wasn’t all that surprised to find Lauren and Rob naked and asleep, Rob’s arm draped over her stomach, his cheek resting on her outspread hair.

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104

Kate Watterson

“Not too much,” Rob admitted, his hazel eyes holding just a slight wary look. “It was the first time we were alone. I wasn’t sure how you’d feel.”

Drew rubbed his jaw, the discovery of them together sparking an interesting—albeit unconventional—reaction. He’d have felt guilty for falling asleep on the couch and leaving Lauren upstairs alone during a storm that caused a blackout. She could take care of herself, but it was the idea of it. Rob had been there instead and it was a good thing.

“I’m fine with it, remember? If she’s happy, I’m all good. As far as I am concerned, the new status quo is a damn sight better than all the tension. I’ve never had a better vacation, so relax. Part of the reason I think all of us living together would be a great thing is she’d have you when I’m gone. I don’t like the idea of her being alone for weeks at a time. I’ve worried all along she might get tired of it; might meet someone else because she’s lonely or bored.”

“Maybe. I don’t see her ever dumping you for someone else, but the lifestyle would be a little difficult.” Rob adjusted the trolling motor and turned back, his expression serious. “I’m pretty pumped about the idea of going ahead with the house deal and I hope she’ll agree, but I can’t but think I’m getting the best end of it. I’ll be there—with her—all the time, Drew. Have you thought about that part enough for us to go ahead with it?”

He had. It was a perfect solution in so many ways. “I’m never going to be that
guy
, you know?” he said slowly. “Turning on the sprinklers, repairing the shed, picking up kids from school…I’m not knocking it…it just isn’t me. I can’t get up in the morning, battle traffic, eat lunch at my desk, and go home to just do the same thing the next day. I’d lose my mind.”

“I can’t see you doing it either.”

After all, Rob knew him pretty well.

“You see? It’s a little selfish, but this way, I get the best of both worlds. My condo is okay, but right now I come back to just a place.

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If we all do this, I’d come back to a home. All the stuff I hate to do would be your responsibility, plus during my time off, I’d want some alone one on one with Lauren. I’m not particularly talking about sex either. Out to dinner or a movie maybe, a walk in the park, whatever.

Are
you
going to be okay with that?”

“Am I going to get possessive?” Rob reeled in his line, his profile distant for a moment. “I don’t think so if I don’t feel that way now. I should be.
You
should be. Why aren’t we? There isn’t a set of rules for this apparently, or if there are, I don’t know them. Normally, would I? Hell yes. But it’s you, and it’s Lauren, and somehow it’s me, too.”

“That’s a pretty good way of putting it.” Drew looked out over the lake in thoughtful contemplation. “I guess when I thought about what life would be like I always wondered what kind of woman would ever settle for just what I have to offer. No standard structure, at least not in a traditional sense. It isn’t fair in a lot of ways to ask what I do from Lauren.”

The boat drifted and the afternoon sun was warm on his back. A fish jumped with an impressive splash nearby but neither of them made a move to cast. Rob’s brows gathered just slightly in a mannerism Drew had seen a hundred times. Finally he said, “We need to make sure we always talk. That she talks to us, too.”

“We’ve never had a problem with that.”

“No, but that was before.”

Before they loved the same woman. Drew agreed, but then again, to a certain extent he felt more comfortable than ever in a relationship finally that he wasn’t itching to leave. “I trust you. Obviously a lot.

I’m not going to compete with you for what Lauren has to give. One person can love a lot of people. I love my parents, my grandparents…you get what I’m saying. It isn’t an exclusive club with only so many members admitted, Rob.”

“She said close to the same thing last night.”

“So you
did
talk.” He grinned.

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Kate Watterson

Rob lightened up, his mouth curving. “Like I said, a little bit.”

“She’s incredible, isn’t she?”

“
More
than a little bit,” Rob agreed.

“I say tonight we rock her world.” Drew raised a brow, reaching for the cooler.

“How so?” Rob’s eyes flickered with interest.

“I have something in mind.”

“Yeah, you usually seem to.” It was a wry observation. “Clue me in.”

Before he could answer, Drew felt his phone vibrate. He was supposed to be on vacation so he didn’t have it on ring, but he was so used to carrying it. If there was an emergency, he needed to be available. He pulled it out of his pocket, glanced at the screen, and flipped it open. “It’s Lauren,” he told Rob briefly, feeling a flicker of alarm as he answered. “Babe?”

“Hi…umm, sorry to bother you guys but I thought Rob might want to know…well, Karen could make it after all. She just got here.”

Oh shit, that’s awkward. Really, really awkward.
He’d heard the same echo in her voice as she delivered the news.

“Okay.” Drew took in a breath. “I’ll tell Rob. We’ll come right on in.”

“Thanks.”

He closed the phone. “I guess Karen’s here.”

Rob friend looked paralyzed for a moment. Then he took a sip of beer and said in a grim tone, “That is a complication I didn’t expect. I don’t think I even gave her directions to get here. She called me early last week to cancel.”

“I’ve always told you I thought she has an agenda.”

“Lawyers normally do.” Rob twisted the motor handle and the boat began to move back in the direction they’d come.

“That’s my line,” Drew said neutrally. It wasn’t like he had any illusions about how Rob really felt about Karen anyway, but he was sympathetic to this new twist. For all of them, actually, because he Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.