Love Under Two Adventurers [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Cara Covington

  The three of them were headed over to visit the new mom and dads and babies right after lunch.

  The men arranged themselves so that they flanked her, and that suited Rebecca just fine.

  “What do you mean by that, Blue Eyes?” He held back when Greg scooped her hand in his. Rebecca reached for his hand, and waited the few seconds for him to relax.

  She noticed when he spied another threesome on the opposite side of the street also walking hand-in-hand-in-hand.

  “I mean, we’re not lovers yet, so I allowed you some privacy in there with my brother the doctor. But you might as well know right now, once we cross that line, then we cross that line. In Lusty that means, most of the time, when you go in to see a doctor, so do your lovers.”

  “Is that a fact?”

  “That is a fact. So get used to it.”

  Rebecca had been thinking long and hard about the situation of one Mr. Cody Harper. She’d never been a woman to shy away from a challenge, and he certainly was that. One of her friends from college, Nathan Gray, had joined the marines and gone off to war. When he’d returned for the last time some five years later, he’d been diagnosed with PTSD. The man’s wife, Peggy, had pulled out all the stops to get him help—devoting herself to his care personally. They were also getting help from the Wounded Warrior Project.

  Rebecca made a point of visiting them whenever she was in Dallas. They would spend time together, the three of them during the day. She and Peggy would sit up late at night sometimes, when she’d stay over with them. Mostly, she would just listen. She knew a little bit about the affliction, not just from those late-night chats, but from reading up on it and talking with some of the professionals connected to that very worthwhile organization that helped them out.

  Cody wasn’t a wounded warrior, per se—but he had been wounded. He’d been kidnapped, shot, and likely terrorized. She’d read of similar situations, of aid workers and journalists being subjected to those kinds of traumas. She’d read their accounts and knew that a popular tactic modern armed terrorists liked to use was to mess with their victims’ minds.

  One thing she knew beyond question was that before Cody could get better, he had to acknowledge he had a problem, and he had to talk about what had happened to him with someone he could trust.

  She didn’t think he’d done either one yet. Rebecca decided that since Greg was taking the role of tender lover in this relationship they were trying to put together, she’d be the one offering the tough love.

  She didn’t know, of course, if she loved Cody or not. It was too soon for that. But she loved Greg, and had for most of her life. Since he loved Cody, she’d perform loving acts for him—the kind outside of the bedroom as well as inside it—and see what happened.

  Rebecca understood very well that love wasn’t just a noun. It was a verb, too.

  “Now that is a catchy name for a restaurant,” Cody said.

  “My cousin Kelsey owns it,” Greg said. “From the few times I’ve eaten here, I can tell you, the food is damn good.”

  Lunch was served from eleven thirty until about four. Rebecca had become versed in the rhythm of the place because often, it was just as easy to eat here than to go back to the cabin and prepare a meal for herself.

  Cooking for one really wasn’t much fun.

  One step inside the doors, and Rebecca’s stomach growled.

  “Hey, Greg! Welcome home!”

  “About time you showed your face around here, stranger!”

  “All hail the wanderer!”

  “Even chickens come home to roost sometimes,” Greg said in response to the greetings flying at him from practically every direction.

  “Well, son of a bitch.”

  That voice had Greg spinning on his heels. Rebecca grinned when two rip-cord lean cowboys got to their feet and headed straight over.

  “You sure haven’t gotten any prettier,” Chase Benedict said. “You need a scar like mine. Ain’t nothing that attracts the ladies or the men like a good scar.”

  “Got one of each now, don’t need no more.” Greg returned Chase’s hearty hug, and then gave one to Brian, too.

  Then he reached out for Cody, and when that man looked to want to hang back, Greg just grabbed his hand and yanked him forward.

  “This is Cody Harper. He’s mine. And Becca you know, of course. She’s ours.”

  Not yet, not really. She saw the slight flicker of doubt in Cody’s eyes. And she knew in that moment, it wasn’t just his reception by the family that Cody questioned.

  It was where he fit in with her.

  “Welcome to the family,” Chase said. He gave Cody a hug which startled the man. Then Brian did, too, just as the door to the kitchen swung wide open.

  Rebecca watched as Carrie Benedict came right up to Greg. Arms akimbo she gave him a good up-and-down look. Greg copied her pose and returned the favor.

  “You’re Greg, my last new big brother. I’ve been waiting a long time to meet you,” Carrie said at last. “Funny, but you look like a GQ model, not an adventurer.”

  “You’re Carrie, and my new baby sister. Funny, but you look like a punk rocker, not a chef.”

  “I guess that just goes to show y’all can’t judge a person on appearances.” Carrie grinned.

  “Guess it does.” Greg pulled her into his arms and gave her a huge hug, lifting her off her feet in the process. Carrie squealed, her husbands laughed, and just about everyone in Lusty Appetites grinned.

  He set her down and slid his arm around Cody. “This is Cody. He’s an amazing photojournalist, and a very hungry man. Do ya think we can fatten him up, some?”

  “Hey, and ruin my slender figure?” Cody’s natural penchant for humor came to the fore, and Rebecca knew he was fighting his discomfort.

  Carrie smiled and easily gave Cody a hug. “I’m so pleased to meet you. I have your book. Completely compelling photographs. You tell a powerful story with your camera.”

  “Thank you.” Genuine pleasure lit Cody’s eyes. He looked around and Rebecca knew he was encountering smiles and nods.

  Lusty tended to like to welcome family home with a very open heart.

  “Y’all will be needin’ a larger table,” Emily Anne Bancroft said. “I’ve got one set up, right there in the front corner by the window.”

  Rebecca had been going to suggest that they sit by the windows, because next to the glass, with the downtown of Lusty right there, it almost seemed as if only three walls instead of four surrounded them.

  She’d already noticed that Cody wasn’t completely relaxed in enclosed spaces.

  There was no question of having a table just for the three of them, and Rebecca watched how Cody dealt with being in the midst of what to him must seem like a huge crowd.

  “Looks busy. I thought this was a small town.” Cody sat down opposite Rebecca, leaving Greg to choose his seat. Rebecca grinned when he chose to sit next to Cody. Chase and Brian took their seats, and Carrie sat down, too.

  Emily Anne made quick work of transferring the cowboys’ drinks to this table.

  “Boss lady said I can take a few,” Carrie said.

  “I’m going to have to go see Kelsey, too, before we leave,” Greg said.

  “Naw, she’s going to come out once I go back. So, likely mom and the dads and everyone will pussyfoot around, but I won’t do that. I’ll just come right out and ask. You planning to stay around for more than a few days this time, Greg?”

  Greg looked from her to her husbands. Chase raised both hands. “Hey, she’s small, but she’s mighty.”

  Greg shrugged, and if he was uncomfortable being put on the spot, he didn’t show it. He cast one look at Cody, and then met Rebecca’s eyes.

  “Yeah, we’re staying for more than a few days this time.”

  “Good. I’m not as old as you are, and not nearly as well traveled. But I’ve learned one thing since coming to Lusty. There really is no place like home.”

  Chapter 9

  There really is no
place like home.

  Greg didn’t know Carrie’s story, not all of it. But he’d heard from Rick that she and her sister Chloe—soon to be married to his cousins Grant and Andrew Jessop—had been orphaned as the result of the tornadoes that swept through part of the South in 1998.

  Trauma wears a hell of a lot of faces in this town.

  Kelsey came out bearing a tray loaded with food before they’d even ordered. “Today’s special is fried chicken, with a side of mashed ’n’ gravy. But I didn’t know if Cody liked mashed ’n’ gravy so I’ve a plate of fries here, too.”

  “Hey, cousin.” Greg had gotten up and given her a hug, and introduced her to Cody. She’d distributed the plates of food, and then taken the chair that Carrie had vacated.

  “Man, my list of Texan keeps getting longer. ‘Y’all,’ ‘all y’all,’ and now ‘mashed ’n’ gravy.’” Cody sighed and Greg recognized the smart-ass in him coming out to play.

  “Mashed ‘n’ gravy isn’t Texan, it’s mine.” Kelsey grinned. “But otherwise, yeah, the learning curve is long and steep. I’m still a Northerner by most accounts as I’ve only been in Texas going on a dozen years. I was born and bred in Philadelphia.”

  “Hey, Philadelphia, I grew up in New York City. We’re practically neighbors.” He looked around as if checking to see if anyone was listening. “Do you mind if I call you if it gets to be too much? We can talk Yankees and Mets and Eagles and Penguins and how real dumplings are fat and fluffy, not long and thin, and other Northern stuff like that.”

  “Greg has my number,” Kelsey said, and extended her hand so they could shake on the deal.

  It was good to see Cody’s natural gregariousness come out. It had to be a good sign. Maybe he was going to be all right. Maybe this whole PTSD thing the doctors back in Turkey talked to him about wasn’t really manifesting after all.

  Sure, he had nightmares, but who wouldn’t after being kidnapped? Greg had to believe that if anything really horrible had happened to him, he’d open up about it. They were lovers, and they were in love. They’d come a long way in the weeks leading up to that damned trip to Syria—and a hell of a long way since.

  That all had to count for something.

  Kelsey had gone back to the kitchen and they were just tucking into some very good pecan pie when the door to the restaurant opened and another cousin came in—one that Greg hadn’t seen much of in the last few years.

  “Hey, Flyboy!”

  Morgan Kendall came right over to their table, hand extended. They shook, of course, but family called for more so they shared man hugs with the requisite very sound backslaps.

  Emily Anne came over to the table, a huge smile on her face. Pretty little thing, and that smile is a winner. He hoped she had a couple of good men waiting for her at home.

  “Hey, Morgan, pie and coffee?”

  “Please. And if Tamara asks, it was a very small piece of pie—even though I’m hoping it’s not.”

  Morgan joined them, and Greg said, “Your wife is just an itty-bitty thing, if I recall. You scared of her?”

  Morgan snorted. “You know damn well where the power rests in this family and it sure as hell isn’t in the hands of the men.”

  “I thought, though, Tamara coming from out of town, you know, things might be different for y’all.”

  “They might have been if Mother and Kate hadn’t ‘bonded’ so well with her first off.” Then Morgan gave him a big smile, and Greg could see his cousin was a very satisfied man. “I wouldn’t change a single thing about her, and neither would Henry. Swear to God.”

  “So how’s the charter flight business?”

  “We’re building it, but it’s a gradual thing.”

  “You’re a pilot?” Cody asked.

  “Indeed. So are my brother, Henry, and our wife. Henry and I just retired about a year ago from the Air Force. And Tamara—well, her uncle taught her how to fly as a way to channel her passive-aggressive tendencies that weren’t overly passive.”

  “Morgan held the rank of Major,” Rebecca said. “And it’s rumored that he sometimes would go into stealth mode and join in some black ops kind of stuff while he was over in Afghanistan.”

  “Becca,” Greg chided. “Everyone knows the Air Force doesn’t do black ops.”

  “Right. I forgot. Sorry.”

  “So you served in the war?” Cody asked.

  “I did, indeed.”

  “Thank you for your service. That takes guts. Real guts. We’re lucky there are those brave enough to put it on the line for the rest of us,” Cody said.

  Morgan waved that off. “So does taking a camera to show the world what’s happening in the world,” Morgan said. “I don’t imagine it’s always easy to walk amongst the afflicted. Those stories have to be told. How do we change as a society unless we see the face of hunger, the ravages of natural disasters, or the devastation of the man-made disasters—like war? Whether you’re there to serve, or to record those events for posterity, it’s got to be tough.”

  A half hour later, they took their time walking back to Jeep. It was a pretty day, and Greg appreciated the warm temperatures without the high humidity of summer.

  Cody seemed to be looking everywhere, and Greg tried to remember the last time he’d been someplace new in the same way that Cody was new, here.

  And he realized that he had to reach all the way back to 2003 and the one trip to England he’d taken with Daniel. Only then, of course, there was no parade of family to welcome either man. Greg guessed he understood a little better why Daniel had been so disbelieving of the stories Greg had told about Lusty. It didn’t matter that Greg had never lied to Daniel, or to anyone else, then, either. In hindsight Greg realized that Daniel’s mistrust and disbelief had come from inside himself—because he, himself hadn’t always been truthful.

  “You have a lot of cousins, here,” Cody said. “Any idea how many, exactly?”

  “Of the town’s residents, or actual numbers?” Greg asked.

  “I was thinking the town’s residents.”

  Becca laughed. “Most of them. Actually, this town is built on family land. Settled in the 1890s.” She pointed toward the museum across the street. “Next time you come in to town, you need to stop in and have a look.”

  “Maybe I will.”

  They made quick work of grabbing a few groceries to take back to the cabin, and then he drove over to see his sister.

  He’d only met her husbands once, and he’d forgotten how big the men were. Devon Wakefield answered the door, holding one of the babies in his arms. He welcomed them in, and nodded when he was introduced to Cody. “This one is Billy. Drew’s holding Dee—that’s what we’re calling Darien. And mom has Madison. The ladies are in here.”

  Greg hadn’t been around little babies in years, but he had to admit, his nephews and niece were incredibly beautiful children.

  “I hope you’re going to stay around for a while,” Julia said. “Mom was talking about having a bit of a party, because so many of us are all in Lusty at the moment.”

  “We’re here for a while,” Greg said, “So don’t worry about it. I needed a bit of a rest. I realized a few weeks ago that I’ve been on the go pretty much since I left college.”

  “He’s mother-henning me,” Cody said, “on account of the misadventure I fell into a few weeks ago back in Syria.”

  “Heard about that,” Dev said. “Julia mother-hens us, too, sometimes. My advice is to take it while it’s being offered. Nothing wrong with being pampered by the ones who love you.”

  Greg thought it was kind of an odd thing for a Navy Commander to say. But then, his wife did just have triplets.

  Greg supposed a guy couldn’t help but get a little soft as the result of such a huge, and humbling, event.

  * * * *

  The sun had begun to drop toward the horizon by the time they got into the Jeep and headed back to the cabin. All through the visit with the James-Wakefields, Rebecca had felt both Cody and Greg’s gazes light
on her, and then skitter away. Or they would each look at her a moment, and then wink.

  She knew exactly what they were thinking, too. She hadn’t forgotten the bargain she’d struck with the men—their silence with her brother in return for getting a good look at her tattoo.

  Wouldn’t they be disappointed if it turned out to be a butterfly on my shoulder?

  She’d thought about it—about how and where she was going to perform “the big reveal,” and she’d come up with the perfect plan. Rebecca had felt Cody’s tension throughout the day—it had started as they’d entered the clinic and then built steadily as family had surrounded and intruded and pressed close. Funny thing was, that as his tension had increased so had the outward displays of his sense of humor.

  The man had a good one, but she recognized armor when she saw it.

  She’d insisted, for the ride back to the cabin after the stop at Julia’s place, that the men should share the front seat of the Jeep. Maybe next time they’d take her Ford F150. It, at least, had a bench seat.

  Cody had tried to argue with her but she’d just hopped in the backseat. She hoped that in time, he would be able to relax more around her. But for right now, it was Greg who formed his center, and his anchor.

  Greg is the center for us both, and the pivot of this relationship we’re trying to build, all three of us, together.

  Rebecca never doubted even for a moment that they would be able to build a strong, and loving one. Her heart was already engaged with Greg—and warming very quickly to Cody.

  “So.” Rebecca looked out the window at the passing scenery. “Y’all kept your end of our bargain.”

  “Are you sure about that, Blue Eyes?” Cody’s half snicker from the front seat made her want to sigh. Despite that she sensed his tension had lessened some, he still needed to let go, and she knew just the way to do that for him. For the moment, however, she could play into his one-liners.

  “Oh, yeah. If you’d said anything to Robert about my crazy stalker chick problem, he’d have stormed out of that exam room and aimed right for me. At this moment I would likely be chained up in a private room of that club of his where no one would ever be able to get near me again. It’s what bossy, arrogant Doms do.”