Dee's Second Chance Times Two (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Marla Monroe

  “I wouldn’t know who you were if you didn’t stick those size-thirteen feet in your mouth now and then,” Dee said and chuckled. “Remember the time you got so angry with that cashier at the grocery store because she argued with you about whether you had plums or nectarines?”

  “God! I was so frustrated,” Amos admitted. “Why couldn’t she tell by how the skin felt? Nectarines have a slightly thicker feel and sometimes even a little fuzzy feel. It was crazy and whatever happened to the customer is always right? Can you tell me that?”

  Andy and Dee both burst out laughing at the same time. She loved how he got so passionate when he thought he was right about something. The funny thing was he usually was correct and had a valid reason to be upset.

  “And what did you say that completely ruined your righteous indignation?” Dee asked still chuckling.

  Amos sighed and grinned. “I told her she needed to get her eyes checked or learn how to read. The tiny label on the fruit clearly said plum. How was I to know she had forgotten her glasses and had dyslexia? I apologized, didn’t I?”

  “Yeah, but am I the only one who noticed you didn’t shop there for nearly a month?” she asked.

  “Probably not,” Andy said.

  “I didn’t avoid shopping there. I just didn’t have any need to go for a while.” Amos frowned at his brother. “What were we talking about anyway?”

  “How big your foot is and how amazing it is you can fit it in your mouth,” Andy told him. “So what does that say about your mouth, brother?”

  “Point taken. I tend to speak before I think.” Amos stuck the last forkful of meatloaf topped off with the potatoes into his mouth.

  Dee tried hard not to look when he got up to carry his dirty dishes over to the sink. Well, she tried and failed. There was no way she could resist peeking at how good his ass looked as he walked away from her. She quickly averted her eyes when Andy spoke up.

  “I’ve got some of mom’s peach cobbler staying warm in the oven. Would you like some ice cream on it?” he asked.

  “Huh? Oh. No thanks. Not right now.” Dee dabbed at her mouth with a napkin and started stand up. “I don’t think I could swallow another bite. I’m stuffed.”

  Amos bent over her shoulder and picked up her plate, easily stopping her from getting up. She inhaled his addicting scent before she could stop herself. It aroused memories and parts of her anatomy she didn’t need to deal with in their presence. They were already lethal without any additional help from her trampy body, at least where they were concerned.

  The truth was that she hadn’t had that many partners in her forty-one years. In fact, it had been a long dry spell since her last lover had quietly disappeared from her life when she’d refused to move to Dallas with him. Since he hadn’t mentioned a ring, engagement, or marriage, Dee had assumed the offer was only to move in with him. She wasn’t a prude, but there were some things she wasn’t willing to compromise on.

  “Let’s move back to the den and relax. Maybe you’ll want some cobbler and ice cream once you’ve had time to digest your dinner,” Andy said, his smile a little shaky as he stood up.

  “I’ll rinse the dishes and put them in the dishwasher,” his brother offered, picking up Andy’s utensils and plate.

  “I should help.” Dee stood up as well.

  “No need. I can handle a few plates and silverware. Go relax and I’ll be along in a minute.” Amos smiled at her and gave a shooing motion with his free hand.

  Andy walked over and nudged her toward the den with a light touch of his hand at the small of her back. It took a focused effort not to jump at the sudden contact. She’d just about convinced herself she could make it through the conversation without either man touching her. She’d been wrong and now had the tingling nerves spreading the feel of Andy’s heat all throughout her desperate body.

  “Have a seat, Dee. I know you really didn’t want to talk or have anything to do with us, really.” Andy watched her as she deliberately sat in one of the recliners in an effort to put some distance between them. “We need to explain what happened and tell you again how sorry we are that we betrayed your trust and hurt you like we did. It wasn’t intentional at all.”

  “Andy, I never thought it was intentional. I know you well enough to understand it for what it was—an opportunity that you couldn’t resist. She was everything I’m not, witty, smooth, sexy, and thin with a good sense of fashion. I get it. You didn’t have to badger me into dinner just to say you’re sorry. I…”

  “Wait!” Andy said, interrupting her well-practiced monologue that she’d repeated a thousand times in the mirror over the previous week. “You’re still missing the point. Yes, we screwed up and yes, we want to apologize again, but that’s not the only thing we wanted to talk about. Just wait until Amos finishes the dishes and we’ll explain. I’m not getting into it without him.”

  “Fine. I agree. Amos needs to be part of this as well, but I still don’t think there’s anything left to talk about.” Dee wanted to leave. Preferably sooner rather than later. She had a bad feeling that they were going to punch right through her resolve to remain immune to their pleas and charms as if it were rice paper.

  Amos walked into the den no longer wearing his shirt.

  Aw, hell. They’re not playing fair.

  Chapter Six

  “What are you doing?” Andy couldn’t believe his eyes. What was his idiot brother doing now?

  “The damn sprayer in the sink was stuck on when I turned on the water and soaked me before I could turn it off! How in the hell did it get stuck on like that?” Amos wiped his face with what was obviously his now-drenched shirt he’d balled up in one fist.

  “That’s stupid. The sprayer wouldn’t be on unless you were holding it. Are you sure you didn’t have the handle down by accident?” Andy asked him.

  “Um, guys?” Dee’s amused voice cut into their bickering.

  Andy turned to see the woman he loved biting her lower lip in an effort to not smile. All that did was make his cock harden at the thought of her plump lips wrapped around his aching dick and those pearly whites lightly scraping as she went down on him. He barely caught himself before he groaned out loud.

  “If you turn the water off while you still have the sprayer on then the next time you turn the water back on, the sprayer will still be primed with the handle engaged.” She finally lost the battle and grinned before popping one hand over her mouth to hide it.

  Amos frowned and directed his furious glare at Andy now. It was obvious he was considered to be the culprit. Well, he guessed he was since he’d been the last one using the water in the sink. He sighed and dropped his head.

  “Sorry, man. I didn’t know it would do that. I can’t believe neither of us has ever done that before now.” Andy looked up to find Amos slowly relaxing. One thing about his twin was that no matter how hotheaded he could get, he calmed down just as fast.

  “It’s okay. I’m sure you subconsciously set me up just so I didn’t wear my favorite shirt. You know I’m more irresistible than you when I wear it.” Amos grinned and strode out of the room.

  Andy just shook his head as he heard his brother running up the stairs to dry off and change.

  “So did you?” Dee asked with a teasing glint in her eye.

  “What?” he asked, playing along.

  “Subconsciously set him up. I can’t imagine you doing anything without planning it,” she said, cocking her head to one side.

  “I always plan everything. I didn’t, however, plan that. I guess I was so preoccupied with what we were going to talk about tonight that I didn’t notice that I turned off the water with the sprayer still in my hand.” He didn’t mind admitting he was nervous. A lot—no, everything hinged on this night and their talk.

  “Don’t worry. I’ve done it to myself several times. You’d think I would learn, but sometimes when you’re in a hurry, you automatically do things without thinking about them. I was finished with the water, so I turned it off ev
en before I put up the sprayer. As a result, the next time I needed water, which happened to be right before a big business meeting one morning, I soaked my silk blouse and had to change clothes on the fly. That left me wearing mismatched shoes that I didn’t notice until after lunch and the meeting.” Dee had the cutest blush.

  It started in the center of her cheeks and sort of spread out from there until it covered her entire face and neck. This time, it didn’t go quite as far. Probably because it hadn’t just happened so the memory had faded somewhat.

  “Okay, I’m back. Sorry, Dee. I didn’t mean to flash my amazing bod at you in hopes it would distract you enough that you forgot yourself and jumped our bones,” Amos said with a straight face.

  “For cripes sakes! Amos. Can’t you be serious for even one minute?” Andy was about out of his supposedly endless supply of patience. No one to date had ever reached that historic mark. Leave it to his brother to be the first one.

  “Just saying,” his brother said with a wide grin. Then he plopped down on the couch directly across from Dee and winked.

  To his relief, Dee actually laughed. Maybe things weren’t so hopeless after all. God, he hoped not. She was the answer to their dreams and prayers. Dee wasn’t a snob or social butterfly wanting to rise above everyone no matter what it took. She wanted a home and family above money and prestige.

  I love her more and more each day and we aren’t even married yet. I can’t imagine loving her any more than I do now. Amos is the same way. We want to make her happy and see her smile every day.

  What was it going to take to convince her they would never cheat on her? Again. There was that one word that stood in the way, again. It didn’t matter that they thought she didn’t want them or that they weren’t engaged since she’d refused to marry them. In her mind, they’d committed the ultimate betrayal. Maybe they had in their minds, too. At the time, well, that was what this entire conversation hinged on. What they were thinking at that time and why.

  * * * *

  It was more than obvious to Dee how nervous and tightly controlled Andy was. Amos, too, for that matter. He showed his in how often he blurted out things he knew he shouldn’t. Being worried about something always made him lose the filter between his brain and his mouth. Poor Amos had been reprimanded a lot in school for that anytime he was placed on the spot.

  As much as Dee thought they had betrayed her, she didn’t like knowing their stress was because of her. She’d never wanted revenge or payback for what they’d done. She’d only wanted to forget and try to move on. That wasn’t working out too well for her though.

  I can’t help loving them despite everything. I think I’ve always loved them and would never have believed they would hurt me like that. I want whatever they have to say to make it all better, but how could it?

  “Dee, honey. We want to talk about what happened, but we need you to not say anything until we’ve had our say. Okay?” Andy asked her.

  “Please, baby girl. We need to get it all out at once.” Amos’s words cracked at the end.

  She swallowed and nodded. “I’ll listen. I can’t promise it will make any difference, but I’ll listen.”

  Andy looked at Amos and nodded. Amos walked around the couch and sat down, dropping his elbows to his knees and clasping his hands between them. Tension and something sad seemed to radiate from him toward her. Her skin tightened at the hot feeling of desperation.

  “Andy and I love you, Dee Dee. We have for a long time but kept thinking you’d never consider us since we wanted to share you and you were so shy and quiet. We’d been really close back in high school and when you talked about graduating early, it had us thinking that maybe you were as into us as we were in you.” Amos stopped and looked over at his brother as if searching for words.

  “When you graduated that summer, Amos and I were sure you’d go to college with us, but you didn’t,” Andy said, taking over for his brother. “It was a tough blow to our hearts and our egos. We were young and we were men. Young men, but men. We took that to mean you weren’t interested in us that way.”

  Dee opened her mouth to contradict him but remembered her agreement to hear them out. Amos released a slow breath, proving he’d been worried she was going to speak. She supposed she could understand their need to get it all out at one time. Dragging it out with arguments and disagreements would only make things worse in the long run.

  “We decided to settle in Dallas and only came home for family things like Christmas and Thanksgiving so we wouldn’t have to see you with another man. The idea of anyone else touching you or having a family with you nearly drove us insane,” Andy admitted.

  “Andy and I love Perry Flats. We’d always planned to make it our home. After a few years, we just couldn’t stay away any longer. When we moved back and found out that you weren’t married and weren’t seeing anyone particularly steady, it made us hope that now that we were all adults you might feel differently about us.” Amos sat back against the couch.

  She watched as the two men exchanged looks again. Sometimes Dee thought they could communicate on some deeper level when they looked at each other that way. If she hadn’t have known them as well as she did, she might have missed the tiny nod Andy gave his brother.

  “When you agreed to see us, I thought we’d died and gone to heaven, Dee Dee. All I could think about was you and how much I wanted to hold you in my arms,” Amos said with a wistful note in his voice.

  “I wasn’t any better,” Andy admitted with a soft smile.

  “You were all of our dreams rolled up into one amazing package we couldn’t wait to unwrap. Even though we knew how we felt about you, we weren’t sure what you thought of us. Andy kept telling me we had to go slow. You were different, important, and we both knew you were a little shy when it came to men.” Amos smiled at her then leaned forward once again. “I had a really hard time holding back. Poor Andy was always running interference with me when it came to you.”

  She could see that now. Amos giving her a kiss before Andy and it had been Amos who’d first told her he loved her. Andy had always hung back, giving Dee the impression he wasn’t as sure of his feelings as his brother. Had she been wrong about that?

  If I was wrong about that, what else was I wrong about?

  It took all of her strength to keep quiet while they continued. She wanted to ask Andy for the truth. That would be about as important as anything else they had to say. She’d made decisions based on what she’d believed about their feelings for her.

  Wait. How would it make a difference? Am I really thinking about trying again with them? No! I can’t. I just can’t.

  Nothing could change the fact they’d cheated on her.

  “We were so sure you’d run if we came on too strong. In our minds, you were already ours. We’d had plans to ask you to marry us all along, but were holding off until it seemed like you were ready to hear those words,” Andy said.

  “Only it was taking too long and then we saw you talking to Josh Temples several times outside of the office and that bothered us,” Amos admitted. “I was jealous and didn’t want to wait to talk to you about marrying us. Andy tried to calm me down, but you know how bullheaded I can be sometimes.”

  “Sometimes?” Andy asked with just a hint of a smile.

  “Yeah, well. Anyway, I burst out with telling you that you were going to marry us right out of the blue. I mean we hadn’t even done all the things Andy and I had planned on before asking you, like take you out for a romantic dinner and take turns feeding you dessert,” Amos said.

  Feeding her desert? Her heart did a little dance in her chest, tripping along for a few seconds. She’d have known they were up to something with that. Would it have made a difference in her reaction?

  “Instead, when I saw Josh smile and wave at you from across the room, I got angry, letting it fester while we ate. Then I blurted it out in the parking lot outside of the diner after we’d had hamburgers and onion rings instead of waiting to take you somewh
ere nice.” Amos shook his head. “I was so stupid.”

  “I didn’t help when I yelled at him to shut up,” Andy admitted. “I think it gave you the idea that I wasn’t as serious about you as he was. But that wasn’t true. I’d wanted to do everything right and Amos had messed up all of my plans. I shouldn’t have said anything except that I loved you, too.”

  “I’m sorry, Dee, baby. I was so consumed with jealousy that I screwed everything up. Then I let your refusal go to my head.” Amos looked helplessly over at his brother.

  Andy picked up the story from there. “When you just stood there for a few seconds staring at us, I think we both thought you were going to say yes. You just had that look, like you were excited. Then you suddenly stepped back and shook your head. We didn’t know what you were trying to tell us at first. We thought you were just overwhelmed. I knew it wasn’t the most romantic of ways to have asked you, but you knew how Amos was, and it hadn’t bothered you in the past.”

  Andy stopped there and seemed to settle himself back into his normal controlled nature. He’d started to sound a little more like his brother as he’d been talking.

  “When you shook your head and said ‘no’ then nothing else, we missed it at first. Then you told us that you didn’t think we were really committed to going into marriage. You said that you weren’t ready to settle down yet, you needed time to decide. That made us think you were seriously thinking about seeing someone else—like Josh,” Andy told her.

  “I didn’t take that well,” Amos admitted. “I went off the deep end. To me it said you didn’t want to see us anymore. You were going to test the waters somewhere else first and that hurt more than anything. It was like you weren’t sure if you could do better or not and wanted to find out.”

  Dee shook her head, unable to believe what Amos was saying. Had she really come off like that? She hated people like that who were always looking to the next big thing, the next conquest instead of just being where they were and enjoying it. To think she’d given the two men she cared about more than anyone else in the world that impression was devastating to her. Tears welled up behind her eyes as she tried to control her breathing so she didn’t break down and cry in front of them.