by Vanessa Vale
Cole wasted no time. “Slow down there, Hannah. You just got to work and no one’s here yet. Why don’t you have a seat and keep us company for a bit before your shift really starts?”
To back up his words, I slid over in the booth and patted the empty spot beside me.
That right there, in her eyes. I could have sworn I saw wariness flicker across her pretty features before she pasted on that dimpled smile she used with all the customers. She looked around, took in the mostly empty diner. “I don’t know if I should—”
“Jessie, tell Hannah a five-minute break is not a crime in these parts,” Cole called out.
“I just got here. I can’t take a break!”
Jessie’s laughter carried across the diner. “Girl, take a load off while you can. You’ve been running yourself ragged this week with shifts. Donna and I can set up for lunch.”
To her credit, Hannah relented with a small smile as she slipped into the booth beside me, although she kept a very blatant few inches between my broad shoulder and her uniform clad small one.
Damn, she smelled even better than I’d remembered. Clean and feminine, the scent of her soap or shampoo, or whatever it was, hit me like a drug. Strawberries, watermelon or something that made me want to lick her all over. “So, Hannah,” I said, my voice a little rough with need. “Tell us about yourself.”
Cole raised one brow but I ignored him, I was too busy watching Hannah’s reaction to the question. That smile never faltered as she shrugged one shoulder. “Not much to tell, I’m afraid. What about you guys? How long have you lived in Bridgewater?”
“Born and raised,” Cole said.
“Where did you move here from?” I tried again.
“Oh, I’m from all over.” Her smile deepened and I got a flash of that adorable dimple again. “I guess I’m a bit of a nomad.”
Cole’s gaze met mine and I knew he didn’t miss the fact that she’d avoided the question. “Are you from Montana originally?”
He flicked his gaze in my direction and I could read his smirk clear as day. He’d asked that for my benefit. He might think I was being paranoid but he was game to play along, especially when her avoidance tactics were so obvious.
“No, and for that I’m jealous,” she said. “I can’t imagine a more magnificent place to grow up. You two must have had some great adventures up in those mountains.” She pointed out the window in the direction of the Spanish Peaks off in the distance.
Her gaze was guileless when she looked in my direction but I saw the spark of intelligence there—she knew exactly what she was doing and she was doing it well. Hell, she could give a course in misdirection at the police academy.
Sure enough, Cole took the bait and told her a story from our childhood about the time we got caught in a snowstorm while out camping in the woods. It was a story we’d told often enough we could tell it by heart, and Hannah’s laugh sounded genuine.
I barely listened, too focused on watching Hannah’s reaction and trying to figure out how to ask another question without turning this little chat into an interrogation. By the time Cole’s story ended, I realized that maybe he had the right idea. If we wanted her to open up, we needed to share about ourselves first. That was why we wanted to ask her out. Once we took her out on a proper date, hopefully she’d get to know us and then be more willing to open up.
“You won’t like it here as much come January when there’s three feet of snow on the ground and you haven’t felt your toes in two months,” Cole said, ending his story.
Hannah started to shift in the booth, getting ready to stand. “I’d better get back to work.”
I placed a hand on hers. “Not so fast—”
She jerked her hand out from under mine so quickly it caught me off guard. I kept talking, pretending not to notice the blush that was creeping into her cheeks. But it wasn’t shyness or embarrassment that had her pulling away from me. My gut twisted at the flash of fear I saw in her eyes. It was there and gone in an instant, but I couldn’t have missed it. Shit, I’d never meant to scare her.
“Don’t run off just yet. Cole and I had something we wanted to ask you.”
Her shoulders were rigid, but she remained seated. She glanced between the two of us as if she were at a tennis match.
“We’d like to take you out tonight,” Cole said.
Her confusion was clear as day as she looked between us. “What, like a friend thing?”
Cole and I exchanged a look before I explained. “Not a friend thing. Definitely not a friend thing.”
CHAPTER THREE
DECLAN
“Oh,” she said, that one word as wilted as her shoulders.
“More than a friend thing. Much more,” Cole added. “A date with me and Dec.”
“Both of you?” she asked, wide eyed.
“See,” I began. “Bridgewater is a bit unusual in its ways…”
“Its ways,” she repeated slowly as if that would help to clear up my ambiguous statement. Obviously Jessie hadn’t told her.
“Bridgewater was founded by people who believed that a woman should always have someone around to take care of her…to cherish her,” Cole said.
She blinked rapidly like Cole was speaking a foreign language that didn’t compute.
I figured it was best to get it over with quickly…rip off the Band-Aid, so to speak. “Here in Bridgewater, oftentimes a woman marries two men.”
After a brief silence, Hannah let out a loud laugh. “Two men. Right,” she said, dragging out that word. “You’re kidding, right?”
As if on cue, the door above the front door jingled and in walked my sister, Cara, and her two husbands, Mike and Tyler. While I had never been keen on my little sister even dating, I had to admit her men put a ring on her finger once they had her in their sights and were good to her. I nodded toward them. “See for yourself. That’s my sister, Cara, and her husbands.”
Mike wrapped an arm around Cara’s waist as they headed toward a table in the back and Tyler took her hand, entwining their fingers. Hannah couldn’t doubt my words; my sister and I shared the same very red hair.
“Oh my God.” Hannah said it quietly, under her breath as she openly stared, but Cole and I heard her. She scrambled out of the booth to stand. “I, uh…I’ve got to get to work.”
While more customers were starting to file into the restaurant, it was hardly slammed. “Stay, Hannah,” I said.
Was it my imagination or did she flinch? I knew the Bridgewater way was an adjustment, especially for an outsider like Hannah, but she was jumpy instead of surprised.
“Don’t judge until you’ve seen it in action,” Cole said, looking up at her. “The divorce rate in this town is extremely low and the relationships last a lifetime.”
Longtime Bridgewater residents—and busybodies—Violet Kane, and her friend, Sally Martin, settled into the booth behind us and didn’t pretend to hide their eavesdropping.
“They hit you with the news, huh?” Sally said, her laugh deep and boisterous. The real estate agent had lunch every weekday in the same booth and wouldn’t have missed our own daily presence in Hannah’s section. She had two husbands and so did Violet, whose son Sam—with his cousin Jack— had just gotten engaged to Katie Andrews. The ladies were very familiar with the Bridgewater way. They lived it, even passed it onto their children. “You should see your face.”
Violet held up her ring finger and showed off her wedding band. “Thirty-five years strong with my two men.”
“That’s, uh… that’s great.” Hannah’s smile had returned but she was clearly still stunned. “Two men. Wow.”
I caught her gaze, bringing her focus back to us. “So what do you say? Will you go out with me and Cole tonight?”
Cole gave her that lopsided grin that all the ladies seemed to love. “Just one drink, darlin’.”
Her eyes were wide and after a second of silence she shook her head as if to clear it. “Sorry, just…I can’t believe I’m being asked out by two men at once. I admit,
I haven’t had much luck with just one.” She reached a hand up and pushed back an errant lock of hair and I noticed the way her hand shook. “So, how does this work? Do you guys always go on dates together?”
I shook my head. Voices came through my police radio on the table and I adjusted the volume to low. If there was an emergency, a tone would come through first. “Not always. You’re special.”
“Sp—” A wariness made her smile falter. “Special, how?”
“You’re ours.” Cole’s voice was low and surprisingly possessive. I shot him a warning look when Hannah took a small step back.
“I don’t belong to you,” she said, her tone sharp and her eyes angry.
I wanted to see that flirty smile on her lips again. Instead, her cheeks were pale and if looks could kill, Cole would be dead by now. This was not how I wanted this to go. Fuck, we were blowing it.
“What Cole’s trying to say is that we’re interested in you. As more than friends. We think you might be the one,” I said quickly. Then I had to explain how in Bridgewater, men knew instinctively when they’d met their match. How it was fated.
Her brows were drawn together in disbelief but she didn’t try to laugh it off. “And that’s what you think? That I’m destined to be…what, your wife?”
“We think so, yes,” Cole said. His reply lacked the possessive tone from just a moment before, but he was deadly serious and let that show in his eyes.
“But we’d like to take you out so you can see for yourself,” I added.
“That you’d make good husbands? Both of you,” she said, as if this fact bore repeating. “At the same time.”
I caught Cole’s smirk, but she didn’t seem to notice, thank god. She was busy looking at Sally and Violet’s booth to see if they were overhearing. I had no doubt they were.
“That’s right,” Cole added.
We were supposed to be asking this woman out as gentlemen and I sure as hell didn’t want to scare her off with talk of threesomes. Not yet, at least. She was skittish enough as it was. We needed to ease her into the idea, not club her over the head and carry her off to our bed. At least not yet.
But how did you tell a woman you wanted to claim her with another man? How did you tell her we weren’t playing games, that were dead serious about it? About her? How did we do that with a woman who seemed to have a very obvious dislike of possessive men? I tried the laid back approach.
But Cole, apparently, had other ideas. He leaned forward and caught her hand. “At the same time and in every way imaginable. You belong between us, Hannah. We’ll make you see that.”
I knew what would happen, and I was right. She pulled her hand away and stepped back with such haste I thought she might trip. Shit. I shot Cole a warning look. Apparently, he hadn’t noticed her reaction when I’d touched her hand. Whatever this woman was hiding about her past, she was scared and we’d only made it worse. It was obvious she’d had boyfriends who were a little too possessive and that didn’t sit well with me. Someone with that in her background could easily misconstrue our interest as being a little overpowering. Obsessive even.
I kept my voice low and calm and didn’t try to move toward her. “Hannah, we’re sorry. We’re not trying to push you into anything, I swear, but we’ve been interested in you since we first laid eyes on you. We’ve been by every day since hoping to just see you smile our way.”
My honesty seemed to help, for her stance relaxed a bit.
“Sally and Violet, hell, even Jessie, can vouch for us.” I couldn’t see the ladies behind me, but I had to assume they were either nodding their heads or offering thumbs up signs. Cole was looking over my shoulder and grinning.
“We just…like you and want to get to know you better.”
That was a total lie. We didn’t just like her. We wanted her. Knew she was going to be ours.
Her eyes flicked to the ladies, but she still looked wary. At least she wasn’t running away. She stood next to our table at a safe distance and toyed with her pad and pen. Her gaze shifted from me to Cole and back again.
“If I were thirty years younger, honey,” Sally called. “I’d give you a run for the money when it comes to these two. You have to admit, you’ve got two hot men ready to make you theirs. They’re not creeps, they’re Bridgewater men. That’s the way they’re made around here. Big, dominant and too sexy for their own good. If they said they wanted me between them, do you think I’d be sitting here? Hell, no. Go for it, and by it, I mean them.”
I had to remember to send Sally a bunch of flowers later for her help.
To my surprise I caught something more in Hannah’s eyes—something hiding behind the fear and the wariness.
Attraction. Yes! It had been there all along like we’d thought. There was chemistry between us. Shared chemistry. But we’d scared her off with our fuck-all fumbling.
“We’re pretty bad at asking a woman out, aren’t we?” I asked, watching as she nibbled at her bottom lip. “Give two idiots a shot.”
“He’s the idiot,” Cole countered. “I told you I want you, want you between us. I can’t fuck that up.”
I looked over at Cole, who took a sip of his coffee with an unbearably smug expression. Maybe he wasn’t such an idiot after all. If it was fantasies of being with the two of us that got her to give us a chance, I was all for it.
But she hadn’t said yes yet and I was afraid to push too hard. She might be tempted, but one nudge the wrong way and she would bolt.
Fate, in the form of nosy neighbors, intervened.
Violet added to Sally’s words. “Girl, if you let these boys slip through your fingers, you’ll regret it. And if you’re worried about all that caveman talk, they mean it in a good way. Trust me. Heck, trust practically every married woman in town.”
Hannah turned a pretty shade of pink as it became obvious that the tables around us, which had been filling up with lunch customers, were making this their business. Yes, everyone knew we were interested in her. Hell, we’d been coming here all week. But no one piped up and said it was wrong for her to have two men outright tell her they were interested in making her their wife. Just the opposite. We had the town on our side.
Cole gave her a wink.
“It’s true. Everything they’ve said since we began eavesdropping,” Violet added. “I’ve known these boys their whole lives. You couldn’t ask for two finer men. Right, Jessie?”
Jessie was walking past with a tray filled with food. “I’ve already told her she’d be crazy not to let these boys show her a good time. Lord knows she needs it.”
Hannah’s blush deepened as she fixed her stare on my hands, on the table…anywhere to keep from making eye contact. Jessie had clearly hit the nail on the head. This woman needed to be shown a good time. And we’d be the men to give it to her. Maybe an orgasm or three would help this woman relax and open up a bit.
Shit. I hated having to admit that Cole was right, but it seemed he’d known what he was doing from the start. Appeal to Hannah’s sexual interest and let her see for herself how great the three of us could be. “Go out with us?”
She finally looked up at me.
I dropped my voice and let her see the desire I’d been trying to hide. “Will you give us the chance to show you a good time?”
She licked her lips and my cock hardened instantly. I could tell she was thinking about how we’d show her a good time. Fuck, this woman was turned on and just knowing that she was just the slightest bit curious had me primed and ready to go. I could run with curious and up that to interested and take that a step further to aroused. What I wouldn’t give to taste those sweet lips, and other parts of her.
My sister’s sudden arrival at our table was the cold shower I needed to stay in control, to remember everyone was watching us. And listening in. And butting in.
“What’s going on over here?” she asked with a teasing grin. “Everyone in this place is watching you guys try to land the hot new waitress. With not much success, I might add,
based on the look on her face.”
Hannah laughed at that, which broke all of the tension in her body, and my sister’s smile grew. “Hey, I’m Cara.”
“Hannah Lauren.” She nodded. “Nice to meet you.”
My sister, who was several inches taller than Hannah, threw an arm around her like they’d been best friends forever. “So what’s the hold up, lady? You need another woman to vouch for these guys? I can tell you right now you couldn’t do any better, even if one of them is my annoying older brother.”
Cole let out a snort of amusement and looked up at Hannah. “She has to say that. Dec’s a damn pest.”
“And you’re practically my brother, which makes you just as annoying,” Cara added. She turned to Hannah. “It’s true. I’m not exactly unbiased.” She lowered her voice as if that would keep the eavesdroppers from listening. “But from one woman to another, I can tell you that you’d be missing out if you didn’t give the Bridgewater way a try.”
She glanced over at her table, where Mike and Tyler were sitting, and Hannah looked, too. My sister’s whisper was loud enough for me and Cole and everyone around us to hear. “Seriously, girl. You owe it yourself and all womankind to give these guys a shot.”
With one over-the-top wink she dropped her arm and headed back to her table, calling out, “We need to grab drinks soon, Hannah. I’ll give you all the juicy gossip on my brother.”
Hannah turned back to me, those bright green eyes still filled with laughter. Sweet Jesus, she was stunning.
“So what do you say?” Sally called out.
Christ, we had the entire town in on this asking out thing. I wasn’t sure if Cole and I were totally pathetic or if Hannah needed a little more coaxing than most. “Thanks everyone, I think Hannah’s gotten the point,” I said.
All eyes were on Hannah and she gave in with a smile. “Sure, why not? Besides, everyone will hate me if I don’t go on at least one date with you. With both of you.”
“I heard that,” Jessie said, walking past again. “Now that it’s settled, let the girl get back to work.”