Karen held up her hands. “Hey, we don’t have a problem with it. We like her.”
“What?” Emily realized something else. “How the hell long have you known?
April shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. They love her.”
Katie, realizing they were no use, shook her head. “Mom, come on, help us talk some sense into Tommy.”
Peggy stepped forward. “Girls, you are apparently the only ones with a problem. It’s not our business. She’s a guest in my home. You have two choices—stay and be sociable, or leave.”
Emily’s color darkened. “You have got to be shitting me! You cannot stand there and tell me you’re fine with this!”
“It’s not our business. I think she’s sweet, and I think she loves them. They obviously love her.”
Katie leaned against the cabinet, her hands pressed to her forehead, shaking her head. “I can’t believe this. I just cannot believe this.”
Thomas turned to Cheryl. “Are you okay with this?”
Realizing he was talking to her, she looked up. “What? I don’t know.”
He turned to Katie. “Kate? How’s this going to be? Are you going to respect my decision, or are you going to keep going at her? If you can’t play nice you need to leave, or I will take her and Tyler and go to a hotel. I will not have her picked on by you two.”
Katie had drifted from righteous indignation to confusion now that her mother had weighed in. “What, are you guys like swingers or something? I can’t believe you’d—”
“Tyler and I have been faithful to each other our entire relationship. We met her and both fell in love with her. Lucky for us, she felt the same way. We’re like anyone else, except there’s three of us instead of two. This has nothing to do with sex, it’s about love. We love her, she loves us. If you can’t wrap your head around it, that’s your problem, not ours.” He turned to Emily. “That goes for you, too. Back off, or we’ll leave. Take your holier-than-thou crap and shove it up your ass.”
Peggy stood next to Tyler and Nevvie. “What’s it gonna be, girls? Can we move past this and get on with dessert?”
Katie reached for the bottle of bourbon and poured a few splashes, downing it. “I need some time with this.”
“That’s fine,” Thomas said. “I’m not asking for your approval or blessings. I’m only asking for respect and civility. For all three of us.”
Katie nodded. “Okay.”
That left Emily, who looked ready to explode. “Well?” Thomas asked.
“How dare you do this to our mother! It wasn’t bad enough you brought Tyler home, now this?”
Peggy stepped forward and shook her finger in Emily’s face. “You listen to me, lady. I love Tyler, and I think I’m going to love Nevvie, once I get to know her. Don’t you be thinking you have to fight some morality battle for me. You suck it up or get the hell outta my house.”
Emily looked shocked then stormed out of the kitchen. They heard the back door slam a moment later.
The collective relief was palpable.
Karen sighed loudly. “Well, now that the floor show’s over, can we have pie?”
Nevvie nervously laughed. Karen’s tone and inflection was so similar to Thomas, she couldn’t help it.
* * * *
At first, tension filled the air. As the others settled into the news, nerves eased and eventually all relaxed. Emily returned a half-hour later. She grabbed her husband and hugged Peggy.
“I’m sorry, Momma, but I need to need to go. I’ll call you.” She left without saying goodbye to anyone else.
The mood lifted with their departure. Thomas cornered Nevvie in the kitchen a few minutes later.
“I’m sorry, Nev. I knew she’d explode one way or the other, and I was hoping maybe if she had a chance to get to know you…She’ll come around eventually, sugar. She did the same thing when I brought Tyler home.”
Nevvie glared at him.
“Okay, not quite as bad, but it took her a while to accept him. It’ll be okay. Hey, four out of five, plus Momma, that’s good.”
Tyler joined their hug, kissing the back of her neck. “Are you all right, sweet?”
“Yeah. I’ll be okay.”
“Ooh! Me too!” Karen rushed across the kitchen and hugged Tyler from behind. “Hiya, Blue Eyes.”
The others laughed. Nevvie understood this was a not quite completely innocent running joke with her. “Sorry, Karen. They’re a matched set. If you take one, you’ve got to take the other.”
Karen released Tyler with a shudder. “Ick! My brother? Yuck. Thanks for the ice water on my fantasy. Blech.” But she smiled. “Don’t worry. Em’s big concern was probably that you guys would give Clay bad ideas. I swear that man is gay.”
“I doubt it,” Tyler said. “He’s never made a pass at me.”
“That means he’s blind, Ty, not straight.”
The rest of the evening was relaxed as they passed the eggnog around and the mood stayed light. With promises to get together for lunch on Sunday at the house, they all said good night a little after eleven.
Peggy smiled at Nevvie. “Could have been a lot worse, sugar. You did good today.”
“Thanks, Mom.” She wouldn’t deny it felt good calling her that.
Peggy yawned. “I’m going to bed. Whatever’s left in the kitchen, we can wash it in the morning.” She started down the hall to her bedroom when she turned.
“Oh, Tommy?”
“Yes, Momma?”
“Try not to fall out of bed again. You shook the whole house.”
They all laughed. “Yes, Momma. I’ll try.”
* * * *
The weekend flew by. All the sisters except Emily dropped by the house at various times to visit or have dinner. Nevvie relaxed and eventually felt like part of the family. The boys carefully kept their public displays of affection to a minimum around others, and the three crammed into the too-small bed to sleep every night.
Nevvie and the boys helped Peggy put up the Christmas tree and decorate the house, apparently an annual tradition. Tyler was relieved when Nevvie insisted he stay on the ground while she went on the roof with Thomas to help string lights.
Peggy watched them from the front yard, standing next to Tyler. “She’s good at that kind of stuff, isn’t she?”
“Absolutely. She loves working on the Ford with him, things like that. She’s amazing. You know I’m bloody worthless at this, always have been.”
Peggy shook her head. “Funny how this all worked out, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” He looked at her. “Now you understand.”
“I wouldn’t go that far, Tyler. I can’t say I understand. As long as y’all are happy.”
Tyler loved Peggy. He wasn’t close to his own mother, usually saw her only once a year, if that. They talked on the phone from time to time, but she always steered around the subject of Thomas like he was non-existent, treating him like the elephant in the corner. Tyler hadn’t bothered trying to tell her about Nevvie.
Peggy, however, felt like a mom to him.
“She’s had a rough life, Mom,” he said, dropping his voice. “She was adopted, then her adoptive mother basically abandoned her after her husband died and she remarried. We’re the first real family she’s had that she can count on.”
Peggy nodded. “I can tell. You two hold onto her tight. I think it would kill her to lose you.” She sat at the picnic table. “We once had this little dog, it’d been abused. Poor thing scared of its own shadow. The longer we had it, the more it settled down, but it still clung to me. If I left a room, here it’d come, on my heels. She’d get frantic if I went outside and didn’t crate her first. She’d try to look out the windows and find me.”
Peggy watched Nevvie. “She reminds me of that little dog, Tyler. She only looks comfortable if one of you are around. If you’re both there, she relaxes.” She leveled her gaze at Tyler. “Don’t go ruining this by being stupid men, either. Stay focused on the important stuff and stay away from the pe
tty crap. Hold her tight, son.”
Tyler nodded. “Believe me, we will.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Nevvie strolled into Tyler’s office, waving a card at him. “When, pray tell, sir, were you telling me about this?”
He looked up and a sheepish smile erupted. “Sorry, sweet. I guess it slipped my mind.”
“Mmm hmm.” She sat in his lap. Wearing an oversized T-shirt and nothing else made it easy to feel his bulge grow against her thigh. “Thomas just called and asked me to find out what to wear and remind me to send anything to the cleaners if that was necessary.”
“Oops.” He kissed her. “Forgive me?”
“Tyler, I can’t go.”
“All three of us are going. I’ve already RSVPd.”
The card in question was an invitation to a Christmas party, being thrown in three days by the head of the English department, a professor emeritus, one of the men Tyler used to work with.
“How are we supposed to explain who I am?”
“You’re my wife.”
“And Thomas?”
“He’s my husband. Don’t complicate this, dear.”
“I don’t care about me, but you’ve got a reputation.”
He kissed her, silencing her protests. “Love, it’s my reputation. If my being open about my relationship with Thomas didn’t raise any eyebrows, why should this?”
She glared at him.
“Right. Love, I don’t have a problem with it. Seriously.”
“You don’t have a problem telling your former co-workers about me?”
“No.”
There was more. She recognized the playful gleam in his eye. “Tyler.”
The sheepish look returned, melting her. “You’ll look beautiful in that black gown.”
“Tyyylerrrrr.” Now she knew for sure there was more.
“It’s supposed to be dressy.”
“Tyler!”
“My ex-wife might be there.”
Nevvie absorbed this information and snickered. “Which one?”
“One.”
“And you can’t resist the urge to parade me around in front of her.”
“I can’t get much past you, can I?”
“Not anymore. I’ll make sure my black dress is ready. I’m assuming you want me to buy different shoes?”
His cock throbbed along her thigh. “Can I pick?”
“Sure, but I’ll be glued to your arm all night so I don’t fall and break my neck.”
“All the better.”
He sent her to get dressed and drove them to the mall. It took a few minutes of wobbling and careful steps, but she finally agreed to a pair of stiletto pumps.
“If I break my ankle in these things, you’re waiting on me hand and foot, got it?”
He pressed close into her hip, letting her feel his stiff cock. The shoes brought her almost to eye level with him. “Love, I plan on keeping you on my arm all night long.”
“You’re deliberately baiting these people.”
He kissed her. “If you and Thomas ever team up against me I fear I’m in trouble. You know me too well.”
She sat, removed the shoes, and put her sandals back on. “What’s going on?”
He sat across from her, his elbows on his knees, and dropped his voice. “I left the department on good terms. As with any workplace, there were cliques.” He shrugged. “Because I didn’t write ‘literary’ books I was somewhat of a pariah amongst the tenured profs.”
“But your books make damn good money.”
“Lucky for me.” He took the shoebox from her so he could pay.
“Where in the food chain was your ex?”
He looked away and shrugged. “She moved in with another professor during our divorce. They both still teach there.”
“During?”
He shrugged again. It finally hit her. There was more to the story than he originally told her. “You didn’t tell me everything about how and why she left, did you?”
He eventually met her gaze. “It doesn’t matter this many years later, does it, love?” he softly replied.
Nevvie wanted revenge for the bitch cheating on him. That’s the only thing the old pain in his eyes could mean. “What does she teach?”
“Her specialty was American literature.”
“Literary type.”
He nodded. They stood.
“I can’t dance in those shoes, you know. I can barely walk in them.”
His smile reached his eyes. “We’ll tuck your shorter heels in the car, just in case. Thomas can always fetch them for us.”
“I’ve never been arm candy before.”
He leaned in close, his lips by her ear, his voice barely a whisper. “Believe me, Thomas and I will enjoy snacking on our arm candy after the party.”
She gasped as his eyes twinkled. Damn he knew how to get her wet!
“It doesn’t bother you some of the people there will talk behind your back and think I’m a slut for having two men?”
“No, because all the men will be jealous. I don’t care what the women think.”
“Except One.”
“I don’t care what she thinks either.”
“Liar. You want to rub her nose in it.”
“That, my love, is a bonus.”
* * * *
If she could survive her first weekend with Thomas’ family, a party with a bunch of strangers she might never see again should be easy.
That was her rationale.
Thomas insisted she ride in the front seat of the Lexus while he took the back. “I’m surprised you didn’t hire a limo,” she snarked as they pulled up to the country club where the party was being held.
Tyler smiled as they waited for the parking valet. “I considered it, but then I figured that would be showing off.”
Both Thomas and Nevvie laughed.
“Is he always like this?” she asked Thomas.
“No, but if the usual snots are here, it’s the first time they’ve seen him in a few years. Believe me, they make shit for pay, a lot less than you’d think. I don’t mind dropping a few jaws.”
“You’re as bad as he is.”
Thomas helped her out while Tyler handed the keys to the valet and walked around the car. “Sugar, it’s a guy thing. I’m sorry, we can’t help it. We have penises, and that means we sometimes get into pissing contests.
She tried to stifle her laughter.
Tyler grinned. “I don’t know I would have phrased it exactly like that, but he’s absolutely correct, sweet. Come along.”
He hooked his arm through hers, slowing his steps for her benefit. She’d spent an hour at home practicing in the stilettos and prayed she wouldn’t have to walk far by herself. If she took her time and didn’t lean, she could manage.
Thomas took her other arm. When they entered the country club she clung to Thomas while Tyler went to check in with the host in the foyer. She poked Tom so he tipped his head close.
“What happened with One?” She’d never outright asked before, knowing Tyler didn’t like to talk about it.
His face clouded. “Skank cheated on Ty. He came home and caught her in bed with the guy.”
“The guy she moved in with?”
Thomas nodded. “Tyler had to work with both of them for a couple of years until he finally quit.”
“Ouch.”
“Do me a favor, baby girl.”
“Anything.”
He leaned in closer and dropped his voice. “Make him look really good for me. Vamp it up, seriously.”
“You really hate her, don’t you?”
“If you get the chance to dance with him, knock ‘em dead.”
It moved her that he wanted vicarious revenge for his lover.
Then again, so did she.
Tyler finished and returned to them, offering Nevvie his arm. “All set, loves. Shall we?”
She smiled and carefully kissed his lips, not wanting to smudge her lipstick. “Let’s knock ‘em dead.�
�
* * * *
Thomas knew a few of the people there. The irony that she had more in common with Thomas in this instance than she did with Tyler didn’t escape her. Tyler handled the introductions. The shocked looks were well worth the beating her feet took in the heels.
At one point Tyler was pulled away by an old colleague to meet the man’s wife, leaving Nevvie tottering on Thomas’ arm.
“How am I doing?” she whispered.
“Great.” He leaned in closer. “You realize you’re getting fucked when you get home, right? Dammit, you’re gorgeous.”
“I better get a foot rub before anything happens.”
“You got it, sugar. Uh oh.”
“What?”
“One at twelve o’clock.”
Nevvie watched an anorexic-looking woman and an older man walk toward them. “That’s her?”
“Yeah, and her sugar daddy.” The man looked at least thirty years older than the woman, with a beard and mustache, a few inches taller than Thomas.
“The professor?”
“Yep.” The couple approached, the woman pasting a false smile on her face.
“Well, hello, Thomas. How are you?” Nevvie didn’t miss the quizzical look shot her direction.
He tightened his grip on Nevvie’s arm. “I’m fine, Erin.” His voice sounded tight, strained. “Robert.”
The man forced a tense smile and tipped his head to Thomas.
“Where’s Tyler?” the woman asked.
That’s exactly what Nevvie wondered. This woman was approximately Tyler’s age, but looked at least ten years older.
She felt a gentle touch on her other arm. Tyler carried two glasses, one of punch, another of wine. “Here, loves. Ah, Erin. I wondered if you’d be here.”
Erin eyed Tyler, apparently not quite sure how to respond. Tyler handed Nevvie the glass of punch, Thomas the wine, and kissed them both. “Sweetheart, make sure the punch isn’t spiked, I didn’t sample it. If it is, I’ll get you something else.” He put his arm around Nevvie’s waist. “How is tenure treating you, Robert?”
The man looked even more uncomfortable, if it was possible. She’d left Tyler for this fugly dude?
Love Slave for Two Collection [Box Set 7] (Love Slave for Two .5-4) Page 43