“Hey,” protested Marshall.
“You have to admit,” I said, “you’ve let things slide on that front. A rich, good-looking guy like you should have been married and divorced three different times by now.”
“Granted.”
“So back to the conversation," I said. "You think that we should take turns with Jacine?”
“Yeah. It makes sense. We are all busy people, and none of us has had the time to commit to a single relationship. Maybe part-time would work? Think of it as serial monogamybut without messy divorces. We just set our schedules to rotate who is in town when.”
“Except, I’m always in town,” said Marshall.
“Not to be indelicate, old man,” said Kane. “But you do work like a demon. I’ve called you what—three times in the last week at eleven at night and you are in your office. What kind of life is that for Jacine?”
“Maybe it’d change if I had someone to come home to.”
“That sound like a river in Egypt to me,” said Holmes.
“What?”
“Denial,” I said. “Geezus, haven’t you ever been in rehab?”
“No.” He stared at me with disapproval. Clearly, he thought that I, Kane and Holmes and our rock star ways weren’t good enough for Jacine.
But Holmes pressed on. “We all get what we want, and Jacine isn’t left home alone prey for whoever else would make moves on her.”
“I doubt,” said Marshall, “that Jacine thinks of herself as prey.”
“You forget something,” I said. “There is a good reason that Jacine doesn’t allow us to see each other. We don’t get along well. How could we share a woman?”
“Didn’t we work that out in the jail?”
“Yeah, before I realized that Kane wanted to make moves on my woman.”
“Well, if you have that attitude," said Rory, "then we’ll never get anywhere, except the next jail when one of us takes a shot at the other.”
“Holmes has a point,” said Marshall. “You’ll end up killing each other if you try to compete for her. And I tell you, she won’t like it one bit.”
“What makes you the expert?” I said.
“I’ve watched her grow up. She’s always been independent. No one is going to pin her down. Plus, she saw enough shit when her parents broke up it soured her ideas on marriage.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m talking out of school here. If she wants to share that with you, she will. All I’m saying is, she’ll shut us all out if we push her too hard.”
“Like she did the past couple of weeks,” said Kane thoughtfully.
“Yes, exactly,” said Marshall. He settled his glass down with a clink on the glass table by his chair and stood. “But really, Holmes. I don’t see how this idea of yours will work. I don’t intend to share Jacine with anyone. Like I said, I’m always in town.”
With that,Tobias Marshall sauntered out toward the driveway as if he held all the cards.
