“Calm down,” I say. “Apparently, he and Lucas had a fight. I made the mistake of answering my phone in the grocery store. Then he hung up on me before I found out anything.”
He holds out his hand. “Hand it over. I’ll babysit your phone this weekend. I willnothave our first full weekend together in a freakingmonthruined by that nutsac full of flaming garbage.”
“Have at it.” I point at my purse, which I’d dumped on the couch with my laptop bag and other stuff from work. “It’s in there. I shut it off. Be my guest.”
From the fridge I grab a package of defrosted chicken breasts that have been marinating all day and dump them into the electric skillet. I empty a bag of frozen veggies and some spices on top of it, turn it on medium, and put the lid on it. Tonight, I’m cooking Nolan’s favorite. God knows as complicated as this thing is between the three of us, at least he’s dang easy to cook for. Tomorrow night, Arlo will fire up the grill and cook us steaks.
Between a project at work and caring for his six-year-old daughter, Katie, Nolan hasn’t been able to come over alone for a visit in almost two weeks. When I hear Arlo step into the shower, I smile despite the headache still threatening to set in.
Just a few minutes.
I hurry to our master bathroom, quickly strip, and step inside the shower with Arlo.
He smiles and kisses me. “Feeling a little better, hon?”
I drape my arms around his neck. “I’m sure I’ll be feelingrealgood by the time I finally go to sleep tonight.”
He laughs. “I think webothwill.”
I study his blue eyes, the flecks of granite in them. Nolan’s are brown with streaks of amber and honey. Arlo’s hair is a lighter shade of brown than Nolan’s, nearly dark blond. Despite the men being friends and unrelated, and that I don’t think they really look that much alike, people often mistake them for brothers because of how they act with each other in public. They’re both six-three, trim, and sexy, although Nolan’s a little beefier than Arlo.
“I still say buying an RV’s a good idea,” I tell him. “It’d be fun. We’d be able to get away, go wherever we want.” I grind my hips against his. “Just think, we could skinny dip in some backwoods lake.”
“So you could watch us shrivel up? Or we could get eaten by alligators? No, thank you.” He nips my neck, and for a few minutes we’re both distracted. “Iwasthinking about something else,” he says a moment later.
From his tone, this feels big. I pull my head back to look him in the eyes. “Thinking about what?”
He shrugs and steps under the spray to wet his hair. “Nolan and I got together and crunched some numbers this week.”
A flash of something not quite hitting the jealousy mark washes through me. I don’t mind that they got together.
I mind that I didn’t get to see Nolan, too.
This is the first I’m hearing about it from either man. “When? You didn’t tell me you guys talked.” Okay, yes, I feel a little miffed that not only did I not get to see Nolan, neither man told me about their meeting before now. Yeah, I get to talk to Nolan every day on the phone, and we Facetime and text—we both text with him—but it’s not thesame.
“He had a little free time at lunch Wednesday, so we went out and grabbed burgers. It was a last-minute thing. No, we didn’t get to cuddle or blow each other.” He arches an eyebrow at me. “You want to hear it, or not?”
I still sulk a little. “Yeah.”
He grabs the shampoo. “We’ve got those fifteen acres in Nokomis my parents left me. We could sell this place and build a house there. With our income, and with what Nolan would save on rent and utilities and stuff, and with him paying part of the bills, we could easily do it.”
I think my heart might actually stop as the full implication hits me. All sulkiness rapidly drains away as I process his words. “You mean it?” I softly ask.
I’ve never dared to hope for more than we have. Which is stolen moments of time, and a weekend here and there, like this weekend.
“Yeah. Nolan talked to his attorney on Monday. We could set up a trust and make all three of us owners of it, or members, or whatever the term is. Partners. So we’re all protected.”
“But what about Katie? And what about when Lucas comes to visit?”
Arlo smiles. “Split floor plan. Extra rooms. Two bedrooms on one side of the house, the kids’ bedrooms on the other. When kids are in residence, they’ll never know any different. Besides, Nolan’s attorney said there’s nothing in Nolan’s divorce agreement that mandates where he has to live, as long as it’slocal. They both have to stay in Katie’s school district, or close enough to it that they can take her every day. It’d be only ten minutes from Katie’s school, and it’s closer to Nolan’s job. Jerilyn knows he and I have been friends since high school. It makes sense in this economy. If Nolan needs it, we file an affidavit or something that says he signed a lease, or that he pays rent or…whatever.”
“What about the housing market? It sucks right now.”
“We only paid seventy-two for this house, and now it’s worth over two hundred and fifty grand, even after the bubble popped. We can easily price it to sell below market value to move it fast and still make a nice profit. It’s doable, Zo.”
It feels like I can’t breathe. “Really?” I whisper.
He smiles and pulls me into his arms again. “Really.”
