“Mason wants to have lunch.”
“Cool.I’m happy to have lunch with him,” Cam said, flashing a ridiculous smile.“I’ve got plenty to say to that asshole.”
Not so helpful a response.
She resisted the urge to roll her eyes.“I think he meant lunch with me.”
“Who’s Mason?”Roxie asked.
“My ex.”
“Oh, ho, ho…” Roxie exclaimed, accompanying her words with a few short almost silent claps.“Watch him come crawling back.Like we’ll let him in the door.Uh, no, thanks.”Roxie gave a sailing finger wave.“Toodle-oo, Goodbye, Old News.”
The woman’s husband had something to say about that.“You talk to your Old News all the time.”
“Says the man who spent an afternoon shacked up in a hotel with his ex.And my ASA ex literally traded me to you for a material witness like I’m a baseball card or something.”Roxie leaned in.“Told Zairn he was passing the gauntlet.What is that?I’m not a gauntlet.”
“Mantle,” Zairn said.“Porter passed me the mantle.”
“Seems you’re juggling a lot of mantles these days, Casanova.”
Accepting coffee from Cam, Ariella couldn’t help but worry for the couple.“I know the argument thing is supposed to be a decoy, but please tell me I haven’t broken your relationship.”
Zairn’s smile quirked for a flicker.
“I’m going to tell you a secret not even Zairn knows,” Roxie said like they weren’t in a room full of people.“It’s not possible to break our relationship.Take it from me.I know.”
“She tried.”
“Several times,” Roxie said without acknowledging her husband, even as his hand slid to the small of her back.“I tried to break it over and over again.It’s not possible.It always just springs back into shape no matter how you tug or contort it.Weebles wobble…”
It was no surprise that neither party of their relationship was insecure, they were confident people.But, damn, she envied that.Wasn’t everyone looking for that?Complete security and contentment… and dynamite sex.
Her own troubles dimmed when Honey came downstairs.
“She’ll email the details,” the woman said, joining them.
Honey?When did she arrive and why was she upstairs?The obvious answer was…
“You stayed overnight?”
“Yeah,” Honey said, putting her phone on the island.
“We were a bed short,” she said, frustrated because if she’d known, she’d have been a better hostess.
“Oh, it’s fine,” Honey said with a dismissive gesture.“I slept with Tripp.”
And when her eyes slid across to him, he picked up his coffee.“With me, not with me.”
“How do you know when you can and can’t touch?”Roxie asked, posing a surprisingly personal question in a completely nonchalant way.Roxie could make even the most intimate question sound like asking the time.“You wake up half-assed and sleep with so many women, platonically and not… How does your subconscious register what’s off-limits?I’m not always sure Zairn’s completely awake for sleepy middle of the night sex.Sometimes I’m not, not at first, but instinct takes over, you know?Don’t you ever… on instinct?”
“Experience,” Tripp said.“And initiating isn’t my thing.”
“Because you’re scared of your momma?”
“No, just never need to,” Tripp said.“She takes the lead.”
“And you just go with it?”
