Cam climbed onto the bed and lay down beside Regina, his shoulder touching her back as she turned toward Sawyer once more.
“Are you all right? Having any pain?” Cam asked.
“I’m good,” she replied. She yawned even as she said it.
Sawyer looked down and smiled. “Getting sleepy?”
She frowned. “No. I’m comfortable. Let’s watch the movie. I don’t want to go back to my room yet.”
“Honey, no one said you had to move. Stay as long as you like.”
She burrowed deeper into the pillows and nestled between the two men, and it suddenly occurred to her how right it felt. Her brow furrowed as she contemplated that notion.
No, not tonight. She wasn’t going to rehash it all. It made her head hurt. For now she just wanted things to be like they used to be. When they were all friends and comfortable around one another. Before sex had screwed up everything.
CHAPTER 13
Hutch pulled on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and stepped barefooted into the hallway. He paused at Reggie’s door to look in, only to find her bed empty. He walked on to Cam’s room, where the door was also open, and found it empty as well.
Everyone was up early this morning.
He headed for the stairs but stopped at Sawyer’s door when he glanced in and saw Sawyer, Reggie and Cam all in Sawyer’s bed asleep. He leaned in, his arm resting against the door frame, and grinned at the sight.
Reggie was cuddled up close to Sawyer, who was laid out in an uncomfortable-looking position with one arm above his head and the other tucked under Reggie. Cam was relegated to the sliver of bed left by Reggie and Sawyer and was spooned up against Reggie. Part of his ass hung off the bed, and if he so much as moved, he’d probably land on the floor.
Hutch shook his head. No telling how this had all come about, but if he had to guess, he’d lay odds on Reggie seeking out company in the middle of the night.
He stood there staring for a long time, waiting for jealousy to come. Waiting to feel resentment toward Sawyer and Cam. But it never came.
Instead he felt the prickle of anticipation, as if they were one step closer to achieving their goal. And he supposed therein lay the reason for his acceptance. As ridiculous as it sounded that wooing a woman would be a team effort . . . Hell, it didn’t sound ridiculous, itwasridiculous.
He needed to have his head examined.
With a shake of his head, he turned and headed back into the hall. He walked down the stairs and rounded the corner to go into the kitchen to start breakfast.
That team effort thing—it bugged him. Even as he knew it was something he and Cam and Sawyer had agreed upon, had talked about for many long hours, it still made him cringe. Maybe he wasn’t as accepting as he’d thought. But no. It wasn’t the idea of sharing her with two other men—no, not just two other men—people he was closer to than anyone. Guys he trusted. It was the idea in general that the woman he loved would never be completely his.
Was he really okay with that? And if he was now, was there any guarantee he’d be okay with it a year from now? Two years?
Children. Jesus. That was one angle he hadn’t discussed with the others, primarily because Reggie had never really expressed a strong desire to have kids. But what if she wanted them? Did they draw straws to see who fathered her baby or did they just leave it to chance, and if they were all living together, did it matter anyway?
He was giving himself a killer headache, and he was talking himself in circles. He dragged out the ingredients for pancakes then took the ham out of the refrigerator.
It had been a lot easier when this was all in theory, an arrangement discussed in the hypothetical. Now that they were actually trying to make it work, he wondered if they weren’t the biggest dumbasses in the universe. No wonder Reggie was having such a hard time with it all. No sane person could wrap their brain around the fact that three normal men would consent to sharing the woman they loved with one another.
“Dude, if you don’t let up on that batter, there’s not going to be much left for pancakes.”
Hutch’s hand stilled from the vicious rotation, and he looked up to see Sawyer standing there, eyeing him with open curiosity.
“Reggie still asleep?” he asked.
Sawyer sat down on one of the barstools and leaned his arms on the counter. “Yeah, she and Cam are still passed out.”
Hutch resumed mixing the batter then stopped to slice the ham into thick breakfast steaks.
“So what’s eating you this morning?” Sawyer asked casually.
“Nothing. I’m good.”
