Faye carefully sat up, the sheet clutched to her chest. “Toast? I can probably manage that.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll supervise. Wouldn’t want to lose my security deposit on the place.” I smirked.
She threw a pillow at my head, but I dodged it, laughing, and headed for the kitchen.
I hadbacon in the oven and beaten eggs in a pan on the stove. The villa’s kitchen was open to the rest of the house, so I had a perfect view of the pool from where I was standing.
If I imagined it hard enough, I could almost pretend that waking up with Jase and Faye and cooking breakfast was just a regular part of life. It had been for the last few days, and it just feltright.
Jase moved around me to the coffeemaker, brushing my shoulder as he went by. “The food smells amazing.”
“Flattery will get you extra bacon,” I said.
“Good. My plan is working.” He slapped my back.
Faye came in wearing one of our blue UCLA T-shirts. I wasn’t sure whose it was, but it hung halfway down her thighs. Fuck she was so hot.
She stopped next to me. “I’m ready to work, chef.”
“The toaster is over there.” I pointed to the appliance on the counter. “And the bread is in the pantry.”
She got started on her task while I stirred the eggs and kept an eye on the bacon. Jase handed out mugs of coffee, and the three of us moved around each other with ease.
I wanted more of this. Not just the sex—though, yeah, obviously that too—but the domestic shit too. Too bad that wasn’t a possibility. In less than two months we’d all be in different parts of the country, doing our own thing. God, it hurt to think about it.
When the food was ready, we carried our plates out to the patio.
“This is officially the best start to a year I’ve ever had,” Faye declared after her first bite. “Ten out of ten. Highly recommend.”
“Same,” Jase agreed around a mouthful of scrambled eggs.
“Okay,” I said, clearing my throat. “Can we talk about something?”
Both of them went still.
Faye set her fork down. “That’s a very ominous way to start.”
Jase’s brows pulled together. “What’s up?”
Here goes nothing.
I stared at the blue line where the ocean met the horizon. “This week has been amazing.”
Faye nodded. “Agreed.”
“Yeah,” Jase added.
“And I don’t …” I dragged in a breath. “I don’t want to go home and think of it as just some cool vacation fling. So, what would you guys think about making this official?”
Faye blinked. “Official how?”
I shrugged. “We stop acting like we’re just three people who hook up when our schedules and geography line up. We treat this like an actual relationship. We don’t see anyone else. We talk about important shit, as well as the small stuff that doesn’t matter. We try to make time for each other, even when it seems impossible.”
“You mean … you and me. Me and Jase. And you and Jase. All of us?”
My fingers squeezed my fork. “Uh yeah.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jase sit back slowly.
