“If you want to ask me any questions, now’s the time,” she says.
“About?”
“What it’s like. From a woman’s perspective.” My mouth opens and closes again without a single word escaping, and her eyes get mischievous. “I don’t mean the sex; I’m pretty sure you all can figure that part out without help. I mean the rest of it.”
My head feels like it might explode. “So many questions,” I say, “that I can’t articulate any of them.” At least that was polite.
“Ask me too,” Cody says, his fingers capturing a strand of Megan’s hair and toying with it.
For whatever reason, that’s easier to do. I tilt my head between him and his brother. “Was it … difficult?”
“You mean did we fight over her? No.” His gaze intensifies, and if I believed in any of that woo-woo shit I’d think he was looking into my soul. “Brock and I have always been more like one person in two bodies than two completely separate individuals who happen to look alike. You and your brother have a harder path to walk.”
25
One More Piece
Alex
I blink. “We do?”
“You do.” He releases Megan’s hair and leans forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. “Both with each other, and with Zoe.” A pause, and he gives me a deep, wise, knowing look that — again, if I actually believed in all that dippity-doo stuff — might freak me out a little. “You can get there, though.”
“Well. Thanks.” There’s nothing else I can say right now that won’t either sound rude or send me off the deep end, so I hope he’ll take my response at face value.
Megan puts her hand on his thigh and squeezes, and it seems to be some sort of unspoken signal because he pushes to his feet and starts toward the kitchen. I look around to see Zoe coming back from the bathroom, Lucas behind her, and then turn the other way to see that Deke is out of his chair and on a collision course with Zoe.
Before I can think, I’m in between them, my hand inside my jacket to hover near the butt of my gun. Deke’s face goes hard. “Is there a problem?” he says.
“You tell me.” I don’t move, don’t take my eyes from him. This guy is an unknown quantity, and there’s been no chance to find out more about him, let alone do a background check. I know without looking that Lucas has put Zoe behind him and is ready to do whatever’s necessary if the situation escalates.
“They do that,” Cody says mildly into the tense silence. “It’s kind of their thing.”
“It’s kind of our job,” I retort, still watching Deke.
His eyes narrow. “You’re her guards?”
“At the moment.” I’m not sure why it feels so important to qualify that statement, but it does.
Deke examines me a few seconds more, and whatever he sees on my face must satisfy him that it’s nothing personal. He lifts his chin to indicate the area behind me. “I was told the bathroom was over there.”
Bathroom. Right. Where Zoe just came from. Of course he’d be heading that way.
I sense movement behind me, and then Lucas leads Zoe past on the left, keeping his body between her and Tara’s date. I jerk my head to the right to tell Deke he’s clear, and he moves past me without another word. Turning, I watch him go, and though I’m certain he’s aware of my scrutiny, he doesn’t look back. I wait until he’s disappeared down the hallway before I shift my attention.
Brock’s out on the patio adjacent to the living room, visible through the floor-to-ceiling windows, grilling steaks. Megan’s in the kitchen, and Zoe and Tara are standing with Lucas and Cody. “Sorry about that,” I say when I join them. I’m not sorry for doing my job, but it’s the polite thing to say, and I don’t want to make things harder on Zoe than they already are.
But Tara and Cody both shake their heads. “It’s all right,” she says. “I’m glad you’re taking care of her. I’ll explain things to Deke.”
“If it were Megan,” Cody adds, “I’d probably lock her in a tower and no one but me or Brock would be allowed within a country mile. So no arguments here.”
That leaves Zoe. I wait for her to look at me. She gives me that strained smile that was on her face earlier, and I try to tell her with my eyes that it will all be over soon. Lucas and I are close to locking down the situation; we just need one more key piece in place.
26
So Close
Alex
The rest of the evening passes without incident. The steaks are delicious, and so are the veggie and bacon skewers Brock grills along with them. Megan puts a big bowl of crisp green salad on the table to be passed around family style.
The conversation flows easily, despite the fact that some of us have just met. Megan demonstrates a special knack for coaxing Zoe out of her uncharacteristic reserve by telling one outrageous story after another about their escapades growing up together. Tara joins in too, and the three of them keep us men either busting our guts laughing, shaking our heads in disbelief, or groaning at Zoe’s juvenile puns.
“And then Mr. Chalmers said, ‘Miss Kelleher, please summarize the plot of Romeo and Juliet,’” Megan recounts, her eyes sparkling. “And Zoe, right off the top of her head, said, ‘Feuding is dumb, sex is a winner, secretly wed and dead before dinner.’”
We all clap, and Zoe executes a mock bow in her chair. “Thank you, thank you very much. I’ll be here all week.”