When he’d calmed down enough to speak, Tonio said, “It’s Magic Mike, not Magic Marker.”
Oh yeah. “And these aren’t our stripper names,” Austin said, still laughing. “I’m named for our dad’s hometown of Austin, Texas.”
“And I’m named for our mom’s hometown of Denver, Colorado.”
“Okay, that makes sense,” I said earnestly, and they laughed again.
“Whose turn is it to ask a question?” Austin asked.
“I think it’s mine,” I said, and the guys all started laughing again. I had no idea why, but that didn’t stop me from laughing right along with them. If every Sunday evening was going to be this much fun, I hoped they’d never get the internet upgraded.
9
Austin
“Gentlemen, do we have a problem?”
The guys all looked at me with blank faces. It was late and they were tired, but I’d asked them to stick around the club after our shifts ended.
“About Emma,” I elaborated, and understanding replaced the looks of confusion.
“No,” Denver said.
“I think it might be more accurate to say, not yet,” Tonio corrected.
“Do you think we’re headed that way?” My brother looked up at me.
I leaned against the bar and spread my hands out to the side. “Maybe. I’ve seen how you all look at her.”
“Yourself included.” Tonio’s voice had a little heat in it. Maybe it wasn’t smart to do this after a long evening at the club, but it wasn’t like we could discuss it where Emma might overhear.
“Myself included,” I acknowledged.
Tonio let out a barely audible sigh. “We’ve shared women before.” That was true. Tonio, Denver, and I had done that starting just after high school. Since moving in together, Knox had joined in a few times as well.
“But that was with women who were into that sort of thing,” Denver replied. “Women who sought us out because of it. Somehow, I don’t think Emma fits into that category.”
They all looked over at me. It was assumed among us that if you wanted to understand what a woman was thinking, you consulted Denver. If you wanted to know the woman’s comfort and familiarity with sex, well, now, that was something I usually had a good sense of. “I think we can all agree that she’s pretty inexperienced. In fact, I’d bet money that that asshole of an ex-fiancé of hers is the only man she’s been with. Anyone disagree?”
No one did.
“Therefore, I doubt that dating more than one man at a time is an option she’s ever considered.”
“Or even knows about, perhaps,” Tonio said.
I knew without looking at him that Denver was concerned. “Whatever we do, we can’t pressure her,” he said. “She’s just getting over a breakup.”
“She doesn’t seem that broken up over it,” Tonio said.
Knox stiffened, shooting Tonio a nasty look.
I did too.
“I don’t mean that as a reflection of her but of him,” Tonio said hastily. “We all know he was an ass, but you know how girls are. They usually don’t see it even when someone treats them as badly as that jerk did Emma. But I get the feeling that since he dumped her, she’s come to the realization that she shouldn’t have been with him in the first place.”
The others nodded, and my anger faded. “I can’t believe no other guys paid her attention. They can’t be that backwards in that town she lived in.”
“So why was she with him?” Denver mused out loud.
Uncharacteristically, Knox spoke up. “She doesn’t have a family.”
“But I thought her grandmother raised her. She’s still alive, right?”
“As far as I know,” Denver said.
“That’s not the same as having a family,” Knox replied.
Vaguely, I remembered him saying once that he’d been a foster kid, so I supposed he ought to know about it.
“So you’re saying that she was planning to marry him so she’d have a family of her own?” Denver asked.
“What, like with kids?” Tonio asked.
“Maybe,” Denver shrugged. “Or it could be that she was just looking for a sense of belonging. If the grandmother wasn’t very loving, maybe she never had that.”
“She didn’t,” Knox said gruffly.
Denver, Tonio, and I exchanged looks. Knox hadn’t, either.
“Okay, so, it’s agreed, we won’t do anything to pressure her.”
“And if she chooses just one of us, we all have to be good with that.” Denver looked each of us in the eye as he said that. We all nodded. “I’m serious. If that’s what she wants, that’s what she gets.”
We were quiet for a moment before Tonio spoke up. “But what if it’s like Austin said and she’s so inexperienced that she doesn’t even realize that being with more than one of us is an option?
“Shit. It’s like a catch-22,” I said. “If we all keep flirting with her, she might get some clue.”
“Not necessarily. She may still think she has to choose one of us, so she’ll end up choosing none of us to avoid hurting our feelings.” To my mind, Denver was right on the money, as usual.