I watch as Jasper takes his place back in front of her and makes sure there isn’t any damage or any infection possible. He tells her how to care for it, even though she seems bored by the rules and lets her pull up her underwear and pants.
“We should probably get dinner,” she finally says, her voice breathy.
She avoids looking at us. I look at Jasper and cock an eyebrow, shaking my head in amusement.
“We ordered, remember?”
She blinks. “Right.” Gracie gets to her feet. “Then, what should we do?”
I take a step toward her. “You came here to get answers, remember? Do you want to ask questions and get vocal answers, or do you want action for them instead?”
Her eyes flicker to Jasper and back to me, biting her bottom lip. The action itself is seductive enough to make me want to grab her waist, pull her to me, and smash our lips together. I hold myself back, though. It has to be consensual; she has to be okay with it.
“You said you’d help me understand multiple partners,” she reminds me.
I nod. “Do you want to sit at the table and talk, or do you want action?”
Again, she looks at Jasper and then back to me, her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. “Can we – do both?”
A grin splashes across my face, and Jasper chuckles.
“Absolutely, kiddo,” Jasper agrees, and I swear Gracie’s blush turns a deeper shade of pink.
“Kiddo?” she half-teases and wiggles her eyebrows at him. “Can you be sure it’s okay to call me that?”
He shrugs and swoops on her, reaching out to grip her chin and tilt her head back to look down into her eyes. “I can assure you that you are younger than me. I know that for a fact. I’m not going to ask you your age. But I will tell you mine.” He grazes the pad of his thumb over her lips and drags down her bottom one momentarily before releasing it. I’m thirty-four.”
“No way,” Gracie snorts but doesn’t move. “You don’t look thirty-four.”
Jasper laughs, deep and guttural, and sets me at ease. I love hearing his laugh, but when Gracie joins in with her giggles, something else flutters inside. I want to hear it again. I want to make her laugh and see her smile. I want to make her happy.
Fuck. I’m not supposed to be doing this. I had promised myself going into this that I wouldn’t allow myself to get attached. She belongs to other men. Three, if I remember correctly. She can’t belong to Jasper and me too. Can she?
“Well, thank you, Gracie. Luke also doesn’t look like he’s thirty-one, does he?”
Her eyebrows shot up high, and Gracie looks right at me incredulously. “Thirty-one?”
I shrug and wave my hand over my face. “What can I say? I’ve got a boyish charm,” I joke.
Gracie laughs, and it's music to my ears. I have to make her do it again. “I like older.”
A rapping on the door interrupts us, and I excuse myself to go and answer the door. Our bags are right there on the porch, and I take a moment to watch as the driver pulls away. As they do so, I focus on the car sitting outside the house. The passenger window is down and gives a view to Adrianna. She’s turned to the driver, their lips smashed together, her arms up, and no doubt her fingers dug into his hair.
Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I snap a picture of the two of them, zoom in to get as close as possible, and take another.
Yes, it’s the three of us: Jasper, Adrianna, and me. We are in a relationship. However, that doesn’t mean we’re open to any of us flitting about with anyone outside of our relationship. We can talk about it, see where it goes. But hiding it? That’s just downright cheating. I called it. I knew she was cheating on us. I was just pretty sure it was with her fucking agent. Then again, it still could be.
As I close the door, I realize that even in the pictures I took, I can’t define who the person she’s making out with is. It could be her agent, but it could be someone else. Maybe she’s two-timing that poor bastard too.
I carry the food to the kitchen and set it up on the bar. Jasper and Gracie join moments after, and he pulls out her barstool for her. As Gracie sits down, I pop open her to-go container and eye it.
“What the hell did you get her?” Jasper asks, unsure of what we’re looking at.
But Gracie’s face lights up. “Green Curry Buddha Bowl,” she announces and claps her hands excitedly, bouncing in her seat. “Thank you!”
I smile at her happiness and open a tea in a to-go cup, pushing it to her. I hand Jasper his spaghetti and Coke and take my sloppy joes and Coke. I sit across from the two, taking my sweet ass time with eating as I watch her. Apparently, I’m not the only one. Jasper’s dawdling, too, and he fucking loves pasta.
After about fifteen minutes, I put down my fork with an almost half-eaten container and pick up my phone, opening up my photos.