“Yeah, I won’t lie. She basically sucker-punched me the second I walked in. Kinda hurt my feelings.”
My mind went to Henry and how delicate he could be. He was a gentle kid, and he got run over all the time, not just by the twins. Birdie could rub off on him a little and I wouldn’t mind. Just enough so he could fight for himself. He hadn’t been the same since his mom died. Neither of us had. Henry had taken it all in silently, turning into himself instead of leaning on me for support. It killed me. I’d watched him watching Winnie, though. She was so sweet and gentle that he seemed taken by her.
It should’ve scared me that I was thinking about my son and a woman in the same sentence, but my heart rate didn’t increase in the slightest. Winnie was disarming. She appeared so harmless, even as she was innocently peeking over the walls I’d erected over the years.
“Jack?”
I realized both Sawyer and Beck were staring at me and sat up. “There’s just something different about her,” I agreed.
Beck chuckled and nodded. “I knew it the minute she showed up here. As sweet as a kitten, with the wild side of a fucking tiger.”
“For us.” Sawyer clarified quickly. “She has that wild side for us. Which just makes it fucking hotter.”
I was about to suggest heading up to the bar so I could nurse a whiskey when the sound of footsteps approaching caught my attention. Like the first time, the footsteps were rushed and almost clumsy, giving away that it was Winnie before her figure appeared in the doorway.
She was wearing a white dress that hugged her figure and dipped low into her cleavage. In true Winnie fashion, it had yellow daisies all over it. It went down to her knees and might’ve been considered innocent if I didn’t know what she normally wore. Instead of the loose, gauzy dresses she normally hid inside, the white dress showed her off. Her hair was in big curls around her shoulders, and she had red lipstick on.
It was the red lips that really did me in. I might’ve been able to keep myself together if her lips didn’t look like fresh fucking strawberries, begging to be tasted. The shininess of them had me out of my seat because I needed to know how they’d feel. Sweet, innocent Winnie brought me to my knees. Red-lipped Winnie blew my fucking head off.
By the silence in the room, I figured Sawyer and Beck were having about the same reaction I was. Winnie shyly smiled and leaned against the doorway, making her curves even more exaggerated.
“Hi.”
The three of us were an embarrassing display of erection-fueled stupidity as we stumbled over each other to greet her back. We sounded like morons, but no one with eyes would blame us.
“I know that it’s last-minute, and I’m interrupting Single Dad’s Club, but I bought beer for Gabe and then he went on a diet that doesn’t allow beer, so I just have a case of it at my house…” She looked down at her yellow flats and then up at us through her thick eyelashes. “Birdie is at my mom’s house for the night. If you wanted to come over to have a beer, it would just be us there.”
I bit my knuckles to keep from doing or saying anything that would scare her off. I’d been propositioned before, but never in such an innocent way by a woman who looked like Winnie Lane. It was like every fantasy I’d ever had was coming true, only I was sharing it with my two best friends. Weird, but I was warming up to the idea quickly as we all followed behind Winnie like lost puppies.
32
Winnie
Sawyerrodewithmein Big Ham back to my house while Jack and Beck drove their own trucks. There’d been an argument about who would ride with me, but as soon as they saw me watching them, they’d disbanded and acted like it hadn’t been happening.
There was an eagerness to them that I hadn’t expected when I made the decision to show up at their meeting. It hadn’t taken me very long to come to the decision that my previous decision to stay away from them was an impossible one. My body lit up like a firework when they were anywhere near me and I didn’t want to walk away from that. Not yet. Not until I had to. I was still waiting on them to snap to their senses, but the way they’d looked at me when I showed up had nearly lit the building on fire. There’d been no chance for my panties.
Handling Big Ham on a good day was a challenge, with his lack of power steering, but with my hands shaky from what I was doing, it was almost impossible. It was like all my strength was being channeled into not ripping my dress off and begging for one of them to touch me. By the time I pulled out of the church parking lot, it was obvious I wasn’t handling the truck very well.
I looked over at Sawyer, who managed to look both turned on and terrified somehow. “This is embarrassing.”
He patted the dashboard gently, almost like he was afraid something might fall off. “Nah. The truck’s got character.”
I pulled over and bit my lip. “Would you drive? I’m a little nervous, and I feel like I’m going to drive us into a ditch.”
He leaned over and rubbed my cheek. “Only if you ride in the middle.”
I scooted into the middle. Sawyer got out and went back to tell Jack and Beck that everything was fine. When he climbed into the driver’s seat, ethe weirdest feeling washed over me. He looked so natural behind the wheel, and when he smiled over at me, his smile was so kind and fond that it reminded me of my dad doing the same. My brain immediately tried to make unhealthy links, noting all the ways that Sawyer was similar to my dad, but I stopped that line of thought. Sawyer wasn’t going to be the man who filled my father’s shoes. He was a man I was sleeping with until I couldn’t anymore.
He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and managed to handle steering Big Ham with one hand. “I see the appeal of the truck now. This is nice.”
I leaned into his side and forced all the inconvenient thoughts out of my head. It wasn’t time for those. I’d made the decision to go to the three of them, and I was going to take what I wanted, at least for the night. Or until I had to walk away.
“You’re beautiful, Win. This dress is something else.” Sawyer’s fingers stroked my shoulder and his thigh pressed into mine as he shifted. “I’m glad you came tonight.”
“I spent almost two hours debating with myself. I almost chickened out.” I rested my hand on his thigh and looked up at him. “I’m glad I didn’t, though.”
He glanced down at my hand and tightened his arm around me. “I’ve been doing my best to play it cool, but I’ve been going a little crazy knowing that Jack and Beck have gotten to touch you while I haven’t.”