Cam sat on the sofa. It was obvious dinner was fast food, and I’d brought nothing better to offer them. He held a burger in front of his face and his mouth was wide open, stalling out right before taking a bite. “Grace,” he said, putting the burger down. He wiped his hands off with a napkin and stood up. “I didn’t think I’d—we’d see you again until the weekend.”
“I decided I couldn’t wait,” I said as I gestured to the bag of tacos. “I figured I would come by and see if you guys were hungry.”
Adam didn’t wait for me. He went and sat down at the spread he had created for himself on the coffee table. “I could eat a taco or two,” he said as he picked up a styrofoam cup. He took a pointed sip as he eyed me. “Afterward, if you’re wanting to do anything, it’d probably be a bad idea.”
“Eh,” I dropped my bag of tacos on the coffee table. “Stayed home yesterday. I was tired, but it felt like I was missing something.” I went into the kitchen to steal a bottle of water from their fridge. I went back into the living room, meeting Cam’s gaze. He looked uncertain, but if we were just gonna hang out and eat, it seemed like the best time to do an interrogation. “You don’t mind if I come over for dinner, do you?”
“No,” Cam said as he sat back down.
“Nah,” Adam said flippantly. “I mean, you’ve stayed the night a few times with little notice. The only person who usuallyscrews up is you. Unless you brought a change of clothes?” He leaned forward over the table as he grabbed a handful of french fries. “Are you gonna stay tonight?”
“I didn’t plan on it,” I admitted as I dug a taco out. “Had a wild hair to do this, though I guess I should just pack up a bag with a change of clothes for something like this. That way, we could have fun, assuming dinner isn’t sketchy.”
“Sometimes the sketchy dinner is the best,” Adam said, before picking up his burger to take a messy bite of it. “It’s just the aftermath you have to worry about.” He paused and looked at me. “We only have one bathroom, so it’s probably a bad idea for everyone to eat your tacos.”
I paused after biting into the taco I held. The cheesy meat dribbled out of the side of the crunchy shell into the wrapper that was on the table. I hadn’t thought of that. I’d just seen the taco place after the Uber dropped me off and ran over to it without thinking about what it would eventually do to my stomach. “Mistakes have been made.”
Cam snorted. “It’ll be fine. If you decide you don’t want to stay, I’ll take you home.”
There was Cam with a solution. It just didn’t help me with the reason I was even here. “I appreciate it. I might take you up on the offer, but I think I might get you to take me home so I can get a change of clothes.”
“This doesn’t count as a date,” Adam said as he chewed. “I’ve had women tell me that a date requires thought and planning. Randomly showing up at my door with food is fine. Whether sex is involved is okay,” he said easily, taking a sip of his drink. “But I’m gonna make you make me feel special.”
I finished my first taco and considered the drawbacks to having another. “What’ll make you feel special?” I asked. “You want to take a long walk on the beach?” I asked. “Some special lingerie?”
“I want you to wear special lingerie for me,” Cam interjected. He put a hand on Adam’s shoulder. “I don’t care if he’s involved or not. But if you take me out and bring me home in something lacy, I wouldn’t have anything to complain about.”
“I took you to an expensive restaurant,” Adam reminded me.
“You did,” I said, nodding. “I’m assuming you want me to do that for you?”
Adam took his time answering me. He watched me with a speculative expression. He finished his burger and dug into his fries again. “The last time it was the three of us, we mentioned taking things to the next level. I think we should entertain that the next time we’re together.”
“No,” Cam said. He cleaned up the remnants of his meal. “We’re not taking the risk of something happening with that.”
“I’m clean, you’re clean,” Adam pointed out. “She’s good. Darius is too.” He shrugged. “Why not? She’s taking the steps to protect herself.” He leaned closer to the other man. “Imagine how good it would feel to slide into her without a rubber.”
“I’m not ready to be a dad,” Cam said as he turned on the couch. “I know you aren’t either. The one way to keep that from happening is to take every measure possible.” He eyed the other man. “As much fun as I have with Grace, as much as I care about her, I don’t want to take a risk or leave her with the burden of being the only one that’s responsible.”
“What are you getting at, man?” Adam asked, his confusion evident.
“Why do you want to stop using protection?” Cam asked irritably. “Unless you are trying to knock her up.” He was getting right to the head of the issue Shay had brought up, something I hadn’t planned on asking directly. Cam narrowed his eyes at Adam. “Are you?”
Adam spluttered immediately. “What the hell, man?” He shook his head vehemently. “No! I just thought it was somethingwe could do. Just sex, no intention of getting Grace pregnant. I figured with her being on birth control, it would be enough for us to take that extra bit off. Make it so we could get closer.” He put his hands up. They quaked a little. “I don’t want kids. I’m not gonna do the dumbass thing and try to purposely get someone pregnant. I can only imagine how that would go.” He looked at me. “Not only would your brother beat my ass, your dad would, too.”
Cameron looked at me. “Does that satisfy you?”
“What?” Adam barked, looking between the two of us.
“I mean that quiets one fear,” I admitted. “But not the other.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Adam demanded, standing up. “Are you both in on something? Trying to sabotage shit?”
“No,” I spoke up. I stayed on the floor, but decided I wasn’t hungry anymore. “I’m sorry,” I said without looking at him. “I had a conversation with Kyle the other day. He put the thought in my head that you guys were just stringing this along so you could eventually pull something as revenge for what I’ve done to you.” I took a breath and released it slowly. “I shouldn’t have let it get to me, but I couldn’t shake the idea. I mean, you’re entitled to it. Out of the three of you, you got the worst of the consequences.”
“Shay and Grace got to me yesterday,” Cameron told him quietly. “I tried to tell her I was sure you weren’t plotting against her, but I guess she didn’t believe me.”
Adam ran both hands through his hair, glaring down at me. “I wouldn’t get you pregnant on purpose just to get back at you for getting me fired.” He rotated a shoulder. “Like I said, I don’t want kids. I don’t want to get stuck paying child support for eighteen years, and I’m pretty positive if I arranged something like that to happen, all this would be fucked.” He tilted his head as he looked down at me. “I knew what I was getting into themoment I met you at the restaurant. I hated working at the dealership. It was a risk I took. I blamed you in the beginning and I shot myself in the foot by taking it out on you. I’m not gonna try some shit again.”