That broke everyone up, and Alice mentally sighed in relief. She thought she’d dodged a bullet. Now, likely, the talk would move on to Ari’s pregnancy, and when she was due and whether or not any names had been chosen. That was female human nature, and it was a truly grand thing.
“So, about that proposition?” Tasha asked.
She should have known none of these women were going to let anything go. “It wasn’t an indecent one!” Alice laughed. She couldn’t remember the last time she was with so many women and had such fun.
“Well if it wasn’t, you can likely make it so,” Tasha said. “If you want to.”
“I’m not sure yet how I feel about that.” Alice let herself go there mentally and, of course, felt her cheeks heat.
Amid the snickers and winks, Bailey explained how they’d met the newly arrived Kendalls, who’d had eyes only for Alice.
“There seemed to be a fair bit of simpatico happening between Alice and the guys,” Bailey said. “On the surface, their offer sounded like an honest effort on their part to get to know her, and she them.”
“They offer to pay you for your time there, Alice?” Ginger asked.
“No!” Alice’s eyes widened at the suggestion.
“Good,” the red-haired esthetician said. “That’s good, then.”
“Anyone who knew me when I first arrived here would be surprised by this suggestion,” Ari said. “But I say, go with your instincts. If you kind of like them and do want to get to know them better, I say, go for it. If you feel unease in their presence, then don’t. Listen to your instincts.”
“That’s part of the problem. My instincts are arguing amongst themselves. I can tell you that it’s not unease I feel,” Alice said. “It’s a combination of nerves and excitement. Apprehension sprinkled with a sense of really being alive. Hot…and cold. Having a Zen moment of this was what I’ve been waiting for, and the fear that, recently admitting to myself that this is something I want—a relationship with two men—the attraction is for the situation and not the men themselves.”
“That,” Tasha said, “all sounds perfectly logical and totally self-aware to me. It also sounds like a ‘yes.’”
Having heard her own voice as she put her feelings into words, Alice thought so too.
She hadn’t intended to say anything to Chase and Logan when she got home after the spa, but as it turned out, she didn’t have to. Somehow, by the time she and Bailey arrived back at the house, her brothers had already heard about Alice’s encounter with Ian and Ken Kendall, and they had their own idea on how the situation should proceed.
And that was why, the next day, Alice was sitting at the dining room table at her brothers and Bailey’s house, with laptops and maps and two still way-too-attractive for her own good Kendalls, sitting one on either side of her.
Bailey had left for the roadhouse and work, but Chance and Logan were in their home office, just down the hall, working—with the door open, of course.
Alice was almost one hundred percent certain they insisted on this arrangement as a form of teasing her as opposed to their actually being leery of the Kendalls. Note to self. Corner those two buttinskies later and give them a piece of my mind.
She had felt reasonably certain that this was a course of action she wanted to pursue, but her brothers’ annoying move had just thrown her back into the land of confusion.
* * * *
It didn’t bother Ken, or his cousin Ian that their first “planning session slash date” with Alice Benedict took place at her brothers’ house or that they were present in said house, if down the hall in their home office. In this case, out of sight did not equal out of mind.
He and Ian had talked yesterday, once Alice had headed off to the spa. It was a conversation that had continued on into the evening as they’d made themselves comfortable with their cousins’ built-in home theatre system. One of the things they’d heard about Lusty was that she tended to take care of her own.
It had taken no time whatsoever to discover that Alice belonged to Lusty, even if she was a recent arrival.
When Alice had called that morning, and said yes, and then awkwardly and adoringly explained that her brothers wanted her to meet with them at their house for their planning session, Ken had immediately agreed and assured her that was perfectly fine.
So yes, they understood the protectiveness, and they also understood the ways of men. With the second in mind, they stopped at the restaurant on their way out and purchased a box of cream puffs—some for the three of them, of course, and some for Chance and Logan, too.
Once they sat down at the dining room table with Alice, her brothers were forgotten. There was just this—spending time with her, engaging her in the planning of the future of their business, getting to know her and how her mind worked, and relishing having her between them.
Nothing has ever felt this right. Ken looked over at Ian and knew his cousin felt the exact same way.
“What sort of excursions are you thinking of including in your tour packages?” Alice asked.
“That will be a part of what we do here together,” Ken said. “Choosing the excursions. It’s March, so most of the ones we’ll be considering should be available for us to visit now—even if some of them are only open on the weekends. So our first task will be to make a list of the different attractions offered in the area.”
“What are you using as your guideline, distance-wise?”
“First, we’d like everything initially to be within two hours of Waco. But beyond that, the guidelines are another thing we can decide,” Ian said. “The last time, we were younger and had our sights set more toward the ‘extreme tourist.’ We had mountain climbing—hard not to when you’re in the Rockies—white-water rafting, things that
