Teasing.
When she lifted her hand from him again, he looked down and to the right to discover her right hand on Ken’s thigh.
The little minx.
“So, Alice? I do have a concern.” Adam sounded serious. Ian braced, because he knew that tone, that conversational gambit. “While you’re going to be, basically, an employee of Edgers, are these parsimonious cousins of ours paying you for your time?”
Alice looked at Ian. She held his gaze and raised one eyebrow. Then she turned and looked at Ken.
Finally, she turned her attention to Adam. “I’m not sure I know how to answer that question in a way that would leave everyone’s dignity intact. So, I’ll just ask you to pass the green beans, please, Adam.”
“Well, boys, y’all gave it a good shot.” Preston Kendall lifted his glass and saluted his sons and his New York nephews. “And at every turn, your attempts at wooing Alice into throwing the lads under the proverbial bus have failed. And by my reckoning, I would also have to say that you didn’t land a solid zinger. Y’all aren’t as young, or as fast, as you used to be.”
Uncle Preston shook his head as if that was the most heartbreaking fact, ever.
“Maybe they all need to spend a month or two in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado,” Alice said. And she continued to eat as if she’d commented on the weather.
Not only did everyone laugh but his cousins all applauded her well-thought-out and perfectly delivered riposte.
The men pitched in, clearing the table, and he and Ken took part in that tradition. He watched Alice as she watched them, and then he looked at his cousin.
“I think we need to re-think our timing,” he said.
Ken nodded. They stayed for coffee and some of Taylor’s exceptional pecan pie. And then those with children began to bundle the little ones up. That was their cue, and they, too, said good night to the family. Ian couldn’t hold back his smile as his aunts, uncles, and grandfather all hugged Alice.
Then they were walking her to the truck. He stopped before opening the door for her. “What’s on your agenda for tomorrow?” Ian asked her.
“Nothing much. Why?”
“I was wondering if you’d like to come back to our cousin’s place with us tonight?”
“For?”
The way she asked that and the look she gave him—that she gave them both, because she included Ken in that look—told him all he needed to know.
“For breakfast,” he said.
“It’s about damn time.” She looked down the front of his body and damned if his cock didn’t respond to her perusal. Her smirk said it all. Then she treated his cousin to that same sex-kitten look, and Ken’s body was as reactive as his own.
“Yeah,” Ken said. “It is about damn time.”
Chapter Seven
Alice felt the vibration of her cell phone just as Ian parked his truck in the driveway. She’d sent a quick text to Bailey to let her know she wouldn’t be home that night. Her sister-in-law’s “thumbs-up” and “saucy wink” emojis response put a smile on her face.
“Something funny?” Ken asked.
She showed him her phone, and he chuckled. “Well, at least she approves. Not sure how your brothers feel on the subject.”
“That’s not something any of us should worry about, because they don’t have the right to say anything to either of you, or to me.”
“We might have to disagree there, baby girl, because we’re both of us brothers to a sister. But we’re not worried about their response,” Ian said. “We simply don’t want to make life difficult for you.”
Alice met each man’s gaze in turn. She really didn’t know if her brothers had spoken to Ian and Ken, or not. She now understood that she likely would have to speak to them, because at the age of twenty-four, she was certainly entitled to make her own decisions and to enter into an adult relationship, if she wanted to.
And man, do I ever want to.
She’d seen the pretty stone-and-glass house Sean and Noah Kendall had built for their Brittany, although she’d never been inside it. The building sprawled, because they’d made it one level.
“Is this going to be home for them? I know all of you are considered ‘nomads.’ I’d heard that Sean and Noah especially liked to roam.”
“It is, actually, their main, permanent residence,” Ken said. He held Alice’s left hand while Ian took her right. “They would travel, seeking out new opportunities to prospect, but told us our first night here that the wanderlust that used to push them is gone. That now they understood they’d been wandering all that time looking for Brittany.”
“That’s so romantic.”
“Kendalls can be very romantic men,” Ian said. He stopped at the door and unlocked it—using a key—and then stopped again inside to enter a security code.
“Sean said that mostly they want, between their prospecting excursions, to be able to relax in a place where family lives. And where they can enjoy being a triad without worrying about exposing their wife to derision.” Ian stopped in the great room, which was just beyond the entranceway.
Alice was put in mind of an old game show, because from the great room there were three archways, leading in three separate directions—left, right, and straight ahead. I’ll take door number three, please. Ian nodded to the corridor heading straight toward the back of the house. “The kitchen, dining room, library, and office are down that way.” He nodded to the right. “That’s the master suite wing.” Then he began to lead her toward the left.
“Guest rooms?”
“The rest of the bedrooms, yes. Three smaller bedrooms and a guest master suite. They anticipated a couple of their cousins, or other friends, who might like to come and visit, who might also be in triads.”
“Oh.” She’d had absolutely no idea what to expect as they’d driven her here. She hadn’t particularly cared, as long as there was privacy and a bed. She had hoped not to sleep in another woman’s bed, and thinking she might have to had made her
