That’s not the only reason you came to Lusty, and you know it. Take a deep breath, Alice. You’ve got this.
That was the problem with a conscience. It usually gave a person a little tweak when they needed it but didn’t necessarily want it.
Alice met Bailey’s laughing grin and then sighed. She had a Kendall on either side of her, each of whom was, yes, yummy and luscious. And since something—she wasn’t conceding yet it was her—had hummed when Ian shook her hand and Ken had kissed it, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to sit and have lunch and…and just see what else happened.
What did she have to lose?
* * * *
Ian shared a quick look with Ken, and then he sat on Alice’s right side while Ken took the chair on her left.
Across the table, Bailey Benedict—Ian had met her husbands the day before—sat with a smug kind of grin on her face. He had no idea why she’d gone along so perfectly with their plan, but he was very, very grateful that she had.
Just yesterday he and Ken had spent time with their grandfather, telling him what they’d told no one else. Grandpa had guessed, of course, that one of the reasons they’d come to Lusty was because they were on more than a business quest. They had a personal one in mind, had had for years, and they’d decided it was time to pursue their most sacred shared goal.
They’d decided it was time to look for their wife, the one they planned to share, the one they planned to grow old with.
They’d revealed their dream to Noah Kendall the elder several years before, when they’d first made the move away from family and settled in Colorado. At the time—they were in their early twenties—Grandpa had advised them to think about it long and hard. To be very, very certain that was what they wanted before they took a step that might end up breaking not just some woman’s heart but their own hearts as well.
They hadn’t told their grandfather, of course, that they had done a hell of a lot more than just think and talk about it. It hadn’t been too difficult to find a woman or two who had “threesome” on her bucket list and wanted to test drive a couple of healthy, sex-loving men.
Not that they had been sluts, but they’d needed to know if they were capable of sharing a woman. That was one hurdle they didn’t need to worry about anymore, because those two short relationships had convinced them sharing a wife was most definitely in their future.
Ian wasn’t absolutely sure he understood how genealogy worked, but he figured that even though they weren’t descended from the Adam Kendall who with Warren Jessop and Amanda Dupree had helped to found Lusty, for them, like for Sean and Noah, the need to share a wife was in their blood.
Aunt Bernice brought a tray with four glasses. She served the women their tea, and he and Ken the Cokes they’d ordered. She put the tray under her left arm, pulled her note pad out of her apron with her right hand, then grabbed the pen out of her updo.
“What can I get for you today?”
Ian hadn’t taken a moment to even look at the menu. He did notice that Alice made quick work of popping a pair of reading glasses on and opening up the large booklet and quickly perusing the list. He glanced over and did some scanning of his own. He saw an item that made his mouth water every time he thought of it.
Since Aunt Bernice was looking at him, he nodded. “I’ll have the chicken fried steak, please, Aunt Bernice. Could I have fries with that and gravy only on the meat?”
“Absolutely.”
“I have to have that too,” Alice said. “But with mashed potatoes and lots of gravy.” She closed her menu and grinned. “Every time I read those words, “chicken fried steak,” my mouth waters.”
Ken met his gaze, one eyebrow raised. Yeah, this picture is looking better by the minute. One thing he didn’t need to wonder about was whether or not there was any chemistry between them. He’d felt the touch of Alice’s hand through his entire body. Her scent—and he was pretty sure she wasn’t wearing perfume—had awakened his libido. He was grateful to be sitting and shielding his lower half from view. The entire dining room was spared visual proof that he had a case of the galloping hornys.
“I’ll go with a burger and fries please, Aunt Bernice,” Ken said. “May I have a salad to start? Ranch dressing, please.”
“I’ll have the chicken fried steak, too,” Bailey said. “Y’all started talking about it, and that’s what my taste buds decided they had to have.”
“I’ll have the ranch dressing on my salad too,” Alice said.
“Me, as well.” Ian knew his entrée came with a salad, and that was a good thing. He tried to eat several servings of raw veggies a week.
“The dressing is unanimous,” Bailey said. She efficiently gathered everyone’s menus and handed them over to Aunt Bernice.
Bernice Benedict gave them all a wide smile, as if she was proud of them for something. “Your salads will arrive shortly.”
The woman had no sooner taken a few steps away than Bailey leaned closer. “So, tell us, gentlemen, I know Aunt Bernice said you were single, but I would like to hear it from the horses’ mouths, as it were. So, are either of you married? Engaged? Seeing someone? Are you gainfully employed? Do you have, either of you, any bad or disgusting habits my sister-in-law should know about at the get-go? Any embarrassing secrets? These are the things that inquiring female minds need to know. Now.”
Ian had to use all his willpower not to let his jaw drop. Had he thought his cousin Bailey a sweet little thing for going
