The sky was only just starting to brighten the room when Fiona felt something tapping the bottom of her foot.

She blinked, trying to make the room come into focus. That was when she felt the first twinges of some serious stiffness. Sleeping on the floor sucked.

What didn’t suck was waking up naked between two super-hot guys.

That was when she felt the tap on her foot again—and she realized Teddy was standing in her room, looking down at them.

She tugged the blanket higher, concealing her nakedness.

Teddy jerked his head toward the living room.

She nodded, then waited as he left the room before carefully shimmying out of their makeshift nest. It wasn’t that hard, really. Owen had rolled over, his back to her.

All she had to do was gently move Asher’s hand from her stomach and push herself up and out. She tiptoed to the hook on the back of her bedroom door and grabbed her terry cloth robe, shrugging it on before heading to the living room.

A glance at the clock told her it was six a.m. She, Owen and Asher had turned off the light and gone to sleep shortly after three thirty.

Teddy was standing by the coffee table. The room was wrecked, which only drove home how badly she wanted to crawl back into the nest she’d just left and sleep for the next four days.

“What the hell, Teddy? How did you get in here?”

“Riley was already in the kitchen, cooking for the breakfast shift, so she let me in the back door. I couldn’t sleep.”

“That’s fascinating. I could. I was.”

“So?”

“So?” she asked. “Please tell me you didn’t walk over here predawn, just to wake me up to get the details of my night.”

“There are details?”

Fiona blew out a long, frustrated breath. She’d been friends with Teddy long enough to know he wouldn’t leave until she gave him what he wanted.

Then she realized he was here because he knew her too. Knew she would need a chance to debrief, to discuss what had happened. Sometimes it felt as if the two of them shared some sort of mental connection, like twins, where one of them always knew when the other was hurting or needed to talk.

“We didn’t have sex.” She felt like that was the most important detail.

“But?” he prompted.

“We did a hell of a lot else.”

“And?”

“And it was amazing, but…”

“But?”

“Dammit, Teddy. I’ve had too much to drink this week and precious little sleep. Please don’t ask me for answers. I don’t have any.”

“Yeah. I can see that. So, let’s start small. What’s ‘a hell of a lot else’?” he asked after a brief pause.

“Seriously?”

“Maybe you’ll figure out the big stuff if you analyze the good stuff.”

“I’m not going into details.”

“Give me one detail then. One juicy one.”

Fiona was frustrated by the whole conversation. When Teddy didn’t say anything else, she raised her hand and waved it around, clueless to what he might want to hear. “Like what?”

“How far did you go with Asher?”

Fiona wasn’t sure how to answer that. She’d always thought Teddy’s teasing about Asher turning gay was just that—a joke. If she found out that Teddy was in love with Asher, she’d move to fucking China. This triangle was already a hot mess. She wasn’t looking to turn it into a square.

“Why?”

“Did he take off his clothes?”

Fiona took the bait. “Just his shirt.”

“Did your hand linger below the waist?”

She shook her head. “No. We took sex off the table pretty early on. Instead, they just touched and kissed me and…” Made me come so hard I thought my head was going to pop off.

“Wow. That’s some blush. And you didn’t even get a gander at the good stuff.”

“What am I missing?”

Teddy plopped down on the couch with a chuckle. “You already know.”

She sat next to him, shaking her head. “No, I don’t.”

Teddy tilted his head. “Biggus Dickus.”

On their list of long-running jokes, Biggus Dickus ranked right up there with Teddy trying to convert Asher to homosexuality. “That’s a joke.”

“All jokes are based in reality.”

It was something they said all the time. Because of that, she’d always sort of wondered…okay…fantasized about Asher’s dick. Curious to see it. To feel it.

Too many times they’d find the humor in something that was very real and probably not funny, but they were all firm believers that if you didn’t laugh, you’d cry.

“Asher’s packing some serious heat.”

She grinned. “That doesn’t sound like a bad thing. What are we talking about here? Inches? Girth?”

“Both. Why do you think I keep trying to bring him over to my team? It’s pretty fucking impressive. Sort of a challenge, you know?”

Fiona closed her eyes, rubbing her temple. She threw her legs over Teddy’s lap and he pulled her closer. Teddy was the greatest hugger in the world, and right now, she needed one. She was feeling confused and stressed.

“Did you seriously come over here to talk about Asher’s dick?”

Teddy shook his head. “No. I’ve been lying in that damn bed for hours wondering what was going on with the three of you, and finally I just gave in and came over to see.”

“You don’t approve of this, do you?”

“It’s not my place to say.”

Fiona wasn’t sure she agreed with that. Last night might have been a threesome, but after so many years of close friendship, of functioning as a unit of four, she sort of thought Teddy did deserve some say. Because what happened next didn’t just affect her, Owen, and Asher, it impacted Teddy’s life as well.

“Say it anyway,” she urged.

“It’s not a case of approval. I’m not sure it will work. Too many factors at play and none of you has access to the whole picture. You’re all looking at each other through foggy glass.”

Fiona didn’t have a clue what that meant. “I hate this feeling, Teddy. I’ve always been this ‘see what you want and go get it’ girl. And I nail it…in every aspect of life. Except romance. The second my heart becomes engaged, I fuck everything up.”

“Maybe you fuck it up because of that personality trait. You know what you want from a relationship, Fee. You always have. You just approach it the wrong way, trying to twist the man into your image of true love instead of finding the person who falls into that role naturally.”

She hadn’t considered that. “Owen and Asher…” She didn’t know how to finish the sentence the second she started it.

“You in love with both of them?” he asked. “Does it feel like something the three of you could make a run at?”

“Honestly?” She shook her head. “No.”

Her response didn’t just take Teddy by surprise, but her too. “Wait. What? Seriously?”

“I wanted to try because it seemed like the easy answer.”

Teddy chuckled. “You realize that’s a ridiculous outlook, right? I mean, who approaches the problem of which guy to date with the thought, ‘Oooo…ménage. That’ll be easy.’”

She rolled her eyes. “My family.”

“Fuck. Yeah. Point to you.”

“What am I going to do, Teddy?”

“Pick the right one.”

She put her head back on his shoulder but didn’t respond.

“You know who you want, don’t you?”

She nodded.

“Want to give me a hint?”

Fiona lifted her head. “I can’t. I need to talk to—” She paused, stopping short of saying the name. “Do you think this is going to ruin things? Mess up the friendship?”

Teddy considered that, then shrugged. “I don’t know, Fee. I hope not.”

* * *

The second time Fiona woke up, she rolled over, stretched, and glanced at the clock. It was almost noon. She and Teddy had hung out on the couch for nearly an hour, talking very little, both lost in their thoughts. When she started to drift off, Teddy shook her, told her to go back to her room and then left, heading back to the hotel. The dark circles under his eyes proved he hadn’t lied about struggling to sleep. She hoped he’d managed to grab some after he left.

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Asher still sound asleep on the floor next to her. Her body ached. After Teddy left, she’d been tempted to crawl into the bed, but that didn’t seem fair to the guys. Next time, they were pushing the beds together.

Her heart clenched. Once she told them her feelings, there wouldn’t be a next time.

That was when she realized Owen was missing.

She sat up slowly, careful not to wake Asher. Pulling on her robe once more, she knotted the tie around her waist and went in search of Owen.

He was sitting alone on the couch texting someone, fully dressed and clearly waiting for them to wake up.

“Hey, you,” she said, joining him.

Owen smiled, reaching out to take one of her hands in his. “Hey, yourself. Feeling okay this morning?”

“Stiff. Sleeping on the floor is for teenagers.”

“You can say that again.”

“What are you doing out here all by yourself? You should have woken me up.”

Owen sighed. “You both looked too peaceful.”

Fiona struggled for what to say next. For someone who made a living with words, they were failing her here. Owen seemed to be suffering the same loss.

“So,” he said at last. “Asher was a surprise.”

She grabbed the subject and ran with it. “I know. Who the hell was that guy? He’s so easygoing and friendly most of the time. Then you put him in bed and boom, he pulls out that gruff, deep, sexy voice.”

“Yeah. He was…wow. No offense,” he hastened to add. “I mean obviously I was mainly focused on you.”

She laughed. “No offense taken. Believe me.”

“Fee, I—”

“Owen, listen—”

They both stopped short when they spoke at the same time.

“You go ahead,” she said, cowardly trying to put off saying what needed to be said.

“I got the audition.”

Thoughts of the previous night flew out of her head. “Oh my God! That’s incredible!” She wrapped her arms around him, offering a congratulatory embrace.

Owen had read a script several weeks earlier that had knocked his socks off. The role, a serious Denzel Washington-type part, would propel him out of sitcom land and into major motion picture superstardom. There were several huge names up for the role, but that hadn’t stopped Owen from begging his manager to get him an audition. When they’d heard—through the Hollywood rumor mill—that auditions had already taken place, they’d figured he’d been knocked out of contention before even getting his shot.

“It’s tomorrow.”

“Oh. Shit. Wow. That’s soon.” Fiona tried to wrap her head around his bombshell.

“I know. The timing sucks. My manager just texted, said the casting director hadn’t found anyone who felt like a good match.”

“You have to go.” She knew what this meant to Owen.

“Fee. How can I? We have the script to finish, and after last night…I feel like we need to…”

She shook her head. “Asher, Teddy and I can finish the script. It’ll be easier without you there, encouraging us to succumb to happy hours and such.”

He laughed at her joke but didn’t bother to correct her. “Teddy’s usually the bigger distraction.”

“True.”

“Which leads me to the next thing.”

Fiona sighed. “There’s more?”

“When I told Teddy about the audition, he insisted on flying back with me. There’s a flight out of BWI in a few hours, and my manager has already sent the script to my place. Teddy said he’d run lines with me all night if necessary. Then I’ll audition tomorrow night and fly back here the next day. We’d be gone less than forty-eight hours. I swear.”

“Asher and I can make the tweaks. You go get that part. The rest can wait until you get back. We’ll put everything else on hold.”

Owen considered that, then shook his head, his expression serious. “No. Don’t wait for me.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I think you and Asher should take the next couple of days to…” He appeared to struggle for the words. “I think the two of you should sleep together. Without me there. I mean…you and I have already done the deed. We know what things are like between us. Maybe you and Asher should take some time to see how you fit together. It might make it easier to put the pieces together when I get back.”

Fiona liked that idea. More than she cared to admit. And she felt guilty as hell for it. They’d embarked on this thinking that they would be a threesome. Splitting up… Those words reminded her of something else he’d said, about knowing how things were between them.

“You know, I’ll be honest with you, Owen. I don’t even remember why we broke up the first time. I recall the fight, but not what it was about.”

He chuckled. “It was Teddy’s fault. Some friend of his in a fraternity wanted help killing half a keg leftover from a party the night before. Cardinal sin to return a keg with beer. I joined them for a couple drinks, which turned into a lot of drinks. Stood you up for a date. Woke up the next morning on the frat guy’s couch. Teddy was passed out on the floor with his head in an empty pizza box, and I knew I was in trouble.”

The light went on. “You avoided my calls all day, which pissed me off even more. And you were still hungover when you came by that night to apologize.”

“Yeah. The headache didn’t help. You yelled at me for being irresponsible and immature, and I lost my temper, started yelling back about you being clingy and needy and demanding. And—”

“And that was it.”

“You wouldn’t speak to me for nearly two weeks. Until Teddy intervened.”

That part, Fiona remembered. “He tricked us. Invited me to go see Silver Linings Playbook with him.”

“And I thought I was meeting him at the movies to see Jack Reacher.”

Fiona laughed. She’d come face-to-face with Owen outside the theater and realized the anger wasn’t there anymore. She had taken one look at him, with his guilt-ridden, apologetic smile, and forgiven the idiot in seconds. “Asshole had bought us all tickets to Les Mis, for God’s sake.”

“And that,” Owen said, “was the end of ‘Fiowen, the college years.’”

The friendship had resumed and Fiona hadn’t looked back. Until Thursday night.

“Fee—” he started.

She shook her head. “Go catch your plane, Owen. And get that damn part. You were made for it. Made to be a star. Put the rest of this out of your mind until you get back.”

He looked like he wanted to say more, but in the end, he simply sighed and stood.

Fiona rose as well and walked him to the door. “I’ll see you in a couple of days. And in the meantime, I’m going back to bed. I’m worn out.”

He put a finger under her chin and lifted her face to his, so she could see the humor in his eyes. Owen leaned closer and whispered in her ear, pretending to impart some big secret.

“You’re crazy if you think you’re going to get any sleep with Alpha Asher in your bed.”

She laughed, realizing he’d meant what he said about her exploring things with Asher. One good look at his face proved he really wouldn’t mind the two of them being together while he was gone. So she swatted at him, silently hoping his words were true because she wouldn’t mind getting a little more worn out.

Owen turned before leaving, opening his arms, and she stepped into his embrace. “I love you so much. Have a good trip.”

Owen placed a kiss on top of her head. “I love you too, Fee. See you soon.”