Hours later, Annie returned. Manda had put her in a cab and sent her home from the bar. With her mind still fuzzy and her anger at Jasper all whipped up and ready for a target, she walked in their front door.
She threw the keys on the table and got as far as the kitchen before she froze. The blinking came next as she tried to reason through her pickled brain. Dave and Jasper sat there, drinking coffee after ten at night and laughing about something.
This was her nightmare. Jasper loved them both but decided Dave was the one, not her.
“How much did I have to drink?” She remembered three, which was two more than she usually ever had. She wasn’t tiny or petite. No, she towered over a lot of men. But her alcohol tolerance hovered around zero.
Jasper took a step in her direction. “You okay, babe?”
“I’m seeing double, but not in the usual way.” She held up her hand, expecting her vision to blur and fingers to fade into a big blob, but everything looked fine.
She closed her eyes and opened them again. Nope, two hotties. Right there. One all rough on the outside but with a soft center. One charming in his sleek lawyer suit.
Jasper gestured to the man on the other side of the kitchen island. “Apparently you know Dave.”
Not a question, which meant Dave had talked. Her gaze shot to him. “What did you do?”
“Went to see Jasper to apologize for climbing into the middle of your relationship.”
She turned to Jasper. “I can explain.”
Jasper’s eyebrow lifted. “Go ahead.”
“I was actually kind of hoping someone else would jump in here.” She needed all her energy to focus. But part of her wanted to hide, wanted to go upstairs, shower, and forget the last few weeks.
“Let me give it a try. You thought your new client, who unknown to you happened to be my ex, was hot.” Jasper glanced at Dave. “I get it. That buttoned-up thing is smoking.”
Dave made a humming sound. “Good to know.”
“We’re dating and living together, not dead.” Jasper looked at her while he talked, as if challenging her to disagree.
She didn’t say anything. Just stood there, swaying.
“But you guys are monogamous.” Dave said it like a statement, not a question.
Jasper nodded. “That’s been the rule, yes.”
One piece finally fell into her head. Landed there and demanded an answer. She looked at Dave. “After we fought you went running to Jasper to tell on me?”
“I’m going to ignore the way you phrased that. I found Jasper.” Dave held up a hand to stop her when she tried to interrupt. “Wait. You may remember you wouldn’t answer my calls and kept sending me house listings instead.”
“I’m your real estate agent. It’s what I do.” Sure, sixty-one listings in one day was a bit much, but she was trying to point out that their relationship needed to remain professional.
Dave kept right on talking. “We left our work relationship in a weird place at the hotel.”
“Wait.” Jasper moved then. The smirk disappeared and a new intensity overtook him. “Hotel?”
Dave shook his head. “Nothing happened.”
“A kiss.” A good kiss, but not the hot kind she generally shared with Jasper. And for some reason that made her think about all three of them and kissing…and other stuff. “Don’t lie to Jasper about it.”
“Yes. Seeing as I’m the one person who has had sex with everyone in the room, I don’t think keeping a secret from me is a good idea.”
Now that sounded like the Jasper she knew. The one last night, the Jasper who was all confused and fumbling, threw her off. She didn’t blame him, but she hadn’t expected it. This version of Jasper—the one who snapped into control and didn’t mince words—she totally understood.
“He’s cute. Really cute.” She looked from Dave to Jasper, moved her head fast enough to make her dizzy. “A different kind of cute from you with your sexy tats and drafting board.”
Dave’s eyes narrowed. “Is she drunk?”
Was he really just figuring that out now? She thought it was obvious.
Jasper’s lips kicked up into a grin as he watched her. “Yes, but she also rambles when she’s nervous. We’re getting hit with both right now.”
Swaying or not, now they were just annoying her. “I’m standing right here.”
Jasper put his hands on her arms, all gentle and sweet. “You know I love you, right?”
The words filled her with a warm burning light. Jasper was supposed to be her rebound guy but she fell so hard for him. He was the guy she didn’t know she wanted and absolutely didn’t deserve. And that’s why she wanted him to have what he needed. So, she had to ask. “Do you still love Dave? Find him attractive? I mean, you must.”
“It’s been a long time and we have a hell of a lot of baggage, but yeah. I love him. Maybe in a nostalgic way. I’m not sure yet.” The tension from last night had disappeared. Jasper wore an easy grin now. “As for the attraction? That’s still alive and kicking. It’s a damn-he’s-still-fine type of thing. But that doesn’t mean I’ll cheat.”
“I know being bisexual doesn’t mean you’ll cheat. But still loving Dave might mean he’s the one.” She needed Jasper to see the distinction. She worried that he’d continued to love Dave even after they broke up and never worked through his feelings. That was the kind of thing that could linger and destroy them.
Then there was the issue of her attraction to both of them. She wanted to deny it, but it pounded her through the haze of alcohol.
“Now that you’re more comfortable with who you are, do you want to go back in time and choose him?” She got the question out, despite the sudden urge to throw up. She had to breathe deep through her nose to beat it back. “Not that I want to take a break so you can figure that out, but you should know the possibility that’s how you feel is scaring the hell out of me.”
“I can honestly say I did not see any of this coming when I moved back to town.” Dave sat down hard on the armrest to the couch.
Jasper watched her. “Do you want to try a threesome because you think it’s what I want or because it’s what you want?”
She didn’t hear any judgment in his voice. The question flowed out of him as if he’d been thinking about it all day. She suspected he had. “Maybe both.”
Dave stood up again, clearly engaged now. “Just so I know. Is this about trying it with any random guy or about trying it with me specifically?”
The haze started to clear. She wanted to stop talking. Just listen and assess but she owed Dave the truth. “It’s you. The connection hit me immediately. I think it might be because you love Jasper, too.”
“He did, a long time ago,” Jasper said.
Dave looked at Jasper, dazed. “I still do.”
“Of course he does. Look at him,” she said to Jasper, and waited for jealousy to slam into her and knock her sideways. It never came. The sensation moving through her had a decidedly hotter intensity.
For a second no one said anything. Time passed and they remained still. They stood within a few feet of each other, staring. None of them broke through the awkward tension to bridge the gap.
Dave finally broke the silence. “So, now what?”
“Dinner.” The word popped out of her mouth before she could even think through what it meant for them to have some sort of weird joint date. “Tomorrow, Jasper will make us dinner.”
Dave laughed as he looked at Jasper. “You cook now?”
“Of course he does. He’s perfect.” She meant that.
Jasper shook his head. “I’m not, and frankly, the idea of doing the wrong thing here scares the shit out of me.”
That’s why she loved him. He didn’t play games or pretend he knew everything. He also didn’t hide his feelings, the same ones that had been playing in her head on an endless loop.
“That’s why we go with dinner. I’ll be sober.” She pointed at Jasper. “You’ll be sexy.”
“And what will I be doing?” Dave asked.
Jasper took that one. “The same as the rest of us—trying to figure out where we are and where we go from here, if anywhere.”
“Okay.” Dave shifted until he stood in front of Jasper and Annie. “But just so we’re clear, I didn’t come to town looking for a quick lay.”
“And we didn’t go looking for a third,” Jasper said. “So, we’ll see. No pressure. Just dinner.”
She raised her hand. “And I’ll try not to throw up at dinner.”
“Are you going to drink again?” Dave asked.
“I wasn’t talking about alcohol. I was talking about the stress.” The world was spinning around. Blame the alcohol or the confusion, but her mind was in a whirl.
“It will all be fine,” Jasper said.
Annie had one coherent thought: he better be right.