Hanging On 2: Surreal Neal [Awakenings 6] (Siren Publishing Menage and More) (29 page)

“Hi,” she said to Alaina, smiling in that plastic sort of way people adopted when they were uncertain of the social situation. “So, did I hear right? You’re Dan’s wife?”

“I am,” Alaina said. She let go of her side and reached for a glass on the table in front of the couch. “Evan’s too.”

Danielle looked at Evan, confusion crossing her features. Seated on the other side of Alaina, he smiled and waved. Such reactions were normal, and for the first time, I wondered if I would soon be in that boat.

To her credit, Danielle seemed to get with the program rather quickly. “So you landed not one, but two hot younger men? Wow. I am impressed.”

Alaina laughed, a husky chuckle. “I didn’t do anything. They landed me.”

“Yep,” Evan agreed. “We had a plan and everything. She was a challenge.”

Alaina slipped her hand into Evan’s, and they exchanged a significant look. It was very sweet and full of love.

Danielle turned back to me, but she nodded her head in their direction. She didn’t say anything, but she lifted her brow in a silent question that I had no trouble understanding. She wanted assurances that our intentions toward Neal were noble. I answered with a small nod.

She blinded me with a brilliant smile, and I saw her resemblance to her nephew at last.

“So what do you do?” David asked.

Danielle turned back to him. “I’m a massage therapist. I work through a physical therapy center. Most of my clients have been through some kind of trauma.”

David nodded thoughtfully. “Why did I think you were a chef?”

I stood and took a seat on a nearby chair. “Her nephew is a chef. He’ll be here later. Right now, he’s working at Sensual Secrets.”

Leaning close, David whispered, “Is he going to bring some of Ginny’s treats?”

“Not if he values his life,” I said. “Gin has her orders ready for tomorrow morning. Heads will roll if someone touches her merchandise.”

“Damn.”

I caught Alaina rubbing her side and her neck. I lifted my chin in her direction. “Lainie, are you okay?”

“Just a little sore,” she said.

“Somebody hit her car two days ago. The doctor said it’ll take a week for the aches and pains to go away,” Evan added. He put a hand on her neck. “Want me to rub it, honey?”

Alaina shook her head. “That doesn’t make it feel better.”

“An anti-inflammatory would help,” Danielle said. “Alternate heat and cold until the swelling goes down.”

“I’ve been doing that.” Alaina said. “I’m pregnant, so I can’t take much for it.”

David rose to his feet. “I’ll get you some ice. You sit there and take it easy.”

I hadn’t heard about the accident, and I was glad Alaina was okay. “What happened?”

She sighed. “I was coming out of the hospital. Somebody wasn’t observing those big yellow arrows painted on the road that direct the flow of traffic. They went the wrong way and plowed into my car. On the plus side, I’m getting a new car.”

Concern and anger rushed through me, but I squelched anything I might have said about the other driver. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Thanks. The other guy got his leg pinned and had to be cut out.”

“Then they gave him a ticket,” said Evan. “Idiot bastard.”

Danielle leaned forward, her eyes blazing with somber intensity. “Once, when I was in high school, I was cutting diagonally across the student parking lot and this car came out of nowhere. She was doing at least forty-five. I shot out from behind some parked cars and hit her. We were both at fault. My car slid all the way down hers, caving in her driver-side door. I had a tank, and she had a Dodge Daytona. It had one of those peace-sign steering wheels, and she was a real big girl, tall, with huge boobs. They had to cut her out of the car because her boobs got stuck in the peace sign.”

The outrage we all felt that could have cast a pall over the entire evening lifted. After three seconds of stunned silence, we all burst out laughing. Across the room, the rest of the family joined in.

Two hours later, we were in the middle of dinner. Food littered the long table in my kitchen that could seat twelve comfortably, and more took up space on the nearest counter.

Daniel and Sophia were over there, arguing about how to cut the pie pieces fairly. I didn’t think either of them was interested in fairness as much as they wanted to make sure they ended up with the biggest piece.

Danielle looked at them and shook her head. “My brother and I used to fight like that. He’s fifteen years older than me, but I came out bossy and knowing how to do everything better than him, so the age difference didn’t really matter.”

I knew Neal’s father was alive and well. “You guys get along better now?”

She shrugged. “We still argue, mostly friendly disagreements, some are more serious. He wants Neal to go back to college. I think he should stick with cooking.”

“I agree.” I had attended college for two years. My calling had been cooking, and when I’d told my parents that I wanted to attend culinary school instead of a university, they supported my dream. “It’s good he has you to support him. This business is hard enough without having to fight with your family to get them to understand why you want to spend hours and hours sweating in a kitchen. Sometimes the future a parent wants for a child isn’t the one they want for themselves.”

Across the table, David shot me a warning look. Daniel and I had bonded over many things, but one of the issues that reinforced our camaraderie was the fact that we’d both abandoned college to follow our hearts into careers our parents hadn’t envisioned. For Danny, that was running a martial arts studio. His father hadn’t approved of that decision, though he hadn’t stood in Danny’s way, either. It was still a sore subject.

“I just want him to be happy,” Danielle said. “Neal’s different from the rest of us, and he’s still searching for his bliss. I want him to find it.”

The doorbell chimed. Sophia abandoned her fight with Daniel. “I’ll get that.”

I chuckled at her enthusiasm. The look Daniel gave me matched the one that had just vanished from his father’s face.

David got to his feet and hauled his wife with him. “It’s late. Anna and I should go. I have to get up for work in the morning.”

I didn’t try to stop them. Denying who Neal was to us would be a lie, and forcing them to socialize with Neal before either of them was ready would be disastrous. Sophia would be disappointed, but she would eventually see the wisdom in it.

On the way to the front door, we passed Sophia and Neal at the bottom of the steps to the second floor. They were kissing on the lips. It wasn’t anything too bad—just a firm press of closed mouths—but I had to hold her father back. The sight triggered my libido, which seemed to always be boiling just below the surface, especially when either of them were around, and that made it harder to stop David from trying to kill Neal.

This wasn’t the first time he’d caught one of his offspring in a liplock with someone unexpected. He’d only yell at Sophie, but Neal’s physical well-being was in jeopardy.

“It’s not what you think,” I said.

Sophie did her best to push Neal behind her, but he was resisting her efforts. He took up a defensive stance in front of her.

David tore his gaze from Sophia to direct his rage at me. “I have high blood pressure as it is, Drew.”

“I know.” I hadn’t known, but his temper was legendary, so it didn’t surprise me. “Let me explain. Sophie and I are both in love with Neal.”

To his credit, Neal didn’t flinch. Like a cheetah, he kept his attention on the threat and ignored everything else.

David’s eyes boggled. “You’re looking for what? My blessing?”

Anna tugged on his arm. “They’re adults. They don’t need our blessing.”

Sophia managed to get around Neal. She probably found it ironic that he was trying to protect her when she’d proven twice that she could take him. “Dad, Mom, I’d like you to meet Neal.”

Speechless, David said nothing. Anna stepped forward, but she didn’t offer her hand. “Neal, please don’t take this personally. It’s a lot to process. Perhaps next time we’ll sit down and have a chat. For now, I need to get my husband home before he says something he’ll regret.”

With that small speech, they were out the door. I wanted to shake Sophia for doing things this way, but I bore an equal share of the blame. I had done everything in my power to get Neal here tonight.

Sophia

I stared at the closed door, flabbergasted by my father’s behavior. Sure, he’d blown up when he’d caught my brother kissing Evan when he was supposed to be dating Alaina, but this was different. Or the same, really.

If he could accept the fact that Danny wanted to be married to two people, then why couldn’t he accept the fact that I wanted a polyamorous relationship too?

Drew put his arms around me. “Honey, I’m sorry. We shouldn’t have sprung this on your dad. Your mom took it better, but not great.”

By this time, we’d attracted the attention of everybody in the kitchen except Zach. No doubt he’d found his bliss in the game room. We weren’t much for gaming, but Drew’s original decorator had insisted that every bachelor pad needed one, so instead of insisting on something he’d actually use, he’d installed one. At least something besides the pool table was getting some use.

Danny shook his head, offering no support or sympathy. Alaina came up on his left side and slipped her arm around his waist.

To his right, Evan studied the situation. “You’re going to need to talk to them, and it’s not going to be an easy talk to have.”

Neal scowled. “Mistress, you set me up.”

I felt like shit. I had set him up. I hadn’t meant to. I hadn’t done it maliciously. The kiss had been an accident. He’d come inside, and we kind of just fell into one another’s arms. Drew hadn’t been upset by it. If I was reading him correctly—and I usually did—he had found the image arousing.

“I’m sorry, Neal. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I thought they would have been gone by now.” Or even if they hadn’t left, I had planned on introducing him as Drew’s newest protégé. Having my father catch us kissing had not been on the agenda.

Alaina whispered something in Daniel’s ear. She looked like she wanted a soft bed and ten hours with nothing to do.

Danny said, “We have to get going. We’ll discuss this later.”

I nodded. Putting off talking about this with my disapproving big brother sounded like an excellent idea. I hugged Alaina good-bye. “If you need anything, let me know. I’m not working tomorrow.”

Danny squeezed the back of my neck. “Great. I’ll see you at the studio at four.”

I twisted out of his hold before he could get a lock on me. He was one of the few people I couldn’t beat in fight, mostly because he was the one who’d taught me everything I knew about self-defense. “Five.” I countered because I wanted to. I could have made it by four, but I didn’t want him to think that he was in charge of the conversation.

Evan hugged me, as did Zach, who had emerged from the game room upon threat of death. They no longer threatened to leave him here because he wouldn’t have minded staying.

Danielle had waited in the kitchen, thank goodness. We found her cleaning up the leftovers.

“You don’t have to do that,” Drew said, skating around the island counter and removing a dish from Danielle’s hand. He wasn’t being nice—he was particular about who cleaned his kitchen and how they went about it. Our housekeeper had been with Drew for seven years, and she was only allowed to touch or assist with certain things. He’d tried to impose rules on me, but once I’d moved in with him and insisted we keep our finances separate, those rules had vanished.

The man badly wanted a joint checking account that I actually used. He wanted it so badly that he even encouraged me to think of his kitchen as my own, which I was actually beginning to do.

She ceded the dish to Drew. “It’s the least I could do after you saved my little nephew from being massacred by your father. He’s a big man. Neal’s tough, but I don’t think he stood a chance.”

I scoffed at that. My father had been pissed at me, not Neal. “He’s a teddy bear, not a threat.”

Drew, Danielle, and Neal all looked at me like I’d lost my mind.

Neal ran his hand down my hair, a soft caress one might give to a child or a crazy person. “A bear, maybe.”

I smacked his hand away. And shot him a don’t-fuck-with-me look.

Danielle came to him and pulled him down for a tight hug. Then she kissed his forehead. “I’m going to take off now. I think you’re in good hands.”

She gave me a similar farewell, and Drew walked her to the door.

Facing Neal, I apologized again. “I am sorry about what happened. I didn’t think anybody would see us.” Feelings swirled through my head. “I don’t want to hide our relationship. Drew doesn’t either. We’ve always been discreet, and we’ll keep things that way if it’s what you want, but know that Drew and I—”

He put his hand over my mouth. “Please, Mistress, don’t say it. Not again. I’m not ready to hear it.”

While I understood and would respect his limit, doing so made my heart ache. Drew had blurted out to my father that we both loved Neal. We hadn’t discussed him using that term, but it fit. Once I thought I’d never love anybody, and now here I was, in love with two men.