Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Rafe rubbed his eyes wearily, fighting to focus on the computer. He’d logged on a half hour earlier to tackle his email after arriving home from Eclectic with Keeley. It had been a long night at the end of a long week.
When he’d said he was going to do a little work in the office, Keeley, the eternal night owl—who should have been as tired as he was—had gone to unpack a box or two before turning in. Now it was almost midnight on Friday, and he was fucking beat.
He, Gio, and Keeley were three weeks into their whirlwind romance, and so far, it showed no signs of slowing down. Which was a problem.
Typically by this point in his shared affairs with Gio, Rafe was starting to feel stifled, ready to move on.
And the sexual encounters with Jill, Vanessa, and Jennifer hadn’t progressed to anywhere near this level, as he, Gio, and the other women only met up once or twice a week for a bit of fun between the sheets.
He’d spent twenty solid nights—as well as a shit ton of mornings and afternoons—in carnal bliss with Gio and Keeley.
Twenty nights.
Kayden came home tomorrow, and Rafe was no closer to figuring out what came next than he’d been after the first night.
He wasn’t sure why he saw Kayden’s return as the end of this affair.
None of them had specifically said that.
At least not in those words. Gio had asked her to stay with them while Kayden was out of town, and he’d suggested they reevaluate the affair at that time.
So, it didn’t make sense that he saw tomorrow as D-Day.
All he knew was…fuck…it should be.
The longer he remained, the harder it would be to leave.
Their sexual escapades had died down a little this past week, but that wasn’t because of a lack of desire. Nope. It was because shit had hit the proverbial fan Monday on the work front.
Tony had stopped by to check on Gio’s progress…and realized he hadn’t made any. Since then, Gio had been hunkered down in his workshop, determined to make up for all the lost time. He’d come in after a fifteen-hour day just a few minutes earlier, announcing he was going to take a shower.
As for himself, on Monday afternoon, Rafe had uncovered undeniable proof that Rick, the manager at Eclectic, was indeed skimming money from the business.
He’d fired the man on the spot, which meant until he hired someone new, he was managing the club, something he had no fucking clue how to do.
Keeley had offered to help him as much as she could, so between the two of them, they’d come up with a work schedule, placed the orders for food and alcohol, and dealt with the seemingly countless issues that cropped up every other minute.
He rubbed his neck. The stiffness he hadn’t felt the past few weeks had returned with a vengeance. He needed to find a chiropractor.
“I found it!”
Rafe looked up as Keeley dashed in excitedly.
“What did you find?” Gio asked, following her into the room. His hair was wet from his shower, and he was shirtless, wearing nothing but a clean pair of lounge pants.
Keeley was momentarily distracted by Gio’s bare chest, something that would have amused Rafe if he wasn’t so tired. Their girl was insatiable, and Rafe was here for it.
“The boat!” she said, waving several pieces of paper in the air. “It’s at Pier 3 Marina. Your grandpa kept it there in an annual slip. It’s paid for through December.”
“I wonder if he ever got to go out on it,” Rafe pondered.
Upon studying the title, he discovered his grandpa had bought the boat a month before he found out he had cancer.
He assumed the boat was going to be part of Grandpa’s retirement plan, something he’d only begun discussing at their Monday dinners a few weeks before his terminal diagnosis.
“We need to plan a trip to the shore before the weather turns too cold,” Gio said excitedly.
Rafe grinned. “Yeah. I guess we should. Still no safe combination?”
Keeley shook her head. “Not yet. But we’ve long since figured out there’s no rhyme or reason to what’s in the boxes, so I’m sure we’ll find it.
” Rafe and Keeley had originally expected the paperwork to be in some sort of chronological order date-wise, thinking it made sense for the older stuff to be buried deeper in each box room.
That had not been the case. If there was some plan or pattern to the boxes, how and where they were stored, they’d yet to figure it out.
At this point, he’d accepted there was no organizational schematic. It was merely random. Either that, or Marta and Grandpa Albert were moving the boxes in their spare ghost time, just to fuck with him.
“So…” Gio wiggled his eyebrows. “Are you two finished with work?” He was clearly ready to move this conversation to the bedroom.
Rafe, who’d been weary to the bone, found his second wind in an instant.
Keeley grinned as she walked toward the hall. The moment she reached the door, she called out, “Race ya!”
She was at the foot of the stairs by the time Rafe emerged from the office, but Gio was hot on her heels.
She laughed loudly when Gio caught her by the waistband of her pants, slowing her down as he attempted to pass her.
“You’re cheating,” she cried out, trying to break free of his grip.
Rafe didn’t even bother to enter the competition, happy enough to watch their antics.
Gio and Keeley were far more playful than he was.
He’d wondered on more than a few occasions if that was because they’d both grown up with siblings, while Rafe was an only child.
He’d had far less opportunity to wrestle and roughhouse as a kid.
There were a lot of similarities between Gio and Keeley, things that made them a natural couple.
They both had a cutting wit and seemingly endless energy.
They loved the same crappy reality TV shows, a genre Rafe would never get into.
Whenever The Circle came on, he excused himself to his office to do some work.
They also enjoyed cooking competitions, which Rafe was at least willing to sit through, though Is it Cake?
was starting to get on his nerves. He never guessed right.
Rafe had sat beside them on the couch for two hours last night as they’d all watched a J.
Lo movie. It had been Keeley’s night to pick, and he was pretty sure she did research to find the movie most likely to drive him and Gio nuts, just for shits and giggles.
He’d been humming the stupid “Marry Me” earworm all fucking day, something Keeley had taken great delight in pointing out to him every time it happened.
As they’d watched the movie, Keeley curled between them, her head on Gio’s lap, Rafe had realized…they’d done it.
Found her.
The perfect woman.
And she’d been standing right in front of them for years.
Rafe tried to correct the pronoun in his head, tried to tell himself that Gio had found the perfect woman, but it was harder than he liked.
Keeley squealed as Gio got by her. She wrapped her arms around his waist but couldn’t get a good grip, so she just slid down his body. Gio dragged her along awkwardly, struggling to walk with her clinging to his thighs.
“Just concede,” he taunted.
“Never!” she yelled, very nearly tripping him when she lost hold again and made a last-ditch dive for his ankles at the top of the stairs.
Rafe smiled lightly, but he was struggling to let go of the heavier thoughts tonight.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that Gio expected him to walk away tomorrow. After all, he’d basically put a time limit on the affair by asking her to stay with them just until Kayden returned home. Whether it had been intentional or not, he’d given them…God…an end date.
A reevaluation date. A D-Day.
Rafe was making himself insane worrying about tomorrow. Why couldn’t he be more like them? Why couldn’t he stop thinking, stop panicking, stop questioning every goddamn thing?
His genetic makeup was fucked.
What was he supposed to do anyway? Tell Keeley he loved her?
How the hell did he even know if that’s what this was?
He’d never been in love. Not once. What if this was something else—like a blend of lust and friendship and that overprotectiveness he’d always felt for her?
He’d never mixed those things together, so he could be completely misreading the emotion.
What happened if he said the words and then a few months down the road, he realized he’d made a terrible mistake? He’d promised not to hurt her, and he meant it.
Of course, there was another concern as well. What if Gio didn’t want more than the shared sexual experience? What if he saw a future with Keeley that didn’t include Rafe?
Rafe shook his head and blew out a long, slow breath.
Put it away. Put it all away.
That was easy to do when he entered his bedroom just in time to see Gio playfully pick up Keeley and toss her onto the mattress. His friend followed her down, caging her beneath him, kissing her senseless.
“Concede,” Gio taunted.
“Nope,” Keeley said, laughing when Gio began to tickle her.
Fuck it.
Tomorrow was coming. There was no stopping it.
Tonight…he was going to be here, with them, living in the moment.
He leaned against the doorjamb for a few minutes, watching them kiss and play. They were beautiful together. The two of them would make adorable babies.
Rafe frowned, the idea of them making a family without him cutting like a knife.
Put it away.
Keeley looked in his direction after a few minutes. “Why are you all the way over there?”
Rafe pushed away from the doorframe, pulling off his shirt as he walked into the room. Stopping next to the mattress, he toed off his shoes and shed his pants as well.
Gio and Keeley lay next to each other, watching.
“That’s better,” she said, coming up on her hands and knees to crawl to the edge of the bed to meet him. Kneeling, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed him.
Rafe had never been a kisser. Period.
Kissing felt intimate, and that wasn’t something he was interested in.