Chapter Eleven #3
Emerging from the bathroom, I made my way to the receiving room and stuck my head through the doorjamb.
Alex sat in the armchair beside the window, tapping away on his laptop while Lily banged away on the ancient piano that was here when Omma and Appa bought the place.
“That’s very good, Lily, now let’s try to do one smooth movement. A, C, F-sharp. A, C, F-sharp.”
Lily played the correct notes, but there was nothing smooth about it. The girl was, in a word, terrible.
No wonder she wants to switch to the drums. At least it’s fun banging on those. Banging on piano keys just makes your ears bleed.
I chuckled at the joke and three heads snapped around. Alex’s glare sent me shooting back with a mumbled apology on my lips.
Courtney said I needed to stop tiptoeing around and accept that this was my family, and I belonged here. But the look in Alex’s eyes whenever they landed on me screamed unwanted intruder so loud, I wanted to scurry back to Willingsworth and hide.
The front door swung open.
“—get the invite?”
“Got all five of them,” Rhodes replied, pushing in and holding the door open for Micah. “They keep saying it’s just a mixer for promising business students to meet and connect with the top alumni, but we both know all the dean wants is to tap us for a check.”
“No question.” Micah shrugged off his coat and hung it on the rack. “But still, a weekend in the city on Columbia’s dime doesn’t sound so bad. We’ll bring the Lilybug and make a whole thing of it.”
Rhodes hummed, nodding. “She would love that.” He noticed me by the door and gave me a real, stomach-fluttering smile. “Evening, Sue. Everything okay?”
“E-everything’s fine,” I croaked. Hera, help me, will the day ever come that I stop getting tongue-tied around Rhodes Newbury? “I was just about to make Lily’s pre-dinner snack. Interested?”
“Might be.” Micah came over and smooched me right on the lips, staining my cheeks red. “What’s on the menu?”
“I found a healthy nacho recipe online. Lots of whole grains and veggies to make up for stuffing her full of cake and cookies at lunch.”
Micah laughed. “Cake and cookies for lunch? I respect how hard you’re trying to win the favorite-parent award, but I’m always going to be number one.”
Rhodes snorted, shrugging off his own coat and tossing it in the direction of the rack. “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a hundred times, Spencer, you’ve got to stop dreaming when you’re awake.” He brushed past us. “I’ll help you make her snack. Just tell me what to chop.”
“I—”
“No nachos for me, but I will have some of that beer you snuck in the fridge,” Micah tossed over his shoulder—following behind Rhodes.
“Uh...” I blinked after him, rooted to the spot.
After getting my ass chewed off by Alex, I wasn’t sure what to make of Rhodes’s and Micah’s pleasantness.
I’d never been in a relationship with more than one guy at a time, so I had no idea what the play was when one of them was pissed at you?
Was I supposed to act like nothing was wrong with Rhodes and Micah, and just ignore Alex’s elephant-sized resentment in the room?
Or did I have to fix things with Alex before playing happy families with Rhodes and Micah?
It took me so long to decide, I was still standing outside the door when Alex and Lily came out.
“Did you like my song, Daddy?”
“I loved your song.” Alex’s smile lit up his whole face as easily as it stole my breath. “You’re getting very good, baby girl. Soon, I’m going to have to clear two shelves for all of your piano trophies.”
Giggling, she clapped—jumping up and down to her father’s sweet, but blatant lies.
“Go upstairs and take your bath,” Alex continued.
“When you’re done, Daddy will bring your snack into the living room, then you can have one hour of screen time.
” That smile vanished when he flicked to me.
“Mr. Layton is being very nice by not having you do the assignments you missed today, so you don’t have homework. ”
“Yay!” Lily took off running.
“No running on the stairs,” Alex and I both blurted at the same time.
His glare intensified. “I’m sure you want to get back to your job hunt, Sue. Don’t let us keep you.”
“Oh, actually, I was just about to make Lily’s snack—”
“No need.” He blew past me. “I’ve got it.”
“Alex!”
He left without a glance back.
Is this how it’s going to be with him? Every day spent shouting at his retreating back?
“Excuse me? Mrs. Kim?” Mr. Layton filled my vision. “Do you have a moment?”
I dragged my attention off Alex and focused on him. “Yes?”
“It occurred to me that it’s rather silly for you and your husbands to have to go all the way to Lantana Day, pick up Lily, and drive behind me to your house, when I’m going to the same place anyway.”
My brows crumpled. “What? What are you talking about?”
“I’m saying,” he replied with a laugh. “I can drive Lily home from school on the days we have piano lessons.” Layton held up a pen and piece of paper. “All the administration office needs is for you to sign this permission and liability form.”
And why should I spend every day apologizing and chasing after Alex? He wants to talk about safety when he’s the psycho jerk who locked me outside with a bear? A fucking bear!
“Huh? What?” I was barely listening. “Oh, no, that’s okay. We don’t mind driving Lily home. Besides, if we stopped, all the married moms will lose their chance to ogle my husbands in the pickup line.”
“Are you sure? Because I don’t mind—”
I’ll admit, it wasn’t right for me to tell him one thing, and then turn around and do something else, but I am not Sue. My apologies aren’t for show, so I’ll say sorry for what I did, and he can damn well do the same in return.
“Let me get your coat.” I snatched his coat up and tossed open the door, running through everything I was going to shout in Alex’s face. “Thanks for coming by. We’ll see you next week.”
“But I—”
I closed the door on his sentence, then marched through the drafty, dusty halls into the kitchen.
Alex’s, Micah’s, and Rhodes’s shadows moved across the hardwood, signaling me to start my rant.
“Al—!”
“Was that a kiss hello I saw?” Rhodes asked.
“Yep. Sue and I came up with a little side truce of our own, and now we’re fucking again.”
I tripped on air. Scream trapped in my throat, I pitched sideways and barely caught the handrail before my clumsy feet dumped me hard on the back stairs.
“What side truce?”
“Orgasms for good behavior. I got her to cum three times last night,” he said over my dropping jaw. “So that’s three days I’m matching her fake-nice act with one of my own. An act I won’t break even if she does.”
Rhodes’s voice was dry. “I see what she gets out of that, but not what you do?”
“Hey, we both know she’s got an ulterior motive for this happy-family scam she’s pushing on us.”
It’s not a scam!
“But if I’m going to play along, I want something for my trouble. And that something is pussy.”
Rhodes chuckled. “Wasn’t it two weeks ago you were saying you’d fuck a deflated blow-up doll from the dumpster before you fucked Sue again?”
“Might’ve said something like that.” Drawers banged open and shut. “But, I don’t know, something’s different. Guess it’s all part of the scam, but she’s being all sweet and innocent and doofy, and it’s just working for me.”
No one had ever blushed harder than I was in that moment.
“You should’ve seen her bouncing around the kitchen with her tits out and vomit on her pants.”
“Well, that explains it,” Rhodes deadpanned. “Bouncing tits and vomit was the soundtrack to your college years. Of course you can’t resist.”
“Now you’re getting it.” Micah had no shame. “Plus, she’s picked up a shit-ton in the last seven months. No more lying there like a tranquilized mattress. She was bucking on my cock like a bronco rider. And—"
My voice came roaring back up my throat. “Micah!”
I burst into the kitchen and charged Micah.
Putting down his beer, he caught me, spun me around, and settled me blinking and dizzy against his chest. Rhodes went back to checking out the pantry, and Alex returned to cutting apple slices, like nothing even happened.
“Anyway, like I was saying, Sue’s sucking dick now,” Micah dropped like he was talking about the weather. “You’ve got to get on these blowjobs, boys. Last night, she did this thing with her tongue that about killed and sent me to heaven.”
I choked—embarrassment welling up in my body, exploding, and opening the hole beneath my feet that I was desperate to fall into, but Micah had too tight a hold on me.
“All right, sure,” Rhodes said. “I haven’t had a blowjob in seven years, so I’m down.”
“D-down?” I eeked out.
He shrugged. “Yeah, why not. One day for one orgasm. I can handle that.” Rhodes emerged from the pantry with pasta, garlic, pine nuts, and a jar of sun-dried tomatoes all tucked under his arms. “Tonight good?”
What. Is. Happening?
“Nah. I’m booked in for tonight,” Micah replied, dropping a kiss on my temple.
“Tomorrow night, then,” Rhodes confirmed. “Alex, you getting down on this?”
“Nah, I’m good.” Alex didn’t even look up from his apples.
“Cool. Then, you and me, Sue?” he probed, meeting my eyes. “Tomorrow night, yeah?”
My jaw worked for a full ten seconds. “Y-yes.”
“Sweet.” Rhodes bent, opened the island cabinets, then stood up holding a pot and strainer. “You made dinner the other night—and set us up with all these ingredients—so I’ll make dinner tonight. Sun-dried tomato pasta good with everyone?”
“Sure.”
“Fine,” Alex agreed. “But I promised Lily an hour of screen time, so let’s do dinner at six.”
“Good with me,” Rhodes said. “That gives me an hour and a half to learn how to make sun-dried tomato pasta.”
The guys cracked up, leaving me alone in my complete state of befuddlement.
Was this how it worked when married to three men? They talked about sharing your pussy over garlic and apple slices, and then ribbed and joked around in the next breath like it was all no big deal?