Anita's Triple Temptation [Men of Montana 4] (Siren Publishing Menage Amour) (22 page)

No sense in being a total prick, but he wasn’t in the mood for questions at the moment. But, apparently he struck a nerve because the woman’s fair skin turned crimson and she quickly began looking around the desk for something as if she was trying to ignore Kevin. In the doorway to the reception area stood Doc Anderson, a smirk on his face. When the gray-haired older man nodded at the woman, Kevin knew he had put his foot in his mouth. At a loss for words, he turned to the door to the street, mumbled a quick apology, and left the building.

Austin and Lyndee were sitting in their pickup when Kevin emerged into the bright winter sun. Upon noticing him, Austin got out and helped Lyndee down. Kevin was always amused to see Lyndee in the driver’s seat of the truck since it was so far off the ground and she was such a little thing.

Today, she was dressed in jeans and a pink sweater along with pink cowboy boots with black etching. Her feminine curves fit her perfectly and he could see why her men couldn’t keep their eyes off of her, though Kevin had his own woman that ticked all his boxes. His bosses were lucky men as were the other men that had found their women in this small area of Montana.

Stopping in front of the duo, Kevin shook Austin’s hand. “Thanks, man. I don’t know if we would have made it here in one piece if one of us had driven.”

“Don’t mention it.” Austin flashed a bright smile. “You would have done it for any one of us.”

“How’s Anita doing?” Lyndee asked, slipping one arm through the arm that Austin had sticking out due to his hand in his pocket. Then, in surprise to Kevin, she slid her other arm through his and, with her in the middle, she steered them toward the diner as if she had read his mind.

Shrugging slightly, Kevin gave the only answer he could. “Doc sedated her. He said she was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown.”

“I was so frightened when she wouldn’t stop crying. She really needs to open up,” Lyndee said. “I don’t think she has properly mourned Craig, and she really needs to talk to you guys. I mean, really talk.”

“We knew she was holding things back but we thought she just needed time to actually say the words we wanted to hear. From what you are saying, or not saying, little lady, is that there is more going on in that head of hers and she needs to reveal it before we can move on.”

Kevin knew Anita had been holding back her feelings for them. They knew she loved them but couldn’t quite get the words out. Hoping it was just because she was still mourning her dead husband, they had given her time to adjust. Now, he wasn’t so sure. Had they moved too quickly for her? Was that the reason she had broken down, because they rushed her?

So deep in thought, he didn’t realize they had walked the block and crossed the street to get to the diner until they were standing at the door. Austin opened the door and waited for his woman to enter and then the still dazed Kevin before entering behind them, the tinkling of the bell announcing their arrival.

Kevin watched with disinterest as Tanya, the bleach-blonde, thin waitress tried to sashay up to them. The smile on her face was bright as if she was trying to flirt, but she just wasn’t Anita.

“Hiya, guys. Go ahead and take a seat anywhere,” she said, her eyes never leaving Kevin’s torso. “I’ll bring out the coffee.”

Kevin inwardly shook his head at the girl’s attempt to flirt as she put a little too much swing into her hips in the unflattering pink dress that was her uniform. The material hung off her thin frame since she didn’t seem to have any curves and he had to wonder what the girl saw in herself.

Looking at the closest booth, he made his way over to it and sat in the bench seat facing the door. At the other benched seat, Austin motioned for Lyndee to slide in first and once she was seated, he slid his tall frame in next to her. Turning over their coffee cups, they waited for Tanya to come over to the table to fill them.

“How are Dave and James handling this?” Austin asked.

“Both of them are shutting down,” Kevin said sadly. He knew how his friends felt, but one of them had to remain strong.

“It’s not Anita’s fault nor is it any of yours,” Lyndee explained, pulling several packets of artificial sweetener from the small dish at the end of the table against the window. “She needs to go to therapy. It will help her a lot. I know it helped me.”

Kevin felt as if his eyes were going to pop out of his head with the petite woman’s admission. He had come to think of her as the most awesome person he knew.

Lyndee smiled, unperturbed at Kevin’s reaction to her announcement. “I have PTSD after my undercover mission. I’ve been seeing a therapist in Kalispell twice a week. She’s been quite helpful. I’ll give you her number and you can suggest it to Anita, or, if you wish, I can suggest it to her.”

Thinking for just a moment, he nodded. “It would probably be better if you suggest it, since you were the one with her when she had her meltdown. Plus, it won’t look as if we are trying to push her.”

“Perhaps Anita will come to the conclusion that she needs help without anyone suggesting…” Austin spoke up just as Tanya stepped up to the table.

Kevin noticed the big guy stopped talking just as the woman arrived, as if he didn’t want her to hear what was being said. He had to wonder if there was a problem with the girl. He did hate the fact that whenever they came into the diner that Tanya openly flirted with them.

Once she finished pouring the steaming dark brew, she set the pot on the table and pulled out the order pad from the large pocket in the front of the white apron she wore and then pulled the pen she had tucked in her hair over her ear. “What can I get for you guys to eat?”

“I need a dozen of those cinnamon rolls that Glen is famous for along with extra icing for each, and a dozen of the biscuits. All to-go, please,” Kevin said, watching the woman write down the odd order, a quizzical look upon her face. He had to keep himself from laughing.

When she turned to Austin, he noticed the change of expression on Tanya’s face of disinterest, even avoiding Lyndee altogether. Was she jealous of the woman?

“What can I get for you?”

“Coffee’s fine with us. Thanks.” Austin was resigned as he looked down at Lyndee’s hand resting on the table. Almost as if he couldn’t bring himself to look at the woman standing at the end of the table.

Kevin noticed Austin spoke for his woman though she was a strong woman and used to communicating for herself. The three men really needed to sit down and talk to Austin and the Goodall brothers. They knew they wanted to share Anita sexually, but other dynamics of the relationship they wanted, they needed to learn about. Filing that thought away, he’d talk to the guys about it when he returned to the clinic.

Tanya seemed a bit put off with the dismissal from Austin but put a smile back on her face when Kevin saw her turn back to him. “I’ll have your order ready in a few minutes. Did you need anything else?”

“Yes. I’ll need four coffees to go,” he responded. “And, if you have a box or something to put everything in so I’ll have something to carry it all back to the clinic, I’d appreciate it.”

As if interested in what was going on, Tanya thrust her right hip forward a bit, “Oh? Who’s at the clinic? Is everything all right?”

“Anita was hurt and Doc is looking after her.”

At the mention of Anita’s name, a pout appeared on Tanya’s face, changing her features again.
Oh, yes. She’s jealous.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll get your order for you,” she said quickly, turning and flouncing away.

With the awkward moment weighing down at the table, Kevin glanced at Austin at the same time he glanced over at him. Neither man could seem to control the smiles on their faces though they were careful not to laugh for fear of Tanya hearing them.

After a quick glance at the petite blond at the table, Kevin found her trying not to laugh any more than they were. Austin leaned into her, lowered his head to her ear and whispered just loud enough that Kevin heard it, too. “Be a good girl, or we’ll spend a night in the dungeon.”

Rosiness colored her face as she picked up her coffee mug with her free hand and tried to take a sip to avoid the embarrassment that she must have been experiencing, but Kevin was surprised that Lyndee would openly look up at her man with a mischievous grin on her lips. Oh, she must keep them on their toes, he thought to himself.

Hopefully, he would find his own Anita doing the same thing one day.

* * * *

At the clinic, Dave ran his fingers along the edge of his Stetson nervously. He couldn’t believe this was happening to the woman lying in the bed before him. She had already been through so much and she didn’t deserve this.

The awareness of James’s agitation across the bed from him had him glancing up to see the man watching him. He knew his friend’s expression mirrored his own and if he looked half as bad as James did, a fleeting thought that perhaps he was too old for Anita, for all of this, ran through his brain.

He had never felt his age. He couldn’t in his line of work, but one woman was going to age him over night. What was he going to do?

A debate began in his head about the pros and cons of staying with Anita or walking away and leaving her with James and Kevin. Going round and round with himself was giving him a headache, and the cons outweighed the pros with him, but when it came down to it, he loved her and he knew he couldn’t walk away from her. He loved her and he loved the boys. They were his family, as were James and Kevin.

“That must have been some argument you had with yourself,” James said quietly, his arms resting on the bed in front of him.

“Huh?” Dave asked as reality flooded him again.

“You’ve been off in a haze for the past ten minutes. You’ve nearly beat up your hat and I’m surprised your lips aren’t bleeding from the amount of chewing you’ve been doing on them. Either you were beating yourself up on whether or not you’re good for Anita or not, or we need to talk about your mental state.”

Dave was shocked that James could read him so well. It frightened him, also. He was always one to keep his emotions carefully buried deep within himself, not because he was unfriendly, but because he didn’t trust people. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Kevin and James, especially since they were his best friends, but because they knew as friends they didn’t have to know everything about each other and still be friends. Now, since they were going to be in a committed relationship with Anita, they were in a relationship with each other, also.

He knew now he would have to leave himself open to his two best friends and to Anita. He was ready to be the head of this relationship.

In a stare down with James, Dave finally gave in. “And what are you thinking about over there?”

Looking agitated, James crossed an ankle over his other knee. “If she really wants to be with us or if we rushed her into this.”

Dave nodded his head in agreement as he glanced over to look at Anita’s angelic face. She looked so peaceful now, but he couldn’t imagine what caused her to breakdown so badly that it frightened the strongest woman he knew.

It was time Anita had an intervention of sorts and they were going to get to the bottom of what had freaked her out and get her to understand the three of them were not going anywhere. They loved her and they were not giving up on her, no matter what.

Yes, she had not fought them when they told her she was moving in with them after Virgil attacked her, and she had openly given herself to them the previous night, but emotionally she distanced herself from them. When James had told her he loved her earlier in the day, she wasn’t able to repeat the words to him.

Wait!

“It happened right after you told her you loved her,” Dave blurted out. James’s head popped up quickly to look over at him. “She couldn’t tell you she loved you back. After that she broke down with Lyndee. I wonder if you telling her caused her to panic.”

A red eyebrow rose up as curiosity settled upon James. The man looked a bit more relaxed in the few seconds since the revelation hit him. “Perhaps you’re right,” James said, a slight smile on his lips. “What are we going to do about it?”

Laying his hat on the bed at Anita’s feet, Dave ran his hand through his short hair. “We can only show her how much we love her and the boys. The proof will be in the pudding, as my grandmother used to say. Though, she’ll still have to face her emotions, past and present.”

Leaning forward, Dave placed his hands on the nearest of Anita’s legs, caressing it lovingly. Up until the visit to the emergency room, they were respectful of her, never touching her except to kiss her goodnight when they would leave her. Now, they would show her their love by their presence and touch besides their words. They would overwhelm her letting her know they loved her and would until they day they died.

James followed suit and placed his hands on her other leg and both of them sat, watching her. Dave knew what was going through his own mind and he had to wonder what his friend was thinking. They needed to sit down and discuss their future and they all needed to get on the same page.

* * * *

It was about an hour later when Kevin returned. He opened the door only far enough to slip in as not to let too much light in. James watched this from his seat, amused by the man’s prose while carrying a small box. He registered the surprise in the man’s face as Kevin acknowledged both he and Dave were both awake.