Something Sparked-nook (7 page)

Even as she thought it, she knew she was going shopping for a new dress. “Okay.”

He didn’t try to kiss her. She was grateful and disappointed. She was becoming accustomed to the contradictory emotions these men provoked.

Diego handed her the house key. “Good night, Jeannette.”

She watched them drive away, no longer in such a hurry to escape. When they’d first arrived, she’d wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and cry her eyes out. As she opened the front door now, she reached down to pick up Penny and headed to the living room. Finding repeats of
I Love Lucy
on TV, she sat in quiet solitude as a completely new emotion washed over her.

Hope.

* * *

Diego followed Luc into their house, shutting the door and leaning against it. He’d almost let his overbearing need for control ruin things with Jeannette. Luc had been uncharacteristically quiet on the drive home. Diego could only assume he was pissed off.

Luc tugged off his jacket and hung it on the back of a chair. “You want to tell me what happened on that dance floor?”

Diego shrugged, trying to keep a rein on his temper. He’d been wrong to push Jeannette, but he resented Luc’s tone. “I’m not going to lie to her about who I am. What I want.”

Luc threw up his hands. “Jesus, D. It was the first fucking date. You can’t at least try to hide some of that macho shit until we get our foot in the door?”

Diego stalked toward his friend. “Don’t hear you bitching about that ‘macho shit’ when it’s just you and me.”

Luc held his ground even as Diego stepped close. “Don’t try to intimidate me. Not now. It won’t fucking work.”

“You can act as pissed off as you want, but I think the person you’re really mad at is yourself. I’m not hiding my true colors from her, Luc. What about you?”

“I want her. I’ve wanted her since the first time I saw her.”

“And you’re willing to pretend this,” Diego pointed to himself, then Luc, “doesn’t exist? For how long, Luc? How long will you keep her in the dark about your other lover?”

“As long as it takes,” Luc replied through gritted teeth.

Diego snorted. “Yeah. That’s obvious. Three fucking years, man. It’s been three years since we’ve
really
been together with a woman. Don’t you miss it?”

Luc looked away. He didn’t need to reply. Diego could read the answer on his face. He was wrong to call Luc out for this. Especially considering they both wanted the same thing.

They’d walked into Sparks Barbeque two weeks after moving to Maris, deciding to try out the place so many people had raved about. Jeannette had been behind the counter and had taken their order.

Luc had been smitten from the start, not that Diego was surprised. Jeannette had a quiet, kind spirit. She was friendly, unassuming, and as tonight had proven, the woman didn’t have a clue how damn pretty she was. They’d met more than their fair share of women who came on too strong, working overtime to gain their attention.

Instead, Jeannette had been the first to make them feel welcome in a close-knit town that tended to treat outsiders with cautious distance and sidelong glances. She’d asked about their new jobs, given them some advice on where to pick up affordable furniture for their house, and filled them in on a bunch of stuff she thought they needed to know in order to survive in Maris. She had whipped out her cell phone to share pictures of the cat she’d just taken in. The thing had been little more than skin and bones, but it was obvious Jeannette thought the cat hung the moon. And then she’d fed them the most delicious barbeque sandwiches they had ever eaten.

Luc had insisted they ask her out, so the next time they were in the restaurant, they issued the invitation. Jeannette had called them shameless teases and walked away quickly before they could press their suit.

Her dismissive response had confused Luc, but intrigued Diego. After that, he began to watch her more closely. There was something very sad lingering just below the surface that called to Diego’s need to protect, to save.

They’d decided to bide their time, asking out other women, thinking perhaps it was the idea of a threesome that was holding her back. Jeannette was a Maris girl, through and through. They hoped she’d see the locals’ acceptance of their unorthodox dating style and then feel okay about saying yes.

The plan hadn’t worked. So for a while, they’d actually tried to move on. The attempts had been miserable failures as Luc insisted on hiding the true nature of their relationship.

For three long years, they’d hidden a huge part of who they were. Diego wanted to cast the blame solely at Luc’s feet, but he couldn’t. He’d gone along with it. Now, the harness was too tight and rubbing him raw.

His temper was frazzled. Luc was pushing him in the wrong direction.

“How do you think Jeannette is going to feel when she finds out about this?” Diego asked, reaching out, cupping Luc’s cock. It was hard, thick. And he didn’t bother to pretend Luc’s current arousal had a damn thing to do with him. Like Luc, Diego had been walking around with a hard-on ever since Jeannette opened the door tonight in her tight jeans and silky blouse. He’d been hard-pressed to look away from her creamy white breasts.

Luc didn’t pull away, didn’t offer any resistance. Instead, he gave as good as he got, reaching over to unhook Diego’s jeans. By the time Luc had freed his cock and tugged his jeans to mid-thigh, they were both panting, breathing heavily through their noses.

“Suck me,” Diego demanded.

Luc narrowed his eyes, but didn’t argue. Instead, he dropped to his knees, engulfing Diego’s thick flesh in one deep thrust. Luc wrapped his fist tight around the base of Diego’s dick, stroking him. Diego wasn’t a small guy, and definitely more than a mouthful, but that didn’t scare his lover away.

Luc worked him hard, sucking him deep and swallowing his head. Luc was still angry and he was taking it out in the blowjob. Diego would laugh at the foolish attempt if he weren’t so fucking close to blowing. He liked the pain, and Luc knew it.

“Fucking suck it like you want it.” Diego gripped Luc’s hair roughly, making his demands known as he increased the pressure, shoved his dick deep and hard. Luc took it all, then gave back some of his own as he cupped Diego’s balls and began to squeeze.

It was game over. Diego thrust in twice more, then let go, jet after jet of come filling Luc’s mouth.

“Swallow it,” he demanded, though the words weren’t necessary. Luc had never spit in his life.

Slowly, Diego sank to his knees in front of Luc and pulled his lover, his best friend, his brother, closer for a kiss.

Their tongues tangled, but the previous heat from the argument had faded, giving way to exhaustion, anxiety.

“I’m sorry,” Diego whispered.

For the first time since they’d returned home, Luc gave him his standard goofy, affable smile. “You’re an overbearing bastard. Probably was a good idea to let the poor girl know what she’s getting into.”

Diego reached for Luc’s cock. He was a firm believer in fair play, but Luc brushed his hand away. “No, man. It’s alright.”

Diego looked at him curiously until Luc explained.

“It might take the edge off, but it wouldn’t make me less hungry.”

Diego nodded. He knew that from experience. He had just come, but his cock still wasn’t sated. It wouldn’t be until he was buried deep in Jeannette’s sweet pussy.

Luc rose and walked away from him, sinking down onto the couch. “We came to Maris to make a fresh start, D. We agreed that we needed more and that we’d do whatever it took to get it. It’s her. Jeannette is the piece that’s missing. I just don’t know how…”

Diego’s chest tightened as he stood. His legs were a little less steady as he tried to recover from his climax. “We’ll make it work, Luc. I think she needs us as much as we need her. We just have to figure out a way to prove that to her.”

“You think we can?”

Diego sat next to Luc. “I don’t think we have any other choice.”

The after-church crowd at the restaurant was always a large one. As a result, Paige, who was in charge of scheduling, usually brought them all in to work. Jeannette and Sydney cooked quickly and efficiently in the kitchen, their routines in synch after so many years of preparing and serving up food side by side. Macie worked the counter while TJ, Adele, Gia, and Paige waited and bussed the tables. Lacy had gotten a bye this week because she was suffering from a terrible head cold.

Jeannette was grateful to be busy because it helped keep her mind off her worries—the main one being when one of her cousins would catch wind of her date last night. She didn’t have a clue how any of them would react, considering she’d put on quite a production in the past, exclaiming that two men dating the same woman was appalling and not something to be condoned.

Talk about egg on your face.

She’d been at work less than an hour before the news broke.

Macie flung open the swinging door between the kitchen and the dining room, Gia in tow. “Where were you last night?”

Jeannette brushed a stray hair out of her face and shrugged. “Cruisers.”

Sydney put down the knife she was using to chop tomatoes. “What? Seriously?”

Jeannette understood their outright shock, even though it did bug her. “Yes. You guys go there all the time, so I’m not so sure why it’s such a big deal.”

Macie knew why. “Who were you with?”

Jeannette scowled, tired of the third degree from a person who clearly already knew all the answers. “Who told you?”

“Colby.”

“Then why do you need to hear it from me?” Jeannette asked haughtily.

Sydney took a step closer. “I’m tied to the damn stove back here. Someone give me the goods.”

Gia shrugged. “I was restocking the paper towels in the women’s bathroom. I’m as much in the dark as you.”

Macie grinned. “You want
me
to tell them?”

Jeannette smirked at her cousin. “You’re obviously dying to.”

“Luc and Diego.”

Gia’s mouth fell open as Sydney’s eyes widened.

“No way,” Sydney exclaimed. “You’ve turned them down for years! Said it was despicable the way they dated women together.”

Jeannette bit her lower lip. She’d said all that and more. “It wasn’t exactly a date,” she lied, trying to find a way out of this conversation. None of them would be satisfied until they’d squeezed every last gory detail out of her. She was still equal parts mortified by her actions and completely turned-on. She couldn’t share either of those tidbits, so it was time for some serious deflection.

“Is that right?” Macie asked. “Hmmm. I wonder if Diego and Luc will say the same thing. Let’s go ask them, Gia.”

Jeannette stopped them before they could take a single step. “Wait. They’re here?”

Macie nodded.

Jeannette didn’t want them asking a bunch of questions, so she gave them as much of the story as she was able to. “Fine. It was a date. We went to Cruisers, drank a beer, danced a little and then they brought me home. That was it.”

Gia smiled. “Really? Wow! That’s the best news I’ve heard in forever.”

Any annoyance Jeannette felt toward them vanished when she heard the sheer joy in her sister’s voice. It was impossible to stay mad at Gia, considering all she’d ever wanted was for Jeannette to be happy.

“Did they kiss you good night?” Gia asked.

Jeannette shook her head. “No.”

Gia looked disappointed by that information. If Jeannette was being completely honest, she felt the same way.

Adele popped her head into the kitchen. “Where did y’all go? We just had a bunch more customers come in. Looks like the preacher at Maris Baptist took mercy on them today. Short sermon.”

They all laughed as Gia and Macie returned to take orders and pour coffee.

Jeannette pulled the cobblers she’d just made from the oven as Sydney used two forks to pull apart the tender pork she’d finished marinating.

They worked in quiet efficiency for several minutes. Though Jeannette would never say it aloud, Sydney had always been the cousin she felt closest to. They were the same age, so they’d gone all through school together. Then they’d spent their twenties honing their cooking skills in this kitchen. Unlike Macie, Sydney wasn’t loud or excitable or prone to drama. Even now, she was giving Jeannette some space, not asking her a million questions about her date.

“Are you going out with them again?” Sydney asked after several busy minutes.

Jeannette nodded. “Wednesday. We’re going to dinner.”

Sydney smiled. “I’m glad. They’re nice guys.”

Jeannette agreed. “Yeah. I know.”

“You think this is going anywhere?”

Jeannette shrugged and pushed her glasses up on her nose. She wasn’t sure how it could. She was fucked-up six ways to Sunday, but she didn’t admit that. “I don’t know. I think for now I’m just going to take it one day at a time.”

“Wise decision.”

Adele returned with a handful of orders, but instead of leaving, she leaned against the counter where Jeannette was stirring a fresh batch of coleslaw. “Heard about your date last night.”

Jeannette rolled her eyes. “Am I going to be subjected to questions every time I go out with someone?”

Adele laughed and shook her head. “Nope. Macie filled me in on the details. And that’s not why I’m here. I’m going to help Sydney for a few minutes. There are two hot firefighters out there who’ve asked to speak to you.”

Jeannette swallowed nervously and ran a hand through her hair. A large hunk of it had escaped her ponytail, and after tossing and turning most of the night, replaying every minute of the date, she’d overslept and hadn’t had time for makeup.

“You look fine,” Adele reassured her. “I’ve always wished I was a natural beauty like you.”

Jeannette snorted and said, “Yeah right,” but she appreciated the compliment just the same.

She took off her apron and washed her hands. “I won’t be long. Promise.”

Adele waved her away. “Take your time. The other girls can handle the tables and I’m perfectly capable of filling these orders. We’re cool.”