Page 14 of Holding On to a Hero
Ally started laughing. She had to hold her wine glass out from her body to keep from spilling it. “Only you! Only you would get rescued from a porcupine by an A-list actor!”
“Uh, yeah. It was pretty embarrassing.” I rubbed the back of my neck.
“And was he at least nicer to you this time? Or did he sic his security guy on you again?”
“Why wasn’t the ranch man nice to you, Uncle Will? You said he saved you!” Abigail was standing tall next to her chair with clenched fists, ready to do battle in my defense.
I bent down to give her a hug. “Hey, Abby-girl, he was nice to me and he did save me. I just forgot to tell you that the first time I met him he thought I was taking pictures of him, and not of the beavers. So he was really upset about that. But we got it all sorted out.”
“Oh, okay.”
Ally put her wine glass down. “Hey, Abby, can you go pick up your room before dinner, please?”
“Aw, Mom. Fine.” Abigail huffed and stomped down the hall.
Ally narrowed her eyes at me. “So then what?”
“So then what what?”
“So what happened after you were safe from the porcupine, dumbass!” I loved my sister. Really.
“Uh, I twisted my back pretty badly jumping away from the porcupine, so he, uh, invited me to his house to rest and wait for the porcupine to leave so I could get my camera.” I rubbed the back of my neck again. “We had coffee, and then Jason, his, uh, security guy, came home and they fed me lunch.”
“You had coffee and lunch with Cole Washburn after he saved you from a porcupine.”
“Yes.” I blushed again. Dammit.
“Wi-ill,” she sang. “Do you have a little crush on Cole Washburn?”
“No!” She gave me a disbelieving look. “Fine. Uh, well, uh. Probably.” I tried not to rub the back of my neck again and wished Abigail would hurry the fuck up and finish cleaning her room.
“So, is he maybe even a little gay? Bicurious?”
“Ally!” I was trying for a scandalized tone, but I think it came out more like a squeak. I’d told Ally that Cole and Jason had thought I’d been taking photos of them last week, but I hadn’t mentioned exactly why they’d been upset about it. And that was all she was getting. Cole would come out if and when he wanted to. I had no right to tell her anything about that. Which meant that any relationship I had with those two was going to have to look platonic to the outside world, even to Ally. Wait, Will,relationship? I was getting a little ahead of myself.
Ally cackled as she snapped her fingers in front of my face. “Hey, Will! Were you just imagining Cole Washburn as gay? You totally were!” Crap, she was going to milk this for weeks I could just tell. “This is awesome! We are so having a movie marathon after dinner.”
Shit. That was not going to be helpful. At all.
Chapter Ten
Cole
Will had barely started down the driveway to go home earlier today before Jason and I had been on each other. We’d both been so turned on by Will’s presence and the possibilities we knew we were both thinking about that once again we didn’t make it into the bedroom before our clothes were off. But neither of us mentioned Will as we cleaned ourselves up or went about the rest of our day.
But now it was time Jason and I had a conversation about how or even whether to proceed with Will. I wanted to, pretty badly. But because the prospect of actually having a third – a real, live person as opposed to our usual imaginary ones – had seemed so remote, we’d never spoken about whether we’d be open to more than just one night. Our fantasies were based on hookups, but what if we could have more with Will? What if we coulddatehim, with the goal of something long-term? I needed to know if that was something Jason would even consider.
Because I’d been considering it since this morning.
I wandered into the kitchen where Jason was pulling out some vegetables. My heart did a little happy flutter. He was so beautiful, with his thick, reddish-brown hair and dark hazel eyes. I didn’t know if he and I would be on the same page about Will, but either way, I would make sure Jason and I were solid.
“Hey,” he greeted me. “I thought I’d make some pasta with these. We need to use up that pesto.”
“Sounds great.” I moved around him to pull some glasses out of the cabinet for water. “So. We should talk about Will.”
“Yep.”
“What are you thinking?”
