Quadruple Duty

“And you all live together. In this… lakehouse?”

“It’s actually an old mansion,” he said. “We pooled our money together and bought it last year. Amazing place. It needs a hell of a lot of restoration though.”

A sudden tingle stole up the back of my neck. That got my attention.

“The four of us are like brothers,” Kyle went on. “Dakota and I served in the same unit. Ryan too. And Briggs... well, he just—”

“Wait a minute,” I said. “Back up.”

I couldn’t believe it, but he was serious. The ad was serious. This was something they really wanted to do.

“You and your friends—”

“Not friends. Brothers-in-arms.”

“Fine,” I said. “You and your ‘war-brothers’ would actually go through with this? You’d share one girl? As in… well, you know…”

“Share her sexually? Oh yeah.”

A lump formed in my throat. Somewhere in my stomach, a whole flock of butterflies took flight.

“Wouldn’t that create jealousy?” I asked. “I mean… other guys, you know, being with your girl while you were gone?”

“Not other guys,” said Kyle. “Within the four of us, it’s all the same. We’d be a core group. A family unit. Kind of like we are when we’re deployed, only while at home too.”

He noticed the jacket was slipping off my shoulder. Before continuing, he reached out and pulled it tighter around me.

It was sweet.

“And for the girl, she’d have four times the love,” Kyle shrugged. “Four times the attention. Four times the… well… ” He allowed the sentence to trail off with a wolfish grin.

“I get it.”

Kyle settled back on the bench and stared up into the night sky. “Look, you asked. So I showed you.”

I swallowed. The lump just wouldn’t go down.

“I know it sounds crazy. I don’t expect you to understand it. And…” he turned to face me. “And I’m sorry I kissed you. I mean, you certainly weren’t there to answer our ad, so that wasn’t fair.”

“I kissed you back,” I admitted. “It’s not like I was innocent.”

“Maybe. But for what we’re looking for? You’re obviously off limits.”

Off limits… The words rang in my head. Almost like a challenge.

“You were just a bystander back there. One who happened to be gorgeous, and alone, and so I—”

“Rescued me from a shitty date?” I smirked.

“Well yeah,” he laughed out loud. “You didn’t want to make deceptively short babies with that guy anyway, did you?”

“No,” I admitted. “I sure didn’t.”

“Well then no harm done,” said Kyle, turning his phone’s screen off. As he slipped it back into his pocket, I felt a sense of disappointment. Of missed opportunity.

I didn’t want him to go.

“You sure you’re not looking for a one-on-one girlfriend?” I asked coyly.