Four Flames for Angela

Angie looked at the nodding men and answered, “Sure. We’ll come back another time.”

A little boy about Todd’s age ran up to them. “Is he all better now?”

“This is Felicia’s son, Dustin,” Hunter said as he walked up behind the boy and put his hands over his shoulders.

“Are you better, Todd?” Dustin asked again.

Felicia came up and knelt down to Dustin’s level. “Honey, he’s not feeling so good right now. I’m sure he can come play another time. I’ll get Angie’s number, and maybe you and Todd can have a sle

epover next weekend. Would that be okay?” Felicia was speaking with Dustin, but her gaze met Angie’s and she smiled at Angie’s slight nod.

Dustin told his mom okay, and Felicia led him off. Rock held Todd with one hand and held the other out to help Angie up. “Come on, let’s get you two home.”

River took Angela’s other hand, and Sawyer and Hunter followed behind them. They stopped long enough for Angela to thank their parents and say good-bye to everyone. Then the men helped them get in the car. Angela sat in the back so she could be close to Todd, and Rock sat with them.

She noticed they were taking a different route home, but didn’t say anything until they pulled up in front of a large house. Sawyer had been driving. He turned the car into the long driveway that was lined with trees. As they got closer to the house Angela could see it was similar in design to her house, only on a larger scale.

“Where are we?” Todd asked, looking around. Rock had picked him up and was waiting for Angela to come around to their side of the car

“This is our house,” Rock said and opened his door, then turned to help Todd out of the booster seat. River was at Angela’s door helping her.

“We built it,” Hunter said proudly.

“You did! Wow!” Todd said, wiggling to get down. He grabbed the puppies’ leads and started off to the steps of the house.

River took Angela by the hand and led her behind Todd. “Come on, beautiful. We want to show you inside.”

“But Todd…” Angela started to protest.

“Todd is doing fine,” Hunter said.

“We won’t stay long. We just want to show you around a little, and then we’ll take you home. If Todd starts to get tired, we’ll leave, but he’s doing fine right now.”

It was true. Todd had dozed on the way to the house, and he was acting fine now, running and playing with the pups. There was no reason she couldn’t go look at the house with the men. And she wanted to. She really did. She hoped seeing the inside of their house would give her a little insight into their personalities, and she could learn a little more about them.

Angie let River lead her into the house. She could hear Todd running from room to room with the puppies at his heels. “Todd, slow down,” she called automatically when she heard him.

“He’s fine. He can’t hurt anything in this house. Four big clumsy men live here, and one little boy can’t be any worse than the four of us,” Rock said from behind her.

Angie gave a little laugh and continued walking into the house. “I guess you’re right, but you haven’t seen him at his worst.”

“Don’t worry about it. If he would happen to break something, we’ll replace it. Come on. I want to show you upstairs first, then we’ll show you down here.” Hunter slid one arm around her and rested his hand in the small of her back, leading her up the stairs with Rock and River behind them. At the top of the stairs, the hall led left and right.

“We’ll go this way first,” Rock said, moving around in front of her.

“Todd?” Angie said, looking down the stairs.

“Sawyer will stay with him and the puppies. We won’t be up here long,” River said from behind her.

Rock led the way down the hall, passing several doors as he went. “These are all guest rooms right now. Eventually, we would like to marry and have children, but they can stay guest rooms if that doesn’t happen.” He opened a couple of doors so she could see inside. The rooms were fully furnished with beds and everything a bedroom needed. It must have cost a fortune. Angie remembered how much it cost just getting beds for her and Todd, let alone guest rooms. Not that they had room for any guests in the small house she’d bought.

“Down here is the mistress suite and our rooms,” Hunter said, leading the way down the other hall.

“Mistress suite?” Angie asked. “I’ve heard of master suites, but not a mistress.”

Rock went ahead of them again and started opening doors. Each room was decorated a little different some with dark woods and some lighter.

“When we built the house we each designed our own room,” River said, stepping inside one of the rooms. “This is mine. Rock is across the hall, Hunter is next door, and Sawyer is across from him.”