Her Four Cowboys

She raised one of her eyebrows and I bit my lip as what I’d said started to sink back in, and I turned away from her. I rarely blushed around my best friend, but this seemed like a worthwhile moment for it.

“Come on, perv,” I said, getting out. “Let’s just look at this place. I kinda want to go back to the house and take a nap.”

“Wow, you got old,” Molly said. “I have no idea when that happened, since I didn’t get old.”

I elbowed her as the two of us started walking up to the house, and as we approached it, I began to get a much better feeling about this particular house than the feelings I had about any of the others that we’d seen until now. “Okay, I like this.”

Fifteen minutes later, we were still looking around the house, checking on water pressure and a few other things that Molly insisted we become aware of before leaving, when I felt my phone buzz in my pocket.

Pulling it out, my heart gave a sudden extra little thud, as if in an echo, when I saw the name flash across the screen, and I bit down on my lip as I swiped my thumb across the banner to read his text.

“Which one of your men is hailing you?” asked Molly, looking up at me from under the kitchen sink that she’d been looking into in her ultra-thorough inspection of the house.

“Adam,” I said, turning away from her. I’d never really hidden anything from her before now, but with this, I couldn’t help feeling as though I should have a little more shame… except, I didn’t.

Hey— whatcha up to?

I bit the inside of my cheek as I typed out my response, hoping that it meant what I thought it might, and then internally smacking myself across the face for wanting another Kent notch on my belt.

Not much. Just looking around at houses to rent with Molly.

Nice! Found anything yet?

Might’ve! Too early to tell, though.

I waited for his response, watching the three dots appear, then disappear, then reappear. It was obvious that he was having trouble figuring out what to say, which I found strangely… endearing. It was as though the old Adam—the beanpole who’d always been awkward around girls—was still in the gorgeous man that he’d become.

Finally, the words appeared, and I bit down hard on my lip as I read through the question, contemplating the ramifications of saying yes.

Finally, his reply came. Do you feel like meeting up at Spurs later? We could get a beer and catch up over the last few weeks.

I bit down on my cheek again, taking my own turn to tap out a response and delete it.

“So? What did he say?” Molly asked, coming over to look over my shoulder. I handed the phone over to her, and her face didn’t change at all as she read over the texts that we’d exchanged.

“Okay,” she said, handing the phone back. “This is a xxxfgood thing, isn’t it?”

“Is it?” I asked, going over to sit on the floor by the big bay window that faced the back. I loved the way that the sunlight streamed into the house through the glass, and how the yard looked out over the mountains. “I’m not sure.”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” she asked, coming over to sit on the floor next to me as the sunlight gilded her lovely dark curls.

“It just feels… weird,” I said, wrapping my arms around my knees and holding them up to my chest. “Like, I keep feeling like I should feel more guilty about this situation, but I just… don’t.”

“Again, I ask you why,” she said, leaning forward.

I blinked at her. “Dude. Did you forget that I’ve messed around with all four of them?”

She snorted. “I don’t know how they define ‘messing around’ in Utah, but a kiss does not count. So, technically, you’ve only messed around with two brothers.”

I glared at her. “And that makes it better?”

“By your estimation, it evidently does,” she shot back, giving me a sassy grin as she faced down my glare before sighing. “Look. I happen to believe that there’s nothing wrong with what you’ve done. Yeah, the fact that they’re all brothers might be a little different, but it’s not any different from what thousands of other women do all over the world every day.”

I blinked at her.

She shrugged. “Well, the ones who aren’t in exclusive relationships. Have any of the brothers said that they want to be exclusive with you?”

“No,” I said, setting my chin on my knee. “We haven’t even talked about dating. We’ve just been—”

“Making out and screwing your brains out,” she said, nodding. “I get it. If I had the opportunity, I’d probably do the same exact thing.”

I burst out laughing, grateful for the thousandth time in my life to have her as my best friend. “I don’t blame you.”