Her Four Cowboys

Her face went pale, and she looked from him to me and back, and her mouth popped open, as if she was about to start panicking. “Andy—”

He held up a hand. “We’re not judging you, Luce. That’s not what this is about, we promise.”

She looked at me, and I shook my head with a smile. “It’s really not.”

“Okay….” Her face went from anxious to confused, and she folded her hands together as she looked at him steadily.

“We wanted you to know that there’s no pressure here,” I said, reaching forward and setting my hand on her knee. “It’s not about you choosing one of us or the other right now—”

“Or ever, if you don’t want to,” Andy added.

“Exactly,” I said. “We just wanted you to know that if and when you did make your choice, there’s no reason for you to feel bad about it, or any guilt, or anything like that. We already decided that whatever happens, it’s not going to come between us. We want you and each other to be happy too much for that.”

Her eyes started to shine in a different way, and I could see the tears that were trying to fight their way free.

“Thank you both for saying that. You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that, and how grateful I am that you’re so close. I’ve already been feeling pretty guilty over this.”

“I figured,” I said. “There’s no need, Lu.”

She nodded. “There’s another problem that you guys haven’t addressed, though. To be fair, I’m not sure it’s a possibility that any of us could’ve anticipated.”

We were both quiet as we waited for her to say what she needed to tell us.

“What if…” she swallowed again, looking from one of us to the other. “What if I can’t choose?”

All of the air might as well have been sucked out of the room as we tried to process what she’d just said and take in the way that she was looking at both of us. Hopeful, and at the same time as if she were a little bit embarrassed to be asking.

I shut my mouth when I realized that it had been hanging open and felt like my heart had begun to speed up once more. The implications of what she’d just asked had smacked into me, and there was a moment when I couldn’t conceive of it.

But then… why not? If guilt had been ripping her up, it had been shredding me as I’d been thinking of what the prospect of her choosing me would do to my brother, to say nothing of what her choosing him would do to me.

I looked at Andy, hoping against hope that he was thinking along the same lines that I was… and as soon as I saw his face, I knew that he was. There was a light in his eyes and a lightness to his shoulders that hadn’t been there a moment ago.

I reached forward, hooking my fingers around Lucy’s chin and turning her face gently toward mine. She looked a bit nervous as she bit down on her lip, but there was a hopeful light in her bright eyes.

“Lucy,” I said, my voice going low and soft like a jungle cat, “what if you didn’t have to choose?”

She sucked in a breath, her eyes going wide as I leaned in. The kiss started slow as I caught her surprised mouth with mine. Her taste mingled with the fresh, cool hoppy taste of the beer she’d been drinking, and her mouth opened under mine like a flower.

Once her mouth had opened, I dipped my tongue inside before I could overthink it, and she gasped again, this time ending with a groan that shot through me. The kiss went from tentative to needy to visceral as we began to pull each other closer together, her fingers weaving into my hair and me holding her tighter.

Eventually, she pulled away from me, the two of us panting and staring at each other hungrily. After a moment, she turned away from me slowly and looked at Andy, leaning forward.

He met her, pulling her toward him for another devouring kiss. The moment they connected, I realized that I didn’t have anything to worry about. I wasn’t jealous of the two of them or their connection; I was just gratified to see them happy.

Eventually they parted ways, slowly, and Lucy looked at each of us in turn. Her eyes had a joyful, mischievous light in them, but her face was rosy with sheer passion.

She stood up, and the two of us got up in tandem with her. She set one hand on my chest, which I covered with my hand, before she reached out to take Andy’s hand, and it seemed as though the three of us communicated without a word.