“Good, because we weren’t going to do it without you.”
“Even if I didn’t love her?”
“Please, Micah, I know you all better than you know yourselves. You and Eric give the game away when you look at her.” Dean rolled his eyes. Sometimes he did have to question how they were able to work together or even be successful. The odds were not in their favor right now with how they reacted.
“Fine. Fine. Look, Daphne doesn’t believe we’re going to stay. She doesn’t want us to stay. Our life is back in the city, and she doesn’t want us to give all of that up for her.”
“How do you know this?” Dean asked.
“I may have let it slip that … you know, we’re all in this together, that we all want her.”
“For fuck’s sake, Micah.”
“What? I was only doing what was right.”
“You don’t go telling a woman what we want like that. Especially all three of us. Until we arrived, she was a fucking virgin. There is a certain level of finesse that needs to be applied and you … ugh!” Dean got to his feet. The ice cream was going to have to wait.
“I fucked up.”
“Yes. We have to approach Daphne gently.”
Micah held open his hands. “We’re all fucking her. We’re all here.”
“Yes, because we chose to be, but she just sees us as being here because of the lockdown.”
“Speaking of which, did you organize this lockdown?” Micah pointed at him.
“I can work wonders, but even I have my limits. This lockdown isn’t a fake. It is very real. The virus is serious.” He ran fingers through his hair.
“Is this really a problem?”
“We’ve got to talk to Eric.” He walked out of the kitchen and Micah followed behind him. They found Eric in his room, doing some kind of yoga pose. “I thought you gave that up?”
“I did, but seeing as I went to Daphne’s room, and she asked for some privacy, I’d try and deal with my … problem.”
Eric’s cock was hard as fucking rock.
“We’ve got a serious problem,” Dean said.
He brought Eric up to speed with everything Micah had told him. By the time he was finished explaining all, Eric paced.
“We’ll have to go to the city from time to time for meetings.”
“Yes, but everything else can be done here.” Dean watched his friend.
“What’s the problem then?” Eric asked. “We just give Daphne time and she’ll see we mean business.”
“I’ve got a better idea. I was going to give her time, allow her to get used to belonging to the three of us, but I don’t want to wait anymore. If she’s wanting privacy tonight, she’ll find reasons to avoid us. I don’t want that. We’ve got to agree to work as a team. To not let her get away.”
“I’m in,” Micah said.
“You’ve got no choice but to be in,” Dean said. “This is your problem we’re fixing. What was your problem last night?”
Micah shook his head. “Daphne knows and that’s all fine. I don’t want to talk about it. I’m in.”
“Once you’re in, you can’t back out.”
“I’m in. I’m so fucking in, you’re going to get fucking fed up with me. That is how in I am.”
Dean looked at his friend.
“You have a plan?” Eric asked. “I’m guessing that’s what this is all leading to.”
Dean smiled. “Actually, it just so happens that I do. However, it’s going to require all of you following my lead and not pissing me off.”
“I can’t guarantee that. It seems to be in my nature to upset you,” Micah said.
Dean glared at Micah.
“See, already doing it and barely doing anything at all.”
He was going to beat the crap out of his best friend. “Listen, this is what I’m thinking.”
****
Out of all the jobs Daphne had to do, laundry was the one she hated more than anything. The washing and drying were simple enough. She even liked to put everything out on the line when it wasn’t raining. Everything always smelled so good and fresh, exactly how it was supposed to. What she couldn’t stand was what she was doing now, the endless amounts of ironing. Thankfully, it was just hers, Eric’s, Dean’s, and Micah’s bedsheets that needed it. She normally paid a service to iron all the bedsheets and take care of the washing of them. With the rooms currently closed up, she had only four beds to deal with.
Running the iron back and forth, she hummed to herself, wiping the sweat from her brow. It had warmed up even more. She’d had no choice but to put more ice in the freezer to keep them cool.
She hadn’t even attempted to cook, but prepared a large salad with cold cuts and cheese. The grill was certainly out of bounds. Thankfully, the rest of the house had air conditioning, but the laundry room, she didn’t see a point with how hot it got.