Maceo (Filthy Rich Alphas)

I had no idea which twin said it as I kept my focus on her. With shaking fingers, she tucked some of her blonde curls behind her ears and almost batted those blue eyes at them.

Is she putting off the flirtatious body language vibe? Who is this woman?

“Dylan and Douglas have been really understanding with my work hours. They’ve offered to be my party life coaches.” She cleared her throat. “My assignment for this week has been to make sure I come by and let them loosen me up.”

Really? My brothers and loosen up in the same sentence from Denise’s lips. No. This isn’t happening. Not Denise.

Like me, my best friend remained on a certain path and kept guys to the side. We were peas in a pod when it came to our love lives and careers. It was why she was on the partner track of her law firm and I was close to not only owning one successful business, but more. We chomped men up for dinner when they tried to lead us astray. There would be no detours in our lives, nothing to keep us away from our dreams.

What the fuck?

During my own mental discussion with myself, Denise had found a seat on the other side of the bar, far from me, and was now giggling with my brothers as they poured all three of them shots. Denise didn’t drink liquor. She sipped wine, and only half a glass, nothing more.

“So what are you three about to drink?” I pushed my magazine away.

“Tequila, I think.” Denise almost shrieked with excitement. “According to Dylan this is my first lesson.”

I targeted Dylan with a skeptical gaze. “Tequila? Really? She likes wine.”

“She’s our pupil. Be quiet.” He grabbed another shot glass and set it in front of me. “You look like you need one, too, sis.”

“I don’t need tequila.” I picked up the shot glass and set it far away from me.

“No, you need to call up that Maceo guy and tell him you rethought your answer.” Dylan poured tequila in my glass and brought it back to me. “But first you’ll need some liquid courage to stop being a wimp. Where you get that shit from anyway? Pop was never afraid.”

“Our father never had time to be scared. His wife had left him with three kids and enough credit card debt to bury the average American family. He had to work every damn day with no break so that we could eat. Our father is my idol.” I flipped my finger at him. “We should be thankful that he wasn’t all about sex and women or even love back in the day or none of us would’ve had anything to eat.”

Dylan laughed. “Pop got laid almost religiously.”

“No, he didn’t,” I argued.

“What house did you live in?” Douglas asked. “I caught dad getting some many times in our youth. He just brought the women home when we were all supposed to be asleep. Nice women, too. I used to stay up all night on Fridays and Saturdays just so I could get a glimpse of boobies.”

Denise giggled. “And did you?”

“Every Friday and Saturday like clockwork. Now lift up your shot so the party can begin.” Douglas raised his in the air. “To four foolish people who weren’t smart enough to ditch this spot and race off to South Beach.”

“Meh. South Beach is for pretentious locals and wide-eye tourists.” I waved the comment away, but got my shot glass.

After hearing about my dad’s sexual exploits, I needed something to help me swallow the truth down. I’d never known Dad to go after physical desires. In fact, I’d thought it was a weakness of mine because I’d never seen him do anything but remain focused on his work and take care of us.

“Pop used to bring home the hottest chicks.” Dylan went on to describe luscious women and even explain that some were our teachers.

After Douglas and Dylan told me more of our father’s exploits, I asked, “Do you think he loved any of them?”

“Oh yeah.” Douglas nodded. “I remember he tried to make something more of it with a few. I would listen to them talk after they had sex.”

“Ewww. You listened to your dad have sex?”

“No.” He blushed.

Sicko.

“Anyway, most of the women were like they didn’t want a ready-made family, blah blah. They all had tons of excuses or reasons to say no. In the end, Dad never gave up. When he found one he liked, at least I thought he enjoyed, he tried to make her his. Some said yes. The ones that did, we ran off, of course.”

Denise raised her eyebrows. “Of course?”

“Really?” I shrugged. “Can you not see us three as bad kids, Denise?”

“Well, when you put it that way. I must admit. You three are a devilish group.” She swallowed her shot. “Hit me again.”