Eight Brothers Fiancee (Love by Numbers 7)

“Yeah, because I’m better,” Huxley responded in his childish way.

Harley rolled his eyes and pulled me a little closer to him with his hand wrapped around my waist. Not that they weren’t already, but he and Huxley had taken to treating me like a queen since we first slept together. They were making it very clear that they were looking for something more than just sex with me and I didn’t know how to process it. I couldn’t stop thinking about when I had coffee with Sadie and how she told me she had five partners. It seemed so unreasonable to expect that one woman could be with multiple men and make them all happy. Wouldn’t her time be too divided? Wouldn’t she be exhausted trying to keep them pleasured? One night with Harley and Huxley had exhausted me for the next two days. What would I do if that was my everyday? It seemed impossible.

That’s when it hit me. I couldn’t believe it had taken me so long. To figure out. “I’ve got it!”

Keaton chuckled. “You don’t say anything almost the entire flight or car ride and then break the silence with ‘I’ve got it?’”

“Dante. Isn’t he married to Sadie?” I asked. The brothers all looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “What?”

“I guess we just assumed that was obvious,” Jett responded. “He brought Sadie to our dad’s wedding last year, that’s how we met her.”

“I knew that I’d heard that name before. That’s where.” I thought about Sadie and how much she wanted to be friends and help me out. Surely if I asked her to tell Dante to back off, she would. “We could ask her for help with this Dante situation. We’ve started talking more and meeting up for coffee. I think she’d help.”

Huxley put his hand on my lap. “That’s a good thought, but unfortunately, I don’t think she’d help. She’s taken a strictly ‘uninvolved’ position in Dante’s business because it’s a conflict of interest for her.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Sadie has made Dante promise not to ever use any of his contacts or resources to help her in her career or life in general,” Harley said. “Dante agreed, but said that then Sadie couldn’t weigh in on any of his business decisions.”

“But I think--”

“I tried,” Rogan cut in. “When we first started working with Sadie I asked her if she could convince Dante to see reason, but she said that he would never go for it and that even suggesting it could hurt her family. Our business is a big part of their business, so Dante is determined to keep his hooks in.”

“Besides, it seems like you and Sadie have a real chance to be friends,” Quentin said. “I think I speak for all of us when I say we wouldn’t want you to risk that for us.”

There were different types of affirmations, but they all seemed to be in agreement. That they would be willing to leverage themselves against my ability to have a friend was chivalrous to say the least. If they didn’t think that Sadie was the way to go, then I would listen to them for now, but if they were ever in any real trouble, I was glad I had something I could at least use as a final ditch effort.

The car pulled around the small cul-de-sac type entrance to the back, glass doors, and stopped. “Alright,” Maverick said. “Time for you to meet our old man.”

“Any advice?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Devlin said, grinning at me. “Just be yourself and he’s sure to adore you.”

I could feel my face warming. I may not have slept with Delvin that night that I ended up hooking up with the twins, but that hadn’t stopped him from complimenting me every chance he got. In fact, all the guys had been that way; above and beyond sweet since after I slept with Huxley and Harley. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think the twins told them, creating some sort of expectation that they’d all get attention at some point, which of course wasn’t true.

That being said, I couldn’t really shake the ‘being brought home to dad’ feeling of this first meeting. Having slept with the twins, and getting all the advice and family history from the rest of the guys, I did kind of feel like a girlfriend going to meet her boyfriend’s parents for the first time.

We climbed out of the limo and walked up to the door. Before any of the Foxx siblings could knock on the door, it flung open, and a stunning woman with long, sandy brown hair and lavender eyes came running out.

“I miei ragazzi sono a casa!” she sang in a language I didn’t understand.

“Buongiorno, Sienne,” Delvin greeted. “È bello rivederti. Come siete stati tu e papà? Siamo più felici di vederti di lui, sai?” The words spilled out of his mouth like they were his natural tongue. I was astounded.