The Strength of the Pack Read online

  At least Laurel had started yawning, which boded well. With the time nearing nine o’clock, the little girl wouldn’t have much more stamina left.

  Eva hoped.

  Finally, by ten o’clock, Laurel was sound asleep in her bed and Eva and Tilly were saying good-night to everyone.

  The women collapsed on the couch in front of the TV. “I never thought she’d go to sleep,” Eva said.

  “It was all the caffeine from the chocolate at the fondue place,” Tilly said.

  “And the sugar from the cake earlier.” The men had cut Laurel a large corner of wedding cake, making sure she got plenty of frosting on it.

  She was definitely a daddy’s girl.

  Or would that be a daddies’ girl, now?

  Eva was too tired to contemplate proper grammar.

  “You doing all right?” Tilly asked.

  Eva took a long, slow, deep breath and let it out again. “I think I’m doing better than I thought I was going to. Thank you for spending the night.”

  “No worries. You have cable and Internet. I’m good.” Tilly grinned. “Besides, it’s still early in Hollyweird.”

  “Are you seriously working? I thought I heard Landry order you to take the weekend off?”

  Tilly’s grin widened. “Puh-lease. He’s my husband, not my owner. He doesn’t get any say in my work. I get to decide that.” Her smile faded. “Okay, seriously. Are you okay?”

  “I am. I’m sad, but…I’m okay. I’m happy for them. Jesse’s a good man. I love him, well, like a brother, I guess.”

  “I wish they were bi, sweetie. It’d make me totally unnecessary.” She smiled. “And Eliza and June and I are working on that.”

  “Any leads?”

  “Maaaybe. But a good matchmaker doesn’t reveal her secrets. That, and I’m still checking some references on a couple of prospects. I didn’t want to dump everything on you right after the wedding.”

  “If you match me up with someone and things don’t work out, I won’t blame you.”

  “No, I’ll just blame myself.” She stood and stretched. “I’m going to put on the comfy clothes. You and Jesse are the only ones who get to see my Eeyores. Besides my guys, that is.”

  “You have an image to uphold?”

  “Something like that. I try to be badass whenever I can.” Tilly went to go change. She’d actually be sleeping in Leo and Jesse’s room tonight since Laurel had her own room and Eva now occupied what used to be the guest room.

  Eva went to hand-wash the glasses they’d used. It wasn’t worth running the dishwasher.

  When Tilly returned, she’d put her hair up in a messy bun, wore an oversized T-shirt with Tigger on it, and her Eeyore sleep pants. Her laptop case was slung over one shoulder.

  “You’re going to stay awake until you’re sure I’m asleep, aren’t you?”

  Tilly smiled and cocked her finger at Eva. “You, my dear, are psychic.”

  She leaned against the counter. “No, I know Leo. And I suspect you think a lot like him.”

  “Don’t worry. We’ll find your prince. Meanwhile, think about going to Crawford with Leo and Jesse. Last night, you seemed pretty relaxed after he worked on you.”

  “I might just do that.”

  “Was that the first time you’d had acupuncture?”

  “Yeah. I mean, I know I’ve seen it help Leo, but I still thought it was hokum.”

  “Careful. Your Sheldon Cooper is showing.”

  “I know. Completely illogical. If I saw it helping him, I should have tried it sooner.”

  “Yeeesss.”

  “I think I figured that since his pain was physical and mine was mental, it was…different.”

  “No snarking intended, we really need to work on your self-care skills.”

  “Tell me about it. That’s what my counselor says.”

  “Good. I’d be worried if they didn’t.”

  “Did Leo give you any special instructions about tonight?”

  Tilly sighed. “He wanted to make sure you weren’t alone. In case you needed a shoulder. Or if you just wanted to be alone and needed backup to take care of Laurel.”

  Eva suspected there was more to it than that, but Leo and Jesse likely hadn’t revealed it to Tilly.

  Tilly was a nurse. Leo and Jesse could have asked any of several other friends of theirs to spend the night—and they would have readily agreed.

  Leo was still looking out for her. And Eva couldn’t blame him, especially after the stupid stunt she’d pulled the day after his accident.

  No, she really hadn’t thought that one through, but she’d been in so much emotional pain—and completely drunk—that ending it all had seemed like a damned good idea at the time.

  Although, considering her past track record, she didn’t know why she’d expected any different result.

  “I appreciate you being here for me,” Eva said.

  “Hey, it’s what we do for our friends. I’m going to set up in the living room for a while. You won’t bother me if you want to sit out here and watch TV.”

  “No, I think I’m going to take a shower and head to bed.” Eva hugged her friend. “Make yourself at home.” She headed for her bedroom.

  Eva didn’t want to fixate on Leo and Jesse. She knew they had sex. Hell, they’d almost certainly had sex in this house. No, they didn’t get their freak on around Laurel, ever. But they were men deeply in love with each other. It didn’t take much imagination on Eva’s part to understand they had needs.

  She didn’t resent that.

  Hell, she knew how good Leo was in bed.

  It would be nice for her to find someone of her own, though. Even though she knew, with her situation whacked out and crazy as it was, it wouldn’t be as easy as finding a needle in a haystack.

  It would be more like finding a particular grain of sand on Siesta Key’s famous beach.

  * * * *

  When she awoke early Monday morning to get Laurel ready for school, Eva wasn’t prepared for the evilly gleeful look on Tilly’s face when her friend appeared in the kitchen.

  “I thought I heard you up,” Tilly said.

  “Did you even sleep?”

  “Yes, I did.” Tilly leaned against the counter. “Do you trust me?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “Good. I know I said I was going to wait, but I’m going to try to arrange a date for you this week.”

  “Can I ask who with?”

  “Not yet, no. I have to confirm it all the way around, including with Leo and Jesse.”

  “Shouldn’t I get a little say in this?”

  Tilly snorted. “No. It’ll be a double-date though. Probably Wednesday night. I’ll confirm those details. You said you’re not working Wednesday night, right?”

  “Right.”

  “Good.” Tilly pushed off the counter and headed out of the kitchen.

  “Shouldn’t I at least get a chance to agree to this?”

  “Nope,” Tilly called back. “Just go with it.”

  Waiting for the coffee to brew, Eva knew she couldn’t be aggravated at her friend. Likely, whoever Tilly matched her up with wouldn’t be someone she’d feel any attraction toward. Basic odds said that much.

  Would she humor her friend?

  Absolutely. Especially after all Tilly had done for them.

  By the time Eva had Laurel ready to leave, Tilly had packed up and headed home. Eva drove Laurel to school, dropped her off…

  And returned to a completely empty house.

  She knew this was something she should be used to by now, but it still slammed her new reality home.

  The guys had their own life and jobs. Jesse had school as well as work. Leo was trying to recover his health and work at the same time. They all had Laurel.

  What did she have?

  A lot of introspection, which she was doing a piss-poor job working her way through.

  She sat on the couch and tried to breathe through it. Her counselor had warned her about times lik
e this. Being alone wasn’t a bad thing.

  Hell, there were times she’d been alone, while still married to Leo, where she’d been fine.

  She’d also had a thick blanket of denial swaddling her, too.

  Grabbing one of the throw pillows, she pulled it into her arms, flopped over onto her side, and had the good, hard cry she’d denied herself for over a week. The kind of cry she didn’t dare have while the guys or Laurel were around for fear of them hearing her.

  Not even a bad cry. One to get the loose and accumulating garbage out of her system. Twenty minutes later, she sat up and reached over to the coffee table for a tissue from the box there to blow her nose.

  With that out of the way, she started a load of laundry before she got herself a shower. If she didn’t do it now, she wouldn’t by the time Laurel was due home from school. And today she had to go pick Laurel up, anyway.

  I can do this. I will do this.

  She started the shower. “And if I trip and fall flat on my face,” she said to herself, “I’ll get up and try again.”

  * * * *

  Nate’s Monday morning started with a run and went like clockwork. A far cry from his scattered Saturday.

  He didn’t even mind that he thought about Eva again while he ran.

  He didn’t understand what it was about her that had drawn him in, but she’d floated through his mind quite a bit as he spent Sunday doing chores and cleaning the house.

  That wasn’t normal.

  Well, the cleaning was perfectly normal, but having lingering thoughts about someone he’d worked on, outside the course of actually working with them, was very odd.

  Especially for him.

  And even more especially when he wasn’t romantically linked to that person in any way.

  Trying to focus on his day, he continued with his usual Monday routine, comforted by it. As always, Cherise had beat him to the office by minutes and was getting things opened up. While all the other people there had keys and full access, they usually didn’t start seeing clients as early as Nate did. He had a few regulars who came in on their way to work.

  Cherise juggled calendars for the office, his well-organized little sister having separate Google calendars for each professional, making them use the app on their phones as well so they could access or change appointments as needed. It’d only taken her two double-bookings by different tenants for her to lay down the law and mandate the change to everyone.

  It also meant she could access all of them from her phone if she was at lunch or had to run errands and the office was closed. She could forward the office calls to her cell and still run the business.

  Nate fully recognized Cherise was the backbone of the operation. If it wasn’t for her, he’d still be working out of a spare bedroom, or renting space from someone else. She’d been the one to research office sharing and figure out how to monetize leases the best way to pay for her own salary as well as office expenses. She’d taken some bookkeeping classes to help her run the business, but she hadn’t gone to college despite him trying to talk her into it.

  She also knew nearly as much as he did about what he did, but, again, she wouldn’t go to school for it and get certified.

  Fortunately for him, she was perfectly happy doing what she did, and they got to work together and see each other nearly every day.

  Not all siblings could deal with that. Since she was his little sister, and his only real family, he was fine with it.

  He smelled French vanilla coffee brewing as he walked down the hall to his office. “I love you,” he called out.

  “Love you, too, Doc,” she said, already walking up the hall from the kitchen area with his prepared mug. She handed it off. “You’ve got one in ten, Mr. Stoker, and he’s usually right on time.”

  “Thanks.”

  Nate pulled up his notes on the tablet he used to keep track of clients and prepared for the session, pushing thoughts about Eva out of his mind.

  Thoughts about her stayed out of his mind until Cherise knocked on his doorway while he was eating lunch. “Line one for you.”

  He frowned. “Client?”

  “Nope.” She smiled. “Surprise.” She disappeared back down the hall.

  He didn’t like that. For starters, his sister had way too smug of a look on her face. Evilly playful is what he’d called it when she was a kid.

  Usually indicating she’d done something and was waiting for him to figure it out.

  And that she’d take great joy in the process of him figuring it out.

  Second, he didn’t like that she’d walked to his office to tell him instead of using the intercom like she normally would.

  Third, who would call him on the office phone other than a client?

  That answer was soon evident. “Hello, Nate Crawford.”

  The woman’s voice sounded familiar, but until she introduced herself, her identity didn’t click. “Hi, Crawford. It’s Tilly. Do you have a minute to talk?”

  “Tilly?”

  “Uh-huh. I spoke with your sister briefly and she definitely agreed with what I’m about to ask of you. I have a huge favor to request.”

  He scowled, glad she couldn’t see him through the phone. “What kind of favor?”

  “The kind I wouldn’t normally ask of just anyone.”

  “No, I won’t take a package to Thailand for you. And if you need an alibi, sorry, I’m all out of them.”

  “Ha! Good one. See? That’s one of the things I like about you, you’ve got a great sense of humor, and—”

  “Tilly.”

  She huffed. “According to your sister—who I already know runs your schedule, so don’t try to lie about it—you are free Wednesday night. Correct?”

  He really didn’t like where this was going. “Yeeesss?”

  Her tone changed, snark-free and pleading. “I’ve already asked June and Scrye, and they said yes. Could you please meet with them and Eva for dinner somewhere? Perfectly vanilla, just dinner, nothing else.”

  He closed his eyes, well able to picture her face.

  Eva’s, not Tilly’s.

  “Okay,” he said without argument. “When and where?”

  Tilly hesitated. “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “Um…okay, then. Thank you very much. That was about a thousand times easier than your sister and I thought it was going to be.”

  He smirked. “She doesn’t know everything about me. So where and when?”

  “Your choice.”

  He thought about it, then gave her the time and place.

  “Thanks again,” she said. “And, seriously, this is just dinner. No obligation for anything else.”

  “I know. Cherise is always on me that I don’t go out enough. I can toss this back in her face as proof that I do and get her to leave me alone.”

  “Ha. Ah, now I see your conniving plan. Unwittingly trick me into winning an argument with your little sister. Smart, Dr. Devious. Very smart. Hey, that’d be a good nickname for you on FetLife.”

  “It’s already taken. Good-bye, Tilly.”

  “Bye.”

  Little conniver. Now he knew the answer.

  He hung up and sat back in his chair, counting under his breath.

  Three…two...one—

  Cherise’s head appeared in the doorway.

  “You’re slipping,” he said. “I was off the phone a good four seconds.”

  She flipped him off. “Well?”

  “I told her yes.”

  “Dammit.”

  “What? I thought you wanted me to get out more?”

  “Yeah, but I honestly didn’t think you’d do it. I might have wagered letting Landry take a few swats at my ass in the process.”

  He snorted. “Then I suppose that’ll teach you a valuable lesson, won’t it?”

  She sneered at him before disappearing back to her desk, leaving him laughing in her wake.

  Dinner with Eva? Sure.

  Getting one over on Cherise for a chang
e?

  Priceless.

  Chapter Six

  By Wednesday evening, Eva hoped this wasn’t a mistake.

  Seeing Crawford—Nate, she reminded herself—at the club and letting him work with her there, or maybe even at his office, was different than a date.

  A date-date.

  She was standing in front of her mirror when she jumped at the knock on her bedroom door.

  Leo stood there, leaning against the door frame, arms crossed over his chest and a playful smile on his face. “You look great.”

  She felt herself blush. “Thanks.”

  “If he doesn’t react, then he’s gay.”

  “You should know.” She smiled.

  That pulled a laugh from him. “Exactly. And if you have any trouble—”

  “I won’t, but yes, I’ll call you immediately.”

  “I hope Tilly’s right about this.”

  “She’s the expert. She assured me that June and Scrye will meet us there and double-date with us.”

  “Everyone says good things about him,” Leo said. “She scoured the hinterlands for any sign of trouble and no one will say a bad word about him.”

  “I’m nervous.”

  He crossed the room and rested his hands on her shoulders. “Just remember that you’re an adult. You have the ability to say no to anything. And if he doesn’t listen—”

  “I pepper spray him.”

  “Good girl.” He leaned in and kissed her forehead. “Then you run and call me, not Tilly—”

  “Because prison orange isn’t Tilly’s color.”

  “Exactly.” He stared down into her eyes. “But I have a good feeling about him. I’ve always liked him. He’s very…calming.”

  “Yeah.” She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him. “Thanks.”

  “For what?”

  “For moving in here with Jesse. Maybe one day I’ll be able to live apart from you guys, but for now, I want Laurel with you two. She needs you two. I need you two.” She made the admission she suspected he already knew. “After what I did…honestly, I wasn’t sure if I trusted myself to be strong enough. I think I’m stronger now than I was, but…I’m glad you’re here.”

  Leo stroked her back. “I told you, as long as you want to live with us, you can. And if you want to live here with someone else in the future, then great. Or we can always buy a new house, a larger one. Or build one. With the three of us, and the insurance settlement Ed’s working on, we could probably build a house with two separate master suites. Everyone can have their privacy.”