Page 38 of Nothing to This (Nothing to… #8)

The meek woman blushed. “What?”

“Knox,” Lilya said. “She wants to know more about your guy.”

“He’s uh… amazing. Incredible. I’m so lucky to—”

“You’ll never get dirt from Jane.” Roxie sighed. “She doesn’t know the meaning of the word. Honestly, the kind and gracious thing is completely genuine. And, alas, the only antidote is loving her. Try as you might, you’ll never be able to dislike her, it’ll never happen.”

“Knox is private,” Jane whispered.

“Doesn’t mean you can’t gush,” Roux said without looking up from her screen, “if that’s, you know, what regular folks do.”

Roxie and Lilya laughed. “I would love to hear you gush about Rourke.”

“Oh, okay…” Putting her phone aside, Roux sat up on the edge of the couch and cleared her throat. “Xavie baby, is uh…” Her jaw moved, she pondered until she hit on something. “I said he was rich, right?”

“You mentioned it, yeah.”

“And his cock—”

“He’s hung, yeah, you said that too…”

“Okay, uh…” She snapped her fingers. “He knows how to drive a stick.”

They all laughed.

“That could have so many meanings.”

“Oh no, I’m a better driver there, and his stick is always under my control,” Roux said and sipped some more wine. “We know each other’s guys, for better or worse, we don’t know yours.”

In the spotlight, she was quick to shake her head. “No, JD and I aren’t… We’re not together.”

Roxie raised a hand. “Been there…”

“Done that,” Lilya finished.

“You have two babies together. Live together. Work together—”

“It’s temporary.”

“Is it?”

And the silence lingered. Each of the women waited. She looked from one to the next and eventually gave in with a groan.

“I have no idea.”

“Do you trust Brenna? We don’t have to worry about her being a double agent—”

“No! God, no, she’s more on my side than his.

” She twisted her glass by the stem. “JD and I were a one-night thing, and then the twins… In the years between then and now, we didn’t see much of each other.

Any of each other, really. His mom and sister moved here to be close to the twins.

I had that buffer, there was no need for JD and me to hang out. ”

“But now you are hanging out.”

“We’re something.”

“If he’s hot and rich and good to your kids, what else do you need? Did the sex suck?”

“Nooo,” she said, drawing the syllable out. “Definitely didn’t suck. I was just… inexperienced.”

“Okay, so…” Lilya said, “you’re not inexperienced anymore.”

“Nice way to call her a slut,” Roux joked.

“I didn’t mean it like that. She knows I didn’t mean it like—you know I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Nothing wrong with being a slut,” Roxie said. “I’m a slut, just so happens it’s only for one guy.”

Roux raised her glass in appreciation. “Hear, hear.”

Back to the point at hand. “I don’t want our relationship to impact what we each have with the kids. And since the weekend…”

“She’s right,” Lilya said. “Going through that, it’s too much emotion to process. If they jumped into a relationship now, they’d always wonder if it was real or a result of the intense circumstances.”

“Don’t be practical,” Jane whimpered. “Follow your heart.”

“You didn’t.”

“I did.” Jane squirmed. “I just fell a little behind.”

“You were terrified.” Roxie and Jane’s rapport was more akin to sisters than acquaintances. “And rightly so, I was the same. Slow on the uptake. See with guys like ours, they’re risk takers.”

“So they took a risk on us?” Lilya asked. “Zach was sure before I was.”

“My Casanova was in love with me months before I got a clue, goddamn him.” Roxie next addressed Jane. “And Knox had to damn near chase you down, woman.”

“He stalked her,” Roux said.

“No, that was crazy London Guy.”

“Uh, the story I heard included Knox traipsing all around the damn world after her.”

“Mostly the country,” Jane objected, like that made a difference.

A bold knock on the door got them all looking around, confused. All but Roux.

“That’s for me, one sec.” The woman got up to dash across the apartment on her tiptoes and opened the front door like it was her place. “You do come to heel.” Roux was all smug taunting. “Clever boy. Later we’ll try roll over. If you’re good, you might get your tummy tickled.”

“That’s it?” an unimpressed, almost deadpan, male asked from the hallway.

“Yes. What a good Boy Scout you are. What a good boy,” Roux said as though talking to a puppy, and reached up, maybe to ruffle his hair. “You’re dismissed.”

As Roux backed off, a hand appeared to grab her back. “Oh no, you don’t get off that easy, Babycakes,” the guy said and yanked on Roux. “Good boys get treats.”

That’s when he came into view, locked in a passionate clinch with the teasing woman who couldn’t keep her feet on the floor. Out they went and the door closed.

“They’ll be a minute,” Lilya said.

“I have neighbors.”

Who wouldn’t appreciate walking in on, whatever that was, in the hallway.

“He pays them off,” Roxie said. “Always does.”

“It works for them.”

“I know, it’s tough to wrap our heads around how the rules change in this stratosphere. We come from a different world,” Roxie said like she’d read the script a hundred times. “Well, us minus Lilya.”

“I am not billionaire rich.”

“You come from money, old money. The traipsing around the world thing isn’t a big deal with means like that.”

“I traveled for work.”

“See.” Roxie gestured with her glass. “Like JD.”

Again, all eyes on her. “I told him we can never travel together.”

“What did he say?”

“That we could bring the kids.”

“Yeah, and you can tutor them on the road, if you get to that stage.”

“Is that a life for a child? They need stability, structure. Routine is important.”

“Your kids are important, no one can say otherwise.”

“She uses them as a shield,” Brenna said, bringing their attentions around to the hallway from where she emerged. “She’s totally in love with my brother. God knows why.”

“Are they asleep?”

Brenna came to join her in the armchair. “Both out like a light. We called Jamie.”

“To say goodnight? He’s adamant about not missing it.”

“I left my phone on video in there.”

“Aww,” Jane swooned, and the other women softened too. “He loves his babies.”

“One thing I don’t doubt.”

“Not anymore,” Brenna said. “You used to wonder when he didn’t show up. Now he shows up, what’s left not to love?”

And that was the crux of it. She had to stop looking at JD like her children’s father and instead as a man.

Like the night they met. That man. Could heat like that be sustained?

Maybe not. But in these last few weeks with him, their desire had mellowed to something richer and more vibrant.

Something deeper? JD wasn’t just a lay, wouldn’t be if they jumped into a relationship.

If they were together, one day, the kids would move out and they’d be on their own.

Did she want him to only be a father to their children or the man she’d love until death they did part?