Page 23 of Single Mom for the Mountain Men (Mountain Men Why Choose #3)
I finish cooking breakfast, and we all sit down to eat.
Sophie is happily chattering about wanting to play games with us, and I marvel at her ability to move on from the scary things that have been happening all around her over the past few weeks.
Children are so resilient. If only adults were so easy to help with trauma and stress.
I ponder where we’re all at with the men tied up in the garage and Tanner’s debts hanging over us.
I’m angry at him for lying to us for so long, but I also feel concerned that we won’t be able to resolve his debts in a way that will keep Lena’s ex from chasing after us all the time.
I want both of the threats to go away, and I think that Brody is right, that the police should have been involved long ago.
“What kind of games can we play today?” Sophie asks, bouncing in her seat and devouring her pancakes eagerly.
I glance at Tanner, who lifts a shoulder in a shrug. Brody won’t be any help. He doesn’t know how to have fun at all.
I grin as a thought occurs to me. “I have a story book that is full of fairy tales. It was mine as a kid. Do you want to pick a story or two, and we can read it together? Maybe we can act out the stories for you.”
“Yay! Yes, please!” Sophie crows, looking around at all of us eagerly.
I see Brody roll his eyes. He hates things like charades and isn’t good at coming out of his shell for anyone.
I figure it’ll be good for him. Besides, he can’t escape, what with the storm and his worries over the men in the garage.
“Let me just check on our unwanted guests,” he grumbles before leaving the room.
I pick up his half-finished breakfast and shake my head.
I wish Brody ate more, but he just always seems to pick at his food.
I can’t remember the last time he ate a hearty meal.
No wonder he’s so tough and stringy, like jerky.
“I’ll get the book,” I tell everyone and rise from the table.
“I can handle clean up,” Lena offers, passing by me and touching my arm.
I smile at her and pass her the dirty plates in my hand before leaving the room.
As I rummage through my closet, looking for the book that I kept from my childhood, I think about Lena’s presence in our lives.
It’s hard to think of her ever leaving the mountain and taking Sophie with her.
I wonder how my brothers feel about her.
I can tell that there’s an attraction between her and Tanner, but I’m not sure if they have explored it yet.
I’m not sure if I want them to, to be honest, but then again, love is love.
I don’t want to stop anyone from experiencing love, even if our relationship to Lena is unconventional.
I think of Brody’s scowling face and his PTSD, and I frown.
I don’t know that Brody would approve of anything other than a totally traditional relationship with a woman.
I can’t even remember the last time that Brody had a relationship with any woman. He’s so scared of being hurt and so ashamed of his PTSD, that he just doesn’t get close to anyone anymore. It makes my heart ache for him. How can he live like that? How can being alone be enough?
Pushing away my worries about our complicated situation and Brody’s concerns, I come back into the living room with the dog-eared book in hand.
“Here it is,” I say to the room, just as Brody comes back from the garage, locking the door behind him.
“What stories are in the book?” Sophie asks eagerly. She dances around me in a circle, leaping and giggling.
“All kinds,” I tell her. “Sit down with me, and let’s look at what we can read together, okay?”
Sophie and I select a story, and Brody says he’ll read it so that he doesn’t have to act out the tale.
Everyone else is a good sport about enacting the stories, and Sophie even helps us flesh out the play, making a very accurate and effective princess while I serve as the dragon, and her mother and Tanner serve as members of the royal court.
We spend most of the afternoon this way, telling stories and talking while Sophie alternately participates and then plays with her own toys. It all feels cozy, and the snow falling outside, burying the world in white, helps to make us feel comfortable, warm, and safe together.
By the time Sophie needs to take her nap before dinner, we’re all sleepy and comfortable with one another. Lena takes her little girl off to bed, and she isn’t gone long before she emerges from the bedroom, closing the door behind her with a soft click.
“She’s out like a light,” she says with a little smile. “You guys wore her out really well.”
“You’re welcome,” Tanner says with a chuckle and flops onto the couch.
“You guys have been so great with her,” Lena says happily. She looks around at all of us. “It’s really hard to imagine how we got along without all of you.”
Tanner clears his throat and looks around at all of us. “Actually, now that you mention that, I think we should all chat about…us.”
Sitting up straighter on the couch, Brody asks cautiously, “Us?”
Tanner nods. He looks at Lena, whose cheeks are getting pink. She nods back, and he clears his throat.
“Lena and I talked about this already, this morning,” he says carefully. “We…have been together, but she says that she has been with both of you as well.”
Brody’s face goes entirely still. I feel my heartrate pick up. I knew that she might have slept with Tanner already, but I never imagined that she would have hooked up with Brody as well. I’m not sure how he’ll feel about all of this. I can never totally predict Brody these days.
“We thought that…we should all chat about…sharing,” Tanner stumbles on, noting Brody’s reaction and clearly feeling worried about it. Lena is looking back and forth between all of us, gripping her fingers together tightly.
“I’m just so fond of all of you,” she says in a breathy voice. I feel my cock lift at her tone in spite of my worry about Brody. “I can’t image not being with you guys. I just thought…it could work really well if we shared. If you were open to it, of course.”
“Sharing,” Brody repeats in a flat tone. He finally looks at me and then at Tanner. “Why didn’t anyone say anything about having slept with Lena already? Why are you guys keeping all these secrets from me?”
“There’s just been so much going on,” I rush to say. “Brody, no one was trying to keep anything from you. It all just…happened, I guess.”
Lena moves forward toward Brody to touch his arm. “You are all special to me,” she says quietly.
“No one gave me the chance to choose,” Brody says grouchily, rising and going to his room. He shuts the door, and the rest of us look at one another.
“Come here,” I tell Lena when I see how his abrupt departure has upset her, pulling her into my arms. “Let’s talk about this some more, just the three of us. Brody will come around sooner or later.”
“What if he doesn’t?” she says quietly with tears in her voice.
“He always does,” Tanner reassures her and follows us into my bedroom. I close the door, and we all sit on the bed. “We can talk it through and then include him when he’s ready.”
She nods and sniffles, then smiles in a watery way at us both. “Okay,” she says gently. “So, how does…sharing work, do you think?”
I look at Tanner over her head, my brow lifted. We shared a girl once in the past, and it was actually really fun. We were a lot younger, but it worked really well. We haven’t ever talked about it since, but I can tell he’s also thinking about that time in our lives right now.
“Well…” Tanner says before pressing a kiss to her shoulder, “we can split up time with you if that’s what you want…or we can…enjoy things together at the same time.”
“The same time?” she breathes out as he trails kisses along the column of her throat. I feel my cock coming to life as I watch him kissing her.
“Yes,” I agree, reaching out and touching her breast. She moans in response. “It can be really fun for everyone to enjoy the same passion.”
“Oh,” she breathes out, and her eyes close. “Oh, I think I want to try that.”
“Good girl,” I mutter to her, then lift her shirt over her head. She isn’t wearing a bra, and her breasts spill heavily into my palms. She arches her back and leans into my hands harder.
“Do you want us to fuck you?” Tanner whispers to her, and she nods firmly.
“Oh, God, yes.” She tilts her head back so that Tanner can press an open-mouthed kiss to her lips.
I meet Tanner’s gaze over her head, and he nods to me, giving me permission. That’s all I need to lean down and suck her nipple into my mouth, feeling my cock leap at the sound that she makes.
“We have to be quiet…for Soph,” she says to me, slipping her fingers into my hair.
“We will do whatever you need,” I say back, allowing myself to switch to the other nipple.
“I love the sound of that,” she agrees after leaning back against Tanner’s body. I can smell her arousal, and I let myself go, ready to have as much fun as she’ll let us have.