Page 33 of Vegas Daddies (Forbidden Fantasies #17)

LUCA

“ I f I never have to go to that piss-poor excuse for a diner again, it’ll be too soon,” Gavin grumbled from the front seat as he turned down the street leading to Marv’s.

“The food is pretty good, at least,” Cade jumped in. I rolled my eyes from my spot in the back of the SUV—as the youngest of the three of us, and maybe the least assertive too, I always ended up “riding bitch,” as Gavin used to call it.

“And none of us are mad about seeing Allie again, no matter where it is,” I pointed out.

I was the only one of us who was willing to admit such a thing.

Maybe I was just the most pathetically down bad, but I liked to think it was because I was the most emotionally mature, despite what the numbers said.

“Yeah, well,” Gavin started, clearing his throat in a nervous way. “I’m not exactly stoked at the idea that she’s gonna tell us who Daphne’s dad is today.”

Even though I wasn’t in the running for that particular piece of news, I could understand the apprehension. I felt it myself, if only because I worried knowing the truth of who shared DNA with Allie’s daughter, her heart outside of her body, it would affect my connection with her. Weaken it.

“What scenario would be best, do you think?” I asked my friends, trying to catch glimpses of their expressions, even though all I could see from the back seat were parts of their profiles.

“Hell if I know,” Gavin answered after a beat. “You’d think I’d want the woman I’ve hooked up with all of twice?—”

“Three times,” Cade corrected him quietly, and I bristled at the implication that the two of them had shared her recently. Why did I feel like I’d been left out of some schoolyard game at recess?

“Three times,” Gavin agreed, continuing his thought. “You’d think I’d want this woman I’ve hooked up with a few times to not have gotten pregnant with my child all those years ago. But if she’s Cade’s…”

He trailed off, and we all could hear the unspoken sentiment.

It’d be hard for any of us, regardless of the outcome, to get confirmation one way or the other.

God knew I was already struggling, knowing the little girl I’d grown to care for so deeply belonged to someone who wasn’t me.

We had no idea how the paternity claim would change our roles in Allie’s life.

“Allie’s not just someone we’ve hooked up with though,” I said, testing the waters carefully. I could only speak for myself, but I had a strong inclination that my friends were in similar states of emotional confusion. “It’s… more now. Right?”

Gavin let out a grunt. “Fine. It’s more. But like…are we just gonna keep pretending this isn’t weird? I mean, we’ve all slept with her. All of us.”

Cade snorted. “We all slept with her years ago. At the same time.”

“It’s only weird if we make it weird, I think,” I said, my face heating up, though they thankfully couldn’t see it. “Or…if Allie thinks it’s weird.”

“Maybe,” Cade said. Silence fell, only the rumble of the car’s engine filling the space. Carrying us closer and closer to Marv’s.

“Feels a little anticlimactic,” I said without thinking.

“What, you want us to fight or something?” Cade suggested, and Gavin laughed.

“Right. We’re gonna take our shirts off and brawl in the parking lot.”

“Old-school alpha male style,” I agreed somberly. “No other choice. Only question is, should we oil up first or just wing it?”

“Please don’t say oil up,” Cade groaned. “I can never unhear that.”

We were all laughing now. The tension broke, a rubber band stretched too far.

In the mirror, I caught both of their eyes, and for a second, I saw it—the same stupid affection I felt for Allie mirrored back at me from two of my best friends.

None of us wanted to walk away. And at least if it was up to us, it looked like we wouldn’t have to.

Allie was a different question entirely.

Marv’s still smelled vaguely like burnt toast and overworked fryers.

Allie was already in a booth in the back, tucked into the corner like she wanted to disappear.

Her hands were wrapped around a mug of what I knew from experience was very bad coffee.

Her eyes lit up when she saw us—but there was tension in her smile.

That same edge of uncertainty all of us were feeling.

“Hey,” she said, brushing her hair behind her ear.

“Hey yourself,” Cade said as he slid into the booth across from her.

Gavin sat beside him, which left me next to Allie.

I squeezed her knee under the table, and she gave a weak smile as she placed her hand over mine, squeezing back for just a second before she broke the contact. I let my own hand fall to my lap.

Allie exhaled, looking around at each of us. “Thanks for coming. I know I probably scared you all shitless, calling a meeting like this.”

“Just a little,” I said, offering her a smile I hoped was reassuring.

“It’s nothing bad,” she started. “I just…wanted to talk to you guys about Daphne.” I could see her swallow hard, her throat bobbing with the effort as I could practically hear my heartbeat accelerating in my ears. You’re not the father, Luca. It doesn’t matter one way or the other.

“You all know how important she is to me. She’s my whole world.”

We all nodded. Of course we knew that. But this felt like stalling. I could see signs of agitation, impatience, in both of my friends. Please, please get on with it.

“And I realized,” she continued, voice softer now, “that if I’m going to keep seeing you, any of you—all of you—it’s only fair you all have the chance to meet her. Luca already has, which…feels a little unfair.”

“That day at the barbecue,” I explained to my friends. “It wasn’t like a scheme or anything. It just sort of happened. But I…I liked spending time with her.”

“She liked you too,” Allie said, voice catching a little, and warmth spread through me. I squeezed her knee again, a secret message just for her.

“So,” Allie said carefully, turning back to the guys, “I think she should meet you guys too. If you’re interested in that. Regardless of…you know.”

“Paternity,” Cade finished for her, and Allie almost winced.

“Yeah.”

There was a silence as we all considered it.

I watched her closely. Something in her tone, the way she was fidgeting, didn’t sit right with me.

She was nervous, of course, but it didn’t feel like this was just about Daphne.

Allie was holding back. Something was perched just behind her blue eyes, darkening them with their waiting.

If she knew something about who Daphne’s father was, she’d tell us herself, right?

Or she’d at least tell Cade or Gavin. Whoever the lucky guy was.

I didn’t push her. If the two of us were alone, maybe I would have. But I didn’t want her to feel like she was being ambushed. Ganged up on by the three of us—and not in a sexy way like in Vegas.

I cleared my throat and said, “Obviously this is more up to you guys, but…it makes sense to me. If any of us are going to be in your life, she’s a huge part of it.” It made sense to put us all to the test. I should have felt confident that I’d already aced it, but that was against my nature.

“She’s my whole life,” Allie said, agreeing.

I didn’t begrudge her the way she repeated this sentiment so often.

If I had a kid—especially one as great as the little girl Allie had raised all by herself—I’d be a broken record about how much I loved them too.

She went on, upping the stakes. “And…I don’t know.

Maybe I need practice. Sharing her, I mean. Making space for…someone else.”

Gavin let out a long breath, nodding slowly. It wasn’t an answer to her proposal, but a sign he was giving it the kind of serious thought it deserved. I watched his face, but he was never easy to read. No matter how long I’d known him.

“Yeah, I’d like to meet her,” Cade finally said. I watched him meet Allie’s gaze head-on, his serious expression somehow softer than it usually was. Damn, we really were all absolutely smitten. “Whenever you think it’s right,” Cade added. “No rush.”

Allie looked stunned. And a little relieved. Still, she didn’t relax her shoulders. She turned to Gavin, who seemed to struggle to meet her eyes.

“You don’t have to decide right now,” she told him softly. Gavin gave a quick shake of his head—not a no, but a way to clear it. He took another long breath.

“There’s no other option,” he finally said, sounding resigned but somehow not as put-out as I’d expect. “If meeting her is important to you, and if…yeah. Yeah, I should meet her too. I want to.”

Allie’s posture seemed to melt, a snowman at the end of winter. She relaxed against her seat, and her thigh pressed against mine under the table, her warmth bolstering me.

“But,” I said, leaning forward, an idea I’d been turning over in my head for a while coming to the forefront all at once, “before any of that…how about the three of us take you on a date?”

Allie’s eyes snapped to mine. “What?”

Gavin choked on air. Cade blinked, looked at me, blinked again as if to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.

“You want to … what?” Allie asked.

“I want to take you on a real date,” I repeated. “We can take you out. All three of us. Together.”

“Like a group project?” Allie half laughed.

“Kind of,” I said with a grin. “But one where we all actually want to be there.”

“Do we though?” Gavin parried, and when Cade gave a light punch to his arm, he changed his tune. “Alright, okay, yes. I don’t have an issue with it.”

“So you weren’t joking?” Cade asked me. “You want us to group date her?”

“Why not?” I shrugged. “If we’re all in on it together, it feels less like…I don’t know, we’re trying to win something.”

“Trying to win me,” Allie corrected me, one brow raised in playful disapproval.

“Right, which would suck,” I agreed. “But if we take that out of it, I think it could work. I mean, this whole thing has been unconventional. We’re freaking married and we’ve never been on a proper date. Seems like we’re doing everything a little backwards, you know?”

Allie’s gaze met mine then, and there was something unspoken that passed between us.

Something that made my chest ache a little.

There was so little about the quickie wedding in Vegas that any of us remembered outside of the drag queen officiant, so I wasn’t delusional enough to think the visions that flashed through my mind of Allie smiling at me beside an archway of flowers were real memories.

Then there were other flashes, Allie in a white dress, Daphne at her side—crazy pipe dreams, but worth fighting for regardless.

“Speaking of which,” I said gently, “we still need to get the annulment sorted.”

Allie’s smile faltered, and it felt like a stone dropped to the bottom of my stomach. She nodded anyway. “Right. Yeah.”

“We’ll go meet with the lawyer together,” I decided on a whim. “And after that…our first real date.”

“What a way to celebrate our marriage ending,” Allie commented, laughing a little. It cleared away the weird, sad mist that had started to enshroud us.

There was silence in response. A heavy, thoughtful kind, but not quite as scary as it had been before. Eventually, Gavin broke it, deciding, “Fuck it. I’m in.”

Cade’s serious face broke into a little bit of a smile too. “Alright, yeah. Why the hell not?”

Allie looked at the three of us like we were slightly insane and completely impossible—and maybe we were.

But then she smiled. Really smiled, her face like sunshine and strawberries and cream and everything good in the world, as cheesy as that sounded.

She looked like hope, and I felt it all the way to my bones.

Even if we were doing things backwards, maybe we were still headed in the right direction.