Bed of Roses Page 0,55

and stalked back to his great room for a beer. "How long have you been moving in on her?"

"I didn't move in on her. If anything we moved in on each other. For Christ's sake, Del, she's a grown woman, she makes her own choices. It's not like I twirled my moustache and stole her virginity."

"Watch it," Del warned, then the temper in his eyes went lethal. "You slept with her?"

"Let's back it up." Not a good start, Cooke, he thought. Not the best of springboards. "Let's just back it up."

"Yes or no, goddamn it."

"Yes, goddamn it. I slept with her, she slept with me. We slept with each other."

Something murderous flashed in Del's eyes. "I ought to beat you senseless."

"You can try. We'll both end up in the ER. And when I get out, I'm still going to sleep with her."

Something equally deadly flared in Jack's. "It's none of your fucking business."

"The hell it isn't."

Because he felt he had more strikes on the wrong side of the column than Del, Jack nodded. "Okay, given the circumstances, it's your business. But it's not your right to tell either of us who to be with."

"How long?"

"It just happened. It just started turning on me, on us, I guess, the last couple of weeks."

"A couple of weeks." Del bit off the words "And you didn't say anything to me about it."

"No, I didn't, mostly to try to avoid getting punched in the face." Jack yanked open the fridge, got out a beer. "I knew you wouldn't like it, and I hadn't figured out how to explain."

"You didn't have any trouble explaining it to everyone else, apparently."

"No, I didn't, but then everyone else wasn't going to smash their bare fists into my face because I'm sleeping with a beautiful, interesting, willing woman."

"She's not any woman. She's Emma."

"I know that." Frustration piqued to beat down the anger. "I know who she is, and I know how you feel about her. About all of them. Which is why I kept my hands off her until . . . recently," he finished, and held the cold bottle to his throbbing jaw. "I've always had a thing for her, but I set it aside. 'Just don't go there, Jack.' Because you wouldn't like it, Del. You're my closest friend."

"You've had a thing for a lot of women."

"That's right," Jack said evenly.

"Emma isn't the type you sleep with until you catch wind of something new. She's the kind you make promises to, make plans with."

"For God's sake, Del, I'm just getting used to . . ." He didn't make plans or promises - ever. Plans changed, didn't they? Promises got broken. Keeping it loose was keeping it honest.

"We were together one night. We're still figuring things out. And cut me a small break here. However many women I've been with I've never lied to them or treated them with anything but respect."

"April Westford."

"Jesus, Del, we were in grad school, and she was stalking me. She was a lunatic. She tried to break into our house. She keyed my car. She keyed your car."

Del paused, took a swig of beer. "All right, you've got a point with that one. Emma's different. She's different."

"That small break, Del? I know she's different. Do you think I don't care about her? That it's just the sex?" Unable to stand still, Jack paced from the bar to the counter and back again. It unnerved him, the depth of the caring. It was twisted up enough already without his best friend going off about promises, about Emma being different.

"I've always cared about Emma. About all of them. You know that. You damn well know that."

"Have you had sex with the rest of them, too?"

Jack took a long sip, and thought the hell with it. "I kissed your sister. Parker, since right now you're thinking of all of them as your sister. Back in college, after we ran into each other at a party."

"You hit on Parker?" It wasn't temper now but sheer shock that radiated. "Do I even know who you are?"

"I didn't hit on her. We bumped lips. It seemed like the thing to do at the time. Then, since it felt like kissing my sister, and she had pretty much the same reaction, we had a good laugh about it, and that was that."

"Did you try out Mac next? Laurel?"

His eyes went hard and hot; his fingers itched to make another fist. "Oh yeah, I went through them all. That's what I