The Brothers Rule - Carolyn Faulkner Page 0,11

all "oohed" and "ahhed" satisfactorily, to the point that she asked them if they wanted to get a room, when she presented each of them with a plate that contained a large wedge of carrot cake cheesecake.

And the sounds they made at their first bites were even more obscene.

"You're not having any?" Ryan asked.

"I—the only normal person at the table—am still stuffed full of lasagna, salad, and bread. I'll have some later, if you three don't take it all home with you."

"There are leftovers?"

You would have thought she was offering them the Holy Grail.

"There are, and I even have plastic containers in which you can all take some with you."

How they said it in unison without rehearsing it, she'd never know, "Marry us!"

She just grinned at them. "I don't think the state of Texas condones polygamy, so I shall politely decline your generous offers." Then she scrunched her face up in thought. "Is it still polygamy if one woman marries three men, I wonder?"

"Dunno, don't care," Adam said, still rhapsodizing over his cake.

When they were done and everyone had coffee, she brought them all into her equally tiny living room. There were exactly enough chairs to go around. Adam and Ryan on the rose bouquet upholstered loveseat, Jace in one color-coordinated wing back chair, Laurie in the other.

"So?" Jace prompted when she seemed a bit lost as to how to start. "There's something you want to tell us?"

"Yeah, I do. And I won't beat around the bush about it. I want to continue to date all three of you. I don't think I could choose among you if I had to. I—" Laurie very nearly said that she loved all three of them, but she caught herself in time. "I am very fond of all of you."

Jace was happy that he was still going to get to see her, but he was a little disappointed that she hadn't chosen him, and the other brothers were feeling much the same way.

"Well, then," he said, wanting to get the jump on his brothers, "how about going out with me tomorrow night?"

"That's a Sunday; she has to work the next day!" Adam brought up. "And it's not fair for you to go first."

Jace had the answer ready that he'd been using all his life. "I'm the eldest. I have seniority."

But then Laurie mentioned, "Yes, but I met and began to date Adam first, so I think that, technically, as pertains to me, he has seniority."

"Damn straight!" he agreed.

It seemed as if this might descend into chaos, with the brothers fighting amongst themselves, which was the last thing she wanted.

So, while they were haranguing each other about who got to date her when, she stood up, hands on her hips, carefully and deliberately looking each one of them in the eye and saying firmly, "Look. This is kind of a weird situation, I know, and I genuinely want to spend more time with all three of you before I make any kind of permanent decision, so I'm glad that you're all okay with that.

"But I'm also not going to allow myself to be a cause of any kind of strife amongst you. If I get any kind of a hint that anyone is being jealous or possessive about me to the other two behind my back, that's it for all of you. I'm just a woman you're dating, but you guys are brothers, and I won't do anything to jeopardize your relationships with each other. Who knows whether or not I'll join your family, but you guys already are one, and I should not come ahead of that."

Jace gave her a proud look, murmuring under his breath, "Hear, hear."

She blushed when he winked at her.

The other two were a bit more grudging about it, but she stood firm, and they came around. By then, she was sitting again.

"Okay, I have a question that I already answered when Jace put it to me—"

She was interrupted by Ryan snickering at that, and everyone stared at him.

"What? She said 'put it to me'." He continued snickering.

"How old are you, again?" Adam asked sarcastically, and Ryan shut up immediately.

Laurie ignored him and picked up where she'd left off, "—Jace asked me a question Sunday, not long after he told me that I'm a shallow, oblivious person who, like an idiot, didn't notice that the three men she was dating were effing brothers."

Jace frowned. "I didn't say any such thing to you, Laurie."

Her bottom twitched at that—it was that