The Brothers Rule - Carolyn Faulkner Page 0,66

was another week after that—a time during which the brothers insisted she take off before looking into building her business—that they were all sitting around in the family room. Tanner was at a friend's place, so it was just those of them who were in on the particulars of their agreement.

It was Nick who brought up the subject. "Do you guys want to talk about things now, or not?"

His inquiry was greeted mostly by shrugs.

But Jace could always be counted upon to ask the responsible question, "What is there that you think that we should discuss?"

"Well, as it stands, there's still the matter of health insurance for Laurie, which she now no longer has, unless you want to pay COBRA payments, which are exorbitant at best. Speaking as your—or her, rather—lawyer, that's really not a good thing, even assuming that she's in good health."

Adam rubbed his hand over his jaw at that, while Ryan and Jace sat forward. "We've given you all of the information about all of our available policies—is Adam still the best choice, do you think?"

"Best choice for what?" Laurie piped up. She was busy looking at jobs online, not that she was seeing anything different from what she'd seen a-zillion times before, and hadn't been paying much attention to the conversation.

The brothers looked at each other. How could they have all forgotten that she was there?

But they had.

"Well," Nick began. "We mentioned before that it would be best if you married one of… them, if only in order to be covered by their insurances."

That was a sobering thought. She'd been so involved in leaving work and all of the feelings that evoked that she'd not really spent any time further considering the marriage aspect of things.

"Oh."

Neither she nor three of the brothers was very happy with that reply.

But she wasn't sure what she should say, really.

Adam laced his fingers with hers. "Nick looked at what we have for benefits to offer you, and I have the best, apparently. So, you'd be marrying me." He frowned darkly. "And that's a horrible way to go about this, we know. You deserve so much better."

She squeezed his hand, responding softly with her heart in her voice, "I already have so much better—times three." Laurie caught each of their eyes. "As far as I'm concerned, and I'm sorry if I'm premature in saying this, but I feel like I'm already married to all of you—and absolutely no less so for the fact that there's more than one of you. I have triple the love in my life." She looked at Nick. "Plus some. I wouldn't voluntarily be anywhere else but right here."

"Except when we're spanking you," Ryan chipped in, for the express purpose of making her squeak in outrage, which she did.

"Stop that!"

The guys all gathered closer to her, two holding her hands and the other cupping her cheek.

"I think I can say, for my brothers, too, that we'd never want to be anywhere else, either, darlin'."

She squeezed their hands and rubbed her face against Jace's palm then moved a bit away from them.

"Good. So, the wedding is just a formality, really. I've never wanted any kind of big to-do, anyway. Maybe we could just have something really small? Maybe go to a JOP one afternoon and get it done?"

"I think that's a terrible idea."

They guys all came up with some variation of what Adam said.

"What? Why? If I'm the bride, shouldn't I be the one who wants some big shindig?"

"Yeah, well, it's kind of like you're marrying all of us at once, and we want it to be, well, something really nice and memorable," Jace finished a bit lamely.

"With a honeymoon!" Ryan piped up.

Laurie laughed. "All of us are going on a honeymoon?"

"Well, maybe we could break it up," Jace suggested. "You're marrying Adam, so you could go on a honeymoon with him. Then one of us could meet you and we could go wherever we wanted, and then the last guy could come and meet you, and go with you from there."

"And maybe the last two would have compensatorily longer honeymoons, since Adam gets you first and they're not the legal husband?"

Laurie rubbed her forehead at all of this.

"Guys, this is getting really complicated!"

Jace took her into his arms. "No, it's not. We'll take care of all of the details—anything that you don't want to see to yourself. We'll get married here, unless you object."

Her answer was immediate and heartfelt. "No, I love the ranch."

He smiled so lovingly