Potential Match [Ménage.com 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (2 page)

“Would you just shut the fuck up, Duke?” Des said, getting angry that Duke always had to piss on everything. “We’ve corresponded with her for a few of weeks now. Haven’t we got a feel for her? I don’t think she’ll run just because we have a reputation. We were honest and upfront about our past, just in case someone said something to her.”

“Alluding to something in an e-mail and having it spelled out for you by Mr. Ottmeyer are two different things, Des.” Duke rubbed his right shoulder, as he was prone to do when he was agitated. The old ranch injury bothered him more as he got older, but Duke was stubborn and refused to admit it. They were both in their early thirties, with Duke being the oldest, but ranch life could make thirty years feel like sixty. “I still say we would have had a better shot if we’d waited to meet her outside of town.”

“She’s been traveling so much with her designer business that might not have happened for another month,” Des explained, suppressing a groan when he saw Mrs. Wheelock join Bryn and Mr. Ottmeyer. That wasn’t a good combination at all. “Bryn said she was due down in Tucson first thing tomorrow to design some office building, which means she’ll probably only have an hour or so before she needs to get back on the road. Bryn said she wanted to make it to her hotel in time to get a good night’s rest. Do you still have a clear visual of her?”

“No,” Duke replied, picking up his coffee and taking a big gulp. “Why? What happened now?”

Des frowned, wishing they’d arrived earlier to snag a booth alongside the window. As it was, they’d had to take a table, which was not the most ideal setting for a first date. He’d been standing every minute to look out the window, waiting for her to arrive. Des figured it was best not to share the fact that Mrs. Wheelock had joined the conversation outside. Duke was liable to throw in the towel and head for the door.

“She looks familiar,” Des replied, deciding to go with the second thing that was floating around his head. Where had he seen her before?

“Who looks familiar?”

Des looked up to see Willow refilling Duke’s cup with more coffee. The young waitress seemed to be the only person in the town of Triple who got the fact that they wanted to turn their lives around. She had even said so a few weeks ago, but had given them the advice that the townsfolk needed longer to come to terms with the fact that the Winslow boys were hanging up their hats. What did they have to do to prove that they were done playing the field and having fun? Seeing their friends settle down, marry, and have families had made him and Duke realize they didn’t want to be alone anymore. Life would be fuller if they had someone to share the little things with. Cold beds were starting to equal a cold hearts, and their yellow lab, Spur, couldn’t warm them up like a woman could.

“We’re meeting a potential match from the dating website that Elise, Cyn, and Shea put together,” Des answered, straining his neck so he didn’t have to take his eyes off of Bryn. Since she’d walked to the corner, he had a good visual. If her expression were anything to go by, Mr. Ottmeyer was wigging her out about his talk of alien abductions. Either that, or Mrs. Wheelock was sharing stories about their youth and how Des and Duke fucked anything with two legs and a pussy. Mrs. Wheelock would probably put it in a more diplomatic way, but Des was certain that Bryn would get the gist of it. “She looks familiar to me and I can’t place it.”

“Oh man, Elise and Cyn will be thrilled if this works out. Their dating site has a very high success rate, you know,” Willow said, topping off Des’s coffee as well. “They said Shea was coming in from Chicago for a visit soon. She hasn’t been back since Elise got married, so it makes me wonder if Cyn, Cooper, and Brody aren’t secretly planning some nuptials.”

“And when are you going to finally take pity on Deputy Thornton?” Duke asked.

Des shook his head at Duke’s attempt to steer the conversation in another direction while still keeping his eye on Bryn. Duke was the superstitious type and didn’t want anything to jinx them. Des noticed that Mr. Ottmeyer had finally continued on, while Mrs. Wheelock turned on her heels and started to follow Bryn around the front of the diner. Shit, that wasn’t good either. Ever since Mrs. Wheelock’s husband passed away a couple years ago, she’d gotten into the habit of interfering in other people’s lives.

“I hear Sheriff Whittington is thinking of retiring and that Luke is considering taking over,” Duke said, continuing on with his torment of Willow’s love life.

“Deputy Thornton is almost ten years older than me,” Willow exclaimed, fidgeting with the pencil that was behind her ear. “I’m sure his interests lie within his own age group. As a matter of fact, I heard that his old flame was back in town. She used to go to school with—Oh my God!”

“What?”

Des and Duke spoke in unison, not knowing what had shocked Willow. Des looked up at her and saw that she was looking at the door, which had just jingled the bell above it. Both he and Duke followed her gaze, although Des knew who was standing there. He just didn’t know why Bryn would cause such a reaction in Willow. That was when he realized the entire diner was staring at Bryn with what could only be called amazement. What the hell was going on?

“Have you seen the paper today?” Willow whispered, as if afraid speaking too loud would cause Bryn to back up and walk back out the door. Mrs. Wheelock looked like a cat that just ate a canary for dinner. When her smile widened at the fact that she had everyone’s attention, Des figured maybe she’d eaten two canaries and expected to see yellow feathers sticking in between her teeth. What was going on?

Des saw Willow reach out for the
Courier
that Mr. Turner was holding toward her, indicating he’d been listening to their conversation. It was obvious that everyone knew something that they didn’t. When Willow placed the
Courier
on the table, both Des and Duke looked down. Staring up at them was a picture of Bryn Russell, with a headline that read:
Serial Killer Strikes Again!

Bryn felt like she was in one of her dreams where she entered a room to give a presentation of her designs, only to find herself naked in front of numerous strangers. She resisted the urge to look down to make sure she still had clothes on. Mrs. Wheelock’s fingers tightened on her elbow, which indicated the elderly woman was a lot stronger than she looked. From the devilish twinkle in the woman’s blue eyes, Bryn knew she should be wary. The minute the names Destry and Duke had left Bryn’s mouth, you would have thought she’d shouted out that she was fucking George Clooney and Brad Pitt at the same time. The way the people in the diner were looking at her, it seemed as if they thought she was out of her mind as well. Maybe Des hadn’t exaggerated his and Duke’s past history. In which case, maybe she’d better reconsider this date and hightail it out of Dodge.

“Bryn?”

She focused on the man who stood up from a table in the middle of the diner, his green eyes making contact with hers. This man was expecting her. Was this Destry or Duke? He was probably around six feet tall and had a body on him that would have every fireman in the state of Arizona jealous. His blond hair had some natural curls, although it had the appearance that a woman had just run her fingers through the soft strands. An image of him lying on a bed covered in red rose petals as he patted the mattress beside him, beckoning her to come join him, swam through her mind. Tingles ran up and down her arms, somehow making their way to her nipples. Her breath started to come out in shallow bursts, and it seemed as if everyone else fell off the face of the planet. He was her sole focus. Could the fairy tales she read as a little girl be true? Was there really love at first sight?

A coughing sound interrupted Bryn’s thoughts and pulled her back to the present. She knew a flush had stolen across her cheeks, and to prevent everyone from noticing, Bryn pasted a smile on her face before whispering out the side of her mouth and asking Mrs. Wheelock an obvious question. Her nervousness had taken a spike and instead of asking one question, Bryn found she couldn’t shut off her voice.

“Why is everyone staring at me? Is it because I’m here to meet Destry and Duke? I realize that they have a reputation, but they assured me that they were changing things around. They want something steady, which is why they joined the site. We seem to have a lot in common, but if this is the reaction I’m getting, it makes me think something else is going on. Is there?”

“Yes, dear,” Mrs. Wheelock answered, pushing Bryn toward the middle of the diner. Bryn stumbled, adding to her embarrassment, but caught herself as she came to stand in front of the blond Adonis. She’d never seen eyes so green before. They reminded her of the four-leaf clovers she tried to find as a child or the enchanted forest in her favorite fairy tale. “It’s because you look like the murder victim.”

Murder? A jolt of shock went through Bryn. Did the old bat just say something about a murder? Bryn was starting to not like Mrs. Wheelock. First, she had said that Mr. Ottmeyer was a little crazy for his beliefs in aliens when everyone knew he was referring to the ghost who roamed the old church grounds outside of town. That had been the first indication that Mrs. Wheelock was just as crazy as Mr. Ottmeyer. Mrs. Wheelock had gone on about how the legend started back in the nineteen-twenties that an old bank robber was killed by the local sheriff. Rumor had it that the bank robber had hidden his loot in the cemetery before he died and was protecting his treasure even during death. Bryn didn’t have the heart to tell her that she didn’t believe in ghosts.

If that wasn’t reason enough to be wary of Mrs. Wheelock, when she started on about Destry and Duke being cursed by the bookstore owner, Bryn knew for a fact that Mrs. Wheelock was off her rocker. Bryn then had to hear about drug dealers invading the town of Triple, along with ranch hands dealing in illegal poaching. Bryn failed to follow along, but after hearing that she resembled a murder victim, Bryn was thinking maybe the town of Triple wasn’t so cute after all.

“Thank you, Mrs. Wheelock.” The man in front of her took pity on her and leaned down to give Mrs. Wheelock a kiss on the cheek, causing Mrs. Wheelock to release her arm. “We were worried when Bryn was late, but now that we know she was with you, we feel a lot better.”

“Oh, Des, I was just filling her in on our town.” Mrs. Wheelock laughed and tugged on Des’s arm to bring him closer. In a loud stage whisper, she said, “I told her about Celeste’s curse. I thought she should know.”

So this was Destry. He must go by Des, which seemed to suit him more. The man sitting down had to be Duke, as he looked very similar to Des. He, too, had blond hair and green eyes. His hair was on the shorter side, while his face was just a tad bit longer, although no less handsome. Duke was staring at her, as if he were studying a bug underneath a microscope. He was making her nervous, and Bryn stifled the urge to shift her feet. God help her if they asked her a question right now, as she would probably talk fifty miles an hour.

“Now you know that we made up with Celeste,” Des replied, his green eyes lighting with humor. “And if I catch you hanging out with Mr. Ottmeyer anymore, I’m going to think you’re going as crazy as he is.”

Bryn had been thinking the same thing, although Des said it with such wittiness that Mrs. Wheelock just laughed and patted his cheek. “You just treat Bryn right, and maybe she’ll make Triple her home. We could do with a good designer. You kids have fun now.”

Bryn didn’t know whether to be relieved when Mrs. Wheelock left the diner, or if she should join her. Everyone’s attention was still on them, while Duke stood up beside Des and presented a united front. Oh, boy. What a picture they made.

“Bryn, I apologize that we had to meet this way. I’m Des and this is Duke.” Instead of offering his hand like she thought he would, Des leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. His soft lips brushed her skin, making her feel as if he’d just lit her on fire. Images of those firefighters came back to mind, but they had nothing on the men standing in front of her. No wonder Mrs. Wheelock had giggled like a schoolgirl. Des stepped away, and Duke took his place, kissing her on the other cheek. Was it possible to have an orgasm this way? “Please sit down, Bryn. I know that you need to be on your way to Tucson soon, and we’d like to spend as much time as we can with you.”

Bryn bit her lip to keep herself from speaking, knowing she was still a little too nervous to come across as sane. She didn’t want them comparing her to Mr. Ottmeyer. Taking the seat that Duke had pulled out for her, Bryn sat down and placed her purse on the back of the chair. She was grateful when the waitress came over and poured her a cup of coffee. It delayed the need to converse.

“Welcome to Triple. I’m Willow.” The young girl placed a couple creamers down on the table. “Whatever you hear, trust me when I tell you that Des and Duke are good guys.”

Bryn didn’t quite know what to say to that, so she just nodded and smiled. Duke was rubbing his right shoulder, while Des was running his fingers through his hair. No wonder it looked in disarray. Bryn wondered if it was as soft as it looked and resisted the urge to run her fingers through his hair for him.

“Thanks, Willow,” Des replied, picking up his coffee cup. He leaned back in his chair, straightening one leg out. Could the man ooze any more sex appeal? “We’ll let you know if we need anything else.”

“If you’d like to run now, we’d understand.”

“Duke!” Des looked offended and then downright angry. When Duke made a grunting sound, that was when Bryn realized that Des had kicked him underneath the table. She resisted the urge to laugh. “What my brother meant to say is that we hope Mr. Ottmeyer and Mrs. Wheelock haven’t scared you away. They usually mind their own business, but ever since Mrs. Wheelock’s husband passed away, she’s been meddling in other people’s business.”