Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 79499 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79499 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
In the yard, a huge wooden table that seats fourteen is flanked by a smaller round table that has been set up to accommodate us. The grill is the biggest I’ve ever seen, and the amount of meat sizzling would make a butcher weep with joy. Someone has prepared a garden salad, coleslaw and some delicious-looking potato salad with scallions and corn.
There’s even a burger station with sliced onions and cheese, jalapenos and pickles, and five different sauces. I feel like I’ve dropped into my own personal slice of heaven.
While Cora helps Maggie bring out plates and glasses, a big guy called John hands out beers and told us about the great local butcher they get their meat from. Apparently, it’s all locally reared. None of that antibiotic and growth hormone-filled crap you get in the big stores. “That stuff messes with your body,” he says. “Kills all the good bacteria in your gut and messes with your hormones and metabolism.”
“His body is his temple,” another guy says. He has a twin. Is it Hunter or Harley? God, I’m terrible with names.
“Yeah, and your body is a temple by default,” John says. “What I buy for this house gets eaten by us all. I get especially worried about little Dale. I want him to grow up strong and healthy.”
“He sure looks like he is,” Alden says, looking over at the little boy currently running around the yard kicking a soccer ball.
“He wants to play ball like his daddies,” John says. “But Maggie’s not so sure.”
“Why? The concussion thing?” I ask because it plays on my mind too. How many minor head injuries have I suffered over the years? Too many to count.
“Yeah, and the fact that all of us who aren’t playing professionally are carrying around the injuries we sustained over the years.”
“I hear you,” Tobias says, rolling his right shoulder that’s always the one giving him trouble.
“Anyway, whatever Maggie decides, we’re with her,” Donovan says, or is it Dwayne? These identical twins and triplets are so hard to keep track of.
“Really? You wouldn’t argue about it?” Mark asks.
He shakes his head. “As far as I’m concerned, that woman grew that child inside her and went through hell to birth him. She has his best interests at heart in all things. We all would have loved a mom to care about us the way she cares about him, and none of us will interfere.”
“We lost our mom , too,” Danny says softly.
“So you know,” John says. He flips the burgers over one by one, and they all sizzle like crazy, emitting the most delicious scent.
“When Maggie moved in, all the feminine influence that was missing in this house was suddenly restored. She brought everything together.”
“Is that why you guy’s ended up…” I don’t really know how to label their relationship, so I pause, racking my brain for the best way to put it.
“Ended up with the same woman?” John asks.
I nod, my eyes drifting over to Cora, who’s laying silverware around the tables. In her denim shorts and a red retro sports shirt, she looks like a girl who’s been portaled in from a nineties music video. She bites her bottom lip, and I run my tongue over the seam of my own mouth, imagining what hers would taste like.
I get what John’s saying. I’ve felt the same since Cora moved in. It’s a subtle shift to have a woman in the house. A change in atmosphere that I can’t quite explain.
“None of us wanted to move out of this house. It’s been the only home most of us have ever truly felt loved in. Going out into the world separately to make our own families felt like a sacrifice of everything we’d built. When Maggie arrived, she just fit in perfectly.”
“And you don’t find sharing her difficult?” I ask, feeling the heat rising in my cheeks as I realize the implication of my question.
“What we lose in alone time, we gain in family connection. All relationships are a balancing act. But Maggie’s so good at being what we all need while remaining true to herself. It’s a skill, and not everyone would be good at it.”
“And none of you feel jealous?” Danny asks, gazing over at Cora too. I wonder if he’s thinking the same crazy thing as me.
“Nope,” they all say at the same time and then laugh, clinking their beer bottles. “Now, if only one of us got the chance to be with Maggie, the rest of us would be green with envy. But we are one unit. One big, perfect, messy, crazy unit,” John says.
“Are you done with those burgers yet?” Maggie calls from the deck.
“Yep,” John says. He grabs a platter and begins to flip all the burgers from the grill. “Food’s up!”
The afternoon passes so quickly. We eat and drink and enjoy the company. I watch Maggie and her men and how perfectly they all work together. There is always someone to take care of little Dale, and the chores are shared between them all. Rather than witnessing a lot of conflict, it’s like watching a well-oiled machine.