Rhythm of Three (Rule of Three) (6 page)

“This drug works by increasing blood flow to the penis,” Chris read, grinning. “Sexual activity may put extra strain on your heart. If you have severe dizziness, fainting, chest, jaw or left arm pain while having sex, stop and get medical help right away.” He looked up. “I do actually get dizzy when I have a hard-on, but that’s just because my dick is so big it drains all the blood from the rest of my body.”

The others roared with laughter and the guys hooted with derision. Kassidy met Dag’s eyes and they shared a private smile.

“In your dreams,” Matt called.

“Hey,” Jeff said. “What do you get when you cross an owl and a rooster?” After a beat of expectant silence, he answered, “A cock that stays up all night long.”

The laughter this time was accompanied by groans.

“This stuff comes with a warning,” Chris added. “If you have a painful or prolonged erection lasting four or more hours, stop using this drug and get medical help right away.”

“Fuck,” Brandon said. “If I had an erection that lasted four hours, I’d call you all and brag about it.”

“I had one that lasted all through tenth grade,” Jeff said.

Sarah laughed along with everyone else and gave his shoulder a shove. “If you had an erection that lasted longer than four hours, it would be
me
who needed medical attention.”

On top of the joke gifts, though, a bunch of their friends went in together and signed Chris up for a Beer of the Month Club where he’d get different craft beers delivered every month.

“That is pretty damn cool,” he said, reading the pamphlet they gave him. “Thanks.”

Kassidy’s friend Danielle was there and meeting Dag for the first time, since she’d been away traveling in Europe for the first part of her summer vacation. She was a teacher and spent part of every summer traveling.

“Holy hell, Kass,” she whispered after she’d been introduced. “He is
hawt
.”

Kassidy laughed. “Yep.”

“And single…right?”

Kassidy gazed at her friend, her stomach dropping. Okay, awkward moment number one. Shit. “Uh…yeah.”

Danielle’s eyes brightened and she clutched her mojito. “Excellent.”

Kassidy didn’t want Danielle making a play for Dag. He was hers. Hers and Chris’s. But what was she supposed to say? She nibbled her bottom lip as she watched Danielle bop her way across the room to the bouncy rhythm of Daft Punk singing “Get Lucky”, over to Dag’s side and commenced flirting with him. Danielle was a cute little blonde and good at flirting.

Danielle was her best girlfriend. Kassidy should tell her. She and Dag and Chris might agree to not tell the others, but Danielle should know. But did Kassidy need to get Chris and Dag to agree to it before sharing that with Danielle?

Shit.

Also, it wasn’t fair to put Dag in that position, a girl coming on to him that he had to deal with. And how many times could that happen before people started wondering why he kept pushing away girls?

Dag, however, was a natural-born flirt, and clearly very experienced at this, and he smiled and charmed Danielle without leading her on. Funny, Kassidy never felt jealous of Dag being with Chris, but she felt a little twinge now watching him flirt with Danielle. Stupid. She remembered his first night back when they’d gone out to Kiss, the girls who’d surrounded him all night. But he’d ended up back at their place, with her and Chris. And that was how it would go tonight too. She needed to remember that.

She looked over at Chris, talking to Brandon and Matt and Cole, watched him throw back his head and laugh at something, and caught the faint flash of silver at his throat. He was wearing Dag’s chain. And he was having a great time with their friends. Her heart expanded with warmth. Yeah, there were going to be awkward moments. She just hoped they could get through them all.

Chapter Five

The party went late Friday night since their friends refused to leave until nearly three in the morning, which meant they slept until noon. Kassidy had to jump out of bed and race to get ready to meet Hailey for lunch at Circe, a little bistro not far away. It had a cute patio and she’d envisioned them sitting out there, but the day was overcast and drizzly, so they sat inside.

“How was the party last night?” Hailey asked as the server poured them coffee.

Kassidy grabbed her cup gratefully, still a little groggy and maybe a tiny bit hungover. “It was great. We had so much fun. We’ll have another one for Dag, since he turns thirty in a few weeks, and maybe you can come.”

“Give me a little more notice than four days.”

“Yeah. Sorry about that. I’d completely lost track of when Chris’s birthday was. Things were a little, uh…crazy.”

“No shit,” Hailey said dryly.

Kassidy picked up a menu. She hadn’t even had breakfast and it was one o’clock. She settled on a broccoli frittata and Hailey ordered a spinach salad. When the server left, Hailey eyed her across the small oak table. “So? Give me all the gory details. Last time I saw you, you were sobbing and heartbroken. Now you look…well, actually you look kind of hungover.”

“Gee, thanks.”

Hailey grinned. “But happy.”

Kassidy sighed and smiled. “You’re right on both counts. Few too many margaritas last night, and stayed up waaaaay too late. But yeah…” she met her sister’s eyes, “…I’m happy.”

“Dag’s still here.”

“Yes.” Kassidy filled her in on what had happened.

Hailey listened, mostly without comment, just a few nods and “Oh wow” and “Really?” comments. When Kassidy got to the part about Chris’s feelings for Dag, Hailey sat back in her chair wide-eyed and said, “No shit. Seriously?”

“You’re the only one we’re telling right now,” Kassidy said, leaning forward. “This is all new to us too. I wanted you to know. After we talked that night, you knew most of it anyway.”

“You’re still not telling Mom and Dad.”

“No.” Their eyes met. “We talked about it and we will tell them, but Hailey…I would never tell them about you.”

“I know.” Hailey pressed her lips together. “I won’t tell them about you either. But…I have to admit…it really is two different things.”

“Uh…
yeah
.” Kassidy wasn’t sure which would be more shocking for their parents, but it was definitely different. “We’re going to have to tell them…at some point. We thought we’d let them get to know Dag better, accept that he’s living with us, and then when we break the news that we’re all in a poly relationship, hopefully they’ll already love him.”

“Huh. That’s optimistic.”

Kassidy bit her lip. “You think so?”

“They
are
going to be shocked, Kass, no matter what. Especially because it’s you. If it were me…they’d just roll their eyes.”

Kassidy sat back in her chair and sipped her coffee. “We need to talk about that.”

“About what?”

“About why that is. Why you can get away with all kinds of stuff, but if I do it they’ll be shocked.”

“Kassidy. You’re the good one. You’ve always been the good one.”

Kassidy gazed at her sister. “Can we not talk like that?”

Hailey frowned. “Like what?”

“Like…using labels. Like me being the ‘good one’ and you the ‘bad girl’. That doesn’t help anything. And let’s not talk about all the ways I’ve felt wronged by you, or you by me. Let’s not list our grievances. That’s not going to help. I…I want things to change between us.”

Hailey stared at her, holding her own cup of coffee aloft. She blinked. “Oookay. But…” she dropped her gaze, “…I’m not sure I know how to do that.”

Kassidy sucked briefly on her bottom lip. “The thing I realized when we talked that night is that we don’t know how things look through each other’s eyes, or how things feel for each other. You said you were jealous of me because I had Chris and he loved me. But I always felt like you mocked us because we were boring.”

Hailey opened her mouth to say something and Kassidy held up a hand. “Just let me finish. That was how it came across to me, even if that wasn’t your intention. I’m just sharing that. And I always felt jealous of you, with your wild and carefree lifestyle, all the guys you attracted so easily.”

Hailey’s eyes widened.

Kassidy took a breath. This was hard. Making yourself so vulnerable to someone who could hurt you. Scary.

“I know you felt you couldn’t compete with me for Mom and Dad’s attention, because I got good marks and won awards. So you went the other way and tried to be bad, but…I felt the same. I couldn’t attract boys like you did. I didn’t get invited to all the parties like you did, so I stayed home and studied. But sometimes I hated staying home and studying on a Saturday night.”

Hailey’s eyes softened. “I see what you’re saying.”

Kassidy nodded. Her insides tightened but she wanted to do this. “Dag told me that you can choose your friends, and choose who to love. And that’s true. If you have a friend who makes you feel inadequate, you can dump them. But you can’t just dump your family. You’re always going to be there—Christmas, Thanksgiving, anniversaries—I want to be friends with you, Hailey. You’re my sister. So let’s try to make it better.”

After a short pause, Hailey said, “Okay.”

Kassidy sucked in a breath through her nose, not sure where to go next. “So. There are things I admire about you. Like I said, the way you attract guys, the way it’s so easy for you to flirt and have fun with them. I actually admire the fact that you’re happy doing the job you do—the bartending, I mean,” she added hastily. “Yeah, I was probably kind of judgy in the past, thinking you could do better, but if you’re happy with it, that’s what’s important.”

“Okay,” Hailey said, lifting her chin. “Let me tell you about my career. I don’t consider myself a bartender. I consider myself a mixologist.”

Kassidy blinked.

“And I’m actually the head bartender at Kiss now. Which is one of the hottest nightclubs in Chicago. Also, there aren’t that many women head bartenders. I’ve taken a lot of courses, including some business courses. I’ve created new cocktails that we’ve added to the menu at Kiss, and they’ve actually been reviewed by some food magazines and blogs, and have gotten great reviews.”

Kassidy blinked again. Holy crap.

“I entered a competition in New York next month for female mixologists,” Hailey continued. “And I’m tossing around the idea of starting my own mixology consulting business.”

Kassidy’s forehead tightened. “Uh…what would you do?”

“I’d act as a consultant to bars and restaurants and hotels to improve their cocktail list. Also, help them improve their bartenders’ knowledge, and how their bar is set up. Every time I go to another bar, I look at things like that and analyze it, and there are a lot of places that could do better.” Hailey’s eyes met Kassidy’s, and the passion in her voice gave Kassidy a warm, soft feeling in her chest.

“Wow, Hailey. I’m sorry I didn’t know all that.”

“It’s just an idea,” she said with a shrug. “Do you think it’s crazy?”

“It doesn’t sound crazy, but I had no idea there was even a demand for something like that.”

“I’m not sure there is, which is why it might be crazy. But I have a lot of connections in the business, and I think I’m pretty well-respected.” She started talking more about her vision. “It’s not only about the drinks on the menu, making sure the menu is balanced and seasonal, but also the type of clientele they have, the location—that makes a difference, whether your menu can support funky new drinks or if you should stay with the classics. I’d build the list, do training for the staff and then maybe have a launch party. That would be good for business. Then I’d do more sales analysis later on to see what’s working and what’s not.”

“Wow,” Kassidy said again. “I feel like shit that I didn’t know this stuff about you, Hailey.”

Hailey’s smile was crooked. “Well. I never told you. But…thanks for being interested.”

“So.” Kassidy looked down. “What about that porn movie you starred in?”

After Kassidy hurtled out of the bed, leaving Dag and Chris alone, Dag lay on his belly, one arm up under the pillow. He listened to Kassidy crashing around in the bathroom getting ready to go, then muttering as she dressed. He lifted his head to peer at her in the dim bedroom, the blinds shutting out most of the morning light. “You okay, babe?”

“Yeah, just running late,” she hissed. “Where are my flip-flops, for fuck’s sake?”

He smiled into the pillow. Her language got worse when she was stressed. Cute.

Moments later, he heard the outside door close and quiet settled back over the condo.

Dag reached out a hand and found Chris, clasping a hand over his bare shoulder, warm and strong. “You awake, man?” he murmured.

Silence.

Jesus. How had he slept through all that female ruckus?

He let his hand move over Chris’s smooth skin, down his back, then up. They were alone. In bed. Naked. For the first time ever.

Then Chris shifted, slowly rolling to his back. “What time is it?” he mumbled.

“Not sure. Noon. Past noon.”

“Shit. Slept in.”

“Yeah. Late night.” Dag’s hand now found Chris’s hard chest.