Tiny Dancer [Divine Creek Ranch 13] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (39 page)

“Oh, look at this, Camilla.” His mom lifted his baby blankie out.
Mom’s going for the big guns now.

Quinten could see Camilla blinked rapidly as his mom placed it in her hands. Camilla stroked it lovingly. “This was his…b–baby blanket?” The pause and stammer was minute, but she held it together.

His mom smiled and patted it. “I thought I’d bring all these things since we’ll be putting the house on the market soon. His baby pictures are also in there. Look.”

“Mom.
Mom
. The stores are gonna be full if y’all don’t skedaddle.” He had a feeling he knew which one she was looking for when she gasped happily.

“
Here
it is!” She held up an old print from when he was a preschooler. “You have to understand he has a sister who is six years older than him.”

Camilla’s jaw dropped, and she let out a squeak. Quinten walked to the coffeepot, suddenly needing another cup. Just as he’d feared. His mom
loved
embarrassing him like this. She’d told him when he was growing up and giving her hell that she looked forward to the day when she could embarrass him in front of his girlfriend. He braced himself for the next one as well, which would undoubtedly be a nude baby picture.

Camilla regained the power of speech and held the picture up. “Pink is your color, baby!” His sister had played dress-up with him and had a tea party. There were pictures to prove it.

“He was four, and Pamela bargained with him to play tea party in exchange for playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with him.”

Quinten hid a grin and sipped his coffee as Camilla looked back at him with glowing eyes. “I was a kick-ass Leonardo.” He nearly spilled his coffee and put out his back when he tried to bust a Ninja Turtle move.

“Okay, MC Hammer,” his mom said as she turned back to the suitcase and then glanced at him with wicked glee in her eyes. “Feast your eyes, honey.”

She handed Camilla the nude, and Camilla squealed loudly. “Look at that tush!”

Ben chuckled at his expense as he looked over Camilla’s shoulder. “Got a big old grin on his face too.”

Camilla slid her arm around his waist when he came close and looked at it. She kissed him and said, “I recognize that smile.” The love in her eyes made the abject humiliation so much easier to bear.

* * * *

“I have to tell you, sweetie, that was the most fun I’ve had in quite a while,” Bridget Parks said, referring to the suitcase of memories, as Camilla opened the door to Stigall’s Department Store for her.

“I haven’t laughed that much in a long time.”

Bridget turned to her in the vestibule and in a conspiratorial tone, she said, “I remember telling the boy, ‘If you keep giving me such hell, I’ll revisit it upon you when you get a girlfriend.’ And I’ve been looking forward to this day ever since.” She smiled up at Camilla, tiny thing that she was, and patted her arm.

It dawned on Camilla that she meant none of his other girlfriends had ever seen any of those precious possessions she’d brought with her.

“I also have another box filled with more of his baby photos for you.”

“For me?”

Bridget patted her forearm and winked at her. “Of course.” Camilla wanted to just stand there and hug the little woman. They’d been playing the game of ‘is-she-pregnant-or isn’t-she?’ since the night before. “Quinten was my late-in-life-baby, and I’ve prayed that he would find a nice girl since he was a babe in my arms.” She smiled at Camilla, and she had to fight tears of her own when Bridget’s kind eyes reddened and her lip quivered. “And I think he done good. They both did,” she whispered with a wink and a nudge.

Camilla blushed to the roots of her hair. They’d been careful to not be obvious with that aspect of their relationship, but Bridget must’ve seen more than she let on.

“It’s okay, sweetie. I may be old, but I’m not dead. And I do have eyes. You obviously love them both very much. I think it’s wonderful…the thought of having two men love you, who are there for you. And the reality is that you’ll be less lonely when you’re old, if one passes. Oh…don’t mind my morbidity. I’m just an old woman trying to get into heaven.” Bridget flapped her hand as she glanced surreptitiously at Camilla and sniffed.

Camilla chuckled. “You’re not fooling me, Bridget. You’re ageless.” Quinten’s mother was spryer than she let on as they walked together.

“Crap, I was hoping the old woman act might fool you into spilling it.”

Camilla gave Bridget her best innocent look. “Spill what?”

Bridget snorted and then motioned at a display of high heels. “In my day, I owned heels like that in every color. I told Bill that when I die I want to be laid out in my best evening dress and the highest heels he can find.”

Camilla giggled and said, “I should show you my collection sometime.”

“With our height issues, every inch counts, right?”

Camilla nodded and put her arm around Bridget, feeling such kinship with her.

They spent a pleasant half hour wandering around the department store, finding Christmas gifts for loved ones. They were in the baby department, where she was shopping for something for Rosemary’s baby, which was due in February, and Rachel’s son, Levi, who had just turned a year old.

“What about this?” Bridget said, handing her a velvety-soft sleeper in a beautiful shade of sparkling blue. The color was so intense, it reminded Camilla of Quinten’s eyes, which she loved. She wondered if the baby would have her green eyes, or of it would have Quinten’s eyes, or Ben’s for that matter. Because they’d stopped using condoms fairly early on, the baby could just as easily be his, with riveting dark-brown eyes that would make her heart melt.

She heard a soft gasp, and then Bridget’s face broke into a big, beaming smile. “
Gotcha
!”

Camilla looked down and realized she was stroking her abdomen the same way she had the sleeper and Quinten’s baby blanket.

“
Crap
! How did you know?”

Bridget shook with laughter and waved a hand at her before hugging her. “Oh, sweetie, you have tells. This old lady could spot an expectant mother from a mile away. I was just waiting for you to really give yourself away so you’d feel like you’d put in a good effort. To be honest, you have a beautiful glow.” Looking around, she asked, “Any guesses which one the father is?”

“Nothing definitive, but Quinten is in the lead.” She couldn’t
believe
she was having this conversation with Quinten’s mother in the middle of Stigall’s Department Store.

Bridget balled up her little hands and shook them with glee as she did a little jig. “I’m gonna be a grandma. Let’s check out and go get lunch somewhere.” She checked her watch and crowed with happiness.

“What?”

“I bet Bill five dollars I could catch you giving yourself away before noon and it’s eleven thirty!”

Camilla couldn’t help but laugh.

She took Bridget to Rosalie’s Café for a light ladies’ lunch.

“Can I ask a question?”

“Sure,” Camilla replied as she took a sip of her lemonade.

“What do you do about holding hands, showing your feelings? Things like that?”

Camilla explained a little of her history, and that she’d worked with both men a long time, and that she didn’t plan on letting public opinion stop her from holding Quinten or Ben’s hands. “But I’m also not flaunting my relationship with Ben and Quinten. I probably get more flack for being a former exotic dancer than I do for—”

Bridget’s eyebrows arched with interest. “You were an exotic dancer?
Really
?”

Bracing for her to change her attitude, since this was evidently the first she was hearing of it, Camilla nodded.

“Tell me, what was that like?”

Not
the question she was expecting. She told Bridget a little about her years as an exotic dancer and smiled when Bridget understood, though obviously romanticized it to a certain extent.

“Well, that explains why you’re so graceful, and so…comfortable with yourself,” Bridget finally said as she dug into her pecan pie. “I could never dance my way out of a paper bag. So…have they proposed? You might as well tell me. No sense in keeping that a secret, really.”

“Yes, they have, and I said yes.”

“Which man?”

“Quinten.”

Bridget nodded knowingly. “His sister could never understand how he could beat her at Rock, Paper, Scissors if she just gave him a few rounds.”

Camilla’s jaw dropped. “How did you know?”

“Same way I knew with you. Quinten is a people watcher. He must’ve seen Ben’s tells.”

“I still can’t believe I decided which man I’ll marry based on three rounds of Rock, Paper, Scissors.”

“Oh, goodness. Ben must be
easy
to read.”

Camilla laughed. “Not for me!”
He must’ve been playing me that night we played strip poker, the horndog. He just wanted out of his clothes!
She took another bite of her lemon meringue pie and said, “I’m going people-watching with you sometime.”

“Come visit me in Dallas, or go with me on a gambling cruise, and I’ll teach you everything I know.”

Camilla had a vision of Bridget eyeing her cards with her best poker face and giggled until her stomach muscles hurt. “I’d love it. Tell me something.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Growing up, did he have a lot of girlfriends?” She wanted to know if there was anyone else in his past like the woman who had hurt him so irrevocably in Dallas.

“Tons,” Bridget said without hesitation. “That boy hit about…age
four
and discovered women. All ages, didn’t matter. The little Don Juan adored every one of his female teachers, even the mean ones. He loved to dance, loved to talk, loved to date.” She rolled her eyes and giggled. “Our phone rang off the wall when he was in high school. He didn’t usually date the same girl very often, but he did get his heart broken a couple of times—over the usual stuff. One thing I will say for him, as much as he’s loved women all his life, he’s never embarrassed us or brought shame on our family. I’m everlastingly grateful for that. He’s also never been as serious about a woman as he seems to be about you. If he adores women, he worships you, my dear.”

“I love him very, very much. Ben, too.” Hot tears prickled in her eyes which she valiantly blinked away.

“Have you set a date?”

“I won’t have time to plan anything until after The Twisted Bull and Chantilly’s Steakhouse opens later this month. I’d love to just elope and go somewhere there is snow. I love wintertime, but our cold weather is pretty mild here.”

“Well, he’s a big boy. Make each other happy. Just so I get to babysit my grandchild occasionally.”

Camilla smiled, thinking she could do a lot worse for a mother-in-law than Bridget.

“I’ll miss them,” Camilla said Sunday night. They stood in the yard waving as Quinten’s parents left for the return journey home. Ben knew Quinten felt like he’d been run through the wringer, but he enjoyed being around them, seeing the way they interacted with each other so honestly. And, all kidding aside, they were a loving family, too. Ben liked that Quinten brought that life experience to their threesome.

Despite the “suitcase torture treatment,” Quinten looked a little sad to see them go, too.

“I know what we need to do,” Ben said, pausing until they both looked at him.

“What?”

“Experiment with the contents of the naughty cabinet and try out Camilla’s swing.” She squealed happily, and he tilted Camilla’s chin so he could look into her eyes. “Within limits, sugar. Your nausea still concerns me.”

They’d hung the hardware for the swing in the bedroom, and Ben had also installed another set out on the back deck.

Camilla grasped his hands, eager excitement in her eyes. “This time of the day, right after supper, it seems to ease up a bit. If it gets bad, I promise to let you know.”

Quinten said, “Not just that, baby. If you don’t have the energy, we don’t have to do anything but watch a little television before bed.”

“I got tired of having to be quiet all weekend. I want to have some fun with the two of you.”

Ben landed a gentle pop on her right ass cheek and said, “Get in there and strip, then.”

Ben and Quinten followed her into the bedroom and removed everything but their jeans. They went to work hanging the swing for her. Ben grinned a few minutes later when she made a sound and drew his attention to her where she leaned against the bathroom door watching them. She looked so winsome with her soft wavy hair brushed out, her forearms crossed in front of her, pushing her breasts out for their enjoyment. A naughty grin crossed her face and he felt incredibly lucky that she was theirs. She stood there, so confident and sexy as hell in her bare skin, and he wanted nothing more than to lay her over the end of the bed and wallow in her sweetly scented, womanly flesh.
Man, I’ve got it bad for her.

Quinten noticed his distraction and followed Ben’s gaze to her, and whistled at her naked beauty. “Hey, baby.” Her expression became serious and Ben stopped adjusting the swing and went to her. “You all right, Camilla?”