18. Carly

Moving day was less stressful than I expected, and it was all thanks to the fact that I now had three stepbrothers to help with the heavy lifting. Bennett and I had decided his moving in would be the most convenient option for all of us—it was an opportunity for me to have extra financial support while I adjusted to having a mortgage, a way to help him get back on his feet without cramping the newlyweds' style, and a chance for him to get to know his daughter for the first time. Even though Ella didn't yet know that was the plan.

I'd made Bennett promise as much when I finally accepted his proposal. We both knew we'd have to share this information with Ella eventually, but my motherly instincts told me the best way to break the news would be if I talked to Ella myself. I just wasn't quite sure yet about when I'd be biting that particular bullet.

Ella was at school today while the guys were helping with my mom and Bennett's moving tasks. The night before, I'd prepared her for the fact that Bennett would be moving in, and she'd been excited once she got over the fact that she'd have to share our one full bathroom with a boy. My daughter always rolled with the punches, much more like her Grammy than her Mama in that way. And to boot, she really did like Doctor Ben, as she called him. If I let myself get sentimental about that, I could cry just watching the two of them together. I yearned for Ella to have the life I never did, a home with a father and mother who loved each other and were always there for her. At least I was pretty sure that Bennett and I could manage the latter.

Logan lugged another box of Bennett's things to the room that was currently my bedroom, since I was in the process of switching to Mom's old room. He gave me a soft smile and a heated look that only I could see as he passed me in the hallway. To add to the confusing sexual undertones of it all, I found Nate in the living room, helping Ben move the cutesy curio cabinet my mom insisted on taking with her to Dwight's, since it had been a gift from her great aunt whom I'd never met. Nate's elaborate, full-color tattoos were on full display, thanks to the fitted gray T-shirt he was wearing, its short sleeves rolled up a couple of times for that perfectly cool look. I remembered seeing the full beautiful collage of him in bed, and my body responded. It was always on alert these days. Being surrounded by hot men I'd had mind-blowing sex with really did a number on my long-neglected libido.

Speaking of hot. I was sweating with all the manual labor I'd been doing—a task to which I was uniquely unsuited. Which was why I called all the guys into the kitchen, promising a break and a nice cold drink for our troubles.

I grabbed a can of soda from the fridge and popped the top with a satisfying hiss as my stepbrothers and makeshift movers joined me in the kitchen. All of us were looking pretty rundown after all the moving we'd already done—the guys had all kindly helped my mom and me move almost all of her mountains of things to Dwight's before we'd gotten to Bennett's measly boxes. For a calm moment in the eye of the storm, I sipped my bubbly sugar water and enjoyed the quiet company of three men I'd come to care for and respect without even the fact that I'd slept with each of them entering my mind. That is, until Nate, troublemaker as he was, had to pass me on the way to the fridge.

It happened so fast. One minute, things were normal, and the next, Nate was giving me an automatic, adequately chaste, but distinctly statement-making kiss as he passed me by. I was still speechless when he had his drink selection in hand and came to lean against the counter beside me, bumping our hips together.

A ripple of surprise shocked me, Logan, and Bennett into stillness. Nate had just broken an unspoken rule and claimed me as his in front of his brothers. And though we'd obviously had sex, which was distinctly un-friend-like behavior, we hadn't ever talked about what our relationship was on the whole. Our night together hadn't felt like a one-night stand, and the idea of never getting to play in bed with him again frankly devastated me. But I wasn't one for friends with benefits, and this behavior, the casual kiss on the way to the fridge, was way more on the boyfriend-girlfriend side of the scale. It felt right, too, damn him.

Bennett was still baffled and blinking, but at the same time my own brain clicked the puzzle piece into place about Nate, Logan's brain seemed to have worked something out, too. Casually, he strode over from his spot at the other side of the room, reaching me in a couple of long steps. Then he very deliberately pulled my chin up for a kiss.

This kiss was longer, less G-rated than Nate had opted for, since it included an enticing slip of the tongue that had me melting instantly into Logan's arms. He even laid a possessive hand on my ass, and in seconds, a fire was stoked within my blood, arousing me to the point of not caring that I was a mess. Just like at Nate's apartment the morning after I'd fucked him, Logan was trying to tease me, remind me that he was there first. But he pulled away as quickly as he'd started this, and when I blinked back into awareness, my eyes landed on Bennett.

Oh, fuck. Why did I feel a rush of heat between my legs, realizing that Bennett had watched both of them kiss me, that he had been in the room while I'd gotten aroused at Logan's touch? And was I imagining the way his green eyes had darkened with a hint of lust, too?

But Bennett was frozen in place. Turned on or not, he was in total shock about what he'd just seen. Before I could even start to stammer out an explanation I didn't have, Bennett cut me off.

"I'm, uh, gonna grab another load of things from the car," he said. He ducked out of the kitchen without even grabbing something to drink.