Sharing shane, p.3
Sharing Shane, page 3
“Yeah, but he gave me the money for his half.” She frowned, then reached for her phone with a sigh. “I guess I have to send it back to him.”
“The hell you do.” Delia snatched the phone off the table before Veronica could. “Keep the money. Compensation for your pain and suffering.”
“I can’t do that, Delia,” Veronica told her. “He paid me using a money transfer app, I’ll just send it back the same way.”
“He fucked your neighbor on your grandmother’s quilt.”
“Okay, maybe I’ll let him sweat it a while.”
“That’s my girl,” Delia cheered, and held up the bag of takeout. “More?”
Because it was as good an idea as any, Veronica held out her hand.
“Remind me to call the airline,” she said, carefully squeezing salsa onto her fresh taco. “I bought Derek’s plane ticket with my miles, so I can probably cancel it.”
“You bought his plane ticket?”
“With miles,” Veronica repeated defensively. “I didn’t spend any money.”
“Miles are money,” Delia said, exasperated. “You cancel the ticket, and I’ll call the resort.”
Veronica chewed her taco thoughtfully. “What can they do?”
“They can get his name off the reservation, at least.” Delia dug her phone out of her bag, then stared pointedly at Veronica. “What are you waiting for?”
Veronica sighed and set down her taco and wine. She didn’t want to deal with this right now. Getting drunk was a much better idea, and she wasn’t even halfway there. Tipsy, she concluded as she stood. The room only tilted a little before righting itself, and she was able to walk a reasonably straight line across the living room to the desk. She dug out the confirmation email from the airline, the one she’d dutifully printed and placed in her desk drawer at Derek’s hyper-organized insistence, and made her way back to the couch.
It took all of ten minutes to cancel the reservation, though they charged her a cancellation fee. She figured she could afford it, since Derek’s money was still sitting in her bank account. By the time she gave it back to him, she would’ve gotten paid again. And they were going to refund her miles, so all in all, it was much less painful than it could have been.
Task accomplished, she set her phone down and refilled her wine. Delia was talking to someone, presumably at the resort. She wasn’t saying much, just a lot of agreeable humming and the occasional “I see” or “of course”. It didn’t look like the conversation was winding down anytime soon, so Veronica set her wine glass on the arm of the sofa where she could easily reach the straw and picked up her phone.
She’d lost two rounds of Candy Crush and was working on a third when Delia hung up. “Well, the good news is they can take his name off the reservation.”
Veronica set the phone aside and leaned over to suck up more wine. “What’s the bad news?”
“You can’t go by yourself.”
“What do you mean?” she mumbled around the wine straw.
Delia’s lips twisted into a grimace. “The discount voucher stipulates double occupancy. There have to be two people or the whole thing gets canceled without a refund.”
Veronica’s mouth dropped open and her wine straw fell out. “Seriously? I have to find someone else to come with me?”
Delia nodded. “They’ll put down whoever. The reservation’s in your name, and you can bring whoever you like as a guest. You just have to bring someone.”
“You.”
“Huh?”
“You can come with me.” Energized by the idea, Veronica leaned forward. “We’ll hang out on the beach, drink fruity umbrella drinks, get spa treatments. It’ll be so much fun, Dee.”
“I’d love to, sweetie,” Delia began. “But I’ve got the hospital fundraiser that week. Julian’s giving the keynote, and he’s so nervous. I can’t ditch him.”
Veronica scowled. “Dammit. I liked you better before you got married and devoted to someone else.”
“You could take your sister,” Delia suggested.
“Oh, no.” Veronica shook her head vehemently, sending her short swing of dark hair dancing. “I’m not asking Gwen. She’ll spend the entire week telling me about her latest fad diet, she won’t want to drink because ‘empty calories’, and every time I eat something that’s not a raw vegetable, she makes this noise.” She sucked air through her teeth to demonstrate. “Plus, last time I talked to her she was raving about some vagina exercises she was into.”
Delia blinked. “Vagina exercises? You mean Kegels?”
“No, I mean like actual weight lifting. She saw some woman on Instagram doing it, and now she’s obsessed.”
“How do you lift weights with your pussy?”
“I have no idea, but if you want to find out, call Gwen. She’ll tell you all about it.”
“No, thanks.” Delia gave an exaggerated shudder. “What about some of your friends from school?”
“I doubt it, not on short notice.” Veronica drained her wine and reached for the bottle. “Are you sure you can’t ditch Julian? I knew you first.”
“Yes, but he gives me orgasms and pays for all my marijuana.”
“Hell, I can’t compete with that.”
“Hang on, hang on.” Delia picked up her phone. “I might know someone.”
“Not cousin Joel,” Veronica said with sudden horror.
Delia laughed. “No, not cousin Joel.”
“Not one of your ooh-la-la rich friends, either. I can’t handle the Ladies Who Lunch.”
“Snob,” Delia said absently, still scrolling through her phone.
“Well, yeah.” Veronica leaned back into the sofa, snuggling into the piles of pillows, and tried not to spill her now straw-less wine. “I only put up with you because I knew you when you were dirt poor.”
“So, I’m what? Your token rich friend?”
“Pretty much.” Veronica laid her head back against the cushions and stared at the ceiling. “You know what?”
“Shh, I’m on the phone.”
“I’m not that sad,” Veronica said, ignoring the directive. “I mean, I’m pissed. My grandmother’s quilt, for God’s sake.”
“Wyatt, it’s Delia Bell. How are you?”
“And without a condom, so I had to go get tested, and you know I hate getting blood drawn.” She could hear Delia talking to someone on the phone, a buzz of sound in the background. “But I’m not sad.”
She lifted her head to look at her friend. “Why is that, do you think?”
Delia tilted her phone away from her mouth. “Because you recognize that he’s a cheating piece of shit who doesn’t deserve your sadness. Now shut up, I’m on the phone.”
“Yeah, but you’d think I’d be a little sad,” Veronica protested, frowning at the ceiling. “I mean, we were together for two years. We were practically living together.”
“No, you weren’t. Yes, that’s her,” Delia said into the phone. “She’s drunk.”
“I am not drunk,” Veronica said with dignity. “I’ve had two glasses of wine, for God’s sake. I’m...”
“Relaxed?” Delia offered.
Veronica pointed at her. “Exactly. I’m relaxed. And I’m entitled to be as relaxed as I want because my boyfriend is a cheating dick with a dead dick.”
Delia snickered into the phone. “Anyway, do you think he’d be interested? Yeah, talk it out and call me back. Sure, no problem. Bye.”
Delia set her phone down with a grin. “I may have just sold Triple D’s half of the vacation.”
Veronica blinked. “To whom?”
“To Wyatt.” Delia frowned at the coffee table. “Did you eat the last taco?”
“Probably,” Veronica said and belched.
“So classy.”
“Thank you. Who is Wyatt, and why did you sell him my vacation?”
“Wyatt is a friend of Julian’s. He’s a pediatric nurse at the hospital. His husband is a lawyer at some law firm I can never remember the name of, but the firm is holding their annual retreat at the resort the same week you’re going.”
Veronica nodded. “So, he wants to go with him?”
“He’s already going with him.”
“Then why does he need Derek’s half of my vacation?”
“He doesn’t. Shane does.”
“I’m confused.”
“That’s because you’re drunk,” Delia told her and poured the last of the wine into her own glass.
“Relaxed,” Veronica corrected haughtily, then burped again. “’Scuse me. Explain this, please.”
“Shane is Wyatt’s partner. He’s a woodworker.”
“What’s a woodworker?”
“Shane is.”
Veronica rolled her eyes. “I mean, what does being a woodworker mean?”
Delia shrugged. “In Shane’s case, it means he makes custom wooden furniture pieces, like tables and chairs, cabinets, beds. He made the mahogany sideboard in our formal dining room.”
“Really? I love that piece. It’s gorgeous.”
“I know. It was hideously expensive and worth every penny. Judith even complimented me on it.”
“So, Shane is Wyatt’s husband?”
Delia sipped her wine. “No, Seth is Wyatt’s husband.”
“Then who’s Shane?”
“Wyatt’s partner.”
“I swear to God, Delia,” Veronica began.
Delia laughed. “Sorry. That had the makings of a great bit, I just wanted to see how far I could take it. Shane is Wyatt’s other partner.”
“Other partner?”
Delia nodded. “Wyatt and Seth are married, but they have a polyamorous relationship.”
“Which means...” Veronica prompted.
“It means they both have relationships outside of their marriage. I don’t think Seth is seeing anyone else at the moment, though, and anyway, from what Wyatt’s said he prefers casual hookups to relationships outside his primary. But Shane and Wyatt have been together for a couple of years.”
Veronica rolled that around in her mind. “Maybe I am drunk because this makes no sense to me.”
“It’s kind of hard to wrap your head around at first.”
“No kidding.” Veronica frowned. “So, Shane is the one who’d be buying Derek’s half of the vacation?”
Delia nodded. “Seth and Wyatt are already going for the firm’s retreat. Wyatt said he’s been bugging Shane to join them, because he’s been buried in work and Wyatt thinks he needs a break, but the place is sold out.”
“Oh. So would Shane be staying in my room with me, or would he be bunking with Seth and Wyatt?”
Delia shrugged. “When Wyatt calls me back, I’ll ask him. Are you okay if he stays with you?”
“I guess. There’s plenty of room, right?”
“I honestly don’t know.” Delia looked thoughtful. “I mean, it’s supposed to be for a couple, even with the upgrade.”
“What upgrade?”
“Oh right, I forgot to tell you. That’s what I called about this morning. I got you upgraded to a beachfront condo instead of just a room in the main hotel.”
“How?”
“It was being renovated, and it was finished ahead of schedule. And they were overbooked on the hotel end, so they called to ask if you could take the condo instead, and I told them yes.”
“I forgive you for being rich,” Veronica said solemnly.
Delia rolled her eyes. “Can we set fire to Dead Dick’s stuff now?”
“Okay.” Veronica pushed herself off the couch and started for the bedroom. “I have to gather it all up. Want to help?”
Delia started to answer, then turned to her phone when it buzzed. “That’s Wyatt.”
Veronica waved a hand. “Talk to him, then find me in the bedroom.”
“Okay. Hey, Wyatt.”
Veronica moved down the hall, Delia’s voice fading away as she stepped into her bedroom. She went right to the dresser in the corner, and the second drawer from the top that she’d cleared out for Derek’s use. Yanking it open, she eyed the contents with satisfaction. A couple of T-shirts, a pair of jeans, two pairs of the silk boxers he liked so much. Dress socks, a sweater, and three silk ties, neatly rolled.
She dumped the drawer out onto the floor and moved to the closet.
His gray suit hung there, still in its dry-cleaning bag. She tossed it onto the pile. Two dress shirts, one white and one in a pretty blue that Derek liked because it brought out the color of his eyes. She tossed the shirts on top of the suit. A pair of running shoes, practically brand new, and his beloved Ferragamo loafers joined the pile.
She’d moved on to the bathroom by the time Delia joined her.
“Okay, so Wyatt said—” She broke off when she saw the plastic shopping bag in Veronica’s hands. “What’s all that?”
“Derek’s grooming products.”
Delia peered into the bag. “He keeps all that here?”
“Not usually, but he went shopping yesterday. Nordstrom’s had a sale, and he likes to stock up.” Veronica shook the shopping bag. “I didn’t give him a chance to gather it up when I booted him out. What did Wyatt say?”
“Huh? Oh. He said Shane is in, so I called the resort and switched the names.”
“Cool. What about the sleeping arrangements?”
Delia pulled a jar of moisturizing cream out of the bag. “I should take this for Julian. He needs to start taking care of his skin.”
“With my blessing.” Veronica pulled a half-full tube of eye cream from the cabinet. “The sleeping arrangements?” she prompted. “Me or the boyfriends?”
“Boyfriend,” Delia corrected. “Shane and Wyatt are in a relationship, Shane and Seth aren’t.”
“Okay, then is he sleeping with me, or with his boyfriend and his boyfriend’s husband?”
“You.” Delia glanced up. “Is that okay?”
“Is he an asshole?”
“No.” Delia frowned. “Kind of quiet, and he communicates mostly in grunts, but he’s nice. At least he was when he was working on my sideboard.”
“A nice grunter.” Veronica thought for a moment, then shrugged. “I’ll be spending most of my time at the beach anyway, so we probably won’t run into each other that much.”
“Cool,” Delia said. “Can I have this eye cream, too?”
“Take whatever you want, it’s all going in the trash.”
Delia frowned. “Are you sure? Some of this is expensive. You could probably return the stuff that’s still in the package.”
“I’m sure I could return it. The receipt is still in the bag.” Veronica pursed her lips. “I could use a little extra cash to buy vacation clothes.”
“Awesome. We can do that after we burn the rest of his stuff.”
“Yeah, about that. I don’t think we should.”
“What?” Delia’s pretty face moved into a pout. “Why not?”
“Because someone should get some use out of them. That’s a practically brand-new suit, and I bet someone could use it. Besides, I’m not sure my landlord would appreciate me having a bonfire on the balcony. They won’t even let me have a grill out there.”
“Good point.” Delia chewed her lip for a moment, considering. “I know an organization that works with recently released prisoners. They help with resume writing, interviewing skills, give them something nice to wear on job interviews. We could try there.”
“Perfect. And the stuff they can’t use can go to the thrift store.”
“I was really looking forward to burning them,” Delia said with a sigh.
“I know, honey.” Veronica patted her friend on the shoulder. “To make it up to you, I’ll let you pick out at least two outfits for me.”
Delia’s face brightened. “Deal. You separate the returnable face goop from the non-returnable face goop, and I’ll grab the clothes. My driver can pick us up in about fifteen minutes, I told him to stick close by.”
“Rich bitch,” Veronica called after her.
“Snobby bitch,” Delia called back.
Veronica snorted out a laugh and started sorting. She had a nice little buzz on from the wine and a whole afternoon of shopping with Derek’s money to look forward to. And best of all, she was getting revenge without having to post bail.
“That’s a win,” she decided and started mentally shopping for a new bikini.
Shane eyed his lover with a combination of amusement, affection, and resignation. Or rather, the back of his lover’s head. His surfer boy blond locks were currently sporting a raging case of fuck-hair, courtesy of their mid-day romp and Wyatt’s win of the who-gets-to-bottom coin toss. “Are we really doing this?”
Wyatt put his phone down on the nightstand and rolled over so they lay face to face in the big bed. “We’re doing this, babe. You need the break.”
Wyatt had that determined look in his pretty blue eyes, the one that told Shane he’d dug in and wasn’t going to budge. “You know how I feel about horning in on your time with Seth.”
“I told you, Seth agrees with me,” Wyatt told him patiently. Wyatt did everything patiently, Shane thought wryly, which was why he usually got his way. “You’ve been working nonstop for months now, and if you’re not careful you’re going to burn out. Then you’ll be no good to me, and I’ll be forced to dump you for someone who’s better looking and has a bigger dick.”
Shane snorted. “Better looking, maybe. Bigger dick? Keep dreaming.”
Eyes gleaming with humor, Wyatt trailed his hand down Shane’s chest to wrap it around the dick in question. He let out a happy sigh when he found it firm, thick, and yes, big. He gave it a single, hard stroke, wringing a grunt of pleasure from Shane.
“How are you hard?” Wyatt wondered. “It’s only been like, half an hour since we fucked.”
Shane glanced at the clock on the wall. “More like forty-five minutes.”
“Still.” Wyatt gave Shane’s cock another long stroke, adding a swipe of his thumb over the trio of piercings at the head. “You’re not usually ready to go again so soon.”
“It’s been a while,” Shane reminded him, closing his eyes as Wyatt’s thumb dragged against his piercings again. Wyatt’s hand was smooth and soft, his grip hard and tight. The contrast always drove him wild. “I’ve missed you.”
