Read Online KNOT: A Wake Family Novel by M. Mabie - Free Book Online Page A

seat to get a better look at me. I looked at my hands and fidgeted in response.
    “What does it depend on?”
    “Well, you know how I was working the party tonight for the hotel?”
    I tipped my head to sneak a look at him. He nodded.
    “Well, I’m hoping that it turns into a permanent position.”
    “I’m sure it will. Everyone had a great time.”
    That was nice of him to say.
    “Thanks.” I shifted, crossing and uncrossing my legs in the seat while I tried my best not to think naughty thoughts of him joining us in the tub. Nothing helped because I still thought of it.
    He enquired, “Wouldn’t it have been more convenient to stay at the hotel?”
    “I am. I’m just not staying there tonight.”
    He sat back and tipped his chin up. “That’s right. Your friends.”
    The way he said friends was telling.
    “Yes, I’m staying the night with them.”
    He propped his arm up on the ledge of the window. “They didn’t wait for you?” His tone suggested they’d wronged me.
    He was only going to see it the way he wanted to, but I tried to defend them anyway. “No. It was getting late. They were ready to go home.”
    “In that case, we should go get coffee or something.”
    I looked at my watch. He looked at his.
    “At one in the morning? No. They’re waiting up for me.”
    He asked under his breath, “Like parents?”
    I needed to set him straight. I knew how he was trying to turn it, trying to spin it into something that it wasn’t.
    I didn’t raise my voice, but I was firm. “No. Like my lovers.”
    He caught and held my gaze.
    “You really sleep with both of them?” He was more inquisitive than accusing like before.
    “I do,” I admitted, hoping to come across as honest. I think he took it that way because his next question surprised me.
    “What’s that like?”
    Was he talking about positions? The mechanics of plural partners? Who does what when? What goes where? Because that wasn’t a straight forward answer. Sometimes it meant one thing, sometimes it was something else altogether.
    Being with a man and a woman was worlds apart from being with two men.
    “What do you mean?” We were stopped in front of a red light, and I looked out the window, noticing it felt like we’d already passed some of the buildings. The digital machine tallying the fare read thirty-one dollars.
    “I mean, what is your relationship like with them?”
    That was much simpler.
    “Oh, well Janel is my best friend, and I’ve known Ives since I was in high school. They have a relationship. I’m only visiting them tonight.”
    “Visiting?” He lightly tapped his hand against his thigh.
    “Yes, I’m going over there to be with them.”
    He shook his head like he still couldn’t grasp it. I’m sure he hadn’t ever encountered someone who wasn’t interested in him. And just him.
    “Are they married?”
    “They are now.” As we drove on, I was surer that we had been down the same street. “Where are we going? I think we’re driving in circles.”
    He dismissively answered, “I gave him my address and told him to drive around until it hit one hundred first.”
    He what?
    “Why would you do that?” My voice was shrill even to my ear, but his audacity set me off.
    “I wanted to talk to you a little more.” He waved his hand like it was not a big deal, then he asked in much the same way, “So, you introduced them, they got married, and you fuck them?”
    I eyed him with warning as my temper flared. His dark eyebrows rose, but he didn’t appear too worried. I wasn’t answering anything else.
    “You tricked me. They’re waiting on me.” I could feel my pulse pound in my fingers as I sat there with my hands tightly clutching the strap of my purse across my chest.
    “I didn’t know that.”
    “Well, you do now,” I huffed. Leaning forward, I spoke to the driver. “Can you please take him home now, or let me out?”
    We pulled up to another light, and the man at the wheel turned to see what Reagan wanted