Flawless Surrender (The Surrender Trilogy, #2)(31)
She narrowed her eyes at him, “You’re being awfully nice to me all of a sudden, Hollywood.”
He threw up a hand, and looked pained, “You wound me, angel! I’m always nice to you! In fact, after dinner, if you want I’ll be extra nice to you and give you a full body massage.”
Zoey laughed, but before she could respond, Tanner entered the room from the back door. He shocked her even further when she realized that he had a bottle of wine and a single red rose in his hands. Her mouth hung open, and his complexion darkened when their eyes met.
“Hey, Zoey. This is for you.” He held out the rose, and she glanced at his brothers and then him in confusion.
“What is this for?”
Tanner looked to Clint and Dalton who both just smiled and left him to explain. “We wanted to do something nice for you tonight. You’ve been taking such great care of us all week…well…”
She took the rose from his hand, running her fingers over the soft petals and then down the stem. A thorn pricked the skin of her thumb and she hissed.
“Damn it. I knew I should have said yes when Roberta offered to de-thorn it,” Tanner said, his jaw clenching. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. Thank you, the flower is beautiful exactly as it is, and thank you to you both too,” she said, smiling at Clint and Dalton, “It means a lot to me that you guys would do this.”
“Anything for you, angel,” Clint said with a wink. “Better get that rose in water, and a Band Aid on that thumb. We can’t have you bleeding out before dinner. Tanner, get the girl a glass of wine already. It’s Friday night and she should be relaxing.”
Tanner flipped Clint off, but he did as instructed, reaching up into the cabinet for a bud vase before he pulled out a wine glass. Zoey carefully removed the thorns and leaves from the long stem. The flower was perfect. Its deep crimson petals were wrapped in a full bud that would spread to become a stunning bloom. She felt a wave of warmth settle in her chest at the idea that Tanner Keegan had personally selected a flower for her. What a long ways they had come since that terrible night at Robin’s so long ago.
When she finished with the flower, she turned to find all three men watching her, and she laughed. “What is it?”
Tanner’s jaw clenched and he handed her a glass of wine, “Nothing. Why don’t you go get off your feet until dinner. I need to go shower real quick. Dalton, did you call Ulysses about getting Devonshire’s shoe replaced?”
Just like that, the moment was broken as Tanner and Dalton discussed a horse that had thrown a shoe that day. Clint gave her a wink, but he went back to working on the food prep, leaving her to do as she was told and head into the living room.
She sunk into the butter soft leather of the sofa, sighing with pleasure as she put the flower on the end table next to her, and took a sip of wine. Flavors exploded on her tongue, and the mellow scent of berry filled her nose. There was nothing of interest on TV so she stopped it on a music station, tapping her foot as Jason Derulo sang about “The Other Side”.
Her eyes drifted shut, and she let herself be swallowed up in the lyrics of the song and the uplifting dance beat. She wondered if she could handle a fling with one of the three Keegan brothers. It wasn’t like she would be here forever, in a couple of weeks Rachel’s mom would go back to Oklahoma, and Zoey would be able to move in there if she hadn’t found her own place yet. Living on the Triple T, she didn’t have any rent to pay so she should be able to save up the money for a deposit pretty quickly. What if until then, she let herself be seduced by Clint, or even Dalton? There was no way she would offer herself up to any of them after being turned down so flatly by Tanner and then Dalton, but if she just flirted back a bit, maybe…
A sudden sinking of the sofa cushion next to her made her jump and her eyes flew open to find Clint settling in beside her.
“Whoa, sorry, angel. I didn’t mean to scare you. I seem to have a particular talent for that.” His arm went around the back of the couch just like Dalton’s always seemed to do when he sat with her.
“It’s alright, I guess I was lost in thought and didn’t hear you come in.” She reached for the remote and turned the volume down on the TV as Christina Aguilera started singing “Your Body”.
“That’s a good song,” Clint said, stealing the remote from her hand to turn it up just as she sang about finishing off on her own. What a fitting song for the thoughts she had been having a moment ago. “You know, I got to meet her once.”
“Who?”
“Christina. I guess meet isn’t quite the right word. I got to park her car once when I was working as a valet.”
Zoey laughed out loud, and Clint’s eyes widened. “You have got to do that more often. You’re beautiful when you laugh.”
A snort slipped out and she shook her head. “And you are a Grade A flirt.”
“Grade A, huh? You really think so? I’d rather be a Grade A prime piece of meat in your eyes, I think.” He wiggled his eyebrows sending Zoey into another round of giggles. She whacked his shoulder with the back of her hand, and he grabbed it in both of his, holding it over his heart. “You’re breaking my heart, angel. And here I thought we were going to get married and have a dozen kids together.”
“A dozen? You have to be joking? I can’t have a dozen kids, I would swell up to the size of a house!” she teased, and he tugged on her hand, pulling her against his chest.