Sharing Hailey by Samantha Ann King Read Free Book Online Page A

asked if she wanted to go. Haley had responded with a grunted “no” and yanked a pillow over her head.
    She opened one cabinet door after another. Where were the damned coffee cups? She’d seen them last night. She hated it when people rearranged things, especially in the kitchen.
    She hadn’t slept well thanks to Tony and Mark’s proposal and the time zone change. Maybe she’d imagined seeing the coffee cups. Maybe she’d dreamed about coffee cups.
    No, the dreams she’d had were of Mark and Tony. Both of them together. She moaned and pressed her fingers into her temples.
    Think, she told herself. Where did you see the coffee cups?
    Tony’s voice startled her. “I’ll get that for you. Go sit down.”
    Pressing a hand to her heart to slow the rapid beating, she turned and tried to focus on him through bleary eyes. “Y’all have got to stop doing that.” Sluggishly, she searched the kitchen and great room. “Where’s Mark?”
    “Went to the beach with the others.”
    She trudged to the sofa, grabbed a loose pillow and curled up on her side, waiting for coffee.
    “Here you go,” Tony said.
    Hailey cracked her eyelids and peered at him through strands of hair. Obviously, he’d slept just fine. Showered, hair combed, shaved. Damn it. She looked like crap. Face swollen, bed hair, morning breath. She pushed to sitting and held out her hand. When the warm cup touched her palm, she wrapped her fingers around it.
    “Thank you. I think you just saved my life.” She brought the ceramic mug to her lips and inhaled before sipping the rich brew. It was the perfect temperature.
    Tony sat beside her without speaking. After she’d taken a few sips, he pushed her hair out of her face, but his efforts proved futile. As soon as he released the straight, slippery strands, they fell back in front of her eyes, but she didn’t stop him. She loved his hands on her, even doing something as innocent as trying to tame her hair.
    “Why didn’t you go with them?” she asked, her voice still gravelly with sleep or the lack of.
    “We were worried about you.”
    She stared at her coffee. “‘We’ as in you and Mark, or ‘we’ as in everybody in the house?”
    “Mark and I.”
    After a few more sips, she sighed, took a deep breath and blurted, “I can’t choose between you.”
    “Good.”
    She pushed her hair out of her face, having more success than Tony, and finally met his gaze. “Why?”
    “I don’t think our friendship could survive if you chose one of us. I love you.”
    She forgot about the cup she was holding until hot coffee sloshed over her hand. She jerked and more coffee spilled. Ow. Lifting her hand to her mouth, she sucked out the heat and pain as his last three words echoed in her head. He loved her?
    Before she could wrap her brain around that he continued. “I love Mark too. I don’t want to lose either one of you.”
    She was still on the I-love-you part. He didn’t just want her. He loved her. God, she wanted to say the words back to him, but she couldn’t. Not yet. Yeah, she loved him. No question about that. But she loved Mark too. And she wanted all of them to go into this with eyes wide-open. If they went into it at all.
    Stalling for time, she searched for a napkin, but not finding one, transferred the cup to her other hand and wiped her wet hand on her T-shirt. “You don’t think this will ruin our friendship? I mean, men don’t share. Your idea of a three-way is one man and two hot women. Preferably, twins. At least, that’s what I’ve heard.”
    “Think about it, Hailey. We’ve been sharing you for years.”
    She blushed and tightened her fingers on the mug, trying not to squirm. “Not like that.”
    “The only thing that’s changing is that we’ve told you how we feel about you.”
    She raised her eyebrows in disbelief.
    His crooked grin was a little sheepish. “Well, that and the sex.”
    Hailey’s glanced to the crotch of his khaki cargo shorts, and her face got hotter.