Making breakfast has never been a process so fraught with nerves.
"Did the others already go to work?" I ask.
Greg nods solemnly. "Tyler had business he has to deal with today. He asked me to take care of you."
Take care of me, I think with a huff. I'm a grown woman used to fending for myself. I don't need an overgrown doorman to watch over me like a princess trapped in a castle. "I'm okay," I say, spooning in my first mouthful and chewing. If I was sweet before, I'm going to be positively saccharine by the time I've finished this. "I can entertain myself. Tyler shouldn't have forced you into becoming a babysitter."
"You're not a baby."
"No. I'm a grown woman. Unless Tyler is worried that I'll steal stuff from your house."
Greg's shoulders bunch, reacting to the confrontation. "That is not what's on Tyler's mind."
"So what is, then? If he thinks I'm too fragile to cope with a few hours by myself, he's mistaken."
"That isn't what he thinks."
"So what is it then?"
Greg's dark eyes flash with something that looks like a challenge, and although it's impossible to tell, something that tickles like arousal too. I get the feeling that this big brute of a man likes a woman who's a handful.
A hot pulse of heat pools between my legs at the thought of being in Greg's hands. It's a startling-enough response that forces a little squeak to leave my lips, causing his eyebrow to raise. I've never been attracted to a man like Greg before. He's so broad he could block a doorway, and his muscles are so thick that I suspect he must live on steak and protein shakes and dedicate hours each week to their maintenance. Tyler is muscular but in a lean, cut way that is more about sharp edges and angular plains. Greg is all brawn and potency and more mature in years too.
"You being here has done something to Tyler," he says.
"I didn't mean for us to run into each other," I blurt, but he holds his hand up to stop me.
"I'm not saying this to allocate blame, Sandy. I'm telling you this because he's my friend, and I don't want things to go down the way I'm foreseeing."
"What do you mean?"
Tension rolls off Greg, making me lower my spoon and rest it in the milky bowl. "The Tyler now isn't the Tyler you knew. He's different, and that's what's making him do crazy things and come out with crazy shit."
"You mean what happened last night?"
"He should have been thinking clearly. He shouldn't have let his heart drive his actions."
In my chest, the ache I've been suppressing begins to bloom like a blood-red rose, splitting me inside. "I wanted it too, in the moment."
"So you realize that it was a mistake."
"I realize that having this conversation with you seems odd. This is for me and Tyler to discuss."
Greg rests his skull-crushing hands on the counter, HATE barking at me from his skin. There's no LOVE on Greg's other hand to counter it, telling me that this man is hard on the inside as well as the outside.
"He's gone and got some ideas in his head. Ideas that have come from your friends."
"What ideas?"
"I'm going to share this with you for Tyler's good. In normal circumstances, I would take the conversation that I had with him this morning to the grave, but there is too much at risk here."
"What conversation?"
Greg's knuckles whiten, and his face hardens with the effort it's taking to break his friend's trust. It tells me that he's a man of honor, despite outward appearances to the contrary. "He asked me if I'd be willing to share you, like your friend's husbands share her."
"Share me?" I huff out a small stream of breath in shock. There is so much buried in that statement for me to process. What happened between Tyler and me last night wasn't just a one-off for him. He wants more. So much more, in fact.
"He loves you, Sandy. I know that might sound strange to you because of what happened four years ago. Your feelings towards him must be complicated. They say a broken heart is never fully mended."
"He loves me so much he's contemplating pimping me out to his friends." Who the hell does Tyler think he is?
"That's not what this is about, woman," Greg hisses.
"Woman?"
"Will you just listen to me? He loves you, and he doesn't trust himself to be what you need. He doesn't believe that you would be able to rely on just him."
"Why not? I don't understand."
"Because of what happened four years ago."
Tyler's reaction when I mentioned Jake and Luna flashes back through my mind, and Andrew's words last night. Maybe Greg will finally tell me what happened. "Did Jake die?" It's a horrible guess to make, but I have to find out one way or another.