Page 230 of Dirty Padraig: Dirty Dusters

I glance around Eoin’s apartment as he pours himself a drink. You’d expect his place to be cool, clinical, and immaculate.

It’s not.

It’s a calming space with its dark brown furniture and accents contrasting against a warm cream backdrop. He motions his head toward the crystal decanter. I shake mine in response. Whiskey is not my friend. After what happened in the past, it’s permanently off-limits for me.

“Have you given any thought to our conversation with Lucifer?” I just come right out with it.

“I have.” He throws back his drink in one, then pours another.

“And?”

“I’m too possessive to ever consider it, Paddy.”

“We’ve shared women before now.”

“That wasn’t my wife!” he snaps.

“We don’t actually have to be intimate with her at the same time, Eoin.”

“I realize that!”

The silence stretches. I wait for him to speak. There’s no point winding him up any further than he already is.

“And have you given it any thought?”

I shrug. “I have no issue sharing her with you. I would have shared her with Ace had I been given the opportunity. I did, in fact, share her with Ace. Once.”

Eoin throws back the second whiskey before walking across to stand directly in front of where I’m sitting on the sectional.

He frowns at me. “You both fucked her at the same time?”

I nod my head slowly, and he immediately starts pacing the floor once more.

“Our parents…” he begins.

“Would be accepting of the arrangement, and you know it. They want Jaine to be an O’Connell. And Lucifer’s right. If anyone’s responsible for this mess, it’s them. You reap what you sow.”

More silence as he digests what I’ve said. “I would like to have children of my own.”

I shrug. “You’d have to cross that bridge with Jaine whether we were sharing her or not. I would never stand in the way of that.”

“She can only marry one of us.”

“I know.”

“How would we decide?”

“We could do a simple coin toss.”

“I’m not sure, Paddy.” I watch as he pours himself a third drink.

“Would you rather be in the same situation I was in, where you have to consider a future with someone you’d much rather not while watching Jaine move on in a life without you in it?”

“There’s no guarantee she would be accepting of any of this.”

“No, but if we’re both in agreement, at least it’s a starting point,” I argue.

The trouble is, I’m not so sure that we are.

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