Jason was only laughing, but still holding me tightly as we dangled upside down. “Want to do it alone now?”

“No. Once was enough of a thrill. You guys are just going to have to show this with you in it. I’m done.”

I could tell at that moment he wasn’t going to mind being in the clip.

The plane was repaired by night fall, but they wanted to run a couple more tests and said we would take off about four a.m. We landed in Colorado at around eight in the morning as I told the guys goodbye and jumped into my Aero and headed home. I couldn’t wait to pounce on the bed and wake Ryan and tell him what I had done.

I pulled up to the house and didn’t bother to grab my bag. I was going to be loading the car for the new house in a few hours anyway, but I had to tell my adventure to him before I exploded.

I unlocked the door and headed straight for his bedroom, surprised that his door was nearly closed. He never closed his door. I could see his arm hanging off the side of the bed in what appeared to be in an unnatural position. Panic gripped me. I had the sudden feeling something was horribly wrong. My heart was lunging against my breastbone as I softly called his name and gave the door a gentle push.

The sight that greeted me froze me to the earth. It was not at all what I had feared to find-and for a jealous split second it was almost worse. He was asleep in the tangled bedding-with Candace.

The air caught in my throat as his sleepy face raised my direction. He tried to right himself in the bed, but she had crowded him too close to the edge and he fell out onto the floor-stark naked.

“Ah, shit!” I exclaimed, turning swiftly and then clamping my hand on my mouth over the remark. I jerked his door closed and headed for the front door.

“Leese, don’t go,” I heard his voice as I gripped the door knob.

“I’ll-I’ll be-back-I just can’t…” I went out the door and jumped into my car; I was so dumbfounded I just simply drove without thinking.

I wanted him to find someone, someone who could mean to him what Micah meant to me, but why did it hit me so hard? If I could have Micah back right at this very moment, would I turn and leave Ryan without a second thought? I knew I would.

How could I be so selfish? He needed someone who could give him everything I couldn’t, and I should be happy for them both. Then there was the embarrassing moment of seeing him nude. I was trying to stop seeing it inside my head and suddenly the humor of the whole thing hit me and I began to laugh. I was flying in there to tell him about my ‘great’ adventure and instead stumbled on to what had been his great adventure.

I turned the car around and drove to the bistro and bought breakfast for three and then drove the two blocks back to the house. My hands were shaking so badly I hoped I wouldn’t spill the coffee before I got it inside to the table.

Just as I reached the door, he opened it for me. His face was deep red and I had to do my best not to look at him at the moment. Candace was sitting on the sofa in his tee-shirt and a pair of underwear. I didn’t particularly care to see her dressed that way. She was taking a little too much liberty in what was, at least until I took my bags out of the house today, still me and Ryan’s place. I ignored her attire and asked if they were hungry.

“Starving, actually,” she spoke up, following me to the table.

I wanted to say, ‘yeah, sex will do that to an appetite,’ but I kept my mouth shut.

“So, how was Canada?” he asked, pulling out a chair for me.

“I really wish I’d brought you along,” I blurted, not thinking that it would sound like I wanted to prevent what occurred between the two of them. “I-I-mean the plane had hydraulic problems and…”

I could see a worried expression come over his face at the mention of airplane trouble.

“Anyway,” I continued, “Pete and Jason talked me into a day of adventure; I went down a mountain on a zip-line at about fifty miles an hour, and then Jason and I went bungee jumping.”

“Bungee jumping?” Ryan raised an eyebrow at the same moment a little crooked grin appeared on his face.

“It was terrifying,” I confessed, “you’d have loved it. So-Candace-you must have stayed the night,” I said trying to keep the little quiver out of my voice. “You must be playing hooky today.”

“No,” she laughed. “It’s a record day, so I don’t have anything to do until three when I go into work.”

“Oh,” was all I could come up with.

“I’m going to go take a shower,” she said, drinking the last of her coffee and rising from the table. “Do you want to take one with me?” she reached over and was tugging Ryan’s hand toward the bedroom.

I could see the look of indecision on his face. He was debating about being a gentleman while I was in the house, or giving in to what Candace wanted at the moment.

“Go ahead,” I said, hoping to help with his decision. “I’ve got stuff to pack up anyway.”

Reluctantly, he allowed himself to be led away. I wanted to scream at myself for being such a jealous idiot, but I would have to settle for grabbing my bags and throwing them into my car. I was slinging them around with enough force to make up for not being able to scream.

Candace, on the other hand, was having no problem getting vocal in the other room. The more she screamed and moaned, the less I could take. I finally had enough. I grabbed my keys and made the first run to my new house. I fit everything except two bags into my car, but I wasn’t going to bother to go back for them until well after three p.m. Consciously or unconsciously, she was flaunting the fact that he belonged to her now.

I called Jan and she told me the combo to the lockbox on the house and then she told me my new alarm code. I pulled up to the large craftsman style, two-story home. The house was a gray-brown stone façade with beautiful white columns framing in the front porch. They had done extensive landscaping and flowers lined the flagstone path up to the front door.

It was certainly bigger than anything one person needed with just over three thousand square feet and three bedrooms and three and a half baths. The upper story was a huge bonus area the family had turned into a game room. There was a billiard table, dart board, bar, ping pong table and even two full-size antique video arcade machines. One game was Centipede and the other was Pac-man. The pool was not excessively large, but more than sufficient for laps and there was an eight person built in spa that flowed into the pool. It had an outdoor kitchen and barbeque on the pool patio. This was definitely a party house, but I was a party of one.

After turning off the alarm and finding the remote to the garage, I pulled my car inside and drug my bags into the house. It was funny for them to seem so heavy now that I wasn’t running on all the embarrassed energy that filled me while Ryan and Candace showered.

I got as far as the living room with the bags and flopped onto the couch. “It’s okay, Leese,” I said out loud, “you can cry now.” I rolled over onto the pillow and began to sob.

I woke to the sound of a doorbell. For a stunned moment, I didn’t know where I was. I stumbled toward the door, glancing at the time on my cell phone as I did. It was three-thirty. I approached the door cautiously, expecting to see Jan’s petite figure through the stippled glass, but it was a man. I was pretty certain from the height and the darkness of the hair that it was Ryan. I looked through the peek-hole and he was there holding my last two bags.

I opened the door, but he stood there sheepishly, waiting for me to invite him inside.

“Hey,” was all I could manage.

“When I realized you weren’t coming back for these, I figured you might be waiting for someone to leave.”

“Yeah, I guess it kind of sucker-punched me in the gut. I mean, I’m happy for you-both of you, I just didn’t think it would be that hard to take.”

“Candace didn’t help matters any,” he admitted.

“Well, I can’t say I blame her. You are pretty much the catch of the century, especially when all those clips of you come out on Remake.”

He rolled his eyes and stepped inside, “Where would you like me to…” His eyes went to the other bags lying on the living room floor. “Which bedroom are you sleeping in? I’ll carry all these for you.”

I showed him the master bedroom, grateful for him to move the bags for me.

“So did you bring your shorts?” I asked, pointing toward the pool.

He grinned and grabbed for the buttons on his button-fly jeans; two buttons undone and I could see his trunks.

I had to ask, “Did Candace know you were coming over?”

“Yeah, she did, but I swear now that she and I have… Well, let’s say she’s more insecure over me being around you than before. I finally had to tell her to just get a grip because you and I are still best friends.”

“Well, don’t get into fights with her over me,” I said, clearly shocked she was still concerned about he and I stepping over a line.

“We aren’t going to fight about it. She’s just going to have to accept it.”

I smiled, “You want to go ahead and get in the pool while I get my bikini on?”

He gave me the most unusual look. I had never seen that expression on his face before and I couldn’t quite understand it. He turned and headed for the patio as I went into the bedroom to find my bathing suit and robe. It wasn’t until I joined him poolside that the realization hit me I’d never worn a bikini in front of him.

Suddenly, I knew what the look on his face was reflecting. There were no secrets anymore. Ryan was a man who knew the intimacies of being with a woman and I was getting ready to get close to him with very little clothing on. Micah had given me a similar look as he waited for me the first time we swam together.