Jen grinned. “Jackson didn’t tell you about his nickname?”
“Um, you guys call him Texas? You realize that’s the least original nickname on the planet, right?”
“Hey, don’t blame me.” Jen tossed her long golden hair over her shoulder. “Smartass Seth is the one who came up with it. C’mon, sit over here with Miranda and me. We’re way more fun.”
Laughing, Mia followed Jen down the aisle, and a moment later she was sandwiched between the two women while the men and the Masterson twins congregated at the end of the row.
Since Mia didn’t have many female friends—or friends, period, for that matter—she felt slightly ill at ease surrounded by so many new faces, but she quickly discovered that Miranda and Jen were the coolest people on the planet. They were both so friendly and laidback, their easy laughter and hilarious remarks making Mia feel like a real part of their group and not just some random interloper.
When the Warriors took the field, she pointed Danny out to everyone, which led to a conversation with Miranda about single parenthood. It turned out the other woman knew all about raising kids alone—she’d been a single mom to her twins before marrying Seth, and she confessed that having a partner to help out had made her life a million times easier.
“And surprisingly, Seth is a great dad,” she told Mia in a low voice. “It took him a while to warm up to the twins, but now he absolutely adores them.”
“It still boggles my mind,” Jen admitted wryly. “I never imagined Seth could be daddy material.”
The conversation shifted to their jobs next, and when Mia learned that Jen was a freelance photographer, she couldn’t hide her surprise.
“Are you sure it’s not the other way around? Shouldn’t you be in front of the camera?” she asked the breathtaking blonde.
Jen rolled her eyes. “No thank you. I don’t like being the center of attention.”
Mia had to laugh, because at the moment, Jen was most certainly the center of attention. Every male in their vicinity was checking her out, same way every female in their midst was ogling the SEALs.
Miranda noticed all the stares and gave a dry laugh. “Jeez, you’d think they’ve never seen four smoking-hot military men before.”
“What are you three whispering about over there?” Dylan demanded from down the row.
The three women exchanged grins.
“Nothing,” Jen called back. “Just watch the game and pretend we’re not here.”
“Impossible,” Cash told her. “I always know exactly where you are.”
“Yeah?” his girlfriend challenged.
“Oh yeah.” He smiled broadly. “Your presence is like a shining beacon of light, sweetheart.”
A faint blush stained Jen’s cheeks. “Ah, my sweet-talking man. Gotta love him.”
Mia smiled and moved her gaze back to the field, where Danny and his teammates were on their own twenty-yard line, getting into position after the kickoff. The whistle blew, the play clock started, and then they were off. The first snap resulted in Danny handing the ball off to the running back, who charged into a wall of defensive linemen and managed to eke out three yards, seven short of a first down. The next play was another running one, with the same kid finding a hole in the defense, cutting hard to the left, and rushing twenty-two yards before he was finally brought down.
“That kid can run!” Dylan said in delight.
“That’s my son!” came a loud baritone voice.
Mia twisted her head and grinned at the bulky African-American man in the row behind them.
“You should be proud,” Dylan informed the happy father. “He’s damn fast.”
The man beamed. “And he’s only a sophomore! What do you think of that?”
As Dylan launched into an animated exchange with the older man, Jen sighed and turned to Mia. “I swear, he makes friends wherever he goes. I think Dylan Wade might actually be the most charming person on the planet.”
Mia dropped her voice to a whisper and leaned close to the blonde. “What’s his deal, by the way? Earlier he said something about his ‘partners’ being out of town. As in, more than one?”
That got her simultaneous laughs from Jen and Miranda.
“He has a girlfriend named Claire,” Miranda said.
“Oh, okay, so I must have misheard him when he—”
“And a boyfriend named Aidan,” Jen finished.
Mia blinked. “What?”
“The three of them live together,” Miranda explained. “They’re a permanent threesome.”
“Oh. I see.” Mia shook her head a couple of times. “No, wait, I don’t see. So he lives with two people and they’re okay with sharing him?”
Jen hooted. “They all share.”
“They’re in love. All three of them,” Miranda added.
“Oh.”