Julia slammed the oven door shut on the chicken casserole she’d hastily constructed for dinner and turned on the timer. Paul and Luke were due at any moment and she wanted her hands free and all sharp cooking implements put safely away before she saw them. She heard them talking and laughing as they walked up to her condo and folded her arms over her chest.

Paul’s smile was warm as he came across to hug her, Luke’s just as bright. Julia held up her hand.

“No hugs, yet. I need to ask Luke something.”

Paul’s smile faded. “Is this about what happened in the barn this morning? I told Luke I’d sort it out with you, there’s nothing to worry about.”

Julia opened her mouth to continue and then stopped to refocus on Paul. “What happened in the barn?”

“Paul fucked me,” Luke said. “And now he’s worried you won’t approve.”

“Why would I mind? It’s not as if it’s a complete surprise.” Julia let out her breath. “And I’m also totally okay with the idea that you two are meant to be together—without me.”

Paul straightened. “Hold on a minute, it’s the other way round, isn’t it? Luke came back for you, Julia, not me. Me having the hots for Luke is neither here nor there.”

Julia glared at Luke. “You have a lot of explaining to do, buddy. Perhaps you’d like to start by telling me what you did to get Mr. Glynn fired.”

“Me?” Luke raised his eyebrows and sat down on one of the kitchen chairs, legs crossed. “What the hell did I do?”

“Don’t lie. This afternoon I got a call from a Mr. Mike Pritchard. He said he managed your business accounts.”

“Oh, hell,” Luke groaned. “I told him not to call you directly.”

“Well I’m glad he did. Apparently he’s on good terms with one of the guys on the bank’s board, and ‘apparently’ Mr. Glynn denying the application of a multimillionaire client of his pissed him off.”

Luke shrugged. “Well, it would, wouldn’t it?”

Julia pointed her finger at him. “You said you sold your juice bar and just dabbled in stuff.”

“That’s true, I did.”

“I thought you meant you’d lost all your money.”

“I never said that.”

“Hold on a minute,” Paul said. “Luke’s a millionaire? So, how did you make all this money?”

“I owned a juice bar in the heart of Silicon Valley. Over the years, I met all kinds of geeks and computer geniuses, even invested in some of their companies, you know, like eBay, those Google guys, that kind of stuff.”

“You made enough to sell the shop and just focus on managing your portfolio?”

“Yeah, I did, and then last year I realized I was tired of just doing that and looked around for something else to do.” Luke looked at them both. “And I realized I wanted to come home.”

“And pretend you had nothing,” Julia said.

“I didn’t do that, Julia.” His hazel eyes were steady. “You and Paul just assumed that as I’d left with nothing, I’d returned with nothing. I tried to tell you that wasn’t the case, but you were both too busy offering me advice and loans to actually pay attention.”

He got to his feet. “I know you don’t want to believe me, but I’d gotten to a point in my life when I realized that all the money in the world couldn’t compensate for the things that really mattered—having a home, a family, someone to love. I came back here to see if any of that still existed for me.”

Julia glanced at Paul who was watching her intently. “I suppose Luke’s got a point.” Her lips twitched. “And you should’ve seen Mr. Glynn’s face when the bank director called him. It was priceless.”

Luke grinned. “I’m glad the narrow-minded bastard lost his job. He sure didn’t deserve it.”

“I hate to sound vindictive, but I agree with you.” Julia smiled at both the men. “And I won’t be after you about getting a loan out on the drugstore, okay?”

“Okay.” Luke’s smile died. “And now I might as well answer the rest of your questions, the important ones.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and studied the tiled floor. “I ran away that night because I realized I wanted you both, and at eighteen, that idea scared the shit out of me. I certainly wasn’t old enough to know how to deal with it, and I reckoned if I took myself out of the equation, you two would work it out just fine.”

“Except we didn’t,” Julia whispered. “We always felt like there was something missing.” She reached for Paul’s hand. “And I just want to say that if you came back for Paul, I’m okay with that. I’d like at least two of us to be happy.”

Luke moved closer took her hand and Paul’s. “But it’s not that simple, is it? I still want you both, and I’m the one who will be bowing out if that doesn’t work for all three of us.”

Paul chuckled. “You’ve both said pretty much what I was going to say. I’d also be willing to back off if it makes you two happy.”

Julia’s eyes filled with tears. “Wow, aren’t we all being so self-sacrificing here? Anyone would think we loved each other.”

Paul cleared his throat. “But we do, don’t we?”

“Yeah,” Luke said huskily. “We do.”

Julia dragged them both into a fierce embrace and sighed as their arms came around her and around each other. “We can make it work, can’t we?”

“I don’t see why not,” Paul said. “We can at least try.”

Julia stood on tiptoe to kiss Paul’s mouth and then Luke’s. “Can we go to bed to seal the deal? The casserole’s going to take at least two hours to cook.”

Luke grinned. “Sounds good to me, honey, and it’s my turn to fuck Paul. Maybe I can do that while he’s fucking you.”

Julia shivered as Paul picked her up and marched down the hall to her bedroom. Mr. Glynn was gone, she was about to have sex with the two most important men in her world, and dinner was in the oven. Did it get much better than this? Somehow, she doubted it.