Hunter wasn't jealous of Shawn.
He just…
He thought that the other guy did everything he did, but...better.
He could talk to women easier, even when he wasn't putting on his asshole persona. Throw back drinks with ease. Had sampled his fair share of the hard drugs that could be passed about the locker room. Shawn was just all around the life of the party.
Hunter wasn't any of those things.
He was angry a lot.
And worried, when not that.
It didn't quite matter about what. His main function was brooding and stewing. His charisma, his ease with words, only came when openly mocking or jeering at another. He struggled to find topics outside of the ring to focus in on and though he could shoot the shit about whatever other sport was in season, it was only passingly.
He lived and breathed the business.
To the point it wasn't fun for others.
No one wanted to think about wrestling constantly.
Except for Stephanie.
She was the only person he knew that thought about it more than him. She knew company history as if she'd lived it, even for stories ranging from before her birth. She'd heard them all repeated, relived, through many different eyes and though she obviously favored the McMahon retelling of each event, all of it was special to her.
Steph was the business.
So it made sense they'd get along so well.
Shawn's rise had been during the years she was absent from it though, away at college, and though she didn't know him well, she made it pretty clear to Hunter she'd like to.
"I mean," she'd insisted when she told him to ask Shawn to meet them for lunch, "if you guys are going to be tagging together more often, I should probably get to know him anyways. And if you're at all hoping to repeat the other night-"
"Yeah, I got it, I'll ask him," he grumbled, as he had any time she'd brought that night back up.
To Steph, it seemed he'd slowly soured on the idea. The arrangement, maybe.
But it wasn't that.
It was…
Hunter hadn't told her.
About what Shawn said.
About involving her.
"What the fuck, man?" he'd griped at his best friend that day in the car. Shawn shrugged, dismissive, but Hunter wasn't letting him off the hook. "Why would you even say that? I already told you, Steph is off limits. You're not gonna fuck my wife, dude."
"Did I fucking ask?" Shawn dropped his jaw and tossed up a hand. "I said involved, Hunter."
"I don't-"
"It'll be fucking weird, her just sitting in the corner watching us." Dropping his hand back in his lap, Shawn rubbed a flat palm over the front of his tight blue jeans as he remarked, "Don't get me wrong, it was hot, but… I dunno. Made everything feel...weird. At the end."
He'd been so defensive at first, Hunter had, that as it washed back out of him, he just felt numb.
And confused.
He was often that.
"What do you mean?" Hunter asked, but Shawn shrugged and they really didn't fucking talk about this shit, it was ruining it, just speaking on it.
Damn it.
Letting Steph in had fucked it all up. He was sure.
Hunter didn't realize until his chest tightened then, how much it would hurt, to lose it now. He'd gone so long without choking sobs in the shower, death gripping his cock, thinking of Shawn, of them together, but now it was back with a vengeance.
The man had tasted a piece of something he'd thought was sealed away. It wasn't. Just buried. Uncovered now, he wasn't so sure he could watch it be consciously dismantled.
"We normally hang out. Or do shit. After." Shawn shrugged again, reaching up to scratch at his face. "But you and...Steph-"
"I wanted to fuck her." Hunter wasn't sure why he felt bad about that, but as he glared away from Shawn, out the window, he did.
"I know." Shawn even snickered, uncomfortable as well maybe. "I get it."
"Then-"
"If she wasn't sitting on the fucking sidelines, you could have her," Shawn pointed out, but the visuals were difficult for Hunter to imagine, "while we're fucking."
Hunter frowned. "Like-"
"Like," Shawn interceded, "however you want. I don't care." Looking over to his friend then, gaze strong enough to force the other's return, "I'm not going to fuck your wife, Hunter."
Nothing was decided that day though and they left off in a weird place. When they scoped some time out to practice some tag moves in the ring before a show, they felt out of sorts and disjointed.
Stephanie, who was too busy with her own stuff to worry about Hunter's woes in-ring, usually didn't concern herself with his training, but did manage to sneak a peak that day and note their clear lack of synchronicity.
So she suggested they have lunch that day, in hopes of smoothing over any problems that had arisen.
But Hunter just thought she was trying to arrange another rendezvous.
Or something.
Snooping, probably, into his life.
But he didn't have a lot of close friends and, having had her fill of the newer faces in DX, she hoped a return to center for Hunter would give her at least one of his friends that she enjoyed.
And okay, yeah, she did want to watch Shawn fuck her husband again.
That was part of it.
Or at least seeing them interact.
Stephanie liked when Hunter was uncomfortable. Or at least off his game. She used to be able to bring a blush to his cheek with ease. A purposeful misunderstanding here, a careless remark there, and bam, she had him around her finger, trying to make up for any perceived slight.
Slowly though, he'd formed defenses and now wasn't so easy to get a rise out of.
She didn't wanna tease her husband, exactly, but she could tell in his gaze that he really didn't want to ask Shawn out to lunch and that somehow made it so much better.
He'd changed their relationship first, by bringing it up.
Or had she by bringing it back up and furthering it?
The first did allow her freedom from blame, so it's what she decided upon, as they met up with Shawn at a burger joint a few towns over from the arena. He was already waiting for them, seated outside under an awning, making faces down at the menu. As the hostess led the couple to him, the other man hardly glanced up. Stephanie smiled, anyways, taking the seat across from him as Hunter, with a frown, took the seat beside.
"Fucking menus insane," was Shawn's greeting as, tapping curled knuckle against something specific on it, he remarked, "Endless shit on it. That's the new thing, you know? Endless beers. Endless fries. Endless wings. Everyone wants to sell you shit that doesn't end."
Steph frowned, snatching up her own from the table to glance over. Shrugging, she said, "Do you not brunch?"
"Excuse me?" Shawn laughed, even, a stilted one as he looked over to the woman finally. "Brunch?"
"Eat something light," Steph continued, "have a bottomless mimosa. That's the word you want. Bottomless."
"I used the word I wanted, thanks." But Shawn was grinning, leaning further over the table as he asked, "So this brunch-"
"This isn't brunch," Steph cut him off, but Shawn shook his head.
"I meant in the general sense," he corrected. "You're telling me this is a frequent thing you do, huh? Get tipsy at brunch? With Hunter?"
They looked to him then, Shawn glancing and Steph turning her head, but the man only glared into his menu, willing a blush to not spread over his cheeks.
"I mean, sometimes," Steph mused, but Shawn still narrowed his eyes.
"Him?" he asked, jerking a thumb towards the guy. "How do you get him to do it, huh?"
Steph was the one that blushed, pausing again to give the man room to speak for himself, but when he did…
"Hunter'll do anything I ask," she stated plainly and even though it was true, it did make Hunter huff some. But as she turned to assure him she was only joking, Shawn spoke.
"Anything?" He grinned. "You sure?"
"Feeling challenged, her eyes returned to the other man, asserting, "Absolutely."
"Then make him order some of these fucking wings me," Shawn ordered with a snicker, going back to his own menu as Hunter let out far too audible a sigh of relief. Still, just to be a bit of a dick, the other man added, "The endless ones."
"I'm on a thing." Hunter continued to eye his menu, his voice far rougher than intended. His mouth was just dry, honest. "Shawn. Diet. Thing. I can't eat wings."
Shawn scoffed. "You're gonna make me look like a fucking big in front of your woman all alone then?"
But Stephanie only sat up taller, remarking, "Maybe I want wings."
"Oh?" Shawn hummed, eyeing her and the woman grinned in kind.
"A bottomless amount of wings sounds pretty nice," she agreed.
"Yup." The man across from her nodded. "Endless shit is pretty great, huh?" Then he looked to his friend once more, asking, "Don't you think so, Hunter? Endless."
"I think," Hunter remarked as Steph tried to glare at Shawn, but found herself laughing instead, when he returned one with far more ease, "we should just talk about something else."
Which was also the wrong thing to say because though she was hoping to observe the two men together more, Stephanie also had always wanted to pick Shawn Michaels' brain about a few things.
Try a lot of things.
Hunter had never hated hearing about the company before. The business. Steph was rapt on Shawn's words, getting his side of things.
The only thing she very purposely didn't ask him about was how he'd met his most recent end at the hands of her husband.
But oh, Hunter could tell she was itching to.
It wasn't like Stephanie was all Shawn had imagined either though. He really thought that their back and forth had been leading to at least some discussion of that night in the locker room, but once she was focused in on something, it was hard to gt her to deviate.
Him fucking Hunter was intriguing, but over his thoughts on the Harts?
No way.
Shawn had shit to do, after lunch, and though Steph suggested they stroll around the city's center, Hunter just wanted to get back to the hotel. After having more than her fair share of wings, honestly, Stephanie didn't put up that much of a fight. She had plans for the evening, some sort of meeting, but Hunter had already finished his shit for the day and for those few hours until she left, they existed together.
Steph showered, griping about how hot it had been out on the patio, while Hunter sat back in bed, having stripped to his boxers, making faces at the current news rolling by. It was actually helping take his mind off things, maybe, getting invested in the coverage enough that it made him jump, when Steph exited the bathroom clad only in her robe.
"You are not," she complained with a frown, "laying in the bed without washing off first."
"I stripped down," he griped. "What more do you-"
"Uh, to wash your nasty body off before-"
"Hey, I wanted to talk to you," he cut her off when she came over to the bedside table and looked about ready to place a phone call. Nodding at the phone, he said, "Unless that's more important-"
"Nope." Steph smiled at him as she took a seat beside him on the bed. "All ears."
Grabbing the remote, he muted the television rather than turn it off. Hsi gaze remained on it, anyways, as he said, "You enjoy lunch?"
"Mmmhmm!" Steph giggled as she stretched out beside him. "Shawn's nice."
He didn't return her gaze. "You think so?"
"Hunter-" she tried, but he wouldn't let her.
"I'm just," he insisted, "asking."
"Asking me if I think the thing that I just told you I already think?"
That did get a glance from him. A hard stare too. Then a retort of, "I'm asking if you really think the thing that you told me or if you're just saying that you think the thing that you told me because you think that I would wanna hear it."
"Hunter, what?" She laid a hand over his arm. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
"I thought that we all enjoyed ourselves," Steph huffed. "But now you're acting like-"
"Shawn wants to… He wants you to, you know, not...just watch." He glanced at her, but quickly away. "It was weird for him. You sitting and watching."
"O-Oh. I didn't-"
"Not you were weird," he huffed, hoping to avoid any misunderstanding, but also unsure of how to accomplish that. "Just that… I don't know, Steph. Maybe we should just… I don't know. I just don't want...you to fuck him."
For a moment, she watched the man, silent. This ended though as along with a slight shove of his shoulder eventually, she also questioned, "You know what your problem is? You think too much."
"Do not."
"Do so." Pulling her knees beneath herself, Steph rose up on them, so she was taller than the man. "When did Shawn even say that? After lunch?"
"No." He knew what came next and went along with it, falling over slightly when Steph pulled his head close and let him nestle against the fluffy bathrobe. "It was the day after we…"
"So," she began slowly, "you sat on that info and mulled it over for over a week and let it affect you in the ring two days ago."
"What?" He wanted to jerk his head away, but she'd wrapped her arms around it and was playing softly with his hair. His desire for continued comfort depleted the one dying to get away. "What are you-"
"You looked out of it, on Smackdown the other day," she critiqued which made him frown as well.
"You didn't say anything that day," he remarked as, usually, regardless of his performance, Steph liked to go over it in detail back at their hotel room. "So-"
"So? I'm saying it now."
"That's-"
"You," she kept up, "didn't say anything to me, until just now, about Shawn thinking I'm a creep-"
"He did not say that, Stephanie." He did pull away then, frowning at her as he insisted, "I don't want you guys to start, like, fighting or-"
"Over what?" She couldn't help it. She laughed. "You?"
He blushed. "Stephanie-"
"I don't get you, Hunter." She dropped back off her knees then with a frown. "You're literally getting everything you want and you're still upset."
This was his usual disposition.
"What I want?" He snorted. 'I didn't ask you to watch me and my friend fuck, Steph. You asked me to be able to."
"After you clearly wanted to fuck him."
"I did not! God, you-"
"You know what? Fuck your friend. Without me." She started to slip out of bed. "I don't care anymore."
"Steph-"
"I'm serious; go fuck Shawn."
"It's not," he griped as reaching out, he grasped her forearm tightly, "about that."
"Then what," Stephanie retorted, not pulling away, but still with her body angled to do so, "is it about?"
"I…"
He didn't know.
But that was okay, as Stephanie already was reformulating the situation to best fit herself.
Or at least her own ego.
"Oh, I get it," she decided, all on her own. Hunter knew he was in trouble, even before the words left her mouth, just from the victorious smile that fell over his wife's face. She almost seemed gleeful as she said, "You don't want me to steal your boyfriend."
"What?" he scoffed. Then glared. "Shawn's not my- Stephanie, what are you-"
"I like him, I guess, as a friend, maybe," she continued as, in shock, he released his hold on the woman. "But that's it. I already told you, I'm not attracted to him."
Narrowing his eyes, Hunter found something easy to challenge as he replied, "You were literally flirting with him, all through lunch."
"So you are jealous."
"Steph-"
"I'm mostly just offended," she kept up and he groaned, falling backwards this time, into the pillows, "that you're bothering me about this and not him. Maybe he's the one trying to fuck me. Ever think of that?"
"Yes, crazy, that's what this is all about!"
Steph deflated some. "What do you mean? I already told you, Shawn's not my type."
Tossing an arm over his eyes, he retorted, "So?"
"So," she kept up, "I'm not going to-"
"You guys were flirting, at lunch, as I sat right beside you." His head fell to the side, escaping the cover of his arm momentarily as he looked over at her with accusatory eyes. "So no, I'm not really that keen on the two of you-"
"Keen?"
"Stephanie-"
"Maybe I'm not keen-"
"I hate you."
"-on how you sat at lunch like a sourpuss and wouldn't fucking talk to either of us." Steph frowned at him then, a bit of accusation in her own tone as she remarked, "I mean god, according to you, he's just your best friend, right, Hunter?"
"Ideally."
"Then ideally," she retorted, "wouldn't you want us to get along?"
"I want you to get along, Steph; I don't want you to wanna fuck him."
"I don't!" She glared. "How many times do I have to-"
"I heard how the two of you were-"
"Talking?"
Her question hung between them for a moment as, sure, that's what they'd been doing, but Hunter knew what he felt at the table, between the pair. Steph's bright eyes and Shawn's little smirk. It made Hunter feel…
"I think Shawn's an asshole."
Hunter frowned, glancing over at his wife. "What?"
She shrugged. "He also looks...scraggy."
"Scraggy?"
"And I don't like a guy who parties as heavily as he does. Or can." She shrugged. "Unreliable. And it means you're not fully focused on whatever we're usually working towards."
"Why are you-"
"You guys are a lot in a lot of ways," she kept up, "but not in the ones that matter."
Hunter considered her words before remarking, "But you'd fuck him."
"Why are you-"
"Would you?"
"Like...in what situation, Hunter?" She frowned. "I'd have sex with a lot of the people we work with. And you would too, so don't make that face. But I don't because, one, gross and two, I could pull way better-"
"Stephanie-"
"My point is that even if some part of me was attracted to Shawn," she finished, "no, that does not mean I'm going to, what? Have sex with him behind your back, Hunter? Is that what you're scared of?"
He looked away again, muttering softly, "I dunno," as Steph only sighed.
Sitting back down, right beside him now, she rested her head against the man's arm. Eyes trained to the television, she watched it idly for a moment or two before saying, "I meant what I said, Hunter. If you don't wanna do this anymore, we don't have to. You can… Fuck Shawn. It's whatever."
Still, he shook his head, insisting, "It's not about that."
"Then-"
"If the two of you...liked one another," he tried, "just generally, more than you liked me, I guess I...wouldn't be able to handle that."
Steph had never known her husband to be so insecure.
But then, a few weeks back, she'd never known him to enjoy having his ass torn apart by his best friend.
It was a time of discovery, to say the least.
"Is that all you're worried about?" she asked, but instead of letting him answer, quickly asserted, "Because it won't. Hunter. I'm being super friendly to your friend because I want to keep watching fuck you every couple of weeks."
Her blunt words made his stomach flip, in a different way now, and when he turned to fall into the woman that time, it was more than just his head. He sat back, after he had her flat against the bed, to look over the woman.
"Is that what you want, Steph?" he asked as his hands pulled at the string typing her robe together. "Huh?"
She was dazed, not fully in his head space. Her robe fell away to reveal lacy, yet mismatched bra and panties. As one of his hands came up to stroke at the red fabric of her bra, the other found her chin. She reached up for him as well, but the man turned his head when she tried to stroke his beard.
"Yes," she answered, which seemed to be right as he lowered his face some, to ghost his lips across her as the woman said, "I loved it."
"What," he questioned, hand trailing from her chin to her cheek, "did you love about it?"
His hair fell down to tickle her face and that time, when Steph reached, he let her tuck some of it behind his ear.
"I've never seen you like that before," she answered softly. "With someone else."
He dropped his head more, to rest his forehead against hers. "So it couldda been anyone? Not just Shawn."
"Couldda been," she agreed as the hand on her breast fell slightly, goosebumps running down her side in wake of his soft touch.
He gripped her hip when he got to it. "A woman?"
"No." She answered without a thought. "I don't… That wouldn't be the same."
His head fell further, slipping off hers as beside her ear now, he asked, "Why?"
"It would hurt my feelings." She blushed. "If you seemed more into her. Than me." But then she heard her words and said, "But that's not the same, Hunter. Me and Shawn-"
"Did you like when he sucked me off?"
"I… Yeah, I did, but-"
"You do that." He nuzzled the side of her head. "For me."
"But he was different."
Hunter let out a soft breath. "Why?"
"Why," she retorted, "does it matter?"
"I wanna know, Steph." He let go of her hip and cheek, hands falling now to the bed as he shoved up some. "If it's not that you're into Shawn-"
"At all."
"-then what-"
"It's what you told me," she admitted softly, looking away from him. "About you guys...bonding. I… I dunno. I've always been in this world, with wrestlers and things, and yeah, women matter too, but… They never liked me. Or saw me as one of them. I always wanted to know what it felt like. To not be here because of who I am. Seeing you with others, getting to hang around after… I dunno. It's like I'm something else now. Instead of just a McMahon. An actual part of something. Watching you and Shawn celebrate after a match...with fucking…"
"We do that." He'd lost the timber in his voice and his gaze was much softer. "Steph. I celebrate with you."
"You celebrate with me," she agreed, "but not because I just helped you out in the ring. We didn't bleed together. Sweat. I stood around and watched you do something. I set up, you knock down. But Shawn gets to be in the ring with you, doing the knocking down. It's something I can't have. And it's what makes you want him so badly. Feel so close to him. Of course I wanted to see that."
His gaze felt heavy for a few moments before he fell back, off her, grumbling, "Flip over."
Stephanie smiled, truly then, doing as he asked without hesitation. As the man shoved up her robe rather than remove it, Steph folded her arms above her head and closed her eyes. Without them on him now, the man felt more at ease, somehow.
"I just don't wanna fuck up our marriage." His fingers curled around the band of her panties, but didn't tug them down yet. "And I'm still trying to get things figured out with Shawn. And what he said, about wanting you to… I don't-"
"The whole time you guys were fucking," she whispered as, even without his ushering, her hips raised and the man thought it best to go ahead and slip the black garment down her toned legs, "all I could think about if I was down there-"
"Steph-"
"-sucking your dick," she finished with a kick of her feet to fully free herself of her panties. It was an odd sensation, lying in bed with her robe pushed up like it was, but as she felt Hunter's hand palm her ass cheek, she found it enjoyable enough to grind her hips into the bed. "As he finished in you. Or the thought of...of him and you...while you were fucking me-"
She ruined her own sentence, letting out a short huff of breath as his hands suddenly gripped her hips and shifted them up.
He quickly shimmied out of his boxers.
"I think Shawn's into you," Hunter whispered as he be bent low to rub his nose down the curve of her back.
Arching up on her palms, Steph glanced absently back at him before slowly remarking, "He's your friend, not mine."
"So?"
"So he's your job to manage, not mine." She faced the wall to add, "You're mine."
"Yours?" he muttered, first two fingers trailing across her moist center before slipping inside.
Her warmth made him pant.
His pant made her spread her legs further.
"Imagine," she insisted as he slid his tip along her, "if he was here right now."
Pressing into her was met with a joint hiss and Steph tossed her hips back when he tried to retreat.
They didn't have forever.
He didn't know if he wanted it anyways.
When he finished, buried deep in his wife, it was with a promise that he'd talk to Shawn and set something up.
"Only if you really want to, Hunter," she sighed, falling into the bed fully as the man pressed kisses along her back's soft skin.
They could give this up, she told him, at any time.
But not only did he know that wasn't truly the case (Steph was never one to forget), he also wasn't sure he wanted it to be.
He and Shawn were both scheduled for a signing event the next day.
The other guy was in a really good mood.
From Shawn's point of view, he'd had a nice lunch the day before with Steph, got to rib Hunter a bit, and secured his spot in the threesome.
Any of the hangups the husband and wife were having behind the scenes weren't easily known to him.
If the point of their meetup was to get Stephanie comfortable with him, he felt like they'd more than covered that base. Honestly, he could tell his next biggest hurdle was Hunter.
To Shawn, their problem was obvious.
Hunter had asked him not to try and fuck Steph.
Fine.
But Shawn didn't feel like it was crossing the line to at least ask that she not leer at them from the corner.
"Hunter said you thought I was a creep."
When Hunter got drug off at the event by some higher ups, Shawn found Stephanie lingering about the venue with some other wrestlers and took it upon himself to single her out. It was easy enough. He mentioned having trouble finding the bathrooms and she was quick to lead him further into the convention center. Rather than take him to the bathrooms though, they found themselves roaming the halls aimlessly, speaking softly, seemingly alone.
"Yeah," Shawn agreed, rather than deny. "He's been on a kick recently, huh? Or is he just always like this now."
"He's on edge." Steph glanced up at the other man with a shrug. "He'll calm back down."
Nodding, Shawn said, "I didn't call you that. By the way. A creep. He exaggerates."
"He freaks out," she offered, but Shawn shrugged and though the pair lacked familiarity, neither felt out of place beside the other.
Steph trusted Hunter's judgment. He'd never been weary of Shawn, just been done with him, before. Now that he placed in their group once more, she thought it best to keep the peace with him.
For now.
Hunter wanted to be friends with him (and have sex with him, apparently), and it would only benefit her to be friendly with him. Not to mention, she hadn't been entirely upfront with her husband before. While she'd never find herself interested in Shawn for long, many of the man's rougher exterior features heavily mirrored her husband's own. Of course she was attracted to him.
It was a game for Shawn though.
One he'd been winning so far.
He didn't want to steal Hunter's wife.
Reminding the other guy of the fact he could was absolutely something his best friend deserved. After all, Hunter had bashed his fucking skull in. So while he didn't hope to ruin their marriage, watching Hunter sweat it out a bit was intended.
Not to mention, having an in to the McMahons that avoided the old man and his bozo son felt like a safe bet.
Getting to realign with Hunter and neo-DX while also finding a better safety net felt like a good move.
For now.
It also helped that Steph was easy.
To talk to.
On the eyes.
In general, he was pretty sure.
He could tell she liked him, anyways. Their vibrations matched up, he teased her a bit, when they finished a lap around the convention hall and found themselves once more in the doorway of the main event room. The fans that filtered about had waned and the lines were all but a few stranglers.
"You vibe with a creep?" she asked again and this time he decided not to let it pass without explaining himself.
"You like fucking while people watch?"
His vulgarity, now so close back to the others made her scoff some and lean closer.
"No," she answered, smile falling into a tight line as she said, "But="
"Didn't either." He shrugged some, looking off as he added, "I mean, if it's your thing-"
"It's," Steph insisted, "not."
He leaned over some to her then, remarking softly as one of his hands scratched at his beard, "Just wanted to make sure you're not a weirdo, you know?"
"Weirdo," Steph repeated softly.
Shawn nodded, not moving back. "I think it would be fucking weird for you to stand around, getting off on...what? How weird it is that Hunter and I are-"
"I didn't-"
"It's not fucking...weird. Or...taboo." He huffed, turning his head from her some as he said, "If he'd been fucking some chick, you wouldn't wanna watch, would you?"
"N-No, but-"
"But because I'm a guy-"
"Because I'm attracted to be both of you," she finally interrupted, tone tight as she tried to keep her voice down. There was only so much room in the doorway though and, with his head turned, she had to lean further towards the man to insure this. "I wouldn't be another woman."
He smiled then, teeth peaking through as he looked back at her.
"Is that right?" he asked, voice low. "That's the reason."
But Stephanie wouldn't back down. Her eyes met his easily as she insisted, "That's the reason."
To look away was to lose, to concede, and though neither was keen to do either to the other, a sharp clearing of throat from out in the hall had both Shawn and Steph sheepishly looking towards their relational lynch pin.
Hunter stood with his arms folded over his chest, a pensive look stuck on his face. Though neither his best friend nor wife could quite pinpoint how much of their conversation the man had heard, each knew his current hangups in regard to the pair of them. Convincing the man of nothing between the two of them would've been far easier, had he not discovered them once more locked in a heated exchange. Though not of words this time, it was hard to deny the hitch in his breathing, a raising of his heart rate at the sight of his wife having such an intense discussion with another.
His name was on both their lips, denials and affirmations to assure him of what, in the moment, merely made him lick his lips and draw in a deep, concerning breath. At his exhale, though no relief seemed to befall the man, his gaze wasn't one that Shawn nor Steph knew to fear.
"Let's finish up here and then get back to the hotel," Hunter huffed as he came to stand at their sides, glancing between the pair. As Steph swallowed, concerned, and Shawn sighed, disappointed, he only served to confuse them both as he clarified, "The three of us."
