One male on his spawning bed courting more than one female. She just doesn't deposit her eggs she must be enticed. Females will leave part their eggs with more than one male. The eggs that he guards are probably from more than one female.
Makes sense. They made beds and laid eggs seemingly overnight. All 3 fish were defending the nest and I could see tons of eggs. Some of the bass seem to be terrible at guarding their nests while the BG just snack away. Nest on one might be bigger than they can defend though.