The words ring in my ears.
It’s so obvious.
I push open the door with such force that it smacks against the door stop with a loud bang.
Three heads turn toward me. Actually five. Noah has jumped in his sleep and Evelyn swivels her head and starts crying.
“Caro, are you okay?” James asks, gawking at me as he scrambles to stand up with Noah.
Cas is watching me carefully, and Grayson’s nostrils are flaring.
“No, I’m not okay!” I stand there for a second, breathing hard, looking at each of them. “I’m in love with you.”
“Who?” Grayson asks, looking and sounding cautious.
“You. And James. And Cas. All of you. I can’t leave. I’m not leaving.”
Now Grayson is getting to his feet as well. “Caroline…”
James is in front of me now. “What about your job?” He’s searching my face carefully.
“Fuck it. I can teach here.” Now it all seems so obvious to me. I’m not sure why it took me a whole week and a half to figure it out. “I won’t be happy unless I’m with all of you.”
They’re a little more reserved than I was expecting when I burst in here. I don’t know what I was envisioning—maybe literal fireworks—but this felt underwhelming.
This must have been how Grayson felt when I just stared at him after he said he loved me.
“Are you sure?” Cas is also now getting to his feet.
“Yes. I’m one hundred percent sure. I love all of you and I want us to be together…if that’s what you want,” I finish, a little deflated.
But then, all at once, they all react.
James grins and presses a hard kiss on my lips. “Oh my God, I’m so happy to hear that. I love you so much, Caro. Yes, I want this. If the guys do, that is.”
Grayson puts Evelyn down on the mat and scoops me up in his arms and twirls me around. “Hell, yes, that’s what I want! I love you, baby.”
Relieved, I laugh and hold on to him when he sets me down and I stumble a little, my face warm with emotion, heart racing.
I look past him. “Cas? How do you feel?”
Cas surprises me by cupping my cheeks gently and giving me a sweet, tender kiss. “Welcome home.”
That makes me sigh, and tears form. “I’m ready to be home. All of you are my home.”
Grayson has retrieved Evelyn from the floor and I run my hand over her hair, and then Noah’s. “I love these two as well.”
James squeezes my hand. “Let’s go upstairs.”
“Jane will be here in ten minutes,” Grayson says. “She can watch Noah too.”
My body warms. “Why?” I ask, slyly.
I’m fooling no one.
“So we can celebrate,” Grayson says, crowding in on me from behind. He brushes my hair off of my shoulder and kisses the back of my neck. “By the way, we were here together plotting ways to convince you to stay.”
I shiver.
