“Right now, the best I can do is admit that I said a thing I shouldn’t have,” Dale said.He felt the words in his throat like gravel and turned to face Ty.“Last night I threw a truckload of shit at you, and you did not deserve it.”He went to reach out, to place a hand on Ty’s face, but couldn’t.Touch was something he felt he had to earn the right back to do.“I am so sorry, Ty.I didn’t mean any of that shit.I was pissed and scared, and frustrated, and I never meant to take it out on you.”
“I know that,” Ty said as he stood, stepping forward and reaching up to place his own hands on either side of Dale’s jaw.“I can’t say it didn’t hurt when it landed, but I knew where it was coming from.”
Dale felt a suspicious heat gather behind his eyes as Ty leaned in and lovingly kissed him on both cheeks.Leaving the hand Oren still held where it was, he gripped on to Ty’s waist with the other, loving that all three of them were connected physically in that moment.
“That’s on me,” Oren said in a low tone, and Dale turned to face him, hating the look of guilt cross his face.“I didn’t think I was keeping it from you.I just...I wanted time to process.”
One of Ty’s hands slid from Dale’s face and reached out to cup Oren’s handsome face.“You always have to have a solution when you come to anyone with an issue.You’ve been like that since basic, babe.”
Oren nodded.“Yeah, I know.”
Dale was feeling lighter than he had all day, hell, since dinner last night, when the three of them were together and the only thing that sat between them was a plate of good food and a glass of red wine.
“I talked to Nick this morning.”
Ty’s eyebrow lifted.“That tracks.”
“He said my job isn’t to carry it for you,” Dale said.“It’s to carry it with you.He told me to stop growling long enough to make the room safe, so you bring me the bad when it breaks, not after.”He looked at Oren, then at Ty.“I want that.I want—” He exhaled.“I want to do it right.”
Oren’s fingers tightened.“I talked to Aiden,” he said.“He walked me around the fence and, if I’m honest, the inside of my head.”His mouth softened.“I should have brought the fact Carson had confronted me to you both the minute I stepped in that door last night.”
Ty huffed a laugh and tilted his head back to look at the ceiling for a moment.“And closing out the bravo trifecta, Sam found me at the range this morning.Gave me the talk about roles and stubborn idiots.His words.”
“His words,” Dale agreed.“Not wrong.”
Ty’s smile tilted.“He said my job is to coax and temper.Coax Oren out of the bunker, temper you when the growl outvotes the words.”He shrugged.“I can do that.If you two let me.”
Dale’s throat went tight.“We’ll let you.”He looked at Oren.“We’ll let you.”
Oren nodded, the kind of nod that meant contract, not courtesy.“Then we’re good.”
For a minute it was just the three of them breathing in the same square of air.Dale felt the apology settle into his bones.
“Next on our to do list for today,” Ty said, lighter now.“Food.Dale, please will you make us some coffee in that fancy machine you have over there.”
“Bossy,” Dale said.
“You love it,” Ty returned, and Dale couldn’t argue, because he did.
They ate what Nick had left behind—pastries and fruit, with the coffee they all so desperately needed—and the world edged back toward center.Oren stole the last bite of something lemon and tried to look innocent about it.He failed; Ty laughed; Dale let the sound fix a thing inside him he hadn’t known was cracked.
When the plates were empty, Ty rubbed his thumb over the inside of Oren’s wrist and looked up at Dale with that particular heat that made decisions easier.“We’re wired,” he said.“We’d like our alpha to come to bed instead of prowling the perimeter of his own kitchen.”
Dale’s hands curled on the counter.“I don’t want to hurt either of you.”It came out low.Truth.
Oren tilted his head, eyes steady.“We’re not that breakable.”
“Also,” Ty added, dry, “we’re consenting adults who can say stop.We’ve got a round or two left in us before we complain to management.”
“Is that so,” Dale said, and the corner of his mouth finally moved.
“Very so,” Ty said.“Penalty fees apply.”
Oren’s lips curved.“We’ll invoice.”
Dale blew out a breath that felt like laying a weapon down.“Then I’m done pretending I don’t want what I want.”He looked at both of them.“We good?”
Oren nodded once.“Good.”
