But it didn’t spike.
Okay. Okay…
I unlocked the screen with a shaky thumb, ignoring the dozens of notifications lining my feed. Sports updates, PR pings, news alerts, and?—
Yep. There it was. Weather app already open in a background window, probably from earlier in the week.
I refreshed it.
Then looked up.
“Well?” Rhett asked, leaning forward like a very excited golden retriever trying to solve a murder mystery.
I raised a brow. “Anyone want to change their bet?”
Roan just gave me that patient, unreadable look.
Jay tilted his head.
Rhett made an exaggerated “nope” gesture with both hands.
“Alright then,” I murmured.
I read the screen out loud.
“Current temperature, twelve degrees. Wind chill bringing it down to two. Snowfall expected to continue through the evening. Accumulation: four to five inches. Icy road warnings in effect through tomorrow morning…”
I looked up at Roan.
“You win.”
His smile—small, faint, just the barest uptick of his lips—still somehow hit me low and hard.
“Of course he does,” Jay muttered, pushing off the counter. “He’s probably telepathically linked to the fucking Doppler radar.”
“Don’t be jealous,” Rhett said, but he was already grinning. “We’ll just beat him in the next round.”
Roan looked at me then, and even from across the room, Ifeltthe quiet weight of his attention. “So, Wren. We placed our bets.”
My pulse tripped.
“Time to collect,” Rhett added, a little too bright, a little too sharp.
And I realized?—
This was what it felt like to be wanted by all three of them.
No pressure.
No demands.
Just open hands and simmering patience andwantso deep I could feel it anchoring me to the earth.
And the only one who got to decide what happened next… was me.
I could still feel the heat curling inside me, but something about Roan’s steady presence gave me a buffer, made it if not easier, then possible to breathe. His quiet confidence and his patience acted like an anchor. It was so easy to sink into that, to let him take control in the way he knew best.How he always knew best.
Of course, Roan had won. It was sohim—never take a bet he wasn’t sure about. Never do anything half-assed. It didn’t matter if it was on the ice or in a game of odds about weather. Roanknew.
