What does that make me? Greedy? Selfish? Someone who can’t choose because she wants everything.
Three men. Three incredibly possessive men who’ve made it clear they care about me. Who look at me like I’m theirs. Who’ve built this bubble around Tommy and me where nothing can hurt us.
But bubbles burst. Real life intrudes. And real life means people will judge. Will whisper. Will call me names I don’t want to hear.
I press my hands over my face.
The fires are over. I’m safe. Tommy’s safe. Derek’s custody case is falling apart.
Everything should feel perfect.
So why do I feel like I’m standing on the edge of something petrifying with no idea how to move forward?
Chapter twenty-nine
Chapter 29
Cole
We need to talk to her.
That’s been clear since Marco kissed her two nights ago. Since the arrest. Since everything shifted from “protecting Rachel from danger” to “figuring out what the hell we’re doing now that the danger’s gone.”
Theo and I are in the kitchen when Marco gets home from the station. He looks tired—Ryan’s case is moving through the system, and Marco’s been dealing with lawyers and prosecutors and paperwork for days.
“Where’s Rachel?” Marco asks.
“Upstairs with Tommy. Bedtime routine.” I lean against the counter. “We need to talk. All four of us.”
“Tonight?”
“Tonight.” Theo stands up from the table. “Before we lose our nerve.”
Marco nods slowly. “Yeah. Okay.”
We wait for Rachel to come downstairs for twenty minutes. She’s in sleep shorts and a tank top, hair pulled back, looking more relaxed than she has in weeks.
“Tommy’s out,” she says. “He was asking about when Dorothy’s coming to visit again. I told him—” She stops when she sees all three of us standing in the living room. “What’s going on?”
“We need to talk,” I say. “Sit down?”
Her expression shifts to cautious. “That sounds ominous.”
“It’s not. It’s just important.” I gesture to the couch.
She sits. We arrange ourselves around the room—me in the armchair, Theo on the couch beside her, Marco standing near the fireplace like he needs to stay mobile.
“You’re freaking me out,” Rachel says. “What is this?”
“This is us being honest,” Theo says. “About what’s happening here. About what we want.”
“Okay.” She looks between the three of us. “I’m listening.”
I take the lead because someone has to. “We’ve been avoiding this conversation. All of us. Because there was always something more urgent, fires, investigations, keeping you safe. But now that Ryan’s arrested and the immediate danger is over, we can’t avoid it anymore.”
“Avoid what?”
“This.” Marco gestures among all of us. “The fact that we all have feelings for you. And you have feelings for all of us.”
