“Jax—”
“Don’t.” I straighten, finally meeting his eyes. “Don’t fucking start with me.”
“She’s confused. She doesn’t understand why you’re pulling away.”
“I’m not pulling away.” The lie tastes like copper. “I’m giving her what she wants. She wants to fucking have you and Zephyr? Well, I’m giving her the space to be with you two.”
“That’s not what she wants.”
“No?” I toss the wrench into the toolbox, the clang echoing off concrete walls. “Then what does she want, Callum? Because from where I’m standing, she wants everything. Me publicly, you two privately, and some perfect fucking balance that doesn’t exist.”
“She wants all of us.”
“Well, she can’t have all of us.” The words rip out of me. “She has to choose.”
“She did choose. She chose you.”
“Not enough.” My voice drops. “She didn’t just choose me, so don’t make it sound like it.”
Tigerlily corners me after practice the next day. I’m in the shower, water beating down on my shoulders, when I hear the door open.
“Jax.”
I don’t turn off the water. “I’m busy.”
“We need to talk.” Her voice is closer now.
“I’m showering, Tiger,” I warn.
A pause. “Please.”
Her voice does something to me. It breaks something loose in my chest. I shut off the water, wrap a towel around my waist, and step out.
She’s leaning against the sink, arms crossed. Her hair is pulled back and there’s exhaustion written all over her face.
“You’ve been avoiding me,” she says.
“I’ve been busy.”
“Bullshit.” The word cracks between them. “You’re punishing me.”
“I’m not—”
“You are.” She pushes off the sink. “Because I won’t cut them off completely. Because I won’t pretend they don’t exist.”
My hands fist at my sides as water drips down my spine, cold now. “You fucked me in front of them.”
“I did.”
I lean forward and snarl, “After you let them fuck you first.”
She blinks. “I did.”
“Then why—” My voice breaks. I clear my throat and try again. “Why the fuck would you tell me that you wantme? When you clearly want them, too?”
She stares at me for a long moment. “Because I do want you. And I want them too.”
The words hit like bullets. Clean through. Exit wounds.
