"But I have conditions." I meet each of their eyes one at a time. This is the most powerful I have felt since this all started, and I’m holding back the warmth in my chest. "No more OnlyFans. No fucking around. If you’re making me choose, I choose all of you, so you need to choose me back."
I say it with confidence, waiting to hear one of them protest.
But none of their faces move.
Nobody says no. Nobody argues or tries to reason with me.
The triumph shifts.
Wavers.
I look at Cody, waiting for the explosion, waiting for the possessiveness to come out and play, waiting to win.
He did just tell me that he wanted to marry me and have kids with me. I’m expecting him to disagree with this.
He looks back at me.
And says nothing.
I realize with a cold clarity that I may have just walked into my own trap.
All three of them just — get dressed.
No argument. No negotiation. No Cody grabbing my face and telling me that's not how this works. Just three men moving around the lake house, pulling on their clothes like I didn't just say the most insane thing anyone has ever said.
I sit on the edge of the bed, and I watch them, feeling the trap closing around me from the inside.
I look at all three of them.
What have I done?
I had one boyfriend.
One.
For two years, I had one boyfriend, and it was complicated and destructive, and I almost didn't survive it, and my solution — my brilliant, triumphant solution — was to choose three of them?
Three!
I have three boyfriends.
I don't even wantoneboyfriend.
Let alone three.
I stare at the wall, realizing that I just did that to myself.
Nobody did this to me.
I opened my mouth and said I chose all three of them like it was a weapon, and it turns out it was a weapon pointed directly at my own life.
Theo opens up a book.
Beckett pulls out his phone and exhales — probably something hockey related that I now realize I will apparently be hearing about for the foreseeable future because these are three hockey boys.
I chose three hockey players.
I could hardly handle one hockey player.
