Chapter 1
Robert
The digital clock on the microwave changes to 9:45 PM. Two hours and fifteen minutes until Lillian’s no longer a minor.
I shift my attention to my brother Charles’ car keys sitting on the end of the kitchen counter and wring my hands while pacing. Am I a heathen for wanting to drive to Lillian’s college campus, find her, and see how good she looks orgasming on my cock?
Are all three of us deviants for wanting to claim her? Neither of my brothers have the complication of being her official guardian, but the three of us have acted together since her parents, our good friends, were killed in a plane crash.
I sure as hell didn’t know how to raise a fourteen-year-old girl, and I was supposed to be doing it with my wife, but she wason the same plane—an ill-fated day trip amongst friends that changed our lives forever.
Taking on a grieving teenager while experiencing my own loss wasn’t easy, even with help from my brothers.
But none of us could have known what an incredible, smart, witty, and enchanting woman Lillian was about to blossom into.
Once she turned eighteen, it was hard to not see her differently. I tried to talk myself out of my attraction. I’m still trying. But with my official role as her guardian ending in two hours and fourteen minutes, I’m failing.
Charles steps into the kitchen. “Ready to hit the road, Robert?”
Thomas calls out seconds before he enters the room. “I don’t think we should go.”
Charles leans against the counter. “What’s the point in denying it? Nothing will change if we wait until tomorrow or the next day.”
Should I follow Charles’ enthusiastic lead or Thomas’ hesitant one? I rake my hands through my hair. “I am officially her guardian. I shouldn’t want her the way I do.”
Charles shrugs. “From the outside, no one can tell which of us is official. My thoughts are just as guilty as yours.”
Thomas pours himself a shot of whiskey then swallows it with one tip of the glass. “How do you see this playing out if we drive to her dorm right now? We’re going to rush in and find her waiting? How do we know she’s even interested in us?”
Thomas pours himself another before offering the bottle to Charles and me. We decline.
I scrub my hands over my face. “I imagine a little conversation would be advisable. It’ll be a lot for her to process that we’ve seen her as so much more.”
“We have to tell her face to face. No texts or calls where things could be misunderstood. If she needs time, we give it to her. All the more reason to tell her sooner rather than later.” Charlesassumes this is a done deal. He’s sworn on numerous occasions that he caught her looking at us in less than parental ways.
I’ve been fairly certain I saw the same types of looks. But if we’re wrong… “First and foremost, we let her know that we’re still here for her. A birthday doesn’t change that.” That’s the irony I grapple with. Her birthday changes nothing… and everything.
Charles finishes my thought as he grabs his car keys and heads to the door. “But there’s no denying that with her twenty-first birthday, she’s no longer considered a minor. We give her the choice to embrace a different kind of relationship with us.”
Thomas exhales hard. “Let’s not forget that she might not even be in her dorm. She could be out celebrating. You know how kids like to stay out late.”
“Don’t call her a kid.” I grit my teeth.
“Habit.”
We all used the word and tried to force the guardian-ward delineation to fortify the role. But in two hours and eleven minutes that legality is dropped, according to the paperwork.
“What if she has a boyfriend?” Thomas continues his efforts to talk himself out of going.
“She hasn’t mentioned one,” I say, way too harshly. The thought of another male touching her creates an avalanche of urgency to cascade through me.
“As much as we’d like to think we’ve been the best guardians ever, we can’t be sure she doesn’t have her secrets.” Thomas doubles down.
He can stay here for all I care.
“We better get rolling.” I storm toward the door.
Chapter 2
