The words land like a ripple in still water.
Jesse frowns. “How so?”
Wyatt’s gaze flicks briefly toward the window, toward the dark beyond the glass. “Dakota.”
Marshall stills.
I blink. “Dakota?”
Wyatt nods. “She didn’t choose one man and shut the door on the rest. She didn’t pretend she only had space for a single kind of love.”
My pulse kicks up, sudden and sharp.
Jesse lets out a short, disbelieving laugh. “You’re not?—”
“What if,” Wyatt continues calmly, “instead of making Abilene decide who loses… we tried something different?”
The room goes very quiet.
I feel heat creep up my neck. “Wyatt…”
“What if,” he says gently, eyes never leaving mine, “we stopped acting like this has to be a competition?”
My heart is pounding now. Too fast. Too loud.
Marshall frowns. “You’re suggesting?—”
“I’m suggesting,” Wyatt says, “that we acknowledge what’s already happening. That we talk about it instead of pretending it doesn’t exist.”
Jesse stares at him. “You’re talking about sharing.”
Wyatt nods once. “I’m talking about choosing honesty over fear.”
My breath feels thin. This is not what I expected.
I shake my head, half laughing, half panicking. “I… I never would’ve considered that.”
Wyatt’s mouth curves faintly. “Neither did I. Until I couldn’t stop thinking about how miserable we all look trying to force ourselves into boxes that don’t fit.”
Marshall rubs a hand over his jaw, thinking hard. “This isn’t something you suggest lightly.”
“I know,” Wyatt says.
Jesse looks at me then.
“Is that something you would even want?” he asks quietly.
That’s the question, isn’t it?
I open my mouth to say no, but the word doesn’t come.
Because when I imagine choosing, cutting two of them out of my life completely, my chest aches in protest. When I imagine denying the way my body responds differently to each of them, something inside me feels… dishonest.
“I don’t know,” I admit, trembling. “I’ve spent my whole life being careful. Being contained. Wanting one thing at a time because that’s what you’re supposed to do.”
Wyatt’s gaze softens. “And what do you want now?”
The room feels smaller. Warmer. Charged.
