Regret pinched in my chest. Even if Dmitri and I had reconciled, I hadn’t done the work to truly repair our relationship, and I owed him that.
“I need you to come to the Marauder game tomorrow and spook Jed Carter,” I said, diving right into business.
He laughed. “Will you be there?”
My jaw tightened. Would I be there, watching a team I’d coached for the last decade, that was now under the watchful eye of another man, as my heart broke with how much I fucking missed them? “No.”
“Then I want something in return,” he said.
“Name it.”
“Come to dinner. You and your—” He cut himself off. “You and the whole gang. I’d like to meet them.”
“Done,” I agreed, not sure if this was a lovely idea or a terrible one.
We fell silent after the call ended, not awkwardly, and Cole tilted his head back, sprawling on the couch across from Tristan as if this was the first time he’d relaxed in days. Maybe it was.
“Eva’s in my room,” I said quietly. “Sleeping.”
He looked at me, vulnerability flickering across his face. “I should head out then. Let you both rest.”
“Stay,” I said.
Cole’s eyes met mine, bright blue and shining with vulnerability. He didn’t need me to take care of him right now. He needed me to acknowledge him as an equal, as someone I respected.
“I’d like you to stay,” I added.
His eyes widened for a moment, and then that cocky grin came back.
“Go,” I said, jerking my head to the bed. “I’ll lock up.”
Cole hummed. “Why don’t you show me everything that needs to be done so I can do it next time?”
Because there would be a next time, and a time after that, and a time after that. The expression in his eyes was vulnerable, as if he expected me to refuse.
I walked him around the apartment, showing him where to check the windows and how to turn on the security system, then pulled an extra keycard from a drawer in the table at the entrance. “Here,” I said, my voice rougher than the moment perhaps deserved.
“Alek, I don’t?—”
“You do,” I replied gently. “All three of you do.”
“It’s your home,” he said.
“I want you here, all of you, whenever you need to be.” I wanted the three of them tangled up in my life so badly, they couldn’t escape even if they wanted to.
“Thank you.” The rasp in Cole’s voice gratified me, reminding me I wasn’t the only one who was feeling their way through this absurd mess.
Together, we walked to my bedroom. I opened the door quietly.
Eva was curled on her side, buried under my comforter, her red curls spread across my pillow. She looked peaceful,vulnerable in sleep in a way she never allowed herself to be awake.
Cole stripped down to his briefs then looked at the bed. The uncertainty was back in his expression—where did he fit in this?
“Get in,” I said quietly. “I’m tired.”
He crawled into bed carefully, trying not to wake her. Eva stirred anyway, making a soft questioning sound.
“It’s Cole,” I murmured, shedding my shirt and climbing in on her other side. “He’s staying.”
