“Are you jealous that I knew?” Trey prompted, figuring he might as well get to the heart of the matter.
“Of that, no.”
“About what, then?”
Magnus didn’t respond, didn’t move from his spot.
Trey sighed. “I don’t know how this is supposed to work, Magnus. I’ve never been in a relationship with two people before. Hell, I haven’t been in a relationship withonein a damn long time.”
Magnus slowly turned, his head lifting, eyes blazing as they pinned Trey in place. “You’ve been in a relationship for the past year and a half, Trey. You were just too fuckin’ stubborn to admit it.”
He had a fair point, and that comment confirmed Trey’s suspicions. This wasn’t about Ava keeping a secret. It was about the distance that still remained between him and Magnus. Trey understood because he felt it, too. They might be fucking like rabbits, but they’d yet to address the big issue. The one that involved three words and a few dozen apologies.
Trey took a step forward. “You’re right. I was too fuckin’ stubborn to admit it.”
Magnus’s eyes narrowed.
Trey continued toward him. “Not only that, I was a chickenshit.” He stopped when he was a foot away. “I was scared,” he admitted. “Scared that I’d lost the best fuckin’ thing that’s ever happened to me. When I saw you with Ava at the hospital … the way you looked at her … fuck, Magnus. It shredded me because not only did I love you, I fuckin’ needed you. And there you were, givin’ every ounce of your attention to her.”
Trey held up a hand to stop Magnus from speaking.
“She needed you a helluva lot more than I did,” he clarified. “But acknowledgin’ that didn’t change the fact that I was gutted.” He waved toward the door. “You think I worked here to help you out? Hell no. That’s an excuse. An altruistic reason, and we both know that’s not me. Ireallyworked here because I wanted to be in your life. I didn’t care how, I just needed … I fuckin’ neededyou, Magnus.”
Trey swallowed past the lump forming in his throat. “It wasn’t easy to watch you and Ava fall in love with each other more and more every single day, but I did it. And it ate at me and ate at me.” He shook his head. “Don’t get me wrong. I’ve seen it from day one. The reason you love her. She’s easy to love. So fuckin’ easy. That girl’s got a will of steel and a heart of pure gold. Which is probably why I fell so fuckin’ hard even though it didn’t make a damn bit of sense.”
Magnus’s eyes shone with tears, but Trey pushed on, taking another step forward so he could touch Magnus. He put his hand on Magnus’s throat, his thumb under his chin. He didn’t use force because it wasn’t about aggression. It was about ensuring this man understood him.
His words came out raspy when he said, “I fell in love with you so long ago … I don’t even remember a time without you. But I’ve been down that road before. I’ve been told exactly where I’m lackin’.”
“You’re not lackin’ a goddamn thing,” Magnus bellowed, grabbing Trey’s wrist. “The idiots who claimed you were—”
“I fall fast, Magnus. It’s what I do. I don’t know why.” He held his stare. “But it was different with you … itfeltdifferent. I didn’t just fall fast; I fell hard. And ever since the mornin’ I woke up in the hotel room in Dallas with you in my bed…”
He swallowed, needing to get this next part out without breaking.
“You came to me. No one’s ever fuckin’ cometo me, Magnus. No one.” Trey swallowed hard, couldn’t hide the emotion burning his throat. “I’ve always been the one chasin’, tryin’ to hold on to something. Hell,anything. Then there you were. I knew that mornin’ that you were what I’d been lookin’ for all my goddamn life.”
Trey took a few deep breaths, forged ahead. “I never told you how I felt, and when I wanted to, everything was changin’. You. Ava. So I stayed because I was too fuckin’ selfish to go. And durin’ those months when we were takin’ care of Ava, I didn’t realize that somethin’ else was changin’.Me. I changed. I don’t know when she did it or how, but Ava burrowed under my skin. I didn’t know it until recently, but I’d been fallin’ in love with her all along.” He tightened his grip on Magnus’s throat and leaned in. “I was fallin’ for her because I’d already fallen for you.”
He pressed his lips to Magnus’s, choking back the tears that threatened. “I love you. I should’ve told you that a long fuckin’ time ago, Magnus, but I’m tellin’ you now. I don’t wanna be anywhere else but here with you and her.”
Magnus pulled back, met his gaze. “You had me atI was too fuckin’ stubborn…”
Trey barked a laugh and rubbed his fingers in his eyes. “Did you just misquoteJerry McGuire?”
“Ava’s favorite movie,” Magnus noted.
“Oh, I know. I’ve had to sit through it three times since she came home from the hospital.” Trey took another deep breath and slid his hand behind Magnus’s neck, pulling him close, resting his forehead on Magnus’s. “I love you. I wanted to tell you what Ava was doin’, but it wasn’t my place. She’s resilient as hell and twice as stubborn. But I trust her. And I trust everyone on the task force. They’ll watch over her. And because I love you and know how important she is … to both of us … I’ve kept an eye on her. I swear to you, I won’t let anything happen to her. Or you.”
“I…”
“Tell me you love me, Magnus. Tell me now.”
A soft chuckle sounded before Magnus tilted his head back. “I’ve loved you from the first day I met you.”
“Had to top me, didn’t you?” he teased.
“Just wait till later. I’ll top you the right way.”
