Mateo’s hand tightened slightly on my hip. “Maybe the three of us should talk about something else.”
“I don’t want to though,” I said, sitting up completely. Cum rushed out of me and I cursed, squeezing my thighs shut.
“Should I get a towel?” Mateo asked quickly.
“No, I don't even care right now. I’ll wash the sheets.” I narrowed my gaze on Levi as he got up without a word, grabbing a towel from the floor and handing it to Mateo. This conversation while trying to clean up was going to send me over the edge, especially since Levi refused to look at me. “Am I losing it? I thought you wanted to be with us. This was starting to feel like . . .”
“Like what?” The bed shifted as Levi sat on the edge and finally looked at me. “Like a real relationship? Like we aren’t sneaking around behind your brothers’ backs? We all know thatI’m going to leave in a week without them even knowing. I’m going to go back to Minnesota, and both of you will move on. You can have the life that Mateo?—”
“In a perfect world, would you want it too?” Mateo cut in.
Levi’s words stumbled into silence. “What?”
“Answer the first question,” he said. “What would you want?”
We already knew the answer. Iknewthe answer. Mateoknew it.
Levi knew it too, right?
That even if he didn’t want that, he wantedthis.
He swallowed hard again. His muscles tensed again. And then he just looked sad.
And didn’t say a single thing as he stood up and pulled on his T-shirt and jeans.
Mateo sighed and raked his fingers through his dark waves. “I’m not going to beg you to move to a place like this, Levi. I don’t think Avery will either. Neither of us planned to end up in Whynot. Your life is still in Minnesota. You have a career. You have everything you’ve worked for. But, if you leave next week, you should know that you always have a place with us. You always have a home with us. No matter what.”
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Avery
Forty-eight hours.
That’s how much longer we had with him.
Every hour counted, but I was in my studio. Painting was the only thing that was soothing the unease I felt. The plan was for us to have a date tonight, but I felt like I was constantly on the verge of crying.
I didn’t want Levi to go.
I’d known from the start that he was leaving. Maybe I was delusional, but for the last few weeks, I’d been living in a bubble. A bubble where there was no end in sight. There was no plane ticket, no set day he was leaving. Our time together was never-ending.
But it wasn’t. Itwasending.
“Whatcha painting, Blue?”
I looked up from my canvas, but wasn’t startled by Mateo’s presence. He smiled as he lingered in the studio doorway. Like a vampire, he wouldn’t step into the room without an invitation.
“Hi,” I said. I kept my paintbrush and palette in hand as I slid off my stool and went to him. I leaned up on the toes of my sneakers and kissed him hard, smiling as his mustache tickled my skin. “You’re early.”
“I am. I just wanted to creep,” he said. “Levi will be here in a few, too.”
I nodded and kissed him once more before returning to my canvas.
The cactus piece was almost done. The landscape around it was finished aside from a few highlights I wanted to add. Mateo and Levi stood in the middle, and I felt pretty damn proud of how I’d captured them. I’d gotten the sparkle of mischief that always twinkled in Mateo’s eyes and the soft, steady expression of care in Levi’s. Itfeltlike them, but was missing something.
“Can I see?”
“Yeah,” I said. “But don’t critique me or I’ll have a breakdown.”
