Page 107 of Vegas with my Brother’s Best Friends

Right. I was just spurred into gear by terrible news.

“I ran into Cassidy outside,” I admit, resting my hands on my waist. “She’s…obviously not doing well. We talked for a little bit, and I tried to assure her that I want to be a father and be there for her and the baby, but it wasn’t enough. She’s flying home when she’s done at the reception.”

“What?” Jackson questions me.

Marcus’ arms drop, his eyes widening. “She’s leaving so soon? Why?”

“She doesn’t want to be here anymore. She thinks Ryan doesn’t want her here, and she probably feels overwhelmed by us,” I tell them. “I think she wants to distance herself.”

“Damn it,” Jackson murmurs. “And you think the three of us telling her that we love her is going to fix that?”

“I think all we’ve done is confuse her and ourselves because we won’t be honest about our feelings,” I bite out. “At least we’ll be able to say we tried. We did all we could do.”

Jackson stays quiet, staring at the ground.

“He’s right,” Marcus says. “We have to at least try. If we don’t, we’ll always wonder what could’ve happened if we did.”

The three of us will take all sorts of different kinds of risks outside of our love life. Fires. Business ventures. Uprooting our lives.

Now, we need to be brave enough to tell the woman we love how we feel.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt so damn nervous.

“We’ll need to do this together,” I tell them.

Jackson’s eyes dart up to mine. “You’re in this time? No locking up?”

I nod. “No locking up.”

Marcus pats me on the back of my shoulder. “Good to have you back. You’re right. We have to do this together so that she knows we’re all in.”

I don’t want to let the guys down, and I especially don’t want to let Cassidy down. That means getting over all my fear and uncertainty and putting the ones I care about first.

That’s what a good father does. That’s what a good boyfriend does too.

Maybe I don’t have anyone to look up to, but I know the difference between a good parent and a bad one. One is there and one isn’t. One cares and one doesn’t.

“Okay,” Jackson finally answers with a firm nod. “We’ll tell her. We’ll…risk it all.”

“Just think of what we could possibly gain,” Marcus points out. “She might love us too. All of us.”

“Is that possible?” Jackson asks in a quieter voice.

“Why couldn’t it be? I wouldn’t have thought it was possible for the three of us to be in love with the same woman,” Marcus points out.

We might as well keep trying to defy the odds.

“There’s something else that we need to do,” I say.

Marcus and Jackson look over at me.

“She cares about what Ryan thinks. I think we all do too, so he needs to get on board,” I tell them.

Jackson scoffs. “I highly doubt he’ll get on board with his sister dating three of his friends.”

“It’s not just about dating. We’ll be starting a family together. This is serious. Not some fling,” I reply. “We need to prove to him that we love her. Really love her.”

“We’ll have to do the same to her. We need to prove ourselves,” Marcus adds.