Page 121 of My Brother’s Best Friends Entanglement

“I'll drive,” Zachary adds.

“Sit down. Both of you.” I plant myself in front of them, arms spread out, as if I could stop even one of them. “Craig is a problem but... I'll sort it out. He's just a guy. I've dealt with guys like him before.”

This time all three of them leap to their feet, eyes raging, yelling at me for a list of said guys' names.

I rub my forehead and point back to the couch.

“Sit. Down.”

Rhys steps forward, reaching for the side of my face. “Do you have another headache?”

Zachary runs out to the kitchen and is back with a glass of cold water while Marcus has grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch and draped it around my shoulders before I can even answer.

It's so sweet and utterly ridiculous that I can't help but laugh.

I take the glass and hold onto the blanket as I give Rhys a smile. “Yes, I have a headache, but I'll be fine. But I think it's time we talked. All of us. Properly. So I need you guys to sit down.”

They don't. “Please. The sooner we talk the sooner I can lie down and rest.”

They all sit. Albeit with a little jostling and whining. I wait for them to settle before I start. “Okay.” I stop. Start again. “Look. I really don't know what to say. I never expected this. I never planned for it, and I definitely never sat down one day and thought, right, I'm going to fall for three men, all my brother's best friends, who all live in the same house and also happen to love each other like brothers — bickering, annoying, immature brothers, but brothers nonetheless, because weird, right? — and I know that sounds insane, I know how that sounds, but I have feelings, real feelings, for each of you, individually, as single people, not just as a unit of really good guys, and it's not like I'm comparing you against each other in some kind of running tally, because you're not — I don't see you as options, you're not a multiple choice question, you're three completely different people who I happen to also see as this whole unit, this whole thing, and I never wanted to be the reason that thing⁠—”

I stop to take a much-needed breath and notice that as I've been pacing, the guys have been watching me like I'm playing a one-woman tennis match.

“Are you done?” Zachary's already on his feet again.

I frown, trying to replay what I've said. “I'm not sure I've even started.”

“Lexi, those were a lot of words,” Marcus says, “for someone who hasn't started.”

Zachary sits down on the armchair and catches my hand, pulling me onto his lap. “While you... keep thinking about what you want to say, want to hear what we have to say instead?”

I nod, mostly because my head hurts too much to argue.

One by one, they tell me.

And honestly, they're much better at this than I am.

They tell me they didn't see this coming either — not like this, not all three of them, not having to share. But it's obvious, has been for weeks, that none of them are walking away from whatever this is. Nobody's asking me to choose tonight. Nobody's asking me to choose at all, actually, not on any particular timeline. I get to take exactly as long as I need.

“And that's — okay with you?” I look between them, waiting for the catch. “All of you?”

“No.” Rhys doesn't hesitate.

Marcus and Zachary both turn to glare at him.

“But I'll do what I can.” He holds my eyes, steady. “I know what it's like not to be with you. There's no version of my life where I'm okay with going back to that. So — no, it's not okay. But I'm staying anyway.”

I give him a grateful smile.

“And how does this actually work?” I ask. “It's... crazy... right?”

“We'll make it work,” Zachary says, then leans in and kisses me, seemingly unbothered by the fact that we have an audience. “You're worth it.”

Rhys makes a low growling sound.

“But you'll have to get your dog to heel,” Marcus adds, with a roll of his eyes.

Rhys is up off the couch, one hand closing gently round my wrist. “Yeah, well. She's going to have to train me really hard.” His mouth drops close to my ear. “Starting right now.”