Page 161 of My Brother’s Best Friends Entanglement

Rhys's face hardens, and I figure this is as good a moment as any to announce my presence.

"Am I interrupting something?" I say. It causes Zachary and Rhys to look up, and upon seeing me, both let go of Marcus at once, and he hits the floor with a genuinely satisfying thud.

Leon clears his throat as he limps in behind me. "Guys. Please don't make me regret this."

"What is this?" I get out, and then all three of them are talking at once, over and under each other.

"We know we shouldn't have just turned up like this, but..." Zachary rushes to explain.

"I told them we should've cleared it with you first, nobody listens to me..." Marcus shouts, gesturing at both of them like he's the innocent party.

"We're here, because there's nowhere else in the entire world we'd be today," Rhys says, at his normal talking volume and speed.

I put both hands up. "Two at a time. Maximum."

"That's what she said," Marcus says, pointing at me, without missing a single beat.

My mouth drops open and Zachary just shakes his head, muttering something about not being able to take Marcus anywhere.

Leon makes a sound like he's about to be sick. "What did we agree?" he says when he can breathe again.

"Oh, right, shit, sorry, man,” Marcus apologises, not even a little bit sorry. "Forgot, you know, that she's your sister."

"Yeah." Leon rubs his temple. "Starting to get used to that. Unfortunately.”

Rhys presses two fingers to the bridge of his nose. "Can we just⁠—"

Leon holds his hand up, stopping all other talk. "Alexia, what these idiots are trying to say is, they all came here to say something to you. So... please, just let them, because I'm not sure I can take any more of their drunk, heartbroken, lovesick declaration rehearsals."

I want to ask Leon what the hell he's talking about when Zachary steps forward, his face set and determined.

He takes me hand.

"Lex, I've spent my whole life standing behind a bar, one way or another," he says, not quite meeting my eyes. "Watching everyone else's story happen in front of me. Feeling like a spectator in my own life. Then you came back, and for the first time in longer than I can remember, I felt like an active participant in mine. You gave me what I'd never had: someone of my own to talk to, instead of just being the ear for everyone else's stories. I miss sharing my life with you. And I miss you sharing yours with me. I love you, and if you'll let me, I'd like to spend my days living our lives together.”

My throat's gone tight, and I open my mouth to answer.

"Don't." Zachary shakes his head, quick, before I've got a single word out. "Not yet. Let us get through this first, or I genuinely don't think any of us make it to the end."

Marcus goes next, wringing his hands — I've never seen him look nervous before.

"I love you. Let's just get that out of the way. I love you, I love you, I love you. Phew, I don't think I can hold it any longer. But, other than that, for years I didn't know why I pushed myself so hard," he says. "Building the business out of nothing. I thought I was proving something to a family that couldn't care less either way." He huffs out something that isn't quite a laugh. "Told myself it was to spite them. Took me until now to work out it was never about them at all." He clears his throat, like that'll fix his voice. It doesn't. "It was so that when you finally came back, you'd see I was already someone worth having. I want to keep making you proud of me, Lexi. Nothing means more to me in this whole world.”

I try again, half a step forward, and Marcus just puts a hand up, gentle, not unlike Zachary's.

"One more. Then you can talk, and we'll listen."

And then it's Rhys.

He blinks and then turns away, taking a moment. I don't rush him. I've never seen Rhys rattled before, and it rattles me in return. "You told me the other day that I never told you anything real about myself, that sometimes it felt like you didn't know me." He says it steady, except his hands aren't quite as still as the rest of him. "But the truth is, I did tell you. You just didn't know that's what you were hearing. My truth comes in my silence. The world is filled with so much inauthenticity, what I didn't want was to do with you what I was doing with almost everyone else, painting a fabricated picture of who I was with words. So I stayed quiet. But if you'd looked — every time I've looked at you, my eyes told you the truth about me, and about the way I feel about you.

"I gave you my comfortable silences, trusted that eventually you'd hear what I was saying, just with fewer words. I love you. I love you so much that I trust my real self in your hands. Because the truth is, no one has ever understood me like you do."

Leon coughs, hard, into his fist, shaking us out of our little bubble. "Excuse me?" he mutters.

"Sorry, man," Rhys says, not looking sorry at all. "But she's seen me naked."

"What the fuck, Rhys! I'd expect that from him," Leon says, hooking a thumb at Marcus, "but you?"