Page 130 of My Undead Love Life

I flinched. Claiming me? What did that even mean?

His voice gentled. “You think she would’ve held you the way she did after Olivia if you were just temporary?”

I remembered her arms around me. The warmth of her body and the way she hadn’t let go when I broke apart.

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

Luck ran a hand over his face. “Oxi.”

“What?” I snapped. “You don’t think that’s a possibility?”

“I think you have a logical fear,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean you should freak out over it. She told Keith that we were her boyfriends, too.”

“She loved him first.”

“And she loves us too now,” Mad said.

My chest ached. She had told Keith that. The thought had been sitting in me like a shard since the moment she said it.

I love them, too.

It had slipped out in front of Keith, directed at him, defending us. But she hadn’t told us. Not really.

I nodded, my jaw tightening. “For now.”

Mad’s voice dropped slightly. “You’re expecting her to leave before we get to really be with her.”

“I’m trying to be realistic.”

“You’re trying to protect yourself,” he corrected. “From something that probably won’t happen.”

“You don’t know that.”

“No,” Mad said. “We don’t. But I know this. If you start pulling away now because you’re afraid she might leave, you’ll hurt her.”

My eyes snapped to his.

He held my stare without flinching. “You need to talk to her.”

“I’m not waking her up because I’m insecure.”

Luck lifted a finger. “First of all, calling it what it is is very mature. Second, do not say insecure like it’s a moral failure. The world ended. Her dead boyfriend walked in with a gun. Frank and Jan died down the hall. We all had a bad day.”

I stared at him.

“What?” he asked. “I can be emotionally intelligent sometimes.”

Mad looked unimpressed. “Right.”

“Look,” Luck continued, turning back to me. “Let’s think logically, okay? She didn’t hesitate to tell Keith about us. Not even a little. You saw that, right?”

“She just got him back,” I murmured. “Maybe she’s not thinking clearly yet.”

Mad snorted. “That’s your argument? That she’s too wrapped up in him to leave us? That’s such bullshit, Oxi. She chose us. In front of him. With everything out in the open.”

“If she wanted to choose,” Luck said bluntly, “she would’ve already.”

I stared out at the city again. The clouds shifted above us, but still no stars appeared. “You’re right.”