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“Oh, that’s what that means?” I said. “They have sandwiches?”

“Yeah. They don’t do dinner, but they’re open for breakfast and lunch. We can head there.”

We did.

Inside, the place was sunny and light with wicker furniture and glass tables. We ordered bagel sandwiches and I got coffee, because I could drink coffee all day, seriously.

We sat together, unwrapping our sandwiches, and he wouldn’t look at me. “Hey, I’m realizing I’m, uh, probably giving you the wrong impression.”

I set down my sandwich, shaking my head. “No, no, not at all, because you’re Vincent, and we’ve known each other forever.”

“Asking you over to grill, and to go out for food, and making all these jokes when we’re naked and shifting?” he said. “I don’t mean it how it seems.”

“I know that!” I said.

He looked at my face and then at his sandwich and then it was quiet.

I picked my sandwich up again, trying to think of what to say.

He started to speak again. “Look, I know that you and Damian are inevitable, and I’ve never even thought anything besides that. He’s my brother, so I would never move in on his woman or something, you know.”

Right. Except… he completely had done that. I blinked at him.

Vincent took a bite of his sandwich and chewed, seemingly realizing this at the same time as I did. He swallowed. “Okay, well, you’re different, Leo. You’re different than Opal. And if I have objections to whatever is obviously going to happen with you and Damian now, it’s only that I don’t want you to roll over and show him your belly right off. Make him work for it. He does not deserve to have you just whining submissively, begging him to bite you, do you know what I mean? He fucked the fuck up. Make him grovel.”

“Right,” I muttered. “Make him grovel.” I had no idea how to do that, but maybe what I really wanted was some next-level groveling, actually. Had he apologized for mating my best friend?

Sure, a long time ago he had, but recently?

I took a bite of my sandwich.

“Jace came to see me,” said Vincent. “He saw you and Damian together, I guess?”

I chewed quickly and swallowed. “Nothing happened!” I protested. For whatever reason, I wanted him to know this.

“Good,” said Vincent. “Jace says you guys agreed you were taking it slow. He says your conversation was really screwed up, and that he doesn’t know how to feel about his dad right now.”

I thought back over the conversation and winced as I remembered how much we were talking about sex and knotting and all sorts of other things. “I didn’t know he was there,” I said.

“He’s older than you were when you found out you were scent-matched to Damian,” said Vincent. “He’s just lost his mother. He’s matured in a lot of ways. He’s bitter. It kind of kills me, actually. I need you to be good to the boys, you know?”

“You sound like Opal,” I said, holding up the manuscript. “But the thing everyone doesn’t seem to be getting is this: it’s not inevitable.”

Vincent’s expression changed. “Isn’t it?”

“I don’t forgive him, Vincent,” I said. “I don’t see how I forgive him. And if I can’t do that, how can we ever be together?”

He sighed. He picked up Opal’s manuscript and opened it. He read the first page, raising his eyebrows.

“You want to read it?” I said. “Maybe you read it and tell me which parts I should read. It’s only making me angrier right now.”

“She seems to be writing it to you,” Vincent mused, flipping through the pages. “She talks about me?”

“She talks about all of us,” I said. “Did you love her, Vincent?”

“Didn’t I answer this already?”

“Did you guys keep having an affair after Damian broke things off with me?”