Jack’s thumb is stroking lazy circles into my hip, while Liam runs his fingers through my hair to soothe me.
I should feel safe. Usually, I do.
But as my head clears from the endorphins running through me, my throat begins to ache.
This warmth, this closeness, is what I’m going to miss most if they end up leaving me.
It’s going to kill me if, after I tell them, they decide to part ways and I’ll no longer have any of this.
I rest my head back against Reece’s shoulder, eyes shut tight.
My body’s loose, and completely boneless, but my chest feels heavy and too full of guilt to be settled.
Reece murmurs something I don’t quite catch, and Jack chuckles softly in response.
I want this moment to last forever.
It breaks my heart knowing it never will.
A scream yanks me out of sleep like a bucket of ice water poured straight onto my bare skin.
One second I’m floating in that warm, blissed-out haze of post-sex and the next, I’m bolt upright, heart pounding against my ribs hard enough to hurt.
My fingers fumble for the robe hanging on the back of the door, shoving my arms through the sleeves before I even have time to think.
Behind me in my bed, Reece stirs, voice thick with sleep as he mumbles my name and reaches for me.
But I’m already moving, shoving past the doorway, bare feet slapping against the cold floor as I follow the sound of commotion down the hall.
Another noise, sharper and more like a gasp than a scream, echoes from the living room.
I round the corner fast, adrenaline spiking so hard it makes my vision blur…and then I stop dead.
Because there she is.
Mymother.
Standing in the middle of my apartment, her wide eyes scanning the room before locking on me, looking like she’s been dropped into the middle of some nightmare.
Her mouth is open, trembling around the words she hasn’t even spoken yet.
And in front of her are Liam and Jack.
Half-naked.
The morning light from my windows catches on their bare shoulders, on the twist of a blanket knotted low around Liam’s hips, on the mess of Jack’s hair that Iknowis my fault after I finally fell asleep on his chest last night.
Every detail screamsguilty, even though my brain is still trying to deny what she’s seeing, let alone that she’s even here in the first place.
I can’t breathe.
I can’t eventhink.
Because there’s no way to explain away any of this without it sounding like a complete lie.
Her presence feels like a spotlight, burning away the comfortable shadows where I’ve been hiding all my secrets.
“Oh my god,” she breathes, her gaze whipping between them and me. “Holly…what…is going on here?”
