“No. Fuck that—no. I already have to hide the most important people in my life. I’m not doing it here too. Not with Addie. Not with Roman. Not with whatever the hell is still going on between them—whatever’s always been going on between them.” He rakesa hand through his hair, pacing like he’s trying to outrun the chaos in his mind. “I can’t do it. I can’t keep up. I’m drowning, and I can only hold it together for so long.”
“Jasper, I’m sorry,” Roman says, his voice gentler than I’ve ever heard. “I know this is hard. It’s hard for all of us, but I love you, okay? No amount of hiding changes that.”
Jasper turns, and the look on his face shatters something inside me. “I don’t want to do this anymore.”
Roman’s face crumbles. “What?”
Zeke’s already moving, grabbing his underwear and crossing the room in seconds.
“Why can’t I kiss you out there? Why can’t I kiss Zeke? I don’t even need you to answer. I already know why, but it shouldn’t matter.”
“Baby, look at me,” Zeke says, forcing Jasper’s frantic pacing to still. “If you want to go public, we’ll do it the second we’re back. If that’s what you need, we’ll figure it out. You know we only agreed to live like this for as long as it worked for all of us.”
Roman’s already pulled on a pair of shorts and moves in beside them, and I watch Jasper visibly ease the moment both his men are close.
“I’m sorry,” Roman says, pressing his forehead to Jasper’s. “I’d give anything to kiss you out there. And the day I do, I’ll do it so fucking proudly. You know that.”
The moment is wrapped in the kind of love most people never get to see, and suddenly, I’m painfully aware that I don’t belong here—at least, not right now. I slip off the bed as quietly as possible, my feet barely skimming the floor, as I try to slip out of the room without anyone noticing.
“Stop, Addison,” Zeke says, reaching out his hand toward me. “He needs you too. Or do you still not get that?” The softness in his green eyes practically breaks me. “We all do.”
My chest tightens as I step back into them. Jasper pulls me into his arms immediately, pressing me to his chest. Roman and Zeke close in around us, their arms sliding around our bodies until there’s no space between us.
“I’m sorry, baby,” Jasper murmurs into my hair, pressing his cheek to the top of my head as he cradles me.
“Rome.” Zeke’s voice breaks the quiet, acknowledging something unspoken but deeply understood by all of us.
“I know,” Roman answers, his tone heavy with the same realization.
It’s there in the silence and in the way we're all holding onto each other—the confirmation that together we’re whole.
CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN
ADDISON
The awards ceremonyis going ahead as planned tonight. We got the confirmation late last night, and now I’m standing here in the same outfit I arrived in days ago, somehow both ready and completely unprepared to say goodbye to these men, even if it’s only for a few hours.
The past few days have been almost perfect. I say almost because Roman still won’t touch me. Not intimately. Not the way Zeke and Jasper do. He’s right there with us, but there’s a line he won’t cross.
But I know I love him. Whether he touches me or not, I love Roman. I love Zeke and Jasper too. I think I always have, even if I didn’t have the words for it back then. Only now, it’s more than that. It’s so much bigger and deeper than anything I’ve ever felt. Even when I stood at that altar, dressed in white and promised forever to another man, my heart was already spoken for.
“So, we’ll see you tonight?” Jasper steps closer, fingers threading through my hair before his lips land on mine.
“Yeah, I’ll be arriving with my parents and Willow.”
“Ah, man, I remember your sister. She was hot…” he teases, and I laugh as I smack him in the arm. He stumbles back dramatically, clutching himself like I just hit him with a brick.
“Jesus, woman! You see that? She assaulted me.”
“You deserved it.” Roman chuckles, and I grab Jasper’s shirt, yanking him back to my mouth for a quick kiss.
“No flirting with my sister. She’s a mom now. Show some respect.”
“So when you’re a mom, does that mean we can’t disrespect you anymore? Because last night, you were pretty okay with being disrespected.”
It’s been years since a couple of doctors sat me down and rattled off a bunch of medical crap that barely made sense, trying to explain why my body won’t do what it’s supposed to. But standing here now, it suddenly feels huge. Because these three men might actually want a future with me, and they deserve to know exactly what that future can and can’t look like before they start making promises they can’t keep.
