“What the hell are we doing?” I shout at my best friends three seconds after Taylor walked out the door. “Are we really going to just let her go?”
“Marak is right, we need to stop her.” Syn heads for the front door, but Maverick pulls him back by his arm.
The anger in Syn’s eyes as he glares at Maverick matches my own. “We should give her time.”
Allistar, Syn, and I stare dumbfounded at Maverick. Why would we want to give her time to forget about us? We all want her; we want to tell her how badly we want her. Don’t we?
Realization dawns, and I shake my head sadly. “Maverick, you don’t want to try this with her, do you?”
“What?” He reels back as if I punched him.
Syn curses. “That’s why you don’t want to go after her, isn’t it? You don’t want her. Damn it, Mav. You should have said something sooner.”
Allistar crosses his arms over his chest and studies Maverick. “Is that true, Mav?”
“No!” Maverick shouts. He pulls the tie from his hair while he shoves his hands roughly through his hair. “You’re all fucking wrong.”
“Then, explain it to us!” I holler back. “What the hell is going through your thick head?”
He turns away from us, stomps toward the living room, turns back, and comes up to us again. Pacing is Syn’s thing. It’s how he handles Maverick’s calm, time consuming thought process ritual. To witness Maverick stomp back and forth around the living room takes me by surprise. I’ve never seen him so unhinged.
“Can we sit down? My leg is killing me.” It’s partly true. I fractured my femur in two places and snapped my tibia. Even with the pain meds, it hurts like hell. More than for my comfort, though, I want to give Maverick a few extra seconds to gather his wits. Clearly, he needs the time.
Syn appears by my side and helps me to the couch. He watches my back while I lower and sit. He doesn’t need to be asked; he doesn’t offer the help. Syn simply jumps in feet first to help us all when we hurt. It’s one of the reasons I could never make the choice that may hurt him.
It’s the same thing with Allistar and Maverick. Allistar is the protective big brother, the peacekeeper. He wants us all to be happy and to get along. He doesn’t give up if we have issues with each other—he fights for us until everyone wins. Maverick leads us. He makes sure everything gets done when it needs to be done, focusing on our strengths and helping us utilize them in every situation. He keeps us in line. He knows what we need before we do most of the time, which is why it shocks me that he might not want the same thing as me. Maybe Syn and Allistar are in the same boat as him, and they don’t know how to say it.
“You guys know what I want,” Syn mutters while he drops down next to me.
My eyes snap to his. “We do?”
Syn blinks, then shakes his head. “Oh, I guess you don’t.” He shrugs sheepishly. “I told them right before you called about the car chase. I want Taylor. I want to keep my best friends, too. I’d rather have all of you than none of you.”
“You want to go for it?” I ask and relax slightly. He’s on the same page as me.
He nods, and I grin.
“I’m in,” Allistar mutters and rocks back on his heels. “I tried to tell you guys in the hospital. I don’t want to ever think about what I’d do if I lost one of you. But it also kills me to think about losing Taylor. I need her, and I need you guys. I’m in.”
“Me, too.” I smile wide.
“I knew it!” Syn bumps my fist with his, and Allistar chuckles.
I grow serious for a second. “I can’t hurt any of you. You’re my brothers, and if I tried to take away the girl we all love, it would hurt you guys. At the same time, I won’t walk away from Taylor. The solution is clear for me. I’m all or nothing.”
The three of us turn to Maverick, and he sags down into the recliner. “Fucking hell, I was so scared.”
“Scared of what?” Syn sits up straighter to give Maverick his full attention. It isn’t often that Syn can be serious, but he manages this time.
Maverick ties his hair up once more, a sign he isn’t as stressed as he was. “I was sure you guys weren’t going to go with this idea. Hell, it was my decision to call the Harper-Smith family. You guys weren’t interested in talking to them about it at first. Then, I nearly lost Marak and Taylor. I panicked. I didn’t want to go from almost losing both of you to losing one of you in a different way.”
“I told you what I decided already, Mav,” Syn reminds him.
Maverick nods. “I know and that made shit worse in my head. If you and I want this to work but Marak and Allistar don’t, where does that leave us? What the hell would we do if two of us want in and two want out? I can’t lose you guys. You’re my family, and I need you three more than anything.”
“But?” Allistar coaxes. We all wait for him to say the words.
“But I’m in love with Taylor, and I need her, too,” he admits with a loud sigh. “I’m all in, guys. I want this because I know you guys will take care of the girl I love when I can’t. You’ll love her just as much as I do, and she’ll never want for anything. She’ll never have to be alone. I’d never trust anyone else with my girl, but even if we weren’t into this crazy ass relationship, I’d trust you three.”
“That’s how I see it, too,” Syn says. “You guys would never hurt her or let anything happen to her.”
“Because we all love her.” I knock my shoulder into Syn’s with a smirk.
“So, we’re all in?” Maverick asks. He looks worried, even though each of us said yes already. “We’re okay with watching each other kiss, touch her, and the knowledge we’d all be sleeping with her? We can work through the issues and jealousy and make this work?”
“It’ll suck not to have her in my bed every night,” Allistar admits sheepishly. “But if she’s with one of you guys, she’ll be safe and happy. That’s all I need to know.”
“Ditto.” I nod.
“Wait!” Syn pops up off the couch and holds his hands out, startling the rest of us. “We all agree, and that’s great, but there’s an issue.”
“What?” Allistar frowns, but I already know the problem.
Syn drops his hands and shoves them into his pockets. “Our girl doesn’t even know about this... she might not feel the same.”
Silence descends upon the room. We never got a chance to ask Taylor what she wants and how she feels. Maybe she isn’t interested in a relationship with any of us, let alone all of us. She flirted and seemed interested, but maybe it was all fun for her.
After a few tense minutes, Maverick jumps to his feet. “Well, sitting here won’t get us an answer. We need to go find her and talk to her.”
“What if she won’t talk to us?” Allistar counters but follows Maverick out of the room.
Maverick shrugs though I notice his shoulders tense slightly at the idea. “Only one way to find out.”
Syn patiently helps me back to my feet—or foot since one is in a giant boot-type cast. “Will you dickheads wait for me? I’m crippled over here!”
Even though it’s at my expense, the laughter of my brothers brings a smile to my face.