Ezra bit down on his lip. “Honestly? No. I don’t think I could accept that. I’d hope she’ll agree to at least give us a chance.”
I narrowed my eyes. “A bit coercive, don’t you think? Here, join our band and guarantee yourself a sparkling career, but only if you’ll keep fucking us.”
He shook his head. “Abel, it’s not like that between us. It’s not just sex. I want to be with her, and I think she wants to be with us.”
But she didn’t want to be with me. Even if Ezra was right, and she agreed to the band and to the relationship, where would that leave me?
“You have a point, though,” he added. “It’s always been her choice. If she says no to either of the things we’re offering, I’ll do everything in my power to get her the opportunities she deserves. She was born to be a musician, with or without us.”
“That, I can agree with.” A moment of silence passed, and I took a step toward the door, sensing the conversation was coming to an end.
“Abel,” Ezra called out, making me pause. “What about you and her?”
I met his gaze. “Nothing. There’s nothing.”
From his expression, I could tell he didn’t believe me, but what concerned me more was that I didn’t, either.
ADELINE
On Wednesday, when Abel said Ezra and Cole had to stay behind to rerecord some parts from earlier tracks, Silas walked me to my car and insisted I come over to his place.
We dropped my car off at my house before driving together to his. We didn’t make it out of his condo’s garage for a long while.
“Thank God you have a big truck,” I said between gasps, holding on to the handlebar near the window for leverage as I rode him on the reclined seat.
He smirked. “This is definitely the best use it’s ever gotten.”
The windows were fogged up by the time we were done, and we both laughed at how teenage this whole thing felt. In a weird way, I did feel younger when I was with the three of them. During moments like these, the things I constantly worried about disappeared for a little while, and I felt carefree.
Once inside his place, we ordered dinner, and I was finally ready to discuss what was happening between the four of us. We were alone for the first time since Ezra and Cole had barged in on us the morning after my confession to Silas. I still didn’t fully understand how Cole had been so right in predicting Silas’s calm reaction, but I was ready to find out.
“I’m sorry I ran away from that first kiss,” I told him, leaning back into the couch. “I felt like such a bad person for hooking up with Ezra and Cole a little over a week later. I thought you’d hate me if you ever found out, even after Cole tried to hint that you wouldn’t. I guess I just…found it hard to believe.”
He scooted closer on the couch, wrapping his muscular arm over my shoulders and kissing the crown of my head. “I get it. You anticipated the most probable reaction. It’s a good thing we’re different from most other people.”
“Have you done this before?” I asked even though I was afraid of learning the answer. Admitting my feelings for all of them to myself had been so difficult. Had I been making a big deal out of something that meant nothing to them?
“No,” Silas said, and I was immediately relieved. “Never. I was ready to fight for you, but then Cole floated the idea of sharing, and I didn’t hate it as much as I thought I would. We’re all drawn to you. All of us are eager to explore what this could be.”
“You planned this?” I asked in a tentative tone. What exactly had they envisioned?
“We talked about it.” He squeezed my shoulder. “There wasn’t much of a plan besides agreeing that you had to be the one to initiate. We didn’t want a repeat of what happened at my place that first day.”
I nodded and lifted my gaze to Silas. “Was…Abel part of the conversation?”
The guitarist ran a hand over his beard. “No. We didn’t think he was in the right state of mind to consider something like this. Plus, he was being a dick toward you.”
Because he was grieving the death of not only his friend, but his lover. Of course, Silas didn’t know that.
“We aren’t sure how he feels, to be honest,” Silas continued. “Or how you feel toward him.”
“It doesn’t matter.” I shook my head, feeling a harsh wave of sadness crashing over me. All the things that had happened over the past three and a half weeks were coming to a bittersweet end. “I’m glad I found the courage I needed so that we can enjoy these last few days. I’ll…” My throat was tight. “I’ll miss you when you’re gone. I’ll miss making music together.”
Silas’s expression changed. I thought he was holding something back, but then the doorbell rang, and he went to get our takeout.
“What happened to you, Adeline?” he asked me as we ate our dinner while sitting on the carpet in his living room.
“What do you mean?” I asked between bites.
