Page 257 of Triplet Babies for my Ex's Best Friend

Then she leaves.

Silence settles softly afterward.

Luci points between Ethan and me. “I’m going to pack before one of you starts crying.” She grins and disappears down the hallway with Captain following.

Oliver tugs Ethan’s sleeve. “Can Addy see my runway again?”

Ethan’s eyes stay on mine. “In a minute, buddy.”

Oliver narrows his eyes suspiciously. “Are you gonna kiss?”

I choke on absolutely nothing.

Ethan, somehow, remains calm. “Possibly.”

“Gross,” Oliver says immediately, before skipping away toward his room.

Which leaves me alone with Ethan.

Again.

The dangerous place.

He walks toward me slowly, like I’m fragile and unpredictable.

“I know this is a lot,” he says quietly.

I look around the penthouse. “You think?”

A faint smile touches his mouth, then it disappears again. “I didn’t know how else to show you I was listening.”

I cross my arms tightly over my chest because otherwise I might launch myself directly at him like a pregnant raccoon with attachment issues. “You arranged an entire medical infrastructure.”

“You’re carrying triplets.”

“That still sounds fake when people say it out loud.”

“It sounds terrifying.”

“Itisterrifying.”

“I know.” He smiles faintly. “I was wrong. About a lot of things.” My throat tightens. “I thought if I handled the company first, the investigation first, Bryce first…” He exhales heavily. “Then I could come back to us when things were calmer.”

“There is no calmer,” I whisper.

“No.” His eyes hold mine. “There isn’t.”

The honesty in that nearly undoes me more than reassurance would have.

“I hurt you,” he says quietly. “I made you feel alone when you were already terrified.”

I shake my head automatically. “Ethan?—”

“No.” His jaw tightens slightly. “I need to say it properly. I’ve spent four years surviving by controlling everything around me,” he says. “Work, schedules, risk, outcomes. Because the one time I lost control in the worst possible way, I lost Megan.”

Pain flashes across his face.

“And when you fainted,” he continues roughly, “I felt myself go back there. I hated that I froze. I hated that you saw it.”