Page 107 of Twins for Three Bad Boys

Wayne stiffens, just slightly.

“That’s not what we’re here to push, June,” he says carefully, eyes never leaving mine. “This isn’t about convincing you of anything.”

“It’s about not pretending the option doesn’t exist,” Rex says easily.

Fletcher nods once. “You don’t owe us a decision tonight. Or ever. We just didn’t want you thinking you were imagining this. Or that you’re alone in it.”

I let out a shaky breath, staring down at my glass as if it might ground me. My reflection wobbles on the surface of the whiskey, eyes too bright, cheeks too rosy, the face of a woman I barely recognize. Because she looks… awake. Alive.

“All of you,” I say quietly. “You’re really saying it like it’s not completely unhinged?”

Rex smiles. “Oh, it’s unhinged.”

Fletcher adds dryly, “But not careless.”

Wayne shifts closer, close enough I can feel the heat of him. “June,” he says. “If this scares you⁠—”

“It does scare me,” I admit immediately.

That surprises them. It surprises me too.

“But,” I continue, forcing myself to meet their eyes one by one, “so does the idea of pretending I don’t feel something. So does going back to being careful all the time.”

The word careful tastes bitter now.

“I’ve spent so long trying to be the version of myself that causes the least trouble,” I say. “And it didn’t save me. It didn’t protect me. It just made me smaller.”

Rex is the first to move. Slowly. He sets his glass down and leans forward, forearms braced on his knees.

“You wouldn’t be small with us,” he says gently.

Fletcher is quiet but firm. “You wouldn’t disappear.”

Wayne swallows. “And you wouldn’t be owned.”

My chest cracks all the way open at that.

I push myself up from the couch, my legs unsteady beneath me.

I take one step forward.

Then another.

Wayne’s breath catches. Fletcher straightens. Rex’s smile turns into something intense and serious.

“I don’t know what this is supposed to look like,” I say honestly. “I don’t know what it turns into.”

“You don’t have to,” Wayne replies. “We can go slow.”

I shake my head, a small laugh slipping out. “I don’t think I want slow tonight.”

That does it.

The air shifts.

It’s like my dream… only it’s happening in real life.

This is crazy, yet I don’t want to end it.