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“What is it?” I ask.

“Eventually, I’m going to have to choose. Aren’t I?”

“Choose?”

“Between the three of you. It’s one thing to stretch this out a little longer. But eventually, it’s going to come down to that, and I don’t think I can do it. I feel differently about each of you, but not any less. I know that’s selfish and unrealistic. But maybe it’s better to stop this now, before it gets even harder, and I’m stuck having to pick. And then we all get hurt.”

Zander, Pascal, and I look at each other. I know we’re all thinking the same thing without speaking.

“No,” Pascal says, speaking for all of us. “You never have to choose, Nina. If we keep this going, you keep all three of us.”

Her eyes go wide. “Are you sure?”

“We’re positive,” Zander says. “There’s no jealousy between us. None. We’re happy to share you and each have our own time with you. Anyone outside the three of us, though? That’s a different story.”

Nina laughs and shakes her head. “Who else would I even want? Honestly, I can barely handle the three of you.”

We all laugh, because that’s fair.

“So nothing would change,” Zander says. “Except it wouldn’t be Christmas, and we wouldn’t all be under one roof.”

“And it wouldn’t be casual,” Pascal adds. “It’s more than that.”

“But there’s no pressure on you, Nina,” I say, the last to weigh in. “When your contract’s up, you get paid, you get glowing references, and nobody expects anything from you that you don’t want to give. No strings. We only want this if you want it too.”

“It’s a lot,” she says. “I need to think about it, if that’s okay.”

Zander nods. “Of course.”

Nina stands with her coffee. On her way out, she walks around the table and kisses each of us on the cheek. I could get used to this. Having her in our lives has brought the three of us closer, too.

After she’s gone, we just sit there, wondering what she’ll say, and what we’ll do if it’s no.

“Is it just me, or does it feel like our whole world is riding on this?” I ask, waiting for them to tease me for being dramatic.

Neither of them does.

“It does,” Pascal says.

We finish our coffee in silence, and I think about the days we have left before Christmas. Whatever Nina decides, I’m going to make sure it’s the best one she’s ever had.

CHAPTER 29

NINA

The photo of the four of us at the Christmas market is almost misleading. At first glance, it looks like a sweet family photo on a winter night. I’ll give the photographer this much—he caught all four of us smiling under the market’s glittering string lights.

It was still sneaky.

Unlike the picture of Jarek kissing me, this one went straight to social media before anyone could stop it. By the time Pascal found out, thousands of people had already shared it, and a gossip site had run it under the headline, Billionaire Romance in the Air?

There’s no paying anyone off or making a quiet phone call this time. It’s already everywhere.

“We weren’t even being affectionate.” Pascal scowls as he scrolls through the article. “It’s a completely innocent photo of the four of us at a Christmas market.”

“It’s the article that makes it look bad.” Zander shakes his head, annoyed with himself. “I should have confronted that photographer the second we saw him.”

“There wasn’t anything we could’ve done, short of ripping the camera out of his hands and making a scene.” Jarek runs a hand through his hair. “But yeah, whoever wrote this sucks. It’s all made up.”