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I crossed my arms, refusing to sit. “Talk, then.”
He sighed and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, suddenly looking like the teenaged version of himself, the one who wasn’t so self-assured. “Look, I know this seems bad, but you have to trust me. I have good reason to kiss Evan.”
“Sure you do. You’re a pig.”
“Cela . . .” He stared back at me like he was searching for the right words. As if any response could explain away what I’d seen. I had to hold myself back from screaming at him some more.
When no response came, I shook my head, and took a step toward the door. “I’m leaving.”
“I’m with her, too,” he said finally.
I barely resisted rolling my eyes but did halt my exit to look at him. “Well, obviously.”
“No, I mean . . . Jace knows.”
My lips parted, my jaw going slack. “He what?”
“He knows that I’m with her.”
Before I could blurt out my disbelief, he raised a palm, cutting off my response.
“I promise you he’s fine with it. I know it’s a lot to understand because it’s not the norm. That’s why I didn’t want to tell you. But it works for the three of us. We all love each other and are happy being together.”
I blinked, the way he’d said the last part giving me pause. “All?”
He wiped a hand down his face, closing his eyes like it was too hard to look at me and answer at the same time. “I’m with Jace, too.”
“With,” I repeated, almost more to myself. “Like with?”
He gave a slight nod of admission.
“Holy shit,” I murmured and sat on the edge of the bed, the truth breaking through the neat structure of my reality. My brother was in a relationship with two people. And bisexual? My brain hurt. “And did you ever plan on telling me this?”
He looked away, confirming my suspicion that no, he wouldn’t have. “I wanted to protect you. It wouldn’t be fair to ask you to keep such a big secret from the family.”
My parents. Oh, God. If my father even had a suspicion that Andre was interested in guys, it’d be Armageddon all over again. I suspected this may even be a higher offense to him than my sister’s teen pregnancy and abortion. He’d have the priest over for an exorcism.
“And I didn’t know what you would think,” Andre said, his voice quiet.
I peered up at him then, catching the rare vulnerability in his dark eyes. God, how could he even have worried about what I’d think? I loved him. That didn’t come with conditions. “What I think is that I want you to be happy. If they make you happy, then that’s all I need to know. I’m just hurt that you didn’t feel like you could share that with me. That you’d think I’d judge you.”
He sighed and sat down next to me on the bed. “I guess part of me still feels like you’re my baby sister and too young to know that kind of thing about me.”
“I’m twenty-three, Dre. I’m not a toddler.”
His lips curved. “I know.”
Then another thought hit me, and I punched him hard in the arm. “Oh my God, and you totally jumped my case for being with two guys. Meanwhile, you’re doing the same damn thing!”
He grabbed his arm, rubbing the spot I’d hit. “Hey, do as I say not as I do.”
“That’s bullshit,” I declared. “And you’re so going to make that up to me.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Oh, really. And how am I going to do that?”
I pressed my lips together, thinking of the earlier talk with my father and then with Wyatt, the plan that had come to mind when I’d seen that wax-sealed envelope. And I knew exactly how Andre could pay me back. “You, dear brother, are going to take your little sister to The Ranch.”
He shot off the bed like a roman candle had been shoved up his ass. “The hell I am. That’s not even kind of an option. You don’t know what type of place, what kind of stuff, what happens . . .”
