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Forty-Eight
DAKOTA
There were a thousand things I could’ve said to appease the situation, or explain it away in a semi-logical sense. Many of them Tyler might’ve bought. Some of them might even be convincing.
Then I realized… I didn’twantto lie.
“A lot’s happened while you were away,” I told my brother, leading him though the side yard and behind the house. “Some of it’s downright unbelievable.”
“Dakota—”
“Hell,” I interrupted him, “some of it hasn’t fully registered in my own mind, yet.”
The others had gone into the house, which was probably a good thing. I know Jace wanted to talk to him, and it was probably killing him to remain silent. But this was somethingIneeded to do. I owed it to Tyler, to the others, and most of all, to myself.
“I know what this looks like…” I began plainly.
“Dakota, itlookslike you’re sleeping with Jaceandhis friends!”
We stopped walking abruptly, as I shot my brother a dark look. “Will you let me finish?”
His eyebrows remained knitted together in anger, but Tyler still bit his tongue. I knew it took every ounce of his willpower to do it.
“I know what this looks like,” I said again, “because that’s exactly what it is. I fell in love with three men, Tyler. Three men at once.”
He just sneered and shook his head. After staring at the ground for a few seconds, he looked back at me.
“I’m gonna kill him.”
“No you’re not,” I shot back sternly. “Not just because you couldn’t — andbelieveme, you couldn’t — but because I’m your sister and you love me and you owe me at least the chance to explain things.”
Tyler’s expression was a mixture of shock, indignation, and pure outright disbelief. I started walking again, and this time I took his hand and brought him with me.
Here we go…
We walked for a very long time, all the way to the back of the property and along the cracked picket fence. Step by step I explained everything, from posing as Jace’s wife as a favor to our friend, to the trip to Hawaii, and all that happened beyond. I tried conveying how easy it was to fall in love. Not just with Jace, but with the two other incredible men Tyler didn’t even know yet.
I talked about honor, respect, brotherhood. That part was harder to sell, because not even I knew the full scope of the inseparable connection between Jace, Merrick, and Aurelius. But I did my best to explain. I pleaded with Tyler to open his heart if not his mind, and try to understand what it was like for me.
In the end I finished with how happy I was, and that was something my brother could plainly see. Historically, Tyler and I kept no secrets. As siblings we had our own connection, and each of us generally knew when the other was bullshitting. If he took anything away from this at all, it was that I was wholly and unbelievably happy. Happy in Colorado, happy with work. And of course, happy with this incredibly loving although admittedly unorthodox relationship.
“I just… I just can’tseeit,” he said at last. “I mean Dakota, there’sthreeof them!”
“I know,” I agreed. “That freaked me out too. At first, anyway.”
“But—”
“Remember that summer you were dating two girls? And neither of them knew of the other?”
He nodded guiltily. “Anna and Suzanne.”
“Yeah, them.”
My brother let out a low whistle. “That was one hell of a summer.”
“It was, wasn’t it?” I agreed. “But did you set out to date two women? Did you go into that whole thing thinking, ‘I want two girlfriends at once?’”
The wind blew a lock of hair into Tyler’s eyes. He tucked it back and shook his head.
