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My eyes shifted to Quinn and then Beck. Neither man said anything, but they were both watching me with loving concern. That feeling fueled me. Beck dropped his arms, releasing me as he gave me the smallest of smiles. I wanted to kiss him, but I didn’t have time. I caught up to Nathan just before he reached the doorknob and I stepped between him and the door.
“Stay for dinner, Nathan.”
Nathan’s hooded gaze lifted and I saw pain fill them. “I can’t,” he murmured. “My flight leaves in two hours.”
“There will be other flights,” I said. “Stay.”
He seemed to hesitate for an inordinate amount of time before he shook his head. “I really can’t. I have a meeting with my campaign manager in the morning.”
Right. The job.
Disappointment flooded me.
“I’m really happy for you, Brody,” Nathan said softly as he glanced over his shoulder at Beck and Quinn. “You’ve built something really amazing for yourself here. Don’t…don’t let that go, okay?”
Was he actually accepting my relationship?
The idea was so absurd to me that I forced myself to move as he reached for the doorknob. But in addition to my disbelief was the burning ember of hope that lit up like a bonfire.
“Will you come back sometime?” I asked, hating how I sounded like a needy little kid. But in a lot of ways, that was what I was in that moment.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Nathan murmured. “At least not until things die down for me.”
Fear ratcheted through me. “Nathan, don’t go,” I whispered desperately.
My brother sucked in a strangled breath. “I have to. I can’t put you at risk.”
Before I could respond, his arms were suddenly around me in a brutal hug. I automatically grabbed onto him.
“I’m sorry, little brother,” Nathan said softly against my ear. “More than you’ll ever know.”
And then he was gone. Another set of arms went around me a moment later. Then a second set.
It wasn’t the same, but it was enough.
ChapterEighteen
Beck
“I’m just going to go put Harley in my room and then I’ll meet you in the car,” I told Quinn and Brody as I gave them each a quick kiss. It was a risk to kiss them in the barn where anyone could see us, but I didn’t care and from the way they each kissed me back, I suspected they didn’t either.
“Do you know where Lilah is?” Quinn asked.
I shook my head. “Still changing maybe?” I said. “I’ll check her room and let her know we’re leaving in five.”
“Sounds good,” Quinn said. My insides warmed as both men’s gazes lingered on me as I turned away and began walking out of the barn.
We’d gotten back from our final trail ride together a few minutes earlier and Brody and Quinn were just putting the last of the horses away before we went out to dinner. Although it was our last night together before Brody left tomorrow to go back to his regular job, we’d decided to go out to dinner to celebrate Lilah’s eighteenth birthday when we’d found out she had no plans for the evening. On my way out of the barn, I greeted Gabriella as she was getting out of her car. She’d agreed to join us which I knew would make Lilah both happy and nervous. She was definitely crushing on the older woman big time.
My relationship with Lilah had grown quickly over the past couple of weeks and I’d learned a lot about her. She’d been kicked out of her house by her mother because she’d believed Lilah had been trying to seduce the woman’s live-in boyfriend. And since there’d been no one to take the young girl in, she’d been forced to live on the streets. Luckily, she’d found refuge in a shelter that specialized in serving the needs of LGBT kids and they’d been the ones who’d gotten her set up with the job at Roman’s resort, as well as helping her to get her GED. Fortunately, she hadn’t been forced to earn money the way so many young people did when they were left homeless and alone…like I had. But she was still slow to warm up to other people, so I suspected she hadn’t gotten out of her mother’s house completely unscathed. Like me, she tended to shy away from men, though she’d grown more comfortable around Brody and Quinn in the days after she’d arrived and she often joined us for dinner and movie night. At least until Dale had started. After that, none of us had wanted to linger in any place he was.
Lilah had figured out my relationship with Brody and Quinn pretty quickly, but she hadn’t judged the fact that I was with two men instead of just one. I’d told her a little bit about my past, but like with Quinn and Brody, I’d left out the worst of it.
Not because I thought she’d judge me.
No, I never brought it up because I wanted to pretend it didn’t exist.
I knew I was in extreme denial about all the things I’d done, but the stakes were just too high to risk my men finding out the truth about me. Because I couldn’t lose everything I’d gained these past few weeks.
