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Hell-bent on getting away, I completely forget to let Lacey know I’m leaving until I’m in a cab and on my way back to my apartment. I send her a message that I’m not feeling well and will talk to her tomorrow—Sunday is her day off, but I have no doubt she’ll be in to get the scoop. Of course, she asks if I’m okay and offers to come over tonight, but I tell her I just need to be alone.
After getting undressed, I run myself a hot bubble bath, turn off my phone, and try to get lost in my current book. Unfortunately, my heart hurts too badly, and my brain won’t shut off, so instead of reading, I close my eyes and try—and fail—not to cry, wishing I wouldn’t have listened to Lacey. I thought I could do casual, and instead, I ended up with my heart broken by not one but two guys.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
HAYDEN
“We fucked up.”
I nod in agreement as we both stare at the doorway where Bree just fled through.
“She called it a game.”
“It wasn’t a fucking game,” I argue.
“I’m pretty sure I said something along the lines of ‘May the best man win.’” He sinks into the chair behind the desk, and his face falls into his hands.
“A game would imply we were playing with her. I can’t speak for you, but I wasn’t playing. I like her a hell of a lot, and my intentions were never to play her but to keep her.”
Brody lifts his head to look at me. “And you think I was playing? I told you I like her. But we both can’t keep her, and right now, I’m almost positive she doesn’t want either of us.”
“She wants us,” I disagree. I could see the way she looked at us, reacted to our touch. “She’s just upset because we betrayed her, but we can explain ourselves and get her to listen.”
“And then what? We convince her to keep dating us both? To choose one of us? You going to be okay when she picks me?” Brody looks at me with his serious face, telling me he’s not being a smart-ass. He means what he’s saying. “Because I can tell you right now, I’m not letting her go without a fight.”
“That’s how we got into this mess in the first place.” I sit across from him in the visitor seat, and we sit in silence for several minutes, both of us lost in our own thoughts.
“It’s too bad we both can’t be with her,” Brody says with a humorless chuckle, suggesting the same thing I said a while back. At the time, he said she’d never go for it and that he wanted more than a threesome, but now that we know she likes us both and we feel the same…
“What if we—”
My phone rings, cutting me off, and thinking—and hoping—it’s Bree, I slip it out of my pocket and click answer without checking to see who it is. Big fucking mistake.
“Hayden, how are you?”
“Dad, hey, what’s up?”
I glance at Brody, who grimaces.
“I was calling to check on the situation.”
I roll my eyes. He knows tonight is the soft opening of Silk, and I’ll be busy with that. Still, because I partnered with Brody outside of the company, with my own money, he’s bitter as fuck and will do anything to interrupt my night.
“I’m handling it,” I tell him, the same thing I’ve been telling him for weeks.
“Handling it would mean she’s signed over the lease. Nothing’s being handled.”
“It takes time.” Time to figure out how to convince him to find a new property to build the wellness center on.
“I think we need to meet tonight to go over what exactly you’re—”
“Dad, I’m in the middle of something. We can meet Monday morning at the office. I gotta go.”
Without waiting for him to reply, I hang up and pocket my phone.
“Deal still going through?” Brody asks.
“It’s not happening.”
He scoffs. “Does your dad know that?”
“He will, once I figure out how to steer him toward a better option. Once I do, he’ll let it go.” At least I hope he will.
“Your dad isn’t going to let this go,” Brody says as if reading my mind.
“He’s not going to have a choice because Bree isn’t going to sign, and there isn’t anything he can do about it.”
“And what about your position?”
“It’s not going to come to that,” I say. “I’ll make sure of it. Now back to what we were talking about. Why can’t we?”
His brow furrows. “What?”
“Before my dad called, you said it’s too bad we both can’t just be with her. Why can’t we? All the women we fucked in college loved it. Some preferred it.”
“Yeah, horny as fuck college students. Bree is a grown woman and a mother.”
“And I’m not saying we tag-team her like we did in college.” I lean in, the craziest—yet best—idea hitting me. “What if we both date her instead of her choosing?”
