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Brody gives me a confused look, so I explain. “You’re my best friend. We’ve known each other for over twenty years. We’ve lived together for over ten. Hell, I’ve even fucked you. I know you better than anyone, and you know me better than my entire damn family. Would it be such a stretch that when we finally find a woman who we both like, it’s the same one?”
Brody sits up straighter, his sign that he’s giving this some thought. “So you’re proposing a poly relationship?”
“Why not?” I shrug. “We won’t be the first. Plenty of people do it…including families with kids. Hell, I think there’s a show or two about it. I’d like to think we live in a society where people are more accepting of nonconventional relationships. But if not, who cares?”
“And what if she doesn’t go for it? What if she only wants one of us?”
“Then the other person walks away, and our friendship stays intact. We’re stronger than that. At the end of the day, I only want you to be happy, and I know you want the same for me. If that means I’m not in the equation, then I’ll bow out.”
Brody nods. “I agree. I want her and getting to share her with you is a fucking bonus. But if she ends up only wanting you, I want you both to be happy.” After a few beats, he laughs softly. “Are we really going to do this?”
“We have to be one hundred percent on board with this. Can you see yourself spending your life with Bree, me, and her kids? Sharing a house, sharing a woman? We’re obviously not there yet, but if we can’t see it, if we’re not sure, we shouldn’t propose it to her.”
Heat sparks in Brody’s eyes, and I know he can see it all the same way I can. Our future with Bree. With her kids. Hell, maybe even some kids of our own with her. Coming home to her, spending our lives with her.
Now we just have to make her see it too.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
AUBREE
Brody and Hayden,
While I’m upset at what you did by not telling me that you knew I was dating you both, I am not without fault, so I want to apologize. Until you two came along, I had only gone on one crappy date since Pete passed away. And before him, I only had one boyfriend in high school, so I’m not extremely experienced in the world of dating.
When you both asked me out, I wasn’t quite ready to move on yet, but Lacey convinced me to get out there, so I did with Brody, but then he had the wrong number, and I assumed he didn’t want to see me again, so I agreed to go out with Hayden. And then Brody came in. I never meant to date you both, and I wasn’t trying to pull one over on either of you, but somehow, it happened. I kept telling myself I would pick one of you, but the more I fell for you both, the harder it became. I’ve spent so much time trying to pick, and I can’t.
When I met my husband, the first time he looked at me, I got butterflies, and the same thing happened with both of you. At first, I thought maybe the butterflies were a lie, that they didn’t mean what I thought they meant. But then I realized they were accurate. It would be my luck that when I moved on, I would fall for not one but two guys.
The fact is, I could see a future with both of you. I know it’s early on, and anything could happen, but I wouldn’t continue to date someone I don’t see a future with. Who I can’t imagine introducing to my kids. That is why I was so hurt when I found out you guys are best friends and roommates.
It was one thing to pick one of you when you didn’t know each other, but now that I know you’re friends, I can’t do it. And that hurts because I went from having two amazing guys who I was enjoying getting to know to having no one. And I feel like if you would’ve been honest, my heart could’ve been saved because I would’ve stopped seeing you both a long time ago. But you weren’t. And now, I have to end things with both of you. I truly wish you both the best, and I’m sorry for my part in all of this.
xo Bree
I hit send on the group chat, figuring it’s best to message them both at the same time—since I don’t have their emails—then exit the thread. It’s been eighteen hours since I found out I was not only dating two men but two best friends, and my heart still hurts. Yeah, I’m mad that they hid it, but I’m more hurt than anything because they let me get to know them and care about them both, and now I have to be without them both, which sucks.
