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"We never touched her before that trip to New Orleans. As for your allegations, we never had any inappropriate thoughts of her until that Halloween party of yours when she turned eighteen. Do you remember that extremely inappropriate costume she had on?" Finn says.
"So, did you guys... do anything with her at Club Sin?" Ridge asks, dancing around a topic that I'm sure is completely uncomfortable for him.
"That first night, she learned how we like to share a girl, and we learned that she had had a crush on us for a while. We admitted that we liked her too. But there were a lot of questions, especially on her end, so the next day, we took her out and all day we showed her New Orleans. Nothing happened. We just answered whatever questions she had and took her for a tour of the city," I say.
"Then we gave her the option for the next night. She could join us at Club Sin, and we could explore some things with her. We then explained that this could be something that stayed in New Orleans and we never had to do or talk about again. Or we could continue when we came home and keep exploring the relationship. She wanted to continue, and of course, so did we," Brooks says.
"Tonight was the first night that we brought her to Club Red and spent time with her here in Chicago." Finn finishes up.
Ridge is still staring at his feet. He hasn't made eye contact with any of us.
"So, what are your plans when you're done with her? You expect her to just walk away without developing feelings and still stay my best friends? What happens when you see her on holidays and it’s like nothing happened? How did you think you were going to pull that over on me?" He asks, but you can clearly hear that he's starting to calm down.
"We decided before we even had her at Club Sin that if she wanted us, there would be no walking away from her. She's our end game. She's it for us, the girl that we have wanted and been looking for. She fits and makes each of us whole, and we love her more than we love anything else in this world," Finn says, emotion clearly shining through in his voice.
"If she wanted to end it, then we would respect her wishes and not have told you. But with her wanting to continue, we were going to make sure that this was what she wanted before we came and talked to you. She controlled the show and would decide when it was time for you to know. We would not have kept it a secret, but when we would have told you would have been completely her choice," I tell him.
"Well, let's make one thing very clear about what you said. How could you think we would try to pull something over on you and still try to be your best friends? We wouldn’t do that. But we made the decision that Ella is it for us. She comes first for us. So if keeping her means having to walk away from you, we will do so in a heartbeat, and we won't look back," Finn says.
Ridge's eyes finally snap up and look each of us in the eye before landing back on Finn.
"And she agrees with you on that?" he asks.
"We hope so, but we haven't had that conversation because we've been taking it slow, and she's been in control of what happens. To be completely honest, we're worried about scaring her off being that sure about something so soon," Brooks admits.
The room is quiet for a while, and something inside Ridge seems to shift. We give him the time he needs to process this. On the outside, we might look calm and collected, but I know these guys like the back of my hand. Finn is checking his watch, and Brooks is looking at the ceiling. Both signs that they're clearly as uncomfortable as I am.
"You always imagine your kids growing up, but this was never the type of lifestyle I wanted for her. I've known about your tastes for years and never had a problem with it. I just never thought it would be turned on my own daughter," Ridge says.
"We know your tastes too, Ridge." Finn holds Ridge's gaze on that comment.
"Regardless, you know us. You know, all we wanted was to settle down and have a family and how we've struggled with that. So many times we've talked to you about it. Sometimes sober, sometimes not. We've told you our fears and what we were scared of," Brooks says.
"So here is another fear for you. We are absolutely terrified that Ella thinks this is just a casual thing. That it’s something that she wants to work out of her system so that she can have a story to tell people later. We are afraid that she is not going to want us or this life. And that would kill us. So, we wouldn't expect to just walk into family events like nothing happened. Because if she doesn't choose us, we're walking away completely," I say.
"On the flip side, as long as she shows that she still wants us, we aren't going anywhere," Finn says. His voice is commanding and sure.
It's enough to push the doubts swirling around in my head away. Finn seems to know that because he looks over at me, and I give him a nod of thanks for pulling me out of the dark spiral I was starting to go down.
"Now that things have calmed down and you guys have talked this out a bit, you're welcome to stay here. But I'm going to head out and make sure everything's okay before I go home with my wife. Stay in the office and use it as long as you need." Carter stands, shakes each of our hands and walks out the door.
We stay in the office for a bit longer and answer questions. Legitimate questions any father would have for someone who just admitted that he's in love with his daughter.
Finally, we wrap up the night and go to the locker room to grab our stuff. As we get to the parking lot, we turn our phones on, and all of our phones are dinging with text messages, but Finn reads them first.
"We have a problem guys," he says.
Brooks and I pull up our texts, particularly the ones from Ella.
Ella:Is everything okay?
Ella:What did you guys say to my dad?
Ella:If this was over between us, you could have had the guts to tell me.
"Fuck! You guys, see how late it is. I didn't realize we were there that long." I say, walking towards the cars that we parked at the back of the lot.
"Shit, I didn't think we were there that long either," Connor says.
