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“It is a little complicated,” Danielle agrees. “But that’s what we need to talk about.” She steps toward Crew. “Just because it will take some talking and compromise and unconventional thinking doesn’t make it impossible, though.” She hesitates. “Does it?”
My chest is tight and I’m definitely feeling an unreasonable but unmistakable instinct that someone is trying to take something that is mine away from me.
“We can’t all marry you,” I say. Since I’ve been mostly silent until now, they all turn to look at me. “That’s impossible. No matter how much talking we do.”
Hughes shakes his head. “We can make it work.”
“No, we can’t.” I nearly bark the three words, my frustration spilling over.
“Nathan—” Danielle starts.
I hold up a hand. “No,” I say. “Legally we can't all marry you, Danielle.”
“He’s right,” Michael concedes. He takes her hand. “But we can have a commitment ceremony. We can do everything but the legal paperwork. We can do the part that really matters—stand up in front of family and friends, exchange vows, declare ourselves.”
I’m trying to choose my words carefully. “Which will still mean that you don’t have a legal husband. In the eyes of the law, you are still single.”
“Which won’t matter,” Michael insists. “You’ll have our full financial support. We’ll live together. The kids can take your last name, but Crew and I can be listed on the birth certificates.”
“For fuck’s sake!” Crew exclaims. “We just moved in together!”
Danielle looks at Crew, then back to me. Her smile is definitely gone now.
But fuck…I can’t believe Hughes did this without us.
“You don’t want to get married?” Danielle asks Crew.
Well…shit.
That’s the question. Just laid out there between us all.
And Crew is very likely going to fuck this part up.
He swallows hard. “Sure I do, baby. Eventually. But this whole damned thing has already moved so fast. I did not think we’d be talking about all of this so soon.”
She nods. “I understand.” Then she looks at me. “What about you, Nathan? Do you want to get married?”
I don’t have to even think about it. “I do.”
“To me?” she presses.
“Only to you.” There’s not one single question about that in my mind. Or heart.
“So, why are you so mad?” she asks.
“Because Hughes fucking proposed to my girlfriend after we specifically agreed to do that together.”
“Actually, I proposed to my girlfriend,” Michael says. His voice is low and tight. “Which I have every right to do. Without anyone’s permission.”
I meet his eyes.
He goes on. “I decided to tell my girlfriend that I am so in love with her that I want to spend the rest of my life with her. It wasn’t about you, Nathan.”
“And that’s the entire problem,” I snap. “We are awe. We all decided to be a we. There’s not a you and Danielle, and a me and Danielle, and a Crew and Danielle, and you fucking know it!”
My cool is officially used up now.
He said he would know what to do if they were a couple and didn’t have two other people to consider. Yeah, so would I. So would Crew.
