Chapter Twenty
Myhungrystomachsentme searching for food early the next morning. I left Isaac and Blake in bed and pulled on one of their t-shirts before raiding the kitchen. It didn’t take long for me to settle on ice cream and grab a spoon to eat straight from the container. I was spoiling myself in other ways; I might as well eat what I really wanted, too, I figured.
I curled up on the couch and had just started eating when I heard footsteps behind me and turned to find both Isaac and Blake shuffling into the room. I smiled at their sleepy faces. They were ridiculously cute for two gruff-looking mountain men who liked doing really kinky shit in their free time.
Isaac sat on one side of me and pulled me against his bare chest while Blake sat on the other side and pulled my feet into his lap. They yawned in sync and looked me over.
Blake rubbed my legs and yawned again. “You’re beautiful like this.”
I ate another spoonful of ice cream and looked down at myself. “In a t-shirt?”
Isaac tugged at my hair. “In one of our shirts with your hair all messed up and makeup smeared all over your face.”
I immediately rubbed at my face. “That’s not a cute look.”
“We think you’re wrong.” Blake shrugged and started massaging my feet. “Are you coming back to bed soon?”
I hid a smile with more ice cream. “Yeah. Missing me?”
Isaac grunted. “I don’t want to sleep with this idiot if you’re not there.”
“Speak for yourself. Your mattress sucks. I would be in my own bed if not for Mal.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my mattress.”
I grinned while listening to them bicker like little boys. “Did you always bicker like this?”
They looked at me like they hadn’t even realized they were fighting. Blake frowned and shrugged. “I guess. Probably.”
“Definitely. Especially Julian and Blake. They both think they’re the boss.”
I sighed. “Why’d he leave?”
Isaac went quiet for a minute, like he was waiting on Blake to explain, but when Blake didn’t jump in, he finally spoke up. “There’s a history here that has nothing to do with you. I mean, it’s not your fault, and him leaving doesn’t reflect on how he feels about you.”
“What is it?”
Blake grabbed my ice cream and shoved a big bite into his mouth while gesturing for Isaac to go on.
Isaac swore. “You’re a dick.”
I rested my cold hand on Isaac’s thigh. “Tell me.”
He grabbed my hand and rubbed it to warm it before speaking. “Our last girlfriend. Grace. She did some damage.”
I frowned, an ugly feeling of jealousy rearing its head. “What’d she do?”
Blake finally decided he could comment. “What didn’t she do, honestly?”
“She nearly broke us apart. Julian hasn’t been the same since. Not with us. He’s just so angry all the time.” Isaac sat up and rested his elbows on his knees. “She was fucking awful, and we didn’t see it.”
“She was jealous of how close we were. Despite the fact that we were serious about her. We cared for her and took care of her. She still couldn’t handle our relationship to each other, though. It was sick.”
I made a face. “She got involved with triplets. Did she think you three wouldn’t be close?”
“She just decided she needed more and more. She started doing little things to push Julian out. We didn’t know it was happening until it was almost too late. Julian had been alienated and didn’t trust us anymore. While she was turning us against him, she was breaking him down. She wouldn’t let him touch her.”
Blake winced. “We weren’t careful with him. She told us things about him, and we believed them, despite knowing better.”