We made our way to the kitchen table.
My offer of scotch carried some ground. I put the bottle on the countertop and found two shot glasses, a beaker, and two wine glasses.
Ethan proceeded to pour the liquid fire. “I can’t believe you work in a bar, live above a bar, and only have this assortment of glasses at home.”
“Have you seen the size of this apartment? It is at maximum capacity when three people step through the door.”
I sipped the scotch. Fuck, strong stuff. I don’t know why I had it, but I guess that was why it sat on my shelf and hadn’t been drunk.
Everyone poked at it, except for Tyler, who downed it instantly and asked for another. I guess some of his bad boy traits weren’t just for show.
I needed the courage to get through whatever was about to follow. Whatever had them turning up at my door in the middle of the night.
So I downed the shot glass.
I hoped it would keep up in emboldening me to do what needed to be done. “Uh... so... um... about well, us.”
All of them looked my way intently.
“Guys... we need to stop all this thing before it even gets going and spills out of control.”
They glanced at one another but returned their focus to me.
“I know you all know what I’ve done, what we’ve done. You’ve figured it out. Or you flat out told one another.”
“What? All of us all messing about with you?” Tyler said, a grin on his face.
“Or do you mean about how we’ve all fallen for you? How some love-at-first-sight magic has bitten us?”
“Um, yeah. That.” I took another deep breath and wondered when the scotch would kick in. And also if I should take more of it. The stuff was kind of nasty, but I needed to endure it.
“I didn’t mean to cheat on all of you with one another. I didn’t mean to cause heartbreak, or trouble, or anything else. I’m really sorry to have caused so much confusion.”
The twins glanced at one another, then they shared a glance with the other two as well, after which they shrugged.
“Yeah,” Ethan began. “We knew. And well...”
“We don’t give a shit,” Tyler finished.
“You’re worth uh... it? Is that the word?” Jake raised an eyebrow.
Lewis shook his head. “Oddly, I don’t think it is.”
They were such a double act, I had to smile. It was hard to have a serious conversation around these guys.
“Fuck if I know what words to use.”
It was hard not to smile at how the four of them came at me. Good-natured, humorous, and unbelievably sexy. It was a shame I tried so hard to run away from it all. And I soon lost track of why I wanted to run from them, because running from them wasn’t what I wanted to do at all—quite the opposite.
I finally blurted out, “Do you really all want to, like, share me?”
They each nodded at my words instantly. They didn’t need to take time to consider it. Of course, they’d already thought about it and talked about it. That was obvious.
“You can’t do that. You really can’t.”
“We can. We are.” Ethan spoke with a level tone, barely touching his drink at all. “We’ve discussed it at length. We’re a brotherhood, Kayla. We can come together and make all of this work. No jealousy, no petty infighting.”
“But your careers. What about your careers?”
“What about our careers?”
“Your friend was forced out of the closet, and now people are saying his career is over.”
“Some people can say what they like. But that isn’t gonna happen to Hank. And it won’t happen to us, either.”
“Nope. We won’t let that happen.”
“We’ll fucking walk if that happens,” Tyler added. “We don’t need these fucking careers no more if they don’t want us.”
“You’d leave football for me?”
“If it came to it, yes. I don’t think it will come to that, but it would be the principle.”
I looked at them, and my exasperation only grew. “But if it gets out that you’re all sharing the same girl, aren’t you afraid of what people will say? What would the public perception be?”
“Fuck ’em. And we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
“But...”
Jake shook his head. “We aren’t letting backward-ass thinking stay in the way of what we want.”
“We want you, Kayla.” Lewis nodded my way. “But we also understand the jealousy issues. So we’re doing what’s best for all of us.”
“Most girls would be thrilled to have all four of us.” Tyler smirked.
“I ain’t most girls. And you’re too cocky for your own damn good.”
“You weren’t complaining about my cocky a few days ago,” he said with a smirk.
And he was so right. The way he looked at me did things to me: things that affected my breathing and thought processes and just turned me on.