Colby’s brows lifted. So that was what had happened. “I’m guessing she said no.”
“She said no to me. Not to you.”
“Saying no to you is as good as saying no to me, Keats. All three of us are in this together. Or were in this together. She’s got to want to be here on her own. And this is still so new to all of us. It’s a lot to ask her to give up her life in Chicago for that. It’d be a huge leap of faith.”
“And what if I weren’t involved?”
Colby frowned. “What do you mean?”
“George told me what she wants. She wants to get married, have kids one day, do the family thing.”
Colby sat forward. “She told you that?”
“Yeah. The day I asked her to stay. And I’m guessing that’s what you want, too. I mean, I know you’ve done this bachelor gig for a long time, but I’ve seen how you are with kids. And I see how you look at Georgia. You could offer her what she wants if she comes back and gives your relationship a shot. You’d make a great husband and dad, Colby. You know you would.”
Colby wasn’t going to deny that a big part of him wanted those things in his life. He hadn’t always, but at his core, he knew there was no going back to the way he lived his life before. He’d already put in his resignation for his position at The Ranch. Those impersonal hookups held no appeal anymore. But he also knew a triad relationship didn’t exclude the possibility of having a family. And he didn’t like where this was going. Keats had that look in his eye. “Why are you even saying all this?”
Keats pulled something out of his back pocket and set it on the coffee table. A key. “I got my own place today. I can move in right after Christmas. You can tell Georgia before she leaves how you feel about her. And that you just want to be with her. That will make her come back to you when she’s done with the trial. I know it will.”
Colby stared at the key, trying to process Keats’s words and logic, cold moving through him. “So you’re just going to walk away?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged, though he wouldn’t meet Colby’s eyes. “I mean, it was going to have to happen eventually, right? Three’s fun, but it’s not real life. Someone was going to have to step back at some point. You two can have what you want together.”
“That simple, huh?”
Keats plucked a piece of sweater fuzz off his jeans. “Yep.”
Colby’s teeth clenched, and he reached out and thumped Keats on the thigh. “Look at me.”
Keats, ever the good submissive, lifted his gaze. Something heavy sat there in those green eyes.
“So you’re ending things with me?” Colby clarified.
“It’s not like that. It’s just . . . you two are great together. Y’all don’t need me in the way.” He pushed his hair behind his ears. “Me being involved complicates things for no reason.”
Colby fought the urge to find his riding crop and snap some sense into Keats. “Is that right?”
Keats shrugged again—like it was no big thing, like it was a foregone conclusion.
Colby leaned forward, pinning Keats with a hard stare. “Keats, you listen to me because obviously you need to hear this. If you’re walking away from me because it’s gotten too serious too fast or because you want to explore this new side of yourself with other people or because you’re not ready for a relationship, then by all means, take that key and go start your new life. I wish you well. Truly.
“But if you’re doing this because you think you owe me something or because you think you’re in the fucking way, then pay attention to what I’m saying.”
Keats’s jaw flexed.
“I’m falling for Georgia, yes. If I could get her to come back and be in a relationship, I could see myself marrying her one day and having kids who have those pretty dark eyes and curls of hers.”
Keats closed his eyes like it made him ache to picture that.
“But outside of how I feel about her, stupid me has already fallen in love with you. The twenty-three-year-old kid who I should be pushing out the door because he doesn’t need to be stuck with some guy in his thirties who’s ready to settle down.”
Keats lifted his gaze and stared at him, expression going slack.
“So if you walk out on this, do it because you want to be free, because you’re not ready for a commitment, or because you don’t want to be with me. But don’t you dare do it because you think you’re doing me some solid. Because all it’s going to do is rip my fucking guts out.”
—
Keats couldn’t get his brain to kick in or his mouth to work. All he could do was gape dumbly at the man across from him. The man who’d just admitted he was in love with him. In love. Colby Wilkes loved him.