I exchange a look with Gray as he sits up. His hands push through his tousled brown hair, and he seems to war with himself. I wonder if it’s because he’s worried what will happen if he lets the two of them in. I still don’t quite know where I stand with any of them, except that the bitter animosity between me and Gray seems to be fading.
But I can’t forget the tension that seemed to splinter their group apart in the couple weeks after I kissed Elias at that party. Things seem like they’ve gone back to mostly normal since then, but I can’t quite figure out how I feel about Declan and Elias finding us here on our own.
Gray looks at me.
“I’ll put on pants?” I offer with a shrug.
A faint smirk tugs at his lips, and he leans over to press a kiss to my lips— brief, but no less full of heat than any of our previous kisses.
I smile into it as he pulls away, and we both pull on some semblance of clothing before Gray goes to answer the door. I amble into the living room and sit on the couch, waiting as the door swings open.
I was right. Elias is with Declan, and he lifts his chin at Gray as the two of them step inside.
“You never answered our messages, so we figured we’d swing by and—”
Elias pauses, his gaze catching on me. Surprise flashes across his face, then realization. I’m not sure exactly what it is he’s realized, but his eyes linger on mine before looking back to Gray.
“We, uh, interrupting?”
“No,” Gray says smoothly, walking over to take a seat on the couch next to me. His arm goes around my shoulders, and Declan and Elias both track the movement. “Sophie got called in to speak to Dean Wells this morning. He tried to expel her.”
“What?” Elias blurts out, crossing the room quickly with Declan hot on his heels. “That’s fucking bullshit.”
“Yeah.” Gray snorts. “It is. I reminded him that since my parents funded that scholarship in Beth’s memory, maybe we should have a say in whether the scholarship recipient gets to stay or not.”
The reaction from Declan and Elias at those words is even more pronounced than when they walked in and saw me on Gray’s couch. I remember Gray saying that he wouldn’t allow even his two best friends to talk about his sister, and my heart clenches.
How long has it been since they’ve heard him say her name?
“Um…” Declan seems momentarily lost for words, his gaze flicking from me to Gray and back again. Then he shakes his head. “Good. That’s good. So he dropped it?”
“Yeah.”
“Great.” Elias grins. “Now we just need to find some way to get Cliff’s ass thrown out of here, and we’ll be golden.”
“I fucking wish,” Gray growls. “His dad has so many people in his pocket that Cliff’s basically untouchable.”
I remember Max saying something to that effect too, and anger churns in my gut. I’m fucking lucky I didn’t just get kicked out of school—meanwhile, Cliff can get away with whatever bullshit he wants.
As if he’s sensed the change in me, Gray tugs me a little closer to his side, leaning his head over to press a kiss to my hair. “Don’t worry about it, Sparrow. We’ll take care of him.”
“You sound like a fucking mobster, you know that?” I poke him in the side, weirded out by how much I like his easy display of affection—and also by the not-so-subtle glances Declan and Elias keep shooting us.
“You want me to whack him for you?” Gray jokes, his chuckle vibrating in his chest.
“Ah, I dunno. I think Blue could probably handle that herself,” Elias puts in with a grin. His light brown eyes gleam with amusement when I glance over at him, and a little ripple of relief moves through me.
I have no idea what I’m doing with Gray, or what all of this means.
I’m not stupid enough to think that one afternoon of confessing our fucked up feelings and past heartbreaks is going to magically make everything better. Shit is still… complicated between us, and I have no way of knowing if how things are now is the way they’ll stay. Gray has flip-flopped between hot and cold on me for an entire semester, and there’s nothing stopping him from doing it again.
But I’m glad to see Elias smiling at me. He and Declan are both still watching me and Gray like hawks, but I don’t sense the same bitter tension I noticed between them after the football game and afterparty.
And I’m glad.
Because the truth is, I like all of these men. Way more than I ever meant to let myself like them. I don’t know what it means that I’ve kissed all three of them, or that each of these men has penetrated the armor around my heart in some way.
Hell, I can barely handle the way I feel for any one of them individually, let alone contemplate how I feel about all of them.