This full, perfect circle.
For the first time, everything feels right. I feel happy. I’m where I’m meant to be, and I’ll fight for this family of mine with all I have.
Epilogue
Sydney
A month later
“That your boyfriend out there?” My colleague Rita whistles between her teeth. “Mamacita, he’s hot.”
Sure enough, glancing out of the campus office, I see Kash, his blond hair cropped short, silver glinting at his ears and on his face. His faded gray T-shirt molds to his strong frame and shoulders like second skin, and his jeans hung low on his narrow hips.
He’s one of my boyfriends, I want to correct her, but she’ll find out soon enough. The boys take turns picking me up from work, depending on their schedules, and today it’s West’s first appointment with a psychologist. Nate said he’d go with him for support.
“What’s his name?” Rita breathes as Kash flicks his cigarette to the ground and folds his arms over his chest, tipping his head to the side, glancing at our window. He grins as if he knows we’re watching, one pale brow arching.
Not a big stretch of the imagination. Girls almost break their necks turning to stare at him as he walks down the street.
“Kash,” I whisper, and I throb hard between my legs when he lifts and runs a hand over his short hair, biceps bulging.
Christ, Rita’s right. Boy’s hot as hell.
All my boys are.
This should feel weird, right? Having three men in a relationship with me. Sleeping with me in the same bed every night. Taking turns to pick me up, or even sometimes showing up together.
Loving each other, too.
But it doesn’t, not anymore. I’ve never been happier in my life, and I can’t believe it’s been years since I first met Nate and West. Years since that night I saw Kash standing at Nate’s doorstep. Since the thousand days and nights and the million little things that tore us apart and then brought us together.
“Just… go.” Rita tears her gaze off Kash to mock-glare at me. “What are you waiting for? Can’t leave such a hunk waiting.”
Smiling, I type the last two words on the form I’ve been preparing and hit save. “I’m going.”
Has it only been this morning when I last saw him? I’ve missed him already. Then again, he’s only been back home for a couple of we
eks. After mourning him and dying inside, thinking he was gone forever, then finding him again, you can’t blame me for finding it so hard to leave his side these days.
“Give him a kiss from me,” Rita says as I gather my stuff and turn to go. “Ask him if he has a brother.”
“He doesn’t.” I know that for a fact. “Besides, your husband would get mad if he found out.”
“Don’t tell him. Hey, a hunk is a hunk!” Her laughter follows me out.
Well, she got that right.
My blond hunk is lost in thought as I approach, his cocky grin gone, his gaze distant. I slow my steps to take him in, from the silvery tips of his hair down his strong chest, long legs and combat boots. He’s still lanky, but not as gaunt as he was when he came back to us. He’s always been strong, but I never imagined how much.
Even if I catch a whiff of sweetness from him as I step closer, the scent of weed. “Bad day?”
He looks up with a barely-there smile and reaches for my hand. “Hey, Red. All’s good.”
But his smile can’t fool me. “What did I miss? Did something happen?” I tug on his hand when he starts walking. “Kash.”
“Nothing.” His turn to tug, and I gasp as I crash against his body. He puts his arms around me. “Just a bad night.”
My boys have plenty of bad nights. With all the demons that haunt them, there’s no escape. If we don’t notice, if they don’t struggle and wake us up, one or the other will slip out of bed before dawn and go smoke, or clean the kitchen, or make coffee, or deal with it in his own way.