She swallowed hard, like she didn’t know how to begin.
Looking at the floor, she cleared her throat. “I know I haven’t known any of you all that long, but…getting to know you has been probably the best experience of my life. These past days have been so happy for me,” she said, wringing her hands.
“Garnet, we—” Nat started to say. But she cut him off.
“Wait. Let me say what I have to. This has been really hard, but I’ve made a decision. I know what I have to do.”
The sadness that had been there before, that I wasn’t sure about? Yup, it was real now. I wasn’t a sentimental guy, but I could see she was troubled. And I didn’t like that. I fought the urge to grab her and tell her everything was going to be all right. It was clear she was working through whatever was going on, in her own way. We had to let her do that.
“As you know, Grandpa—I mean, Cordy—stipulated in his will that I get his estate if I’m married within thirty days. But, I can only marry one of you. Because of that…”
I looked around the room, which felt like the air was being sucked out of it.
“…I’m choosing no one.”
She searched our faces for reaction, but we all looked at each other.
“But you’ll end up with—” Brose started to say.
“No one, and nothing. I’ll end up right where I was before all this started. But it’s okay. I’ve made my peace with it.”
“Darlin’, don’t you think you’re being a bit hasty? I mean, it seems like there are other options,” I said.
“I can’t choose from among the four of you. I’m not going to do it. I just can’t do it.” She held her head up, pretending to be pleased with her decision. But she couldn’t fool me. She couldn’t fool any of us. There was a heaviness behind her eyes that made even my hard heart break a little.
“I’m giving up the four of you and the money. This has been a wonderful adventure, and I thank each of you for joining me on it. I’m moving out of the house. You can stay here as long as the attorney will let you.” Tears welled in her eyes, and I knew it was just a matter of time before they started sliding down her pretty face. Her bottom lip began to shake.
Nat stood from his chair. “Okay. Wait a minute. Garnet, Linc told you we four guys had gotten together and talked the situation through. We’d like to share our thoughts.”
Sniffling, she said, “I really need to be going.” She took a step toward the door.
“We deserve to say our piece, too,” Nat said after her.
That stopped her. She turned around and took another deep breath. Coming back into the room, she took a seat in a cushy armchair and crossed her legs. I know I was supposed to focus on our meeting, but her damn legs were so long and beautiful.
Fuck.
Nat remained standing and turned toward her. “I think I can speak for everyone here.” He looked around the room, and we nodded back at him.
“First, we all respect your decision and will support you regardless of what happens. But I think we might have a solution that leaves us all in a better position than what you propose.”
She looked puzzled. But she needn’t be. We were pretty sure we’d come up with something that would make us all happy.
“We want for the five of us to stay together.”
She shook her head slowly.
“Don’t worry about the money. None of us cares about that,” he said. “Well, I wouldn’t say we didn’t care, but it’s not the most important thing here.” More nods.
“Garnet, we want to all live together and share you. We’ll find an apartment or something in the city that’s big enough for us all. We think it will be the perfect arrangement. You don’t have to give any of us up. There won’t be any inheritance, but we’ll be together.”
All eyes were on her as silence filled the room. It seemed to go on for an eternity, at least to me, until she finally spoke. I won’t deny it, I was nervous as hell that she was going to shut us down.
“I…I don’t know,” she said slowly. “I don’t know how that would work. I mean, you would share me?”
Brose leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Garnet, I know this is an unconventional arrangement, but Win and I have done this before. You can love more than one person. And you can make a life with more than one person.”
“And Garnet, while Nat and I have not done this before,” Linc said, “we think it’s a great idea. Speaking for myself, I’m totally psyched. It’s fucking hot sharing you, and a relief to me that the other guys will look out for you when I’m on the road for work. Which, as you know, is a lot.”