“Surely you must have known that the time we spent together was special,” Sawyer asked tentatively, and Beth hated the sudden uncertainty she heard in his voice. Like maybe she wasn’t as pleased to see them as they were to be here.
“It was special to me,” she admitted, but I thought…” she paused. “Well, I thought I was probably just an assignment to you, you know, to make up for everything going wrong.”
“Oh sweetheart,” Jed scolded. “Do you really believe it would have been anything more than that first scene, if you were just an assignment?”
“Did you seriously think we’d have made time to spend on day trips with just anyone?” Mitch added.
“But just in case you’re in any doubt, we’ve never spent the night with anyone at the resort, let alone the day,” Sawyer finished. “Only you.”
“Oh!” Beth felt foolish now.
“And when you emailed and told us about your job, we wanted to be here for you, but… well, you haven’t been in touch much the past few weeks,” Mitch said quietly.
She rushed to reassure him… them. “I’m sorry. I told you about the offer from Mr. King. I’ve been working every hour of the day to make those deadlines…” Beth paused, because that wasn’t the whole truth. “And because I was scared,” she whispered. “Scared to hope. Scared to believe. Scared it couldn’t go anywhere because of the logistics. We never really discussed…” she trailed off, not sure what to say.
Sawyer took her hands. “You're right, we never really spoke about a future beyond friendship, and that was our mistake too. I guess we were all cautious about how feasible a relationship between the four of us would be.”
“But we missed you so badly, that we were willing to leave Elysium and come after you,” Jed declared. “But you’d already told us how difficult that would be with your job.”
“But when you told us you’d quit, well, it seemed like serendipity. We went straight to see Dani and Dallas, because they’re the two investors who live and work at the resort, to see if there were any suitable openings.”
“There’s nothing. I already looked,” Beth admitted, dropping her eyes at the disappointment of not hearing anything. No matter what their intentions, this still wouldn’t be easy. She couldn’t ask them to give up their charmed life on Elysium. They’d only come to resent her for it.
“But maybe we could make the long-distance thing work?” she asked hopefully.
Mitch smiled and dropped a kiss onto the end of her nose. “Well, as luck would have it, we managed to pull a few strings,” he said, mysteriously.
“What do you mean?” Beth held her breath. She still didn’t dare to hope. Couldn’t bear the disappointment if she was wrong.
“He means that Dani was already wavering on the necessity of having an accountant on site. At the moment all the bookkeeping is dealt with remotely, but that’s becoming a strain,” Jed told her.
“And with a little nudge and a good word from Greg, she agreed to offer you a position,” Sawyer finished.
“Ohmygod, ohmygod, really?” Beth shrieked, making all three of her men wince. Yeah, they were definitely her men, she thought with a grin.
Sawyer put a finger against her lips. “It’s only part time initially, and it has a three-month trial period,” he warned, but nothing could stop the bloom of happiness that exploded in Beth’s chest.
“But I know you’ll be able to make yourself indispensable,” Mitch said with a grin.
Beth dragged them all to her and, laughing delightedly, they made a dog pile on her sofa.
“I love you!” Beth declared, the words bursting out of her. “I love all three of you!”
The laughter stopped then, and three intense gazes stared back at her.
“We love you too.”
“I love you.”
“So do I.”
They all spoke over the top of each other, but it didn’t matter, the sentiment was still the same.
And then it was a tangle of lips and hands and touches and kisses.
In the silence that followed, Sawyer whispered, “We’ve got a week, sweetness. A week to help you pack up your old life and tie up all the loose ends.”
“A week to reconnect…” Mitch left the implication hanging.
“And then,” Jed declared with a flash of his megawatt smile. “We’re taking you back to Elysium with us, not as our valentine in paradise, but for a life in paradise.”
* * *