When she’s sick, the only person by her side is me. My family is the one that celebrates her birthdays, not them.
My heart breaks for the poor kid who lost her parents at eleven and still can’t find anyone who’ll love her unconditionally. I sit next to her, wrapping my arms around her and drawing her back into my chest.
I kiss the top of her head. Trying to absorb all the pain. I wish I could convince her that she’s not alone—nor broken. Maybe I could do one last thing for her before I leave. “Okay,” I say.
“What?” she whispers.
“We’ll do this. We’ll pretend we’re together. However, a week after they leave, you’ll tell her we broke up due to my fellowship. We decided not to have a long-distance relationship.”
Her breathing is shaky, but the first thing she asks, “Any word on that front?”
This is probably the worst time to give her the news, but I might as well rip off the bandage fast. “I’m leaving in two weeks.”
“You are?” Her sigh sounds almost like a sob.
“Yeah.”
She hugs me tight. “When were you going to tell me?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore. We have to figure out a plan to convince your family we’re together.”
She snorts. “You don’t have to do this, but thank you for offering.”
“We’ll do it,” I insist.
“I know how much you hate to lie.”
“I’d hate myself more if you lost your grandparents.”
“Thank you.” She rests her head on my chest. “Sorry for getting you involved in this mess.”
“We’ll probably have to bring some of your stuff to my house.”
“Or, we can make excuses, so they don’t have to visit either one of us. I’ll set them up at the Four Seasons.”
“Oh, they won’t go to a hotel, because they’re family.”
She growls. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine,” I assure her.
“Are we okay?”
“Of course.” My voice is losing energy because I hate to lie.
“Why does it feel like I’m losing you?”
“It’s only for a few years.” I say the second or maybe third lie of the night.
“You’ll visit me often, right?”
“Why don’t I order some food?”
She nods in response.
When I pull out my phone, I notice the string of texts from my brothers.
Aslan: We need access to the man cave, asshole.
Lysander: Unlock the elevator or at least the door to the stairs. Promise not to interrupt your coital activities.
Hux: Dude, are you okay?
Gatsby: That’s it. I’m calling the SWAT team. Unless you’re finally getting together with the chocolate fairy.
Lysander: Why do you call her the chocolate fairy?
Gatsby: She always brings chocolate when she visits Soleil.
Caspian: Heath, these assholes are at my apartment. Let us know when we can access the roof. My woman is about to claw our eyes out because they’re noisy.
“Hey, I ordered the usual. My brothers need access to the roof. I’ll be back, okay?”
She nods, and I realize she’s crying.
“What’s happening?”
“Nothing. I’m just overwhelmed.” I know that voice. It’s the one she uses when she’s trying to hide something from me.
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m going to miss this.”
“You’ll be fine,” I assure her instead of confessing I’ll miss it too.
This is for the best, though. We need boundaries, a wall, states between us, so I can stop loving her and move on.
Chapter Fourteen
Heath
It breaks me to see her cry and be unable to help her. It’s even more jarring when I know this is the end of our friendship. I let her cry until she calms down. When she falls asleep, I gently move around and set her on the couch so she can sleep while I go to check on my brothers. When I arrive at Caspian’s, their food is getting delivered.
When Cas sees me, he says, “Thank fuck he’s here. My woman was about to kick us out of the apartment and probably divorce me.”
“That’s a lie,” I hear Rys calling from the other room. “I just need a few minutes of quiet, and you, Spearman, are being too noisy.”
“McPhee was being noisy as fuck, too,” Lysander says. Elliot glares at him.
“Why did you change the access code?” Aslan, who owns the building, asks.
I grin as all seven of us step into the elevator, and I punch the access code. “To avoid intruders.”
Aslan scoffs. “The building is pretty safe. I need you to give me the new codes.”
“When I say intruders, I mean you fuckers. You think you can barge into my place and the roof whenever the fuck you want.”
Gatsby nods as if understanding. “Though the doc has a point.” He pauses and glares at me. “We’re going to need access to the roof. You always ignore us. The least you could do is let us in the man cave whenever we need it.”
Lysander narrows his gaze as we get out of the elevator. “What’s bothering you?”
I shake my head.
“Something happened with the pixie. We saw the footage of you two coming into the building, and neither of you looked happy. She’s always bouncing on her tiptoes and laughing. Not today.”
They watched the footage? And this is exactly why I have to change the codes and lock my doors every single time they get their hands on it. “You’re so fucking intrusive.”
“We wanted to make sure you were home,” he says defensively.
“And what if I wasn’t?”
“We would’ve hacked the system to get access to the roof,” Aslan says. “I understand you live in the penthouse, but the roof isn’t yours. That’s the condition I gave you when I let you move into the building.”
Lysander waves a hand. “We’ll discuss that later. I need to know what’s happening to our doc.”
Ever since Dad died and my mother went catatonic, the triplets have been like fathers to us. Even at my age, they continue worrying about me.
I rub the back of my neck. “Atzi’s grandparents are coming to town.”
Lysander crosses his arms. “How does that affect you?”
Lysander, Gatsby, Aslan, Caspian, Hux, and even Elliot, watch me intently. I don’t understand their concern though. It’s as if they think I’m going to do something stupid—which is partially true.
“Her grandparents think we’re engaged,” I mumble.
Gatsby blinks a couple of times. “Engaged?”
“Yep.” And I tell them how that happened and add what I just did to fix it for her.
“You’re going to do what?” Gatsby asks with utter disbelief.
“He’s going to pretend to be engaged to the love of his life.” Lysander glares at Aslan, then hits him on the back of the head. “You’re a bad example. After your stunt with Keaton, our little brothers think it’s okay to pretend to date for the fuck of it. This is why I should’ve had full custody of all the children when our parents died.”