Sulli is wrong.
She is really good with words. Those ones wash over me like a euphoric cleansing. Before I can speak, she adds, “And the other option is losing each other, and that sounds infinitely worse. I’ll take tough over lonely. Any day of the week.”
Wind picks up harder. To block the gusts, we close the distance between each other. A huddle forming. “If the three of us are going to be in a relationship,” I say—which causes both of them to smile wide. I roll my eyes. “—then we have to agree to something.”
“Anything,” Sulli says and clasps my hand.
Banks puts a hand on my shoulder.
Strength pools within me. Love surrounds me. For how much I lost in my life, I’ve gained everything today.
“We don’t make this into some big announcement,” I tell them. “If someone asks, we be upfront about it. We feel the moment.”
“Feel the moment,” Sulli nods, squeezing my hand.
“Feel the moment,” Banks agrees.
Feel the moment.
57
SULLIVAN MEADOWS
Three hours outside Philly, I climb with my dad. He didn’t tell me why we needed to climb this route at the quarry, but he said meet me fucking there.
So I’m here. But my dad is nowhere to be found. Now I start to wonder if this has to do with the cougar attack. I rehashed the story to my parents yesterday after Booger arrived—safe and sound—back in Philly. There were tears, very long hugs, and a general happiness that I’m alive. My bodyguards are alive.
No one was left behind.
Maybe this is actually a safety lesson. He’s about to sneak up on me like a cougar. I glance over my shoulder. Nope, don’t fucking see him anywhere.
I walk along the base of the flat limestone. Akara and Banks trail behind but there’s some security issue back in Philly that they’re whispering about. Today could have been a different outcome. Alone.
Lonely.
Instead, I have boyfriends.
My boyfriends.
I’m smiling when I press the phone to my ear. The line clicks. “Hey, where are you?” I ask my dad.
“Look up.”
120-feet in the air, my dad is sitting at the top of the rock, his legs dangling over the crag.
“I thought you wanted to climb together?” I frown, confused.
“Meet me up here.”
“But I’ve already free-soloed this one a bunch.” Winona and I would practice at this quarry all the time. It’s one of the easier rock faces.
“This will be different,” my dad tells me. “I fucking promise.”
He’s right. Everything is different about this free-solo climb. I’m stronger after weeks of training on a harder rock face. But that’s not why I move in breathless, light strides. It feels automatic, like I’m here but not here. I just go.
On the hardest portion of the rock, I’m supporting myself with just two fingers. My feet find good leverage in a crack, and then I continue on. The last ten feet is a breeze.
I’m barely breaking a sweat by the time I hike a leg over the edge and find firm solid ground again. I don’t move from my knees, and the intensity of those one-hundred-and-twenty feet just annihilates me. Because I look up and I see him.
My dad. Scruffy, weather-beaten face. Hardened jaw and eyes, the most loving dad I could’ve ever asked for.
The person I’ve wanted to connect to all this time. He’s on his feet now and watches me with this heavy understanding.
I sit. “Why did that feel so different?” I ask him.
He squats down beside me. “This has always been my favorite rock to fucking climb.” He takes a beat. “Because I would climb it with Adam Sully. I’d meet him at the top.” He puts a hand on my knee. “Climbing can be lonely, Sul. The best climbs aren’t.”
My chest rises in a deeper inhale. I hated the climb in Yellowstone, but I loved this. I needed this. “Thanks,” I tell him. “It feels complete now.”
He touches the top of my head. “No more climbing my routes?” The joy in his voice is palpable.
I laugh. “Don’t sound too upset.”
“I just want you to be happy, Sulli,” he says. “That’s all I’ve ever fucking wanted since you were born.”
I think about how different my life is from when I left. He hasn’t exactly asked about my love life, and parts of me just wish he would, so I can tell him. Even though his reaction is the one I fear the most. His approval means everything to me, especially when I know I’m going to combat a lot of harsher judgment from the world.
I want to believe he’d like Akara and Banks with me, but I can’t know for certain. I’m still his daughter, and he’s still fiercely fucking protective. He might flip his shit if he knows I’m with not one but two bodyguards.
I end up saying the truth. Even if it’s not all of it.
“I am happy. Really fucking happy.”
We hug.
And then we descend.
Once back on the ground, we remove our rappelling gear and Akara and Banks approach from their spots. My dad carefully winds up a rope.
“Sir,” Banks says easily.
“Hi, Banks,” he nods, friendly enough. “Akara.”
“Hey,” Akara says.
A weird silence stretches, and my dad frowns for a second, eyeing us. He can sense something’s off. Because it definitely is. I want to lean into Banks’ chest. I want to grab Akara’s hand. And each second the three of us are here alone with my dad, it feels like I’m keeping a lie.
Feel the moment.
I’ve got this.
“Dad,” I say. “I have something to tell you.”
I edge closer to Akara and Banks until I’m standing between my dad and my boyfriends like a referee in a coin toss.
My dad’s confusion builds as he glances from them to me.
I take a breath. “So, Dad, I’d like you to meet my boyfriends. Akara Kitsuwon and Banks Moretti.”
I almost want to shut my eyes to avoid his reaction.
But I can’t.
My eyes are wide fucking open.
Thank you!
Thank you so much for reading Wild Like Us! Akara, Banks, and Sulli’s romance is far from over! See how Ryke Meadows reacts to the news of Sulli’s boyfriends in FEARLESS LIKE US, Book 9 in the Like Us series.
Plus, continue scrolling for a bonus scene in Banks Moretti’s POV!
FEARLESS LIKE US - BOOK 9
MFM ROMANCE
Akara & Sulli & Banks
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