“I’m older than you.”
He rolled his eyes. “A couple of months.”
I smirked. “Still counts.”
“Whatever.” His grumpy voice at odds with the big smile spreading across his face. “I missed you.”
Stepping into the doorway, I gave him a hug. Except for when I’d gone away for college, we saw each other as much as possible. Now that him and my brother were together, I got to see my brother more, too. I’d kind of hoped in high school that maybe, someday, the two of them would end up together. It hadn’t happened like I expected, but they were together now, and that was all that mattered to me. “Sorry. I do have a good reason.”
Conrad’s voice came from the living room, “Good. Get in here and spill. Shane’s been driving us crazy.”
Davis’s chuckle reached my ears as Shane and I walked toward the living room, arm in arm. “It hasn’t just been me,” Shane whispered. If the thought of my brother missing me felt good, Shane’s next words warmed my heart. “All three of us have been a little worried.”
Shane went over and squished in between his men on the couch, and I sat on the loveseat. They stared at me curiously, and unexpectedly, tears formed in my eyes. After hearing Logan’s story last night, I realized how truly blessed I was.
Davis’s hazel eyes filled with concern as he leaned forward. “Creed, are you okay? Did something happen? Is that why we haven’t seen you?”
After clearing my throat, I said. “Not to me, but…to someone important to me. I found out—” I shook my head. “Okay, wait. I’ll get to that, but I have to tell you something first.”
Shane got up, came over, and sat next to me, reaching for my hand. My bestie had always been smaller than me, more interested in art than sports. Running gave him not only exercise but solace, and the gym energized me, but despite our differences, we were each other’s person. “I met someone.”
“Okay?”
“Um, well, he’s going through a lot right now, and I need to be there for him”—I watched confusion cross Shane’s eyes—“and I wanted to talk to Conrad and Davis about how they felt and what helped them after Erik died, but I figured I needed to start with…”
Conrad choked out a laugh. “The fact that it’s a he.”
I moved my gaze to him. Instead of the disbelief or irritation that I’d been worried about, my brother smiled kindly. Then he frowned. “Wait. It’s not that tool football player from college, is it? Because I swear, I’m not keeping my mouth shut if he runs you around again.”
“Wait.”
“What?”
Shane and I spoke together.
Conrad nodded. “Oh yeah, I went to enough of Creed’s football games in college to know he had something going with his roommate. The guy was such a snob.”
“I can’t believe you knew,” I said, shocked.
The kind smile returned. “You’re my little brother. Sure, we came to watch you play, but I really just came to check up on everything else in your life. That’s why I always stayed the night. I wanted to make sure you were doing okay.”
“But why didn’t you ever say anything?”
He shrugged. “I knew you’d tell me when, or if, you were ready.” He reached over and grabbed Davis’s hand. “And since this guy was already in my life, he helped me. At first, my feelings were kind of hurt that you didn’t confide in me, but Davis told me to watch and pay attention. When I did that, I knew you had reasons beyond yourself to keep your mouth shut, so I respected that.” He glanced at Davis, who winked back. They were so damn cute.
Blinking back the mist in my eyes while I processed that, I cut my gaze back to Shane next to me. “I’m sorry I never told you. He didn’t want to come out, and with the amount of time I spent with him, I knew if I told you that I was bi, you’d figure out something was going on between us and get pissy with me for hiding it. I mean, obviously I knew my parents and you guys would be accepting, so…”
Shane lit up. “That’s fantastic.”
Now I was confused. “That I’m bi?”
“No.” Shane fell back against the couch cushions cackling. “Do you know how jealous I was of that guy? I was so worried that by the time you finished college, he’d replace me as your best friend. Him graduating the year before you, and then you never talking about him again, was such a relief.” His eyes clouded over again. “But were you okay? That meant no one was there for you when you guys broke up. Oh, Creed. I’m so sorry.”
And then the tears fell. Tears of joy for having such an amazing support system. Tears of grief for the loss that Logan had shared with me last night. And tears of relief that there were no more secrets between me and my siblings—because that’s what all three of these men were. My brothers.
“Hi,” Logan said softly upon entering the kitchen after putting Jakey to bed. It had been two days since our first pizza night. Sunday, after telling my brothers about Logan’s and Jakey’s loss, and asking their opinions about how to help them and how to keep Logan from worrying about the things he’d overheard them saying about me basically being a manwhore, I’d gone home and called him. Jakey had already been in bed by then, so we’d talked for hours about all kinds of things; growing up, our favorite foods—which I’d already guessed Logan’s correctly, anything edible—and some of our dreams. “You didn’t have to do the dishes.”
Drying my hands on the towel hanging on the wall by the sink, I said, “Why not? You cooked us a lovely meal. We both worked all day, so you went through your nighttime routine with Jakey, and I cleaned up. It worked perfectly.” He startled as I stepped in close to him, wrapping my arms around his waist. I tilted my head up, and he rested his forehead on mine. “Is this okay?”
His eyelashes fluttered closed. “Yeah,” he whispered, bringing his arms up to wrap around me.
Being close to him like this reminded me how solid and strong his body was—he could easily pull me into him and literally crush me in a bear hug—but it made the fragile heart that beat within even that much more precious. I closed my eyes, too, and just breathed him in.
After basking in his presence for several minutes, just soaking up this forming connection, I said, “So you know how I was at my brothers’ yesterday?”
“Mhm.”
I grinned. He kept his eyes closed and leaned more heavily into me. “I told them about you and Jakey.”
That did it. His eyelashes flew open. “What? Were they okay with us? I mean, did you tell them about us?”
Kissing the corner of his mouth, I said against it, “Of course, I did. Come on. Let’s go talk in the living room.”
I grabbed his hand and tugged him onto the couch, then pulled him over until he rested his head on my shoulder, and his arm rested across my stomach. He let me settle us in, but his body remained tense next to me. “Hey, relax. It went great.”
“Yeah?” he asked dubiously.
“Yep. Conrad suspected already when I was in college, Shane’s a goof and had worried at the time that I’d been about to replace him as my bestie, so he was relieved, and Davis…I can’t wait for you to meet Davis. He’s like this anchor that holds that ship in place.”