Happenstance(79)

I remember Gabe telling me how much it bothers him.

I remember the fact that Gabe only got called outside to hang with his brother and the rest of the neighborhood kids if the football got stuck in the tree and they needed him to get it down. These were just stories until now. Until I’m looking at the stupid tires on the lawn.

I release the blinds with a little too much force and circle the kitchen, considering sliding a knife out of the butcher block, taking it outside and stabbing it into the wheels of Gabe’s brother’s car. As satisfying as that would be, it wouldn’t solve Gabe’s issue, though. The issue of his brother not only disregarding his feelings but almost taunting him.

“I smelled sustenance,” Tobias says, walking into the kitchen. In a wide open robe that I’m pretty sure belongs to Gabe, nothing but a pair of white briefs underneath. “I’ll have a double espresso and eggs Florentine, please.”

Gabe snorts. “I’ve got eggs and bagels.”

“Fine. God. I’m so hungry, I’m willing to eat gluten.” Tobias drops into the chair in front of my laptop and crooks his finger at me. “After breakfast, I’ll go back to eating Elise.”

I roll my eyes at him, but I definitely saunter close enough—on purpose—that he can catch me around the waist and yank me down into his lap. He growls into the crook of my neck and strokes my hair, seeming to count each strand as they sift through his fingers. And I can’t even lie, it’s exactly where I want to be. Where I’m supposed to be. I can feel it in the depths of my chest. “What does everyone have planned today?”

Banks enters the room fully dressed. “I have a post-game meeting with the staff this morning.” He pulls out a chair, his gaze heating as it roams over me. “Will you please stay here while I’m gone? I won’t be able to concentrate otherwise.”

“I was going to say the same.” Gabe adds more plates to the counter, then briefly turns from the stove. “I have to clock in this morning and delegate projects for the day, but I can be back by this afternoon.”

“No worries, men. I’m free to play bodyguard all day.” Tobias drags his open mouth back and forth across my shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’m going to guard the shit out of her.”

“Something tells me your focus isn’t going to be on protecting her,” Banks says dryly.

“You’re right. I need to make a condom run.”

At the stove, Gabe’s shoulders shake with laughter.

I can’t help but sit and marvel over how much the dynamic between us four has changed in a week. For one, I’m no longer running. I spent the night and didn’t bail at the crack of dawn. And two, Gabe, Banks and Tobias seem to be forming a friendship. They’re no longer jealous over each other and I can’t help but hope my equal attention toward them has spurred the positive change. Because my feelings for these men are genuinely balanced. We’re a circle. A weird one, but a circle nonetheless.

“I can take care of myself. I don’t need a bodyguard.” Banks and Gabe open their mouths to protest. Tobias bites my neck like an actual vampire. “But.” I bop Tobias on the head and he un-sinks his teeth, licking the marks gently. “I’ll stay here for the day so you guys don’t have to worry.”

“You don’t like us being worried,” Banks remarks, nodding a thank you to Gabe when he sets down a glass of orange juice in front of him. “That’s new.”

There’s a lit sparkler in my chest, but I give a casual shrug. “I guess I don’t.”

Tobias drops his chin to my shoulder. “Say more.”

They’ve all suspended their movements to stare at me. “I mean…I just…” More casual shrugging that isn’t really casual at all. “If the shoe was on the other foot and one of you was in possible danger, I would want you to take precautions.”

“Because you care about us,” Gabe says gruffly.

“Yes,” I murmur, forcing myself to look each of them in the eye, even if saying these words out loud feels risky and scary to some deeply ingrained part of me. “I care about the three of you. A lot.”

I might even be in love with this. With you. With us.

Banks drops a fist softly to the table. “How am I supposed to leave now?”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Gabe sighs.

Tobias plants noisy kisses all over my hair and face. “I’ve never been happier to be rich and unemployed.”

We eat breakfast like a family, asking more specific questions about Banks’s team meeting. How they’ll watch game film and make adjustments for the next match. Gabe tells us the condos he’s building will sell for eight million dollars apiece and our jaws drop into our scrambled eggs. Tobias tells us he had a therapy breakthrough recently and we all raise our glasses of orange juice to celebrate. And there’s bickering, of course, because it’s us. About which one of them will take me on the best dates and sleeping arrangements. Balled up napkins are thrown at heads. It’s so comfortable and yet breathtakingly new. Unique.

I move to Banks’s lap mid-conversation and he tucks my head under his chin, his magic fingers stroking down my back without missing a beat, still arguing with Gabe about rugby being superior to football. Gabe plucks me up a few minutes later and I rest back against his chest while they all pepper me with questions about work. I tell them about each staff writer at the Times and how they all have weird food quirks. Soup girl makes them laugh the hardest.