Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 102549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 513(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 513(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
“Branching out would probably be smart. Could you imagine how many women would sign up to be trained by former navy SEALs?”
“SEALs? Plural?” I don’t let my hope grow too big.
“I still have one year left on my contract, and maybe I’m not ready to leave, but … if it means the difference between all of us being together or being alone in Coronado, I’d choose us. Plus, I’d still be able to be physically active. Sure, less adrenaline, but that also means fewer helicopter crashes I’d have to survive.”
Prescott offering to leave the navy is the last thing I was expecting.
“You wouldn’t re-up? For us?” My heart beats wildly because, yes, we’re “together” now, and we’re exclusive and official, but … this is huge.
So huge I don’t think it could actually get any bigger, but then he opens his mouth and proves me wrong.
“Love is about sacrifices and compromises, right?”
I try to repeat the L word, but my mouth gets tripped up by my tongue, and all that comes out is. “La-uh.”
Brady laughs. “I think you broke Kit.”
Prescott gets serious for a second. “Not possible. Kit’s unbreakable. Are you okay? Are you stroking out on us?”
“N-not stroking out. That’s the first time you’ve mentioned the L word, and … I mean, it wasn’t even in relation to me, or us. Just in general. Of what our future could—”
“Kit, I’ve always loved you,” Prescott says, and my breath catches. “Sure, in the beginning, it was a friendship kind of love and then a physical thing. I’ve loved you as a best friend, a roommate, a lover, and now as my boyfriend. My partner.” He reaches across the table and holds my hand but turns to Brady. “And that goes for you too. You and I started out differently than Kit and me, but from the moment the three of us met, that one night together, Kit and I knew you were different than anyone else.”
I reach for Brady’s hand so we’re all connected. “It’s as if the universe made you specifically to fit with us. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect partner.”
“It’s like we’re a jigsaw, and you were our missing piece,” Prescott says.
A tear slips from Brady’s eye, and I take it back. Both of them can be grown-up when they need to be, and that’s what matters.
I reach for Brady and drag my thumb over his single tear. “What’s wrong?”
He brushes me off and lifts his arm, wiping his eyes with his sleeve. “I … I didn’t think this moment would ever be possible. There was too much standing in our way. And even though we made things official, I’ve still had my doubts. Like, where we’ll be next year, how often will we really be able to see each other if we’re all in different parts of the country. But you two really want to make us work, and you’re willing to go to lengths I didn’t think anyone would take for me. It’s overwhelming, but fuck, it makes me feel good. It’s actually surreal.”
“How so?” I ask.
“My dads had this epic love story. They publicly came out for each other, they paved the way for queer football players, and all the stories of them in the media, everything they showed me about relationships growing up, it almost seemed too good to be true. And every time I tried to have a real relationship in college with someone, I always felt like something was missing. I’d never experienced the thing that I’d been raised to believe was true love. I started to think it was all exaggerated in my head. That my expectations were too high. I thought true love meant having to settle for close enough.” Brady sniffs. “And then I met you two, and even though I’ve told myself for years that it was because of realizing I’m poly that made me feel that way about you and trying to convince myself not to fall because of insecurities about you two only using me to get to each other—”
“That’s not—” I try, but Brady keeps going.
“I know that now, but for the last couple of years, we haven’t exactly been pillars of communication.”
“True,” I relent. “But I need you to know that everything we feel for you is real, and it has nothing to do with how Prescott and I feel about each other.”
“I’m realizing that … that maybe you two are to me what my dads are to each other. We’re each other’s perfect matches, and together, we just fit.”
“Agreed,” Prescott says.
It’s a beautiful moment, one I’m going to cherish for a long time, but instead of being happy like I am, Brady breaks down and cries even more.
“I didn’t think I’d ever find it, and now that I have, I’m terrified of it all going away.” He wipes his face with his shirt again, but Prescott and I are out of our seats and pulling him up before he’s even finished.