Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 58840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 235(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 235(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
“We’re not letting that happen,” Zane says.
“It’s not up to you,” I say. “I’m not letting you lose your jobs. I just met with Chase and Maddox.”
“What did you tell them, Brittany?” Now Owen’s the one looking mad, along with the others.
“I told them the truth.”
“And now you put your job in danger,” Colin accuses.
“This is such a ridiculous situation,” Jordan says. “We all want to take the blame. We’re all throwing ourselves under the tour bus.”
“They’re just going to have to fire all of us,” Owen says. “At least now we’re free to see each other.”
Before I can stop them, my tears return. I swipe at them, but they keep coming.
“Brittany, are you crying?” Zane asks.
“No.” I widen my eyes, but then make the fatal mistake of blinking.
“Brittany, you’re crying.” Owen sounds like he wants to reach through the phone to wipe the tears away.
“I’m chopping onions,” I tell them.
“In your car?” Jordan asks. “You know we can see that you’re in your car.”
“Something got in my eye, in both of them.” I press my phone into my chest to block their view, but their objections are loud and come quickly.
“Talk to us, Brittany,” Colin says.
So I do, even though I know it’s going to make me cry harder. “You didn’t need to do that. No one’s ever done anything like that for me, and after I was so hard on you.”
“You weren’t hard on us,” Owen says.
“And the same goes for you,” Jordan says. “We were terrible to you, and you tried to save our jobs.”
“You weren’t terrible.”
“We were,” Jordan says.
“Only a little,” I say. “But you’re not terrible anymore.”
They were willing to give up their jobs for me. The significance of that keeps running through my mind. I was sick at the thought of them losing their jobs because I care about them so much. But they care about me, too. They care enough to put my happiness above theirs. It’s hard to wrap my head around.
“Can we come and see you, Brittany?” Zane asks.
“Yes. Yes!” I tell them, suddenly feeling desperate to have them in front of me, to see them and to touch them. “You remember where I live?” I ask him. When Zane nods, I say, “I’m on my way home now. Come as soon as you can.”
37
ZANE
When we show up at Brittany’s door, she opens it before we’re done knocking.
“What took you so long? It’s been over an hour.”
“So bossy,” Jordan says with admiration in his tone.
“So demanding,” Colin adds, his mouth curving into a grin.
“We had an errand,” I tell her.
“And we brought these.” Owen offers up the giant bunch of flowers we quickly grabbed on our way.
Brittany flings the door wide and pulls me and Owen into her arms. She leads us in, and then throws herself at Colin and Jordan next.
She acts like we’ve been apart for a year, and I get it, because the last couple of nights have been torture.
I never expected to be invited to her apartment again after our one-night stand, but I’m so glad to be back.
Brittany can’t get her hands on enough of us at one time, but we do our best to surround her, touch her, kiss her, and let her know that we’re here for her, now and always.
“We can find other jobs,” Owen says at one point. “Jobs are replaceable; you’re not.”
“You’re what’s important,” Jordan tells her. “You’re all we want.”
“We don’t want to see other women. We want you and only you,” Colin says.
Her eyes are starting to glisten with tears again, but this isn’t the time to hold back. I walk her over to the sofa and pull her down onto my lap so she’s facing me. “I know how rare a special connection is,” I say. “We can’t let this pass us by.”
“But what if I try to push you away? It’s a force of habit by now, after all I’ve been through,” she says.
“We won’t let you,” Owen says, sitting down beside us, taking her hand.
“You really shouldn’t have done it, sacrificed your jobs for me,” she says, looking between Owen and me, “because relationships don’t work out.”
“We’re going to show you that things can be different,” I say.
“Nothing worked in the past because you weren’t with the right people,” Colin says, sitting on her other side.
“So cocky,” Brittany says.
“Damn right,” he says.
38
JORDAN
I step up behind Brittany, so she’s fully surrounded by the four of us. “You know how annoying we can be when we want something,” I say, laying my hands on her shoulders.
“You? You could never be annoying.” Her voice is filled with sweet and sassy sarcasm, just the way I like it.
“Then we’ll just have to try harder.” I gather her silky hair in my hands and use it to gently tip her head back so I can kiss the lips on her smart mouth. “Because we know you love it.”