Page 96 of Messing With My Brother's Best Friends

“Say that again.” Gage’s tone had me staring at him. “Say it again, Kendall.”

“I’m not prepared for us to go down—”

“Not that bit,” he growled. “The other bit.” His eyes felt like they bored into mine. “The best bit.”

“I love you?”

I couldn’t even say that as a statement. All the excitement of tonight was nothing compared to this. I felt like I was standing on the edge of a precipice, the urge to just step off pushing me hard, but my muscles quivered, trying to keep me safe on land. Probably because there was a strange kind of surrender that came from just running up to that edge and jumping over, trusting that when I fell, someone would be there to catch me. So I straightened up and stared Gage in the eyes.

“I love you, Gage. Not as long as you guys say you did me, but… I wanted to. You were always so big and strong.” Van shifted restlessly by his side, then flushed when my focus shifted to him. “And I love you, Van. You were always golden and perfect.”

“She said I was perfect,” Van muttered. “I want that written down somewhere.”

“Was perfect,” Gage said, elbowing him. “Past tense, mate.”

“And I love you, Connor.” I felt him stiffen underneath me, but his grip tightened. “You were always so cool and smart and seemed to have everything together.”

Which seemed to be the wrong thing to say. He flopped back against his chair and let out a sigh.

“But then you looked behind the curtain and saw what a fuck up I am.” He raked his spare hand across his face. “Jesus, this must be such a letdown.”

“No.” I pulled his hand away, pressing my lips against the knuckles and just letting the warmth there bleed into me. “In some ways, it’s reassuring. I let a stupid prank stop me from doing something I loved for nearly ten years. People aren’t defined by the dumb shit they do, just how they find a way forward. You guys have bent over backwards to make me feel safe and secure since I’ve moved in here, so maybe now it’s time we work together to make sure we all feel that way. I mean, if we’re gonna do this—”

“We’re gonna do this,” Gage assured me.

“Then let’s find a way to do that together.”

When Connor shook his head, I thought he was going to say no and try to take all of this on himself. Instead, he let out a harsh sigh then straightened up, swivelling away from his computer.

“The figures are all here. Maybe a fresh set of eyes would help.”

A fresh set of eyes…

I fished out my phone and tapped on the screen, bringing up Barbie’s contact and putting a call through before the others could stop me.

“Biiiitch,” she answered. “How was breaking the news to the fam? Terrible? It was terrible, wasn’t it? Don’t worry about those fuckers. If they can’t accept the beautiful thing that is the four of you, then that’s their loss. We’re your family now.”

“Barbie—”

“We’ll do orphan Christmases here, or maybe at your awesome house. Sitting by the pool as the guys grill the meat.”

“Barbie—”

“But whatever. Fuck them if they can’t accept who you are. Fuck them and fuck that.”

“Barbie, can you shut up for just a second?” Blessed silence followed. “I need your help.”

“Commiseration margaritas? I’ll be there in ten.”

“No, I mean I need Alan’s help.”

I winced, knowing what was coming. Alan was intense when it came to finances. He’d offered to do an overhaul of my budget, sure he could find some slack that could be funnelled into investments or at least a term deposit account.

“Oh honey, I’m not sure what financial emergency you’ve found yourself in, but we’ll be there shortly. Alan!”

“What?” came a muffled reply.

“Kendall needs financial advice!”

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