Page 82 of Five Days

Landon snorted a laugh at Zack’s snipped declaration, and I relaxed in my chair, not having realized I’d tensed up.

“Need to come over here on my lap and let me comfort you until I’m aching to own your sweet ass again?” Zack asked with a serious face even though his eyes teased.

“Callum needs you more than I do right now,” Landon replied.

It was my turn to pause with a fork halfway to my mouth at the sudden change of topic.

Zack once more flitted his gaze between the two of us as though waiting to be filled in.

“You have things you can give him that I can’t,” Landon went on, “and I don’t just mean my dick. His brother…well.” Landon bit his lip and glanced at me as though asking permission to spill my shit to Zack. I could guess where he headed and wanted to be the one to share all of me.

“Remember I told you a little about my greatest regret?” I asked quietly, pushing my plate aside.

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t give you the full story and what has come to pass since then.” Swallowing hard, I attempted to set aside my usual guilt.

Zack listened without interruption as I explained about my hesitancy to involve the authorities or another trusted adult in my brother’s life all those years ago. He’d paid the consequences of his actions—my inactions—but so did the young woman who’d recently committed suicide.

Tears poured down my cheeks as I recounted the tale, and Zack pulled me off my chair beside him and onto his lap. I didn’t exactly fit that well, but he hugged me close, his lips against my hair.

I sagged against him, clinging to his robe and the sense of security his arms gave me, trusting him to hold my head above water.

“See?” Landon’s quiet voice reached my ears, but I couldn’t tear my face from of Zack’s warm neck where his pulse beat against my lips. “You comfort him in ways I can’t. You’re his rock like he is mine. You complete us, and I like to think that we give you what you need as well.”

My breath caught and held as I waited for Zack’s response to Landon basically stating exactly what we wanted.

“When did you get so wise, baby?” Zack asked, his voice like honey, sweet and soothing, immediately easing my fear he would once more walk away from us.

“From living and learning the hard way,” Landon replied while scooting a little closer, his tone quiet and reflective.

I made myself climb off Zack’s lap and sit on the chair he’d forced me to empty. First, I took his hand then Landon’s. It looked like I would begin. “Three are stronger than one or two,” I murmured, twining our fingers into a beautiful lump that made me feel complete. Understood. “There’s nothing we can’t face together. I need both of you. Want both of you, so this is me baring my heart fully. Asking for more.”

I glanced at Landon first, who peered at Zack with love and expectation in his eyes.

Zack stared at where my hand draped atop his. He squeezed our fingers beneath.

“We’ll move to Boston if that’s what you want.” Landon stumbled over his declaration in a rush to fill the sudden silence as though he expected Zack to turn us down. “Or we can start over. I was thinking Tuscany. You always dreamed about traveling the world, right? At the least, we should go there for a few weeks to settle in, you know? Bond—like Callum and I would like to see happen. You want that too, don’t you?”

Landon’s hopeful tone mirrored the same feeling in my chest. He’d spilled our desires in a rushed lump of words, so all I could do was hold my breath and wait for Zack to make or break us.

Chapter 33

Landon

I might have gotten ahead of myself, allowing complete vulnerability again, going completely off course of how Callum and I had discussed a plan to approach Zack about a possible future together.

All those years ago, I’d made a rash decision to go after what I wanted, and Zack had denied me. Destroyed me. And years of agony lay between then and now where my heart once more threatened to thump through my chest.

But I wasn’t going to hurt him this time, and Father wasn’t around to stop me from getting what I wanted.

I slid off my chair and crawled between Zack’s knees.

“What are you doing?” he questioned me, his voice a low rasp.

“Talking you into giving me what we want,” I blurted—then paused to glance up at Zack.

A heavy moment settled over us.

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