Page 33 of My Five Daddies

“What’s wrong? I thought we were allhappy.”

“I think we are.” He looks at me with a frown. “But isn’t it strange? We all just silently accepted that this is how things are going to benow.”

I nod slowly. “I know. It’sbizarre.”

“I mean, shit. It’s not like I’m a saint. I’ve done some shit in the past. We allhave.”

I can’t argue with that. I sip my whisky and nod, letting himtalk.

“But this is strange, even for us. And the strangest part is, I really likeit.”

“I know what youmean.”

“She works for me.” He looks me in the eye. “Isn’t that fuckedup?”

“An insanecoincidence.”

“I like it, though. I really like that she works forme.”

“I don’t blame you. Keeps herclose.”

“Yeah, that,” he says. “But also somethingelse.”

“Power,” I saysoftly.

“Right,” heagrees.

We’re silent again, sipping our drinks. I’ve never seen Will so torn over something before. Normally he’s outgoing and carefree, the sort of guy that everyone wants to be around. He’s the life of the party, the social coordinator. If you want to do something fun, you call up Will, and you better believe he has something going down or at least a hundredideas.

So to see him like this, questioning this thing… it shakes me. I can’t denyit.

“What do we do?” I askhim.

“Nothing,” he says. “I don’t want to do a damn thing aboutit.”

“Because it feelsgood.”

“Exactly. It feels good.” He shrugs a little. “Can’t be wrong then,right?”

“Not necessarily,” I say softly. “Lots of things feel good but are stillwrong.”

“Not her,” he says, turning to me. “We’re brothers,right?”

“Right,” I say seriously. “All five ofus.”

“So why is it so strange to think that we’d all want the samewoman?”

“It’s not. What’s strange is all of us agreeing to share her like it’s no bigdeal.”

“I know. And we barely talked aboutit.”

He sighs. “I don’t want to stop though. So what do wedo?”

I shrug a little. “Nothing. I mean, why do anything? It feels good, we all agree on it… whystop?”

“I’m worried it’s going to tear us apart,” he says. “We’ve been friends for so long. There are little rivalries, little arguments, things just hanging between us compounded over the years. I’m worried we can’t survivethis.”

I laugh softly. “We’ve survived so far. I think we can surviveTori.”

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