Page 7 of The Partner Quandary

“Put me down, Dax Harris,” I shout as I try to squirm out of his hold.

“No,” he says in my ear. “This may not be how we planned it but you’re not leaving until we’ve talked.”

He puts me down on Ford’s lap again before taking a seat on the coffee table in front of us. Ford bands both his arms around my middle again and pulls me tightly against his chest while I wait for someone to speak.

****

Dax

“I’m in love with you,” I blurt out watching Blair. Her eyes are the size of saucers by the time all the words are out of my mouth. “And so are Holden and Ford. We are all in love with you. We want you to be ours, our Partner.”

For long moments she doesn’t say anything before she frowns. “Why would you lie like that? That’s a cruel thing to do, Dax.”

I see the tears pool in her eyes as she squirms to get out of Ford’s grasp.

“What?” I ask, confused by her reaction. “Why would you say that?”

But she isn’t hearing a word I’m saying as the tears stream down her face. After a moment she stops struggling before a sob escapes her. Ford releases her only for Holden to take her and cradle her against his chest while she cries.

“This is why I said we needed to go slow.” He frowns at Ford and me. “It’s too much, we’re overwhelming her.”

“What did you want me to do, Holden?” I question running my hand through my hair. “She was going to leave. Ford will lose his mind if we just let her walk out of here without telling her the truth.”

“I get that,” Holden says as his gaze bounces to Ford who looks stricken as he watches Blair cry into Holden’s chest. “But we needed more time. Blair hasn’t seen us in seven years and even before that we all avoided her. Why would she simply believe our words now?” He gently rubs a hand down her back, trying to soothe her.

All of us fall silent. “I was hoping the truth would be enough,” I reply brokenly.

It hurts my heart knowing I’m the reason tears are falling from her eyes and I wish I could be the one to comfort her.

“Holden,” Blair says softly against his chest before pulling back to look at him.

“Yes, Little Dove,” he replies as he wipes a tear from her cheek.

“Is it true?”

For a moment all I do is stare. “So very true,” I reply honestly not letting him speak.

Chapter Six

Blair

I listened as they argued. I heard every word they said and even though every instinct I had was screaming at me not to believe them, they all sounded so miserable that I couldn’t just believe they were lying.

Moving out of Holden’s lap, I take a seat on the far side of the sofa before looking at each of them. I need to know the truth and my thoughts are muddled as long as one of them is touching me. I draw my knees to my chest and wrap my arms around them. It feels like some kind of armor that I can protect myself with.

“Tell me the truth,” I say while facing Dax.

“You were sixteen when I realized I was in love with you,” Dax says without missing a beat. “I was eighteen and almost done with school. You were so young. I couldn’t do that to you.”

“But…” I try to say.

“No, Beautiful.” He smiles sadly. “I already knew I was going to enlist. It’s what I have been groomed for all my life. Every man in my family has joined up and I would be the first to stay home. I also wasn’t going to take a chance that something could happen to me and break your heart. So, I just stayed away.”

“Dax…” I breathe out his name, my heart hurting for him.

“It was about a month after that. I finally gathered the courage to tell Dax how I felt about you. He is my best friend and I needed to tell someone,” Holden says from beside me drawing my attention. “We talked and he told me how he felt before we agreed it would be best for you if we stayed away. We needed to give you a chance to live your life and find love with someone else. To find a Partner that was here and safe instead of in the middle of some ridiculous war.”

My heart was beating a mile a minute and breaking for the boys that once loved me and sacrificed so much for me. How did I never know this? If only they had known I felt the same way.

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