Page 26 of Faking the Play

Chapter fourteen

Ethan

After the movie ended, I managed to ease Amelia down onto the couch without waking her and then started cleaning up, going back to check on her every few minutes. We’d all done it the other times she’d fallen asleep here, and we’d all pretended not to notice the other ones doing it. While I was alone with her, I didn’t have to pretend that I wasn’t watching her all the time, wanting to make sure she was all right.

Wanting to simply watch her.

When the hell did she go from that girl who climbed trees and played with us to this beautiful, intelligent woman? And why did it take me this long to notice?

The questions still circled in my head when Logan and Ryan came in, looking tired and hungry. When I signaled for them to be quiet and gestured toward the couch, their eyes lit up. Both went to check on her, and the looks on their faces when they turned around told me that we needed to talk.

I motioned for them to come with me and we made our way back to my room. Both looked completely confused, but I waiteduntil I closed the door before explaining. Or at least, attempting to.

“I don’t want to go on a fake date with Amelia.”

Two sets of eyebrows shot up.

“You’re backing out of our deal with Amelia?” Logan still looked confused, but Ryan looked pissed.

“It’s not that I’m backing out,” I tried to explain. “I just don’t want a fake date.” I looked at them, took a deep breath, and told them the truth. “I want a real one.”

Ryan barked out a laugh and shook his head. “I’ve been trying to figure out all day how to tell you guys that I can’t fake it. I want her for real.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “And we kind of had sex yesterday.”

Well, damn. I hadn’t seen that coming. The first part, yes. I’d known that Ryan had feelings for Amelia. I just wouldn’t have guessed that the two of them would—

“Wait, didn’t you guys go on a picnic in the mountains?” I asked. “Where did you…?” I made a general gesture.

Ryan didn’t answer, but he didn’t have to, not when Logan decided to join in the conversation.

“I want her too.” He sighed. “Dammit. At first, I told myself it’s just that she’s attractive, that I was just comparing the woman she’s become to the girl she was, but the more time we spend with her…”

“She’s amazing,” Ryan said quietly.

“She is,” I agreed.

“Maybe we should use our fake dates to pursue her for real,” Logan suggested.

Ryan and I exchanged glances and I saw my own question in his eyes. I was the one who spoke.

“You saidwe. Does that mean you think we should all three date her and let her choose who she wants?”

“That’s one solution,” Logan said. “But I’ve seen the way she looks at all three of us. And she kissed me back. And Ethan. And she slept with Ryan.”

What he was saying hit me then. “You think she might want all of us.”

And as I remembered the way she’d been all day, absent-minded and worried, it made me wonder if that was the problem. If she felt about us the way we felt about her. That would have to be a hell of a lot more confusing for her than it was for us. Especially since she didn’t know that being attracted to all three of us wouldn’t hurt our friendship.

“I think we should stick with each of us taking her on a couple dates and seeing if all those signals we’re getting are accurate,” Logan said. “She’s dated too many assholes for us to just hit her with a poly relationship.”

“She’d probably think we just want sex and figured that the rumors about her mean she’d be open to fucking all three of us,” I said.

“We need to show her that we all respect her as much as we care about her,” Ryan added. “These bastards she’s dated definitely haven’t.”

“How do you think we should approach this whole thing?” I asked, motioning to the three of us.

“I think we need her to bring up that she has feelings for us,” Logan said. “If she’s thinking that the physical stuff is just a way to have some fun while we’re fake dating, then we let her have that, but if she really cares about us, I think she’ll want to talk to one of us about it. When she does, that’s when we bring it up. We let her lead.”

“Pretty sure Ryan’s got a head start,” I said.

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