Page 11 of Christmas with my Three Best Friends

“You could never ruin anything for me, not even a minute in the day,” he replies, smiling. “We’ll figure this out. The four of us, Shay, we’re one hell of a team.”

“We most certainly are.”

“And speaking of. I’d like to schedule a meeting with you, Jax, and Marius before the weekend. My office on Friday? Evening, ideally, before we each head out to our own devices.”

Normally, I’d just nod and say yes. We have meetings on a weekly basis, anyway. But the sound of his voice feels… different. I’m not sure what the meeting is supposed to be about, and it’s making me nervous. “Sure, not a problem on my end. Is everything okay, Richard?”

“It will be. One way or another, I’m sure of it.”

“That sounds a tad cryptic,” I laugh nervously.

He inches closer and whispers in my ear, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “I like keeping you on your toes, at least occasionally.”

I’ve got nothing to say to this. I’m too busy quivering and getting all kinds of hot and bothered on the inside as Richard smiles and goes into his office. I watch the door close behind him with a familiar click, and fully aware that Alice is still eyeing me, I choose to take another sip of my coffee before I retreat into my office as well.

This week started with a bang, and I’ve got a feeling it’ll end with an even bigger one.

4

Marius

When Shay first walked through the door of my previous gym, I was surprised by her determination. Unlike most of my clients, she knew what she wanted. She’d already done most of the work with therapy and with herself—the relationship with her inner child, the childhood traumas, the issues with food. Chaos begets chaos, she said, so when she started putting order back into her life and implemented new habits in lieu of the old ones, everything else just fell into place.

If I’m honest, I liked her plenty since day one. I liked her full curves and the confidence with which she carried herself. But when she started telling me about her journey, I was hooked. I was stunned and thrilled because I knew she would be a pleasure to work with.

Things got in the way. Life, work. Vincent. When that fucker came along, everything stopped. For the longest time, I felt like I was on the outside looking in, watching her fall in love with a man who did not have honorable intentions. I tried to warn her, but I couldn’t get through—how could I? We were just friends and later business partners. That man had her attention and her affection, while I watched the trainwreck slowly unravel.

By the time he ghosted her, I knew she would need every ounce of support so she wouldn’t fall back into her old habits. I was already catching feelings for Shay, though I kept telling myself she had no reason to like me back, to want me the way I wanted her. What could I offer her? Vincent had poetry and plenty of talk in him. He seemed smarter, savvier. Better dressed. Charming. I was and still am what most people would consider the jock archetype. All I know is sports. Movement. Fitness. The body and the mind in perfect sync. And Shay is such a sharp girl, wicked smart and insanely ambitious. I used to feel small beside her. Not anymore.

Not since that email. It’s been a pleasure coaching her. I love watching her blossom and become an even better version of herself. But I want the very core of this woman more than anything. I want a future with her. And after what happened the other night… damn, I want to have her, all of her, until my very last breath. Hell, I’m so into her I’m even willing to share her with Jax and Richard. Our friendship is tight and strong enough to work through it.

“We’re crazy, aren’t we?” Jax asks.

We’ve been lounging about at Mabel’s for the past twenty minutes, a favorite coffee shop of ours that’s close to West Key. Richard called us, but he has yet to tell us what it’s about though we’re both pretty sure it’s about the email.

“What with, specifically?” Richard replies, slightly amused. “We’ve done plenty of questionable things in this life, already.”

“Us and Shay,” Jax says, leaning back into his plush armchair. “I mean, I like her. I knew you two were into her, as well. But none of us thought to make a single move until that naughty list popped up. And now, look at us.

“It doesn’t make us any crazier than Shay herself is for having such a fantasy,” Richard says. “It’s not something I’d thought about until I got the email, to be fair. But here we are. Here I am. Willing. You’re not?”

“Oh, absolutely. How about you, Marius?”

I nod slowly. “I’ll have her however she wants to have us,” I tell them. “I don’t even care, as long as I’m with her. As long as she’s safer with us than with that Vincent prick.”

Jax frowns, his eyebrows drawing deep shadows over his otherwise sunny blue eyes. “He hasn’t been around, has he?”

“One of the receptionists mentioned a Vincent at one point. We were discussing potential new clients,” I reply.

Richard dismisses the idea entirely. “That loser should know better than to come around West Key. He’s met us. Surely, he wouldn’t be an idiot on top of everything else.”

“He doesn’t matter, anyway,” I say, shaking my head. “My point stands. I’m down with making her naughty list come true, one item at a time.”

Richard smiles broadly, sympathy and affection glimmering in his eyes as he looks at me. “You’ve been head over heels for her for a quite a while, huh?”

“There’s plenty to be head over heels with,” I reply.

Jax chuckles and adds a smidge of sugar to his black coffee. “She’s been through so much. We need to be careful with how we approach Shay. She’s pretty embarrassed about the naughty list.”

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