Page 51 of A Very Daddy Christmas

“Point is, we miss you,” Riggs cuts in, drawing heavy scowls from his best friends and business partners. “What? We’re all thinking it.”

“I was getting there,” Sebastian gently berates him.

“I’ve missed you too,” I blurt out.

“Good to know.” Sebastian lets a heavy sigh leave his chest.

Waylan leans forward, giving me a curious look. “We’re hoping we might have another conversation on the matter.”

“We should,” I reply. Where is this coming from? I thought I’d made up my mind. “Look, it felt like the right choice at the time.”

“And now?” Riggs asks.

All eyes are on me. There is longing in them. Heat. The sweet kind of heat I’ve missed the most. There’s curiosity and wonder. Fear. Doubt. Everything I see in their gazes I’ve felt from the moment I left them. It’s all there, mirroring me in exceptional detail. It makes me feel less alone in my turmoil.

“Not so much,” I manage. “I’ve been giving it some thought. I mean, I’m not saying let’s get back together, per se…”

Sebastian reaches across the table and takes my hand in his. “Cora, as soon as you walked into our lives, nothing has been the same. We didn’t agree with your decision to end our intimate relationship, and it hurt us deeply, but we decided to respect your decision and to give you all the space you need. I swear, we were going to stick to that, we really were.”

“Just as I was going to stick to mine. I really was.”

“I know,” he says. “But it’s been a week, and nothing feels right anymore. We’re acting like strangers around one another.”

“More like coworkers,” Waylan scoffs.

“It’s weird,” Sebastian continues. “You’re a warm, kind woman. You know what we have for one another is real and genuine. It’s a nasty world out there, I agree. But we were safe with each other. We were careful. We can still be careful. For what it’s worth, we could try going public.”

“What?” I gasp.

“Just you and me. Let the public think you and I are in a relationship. That way, we’ll be able to deflect any rumors of anything else they may think is going on in this house, with the four of us under the same roof.”

I give him a confused look. “You want to be my pretend boyfriend?”

“Not pretend,” Sebastian replies.

“Oh.”

He inches closer and plants a soft kiss on my lips. To my shame, it’s enough to break my resolve altogether. I melt into his kiss, cursing the day I gave into him in the first place. Cursing it andthanking the universe for it at the same time.

Waylan sits up and comes around, cupping my face in his hands before he pulls me into a kiss of his own. My defenses are permanently destroyed. Hell, I didn’t stand a chance. I came home thinking I’d spend the rest of my evening missing them and once again regretting my decision. I didn’t imagine we’d be here.

“I’m done pretending I’m okay with this,” Waylan says.

Riggs grabs me by the back of the neck, drawing me close. His lips crash into mine, and I breathe him in—his musky cologne, the scent of coffee lingering between us. “Come back to us, Cora,” he says. “It isn’t the same without you.”

“Let’s try it. Let’s play a part in public. We’ll control the narrative that way. We’ll have less to hide, in a sense. We belong together, that much is obvious,” Sebastian adds.

“Obvious,” I manage, trying to get my brain cells back together.

They really ganged up on me here, and I gladly surrendered. I didn’t even consider an objection or any sort of opposition. My body craves intimacy. My heart craves emotional safety. My mind desires peace. And through everything that has happened since that day at the fair, I must give my men credit where its due. They’ve given me all of that in every moment we’ve spent together.

“I’m so afraid it’s going to come back to bite us in the ass,” I say, resting my head on Sebastian’s shoulder, while Waylan sits back in his chair, a soft smile lingering on his lips.

Riggs gives my shoulder a soft squeeze, his hand slipping shyly down my back. “If it does, we’ll handle it. Together.”

“We’ve made it this far,” Sebastian says. “We’re clearly stronger when we’re together.”

“And miserable when we’re apart,” Riggs adds.

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