Page 82 of Stuck On Them

Her anguished cries had made me feel sick and a little murderous. How someone could hurt her so deeply was unfathomable.

After she’d let out all the pain she’d been holding inside, she’d dried her tears and we’d enjoyed the rest of the evening making dinner together and cuddling around the outdoor fire pit. It was domestic as fuck, and I loved every second of it.

I’d never been a cuddler until her. From that very first night, there had been this need to hold her close and never let go. It was scary and exciting to already feel so deeply for a woman, but there I was. There we all were.

Was this why none of us ever got into long-term relationships? Had we been waiting for someone like Paige to come along that we could love together?

“Do you want the bee on this cheek?” The face painter tapped my left cheek and broke the spell that thoughts of Paige had me under.

“What do you think, babe?” I brought Paige’s hand to my lips and kissed our entwined fingers.

“I’ll get the flower on the right so the bee can get its nectar later.” She giggled as I bit one of her fingers.

A few minutes into our works of art, Garrett and Luca strolled up with sly grins on their faces. They’d made an excuse when we’d finished the hayride that they needed to go make a business phone call for our big meeting next week. Really, they’d been making sure everything was set for the corn maze.

“Oh, look, Britt. They’re all matching!” The woman painting Paige’s cheek looked between the four of us with curiosity.

Although polyamory was accepted more now than ever, it still gave me pause on how we should handle questions. But before any of us could think too hard on it, Paige spoke up.

“They’re my boyfriends too,” she said with a smile that showed no hesitation.

“Get it, girl.” Britt’s face turned beet red as she stepped back and grabbed a handheld mirror, holding it up for me. “Your bee is finished.”

“Looks great.” I pushed my tongue into my cheek, and it looked like it had too much nectar, which if I got my way, would be true in just a short while.

Garrett snapped a picture before I even realized his phone was out. “This is going in our company newsletter. The subject line will be ‘Bee careful around Ryker.’”

I jumped up and he took off into the crowd, me hot on his heels. “Get back here!”

People jumped out of our way as we darted around in the crowd. It felt like we were back in college again, without a care in the world.

He made one wrong turn and found himself trapped between two tents that were up against a chain link fence. “Ah, shit.” He raised his hands in surrender.

I put my hands on my thighs, a little out of breath. I needed to add sprints into my workouts if this was going to start up again.

He looked back behind him like he was thinking about hopping over the fence.

“Don’t you dare, Gary Wilson Jr!” I strode toward him, cracking my knuckles. “You’re cornered, now you must fight.”

He crossed his arms over his chest, his phone clutched tightly in his hand. “We’re in our thirties now, man. You can’t do this. We have a girlfriend. If she saw or heard...”

I laughed, shaking out my hands. “May the best man win.”

“I hate you!” He made a squealing noise as I lunged at him.

He ducked but didn’t run since our rules were no running once caught.

His phone disappeared into his back pocket, and he got into a fighting stance. “I’m not holding back, Ry, and you know I’m the champ.”

I grinned, bouncing on the balls of my feet like I was Rocky, ready to take down an opponent. “You got the title for a reason, Gary, but I’ve been holding back.”

His first move was to go for the knees to tackle me, but I sidestepped him and caught him in an arm lock from behind, taking him to his knees.

“Should we break them apart?” Paige was standing next to Luca at the opening of our little alleyway.

“Nope.” Luca grinned at me and Garrett as I struggled to take him down to the ground.

I tightened my hold. “Do you surrender?”

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