Page 15 of That's the Way Rejection Goes

“And what’s that?”

“We’re still mates and we always will be,” I said, hesitating for a moment. “But… we…”

Sam paused his cutting, looking up at me expectantly.

“Sam?” Calum called. “What do I do with these chickens I just assaulted with butter?”

“I’ll help you with them.”

He gave me one last glance before he put his knife down and headed to the other end of the kitchen to help Calum. I cursed under my breath as I went back to chopping vegetables, kicking myself for not being brave enough to speak my feelings aloud. It turned out that telling some guy you wanted to fuck him was harder than I thought. With Calum things had just progressed naturally. Well, naturally in the sense that we were all over one another from the very first moment we met. We were young and the mate bond was so incredibly strong that neither of us could resist it.

But we were older now, more level-headed, and there was more at stake. The weird pull we felt toward Sam was strong. And although I wasn’t fully convinced a three-way mate bond was possible, I couldn’t help recognizing the feelings again. Still, it was complicated, and I felt like a nervous teenager trying to ask the popular guy to prom. It seemed impossible to say it aloud, but I knew I had to if things were ever going to go anywhere. I resolved to tell him as soon as he came back.

However, after Sam helped Calum, he started another part of dinner at the stove and sent Calum over to help me with the vegetables.

“Well,” Calum said, picking up the knife next to me. “Did you tell him?”

I let out a long sigh. “No. I… I got nervous.”

“Me too,” he nodded. “I just couldn’t bring myself to talk about it while I was fisting whole sticks of butter up a chicken’s ass.”

I burst out laughing, sputtering as I pushed the knife away so I didn’t cut myself again. Calum giggled beside me, our shoulders resting against one another.

“God, you are such an idiot.”

“You love it.”

“I really do,” I nodded, wiping the tears from my eyes with the back of my sleeve.

“Maybe we could try talking to himafterdinner? I could do a little reconnaissance work with the other guests, figure out what Sam’s all about?”

“I’ll leave that up to you,” I replied. “I’m just gonna offer to help with dishes.”

“You’ve never offered to help me withmydishes. Should I be jealous?”

“Youhad an entire fleet of servants at your house. You’ve never done dishes in your life.”

“I mean, you weren’t exactlypoor,” Calum shot back.

“That’s entirely beside the point.” I gave him a grin and a nudge. “Now help me with these fucking vegetables before I cut my damn fingers off.”

Chapter Eight: Calum

Idon’t think we actually intended to help so much with dinner or to help serve it, but I was exhausted by the time we finally sat down to eat. Who knew cooking could take so much out of a man? I could help build a new counter at the bakery for hours and feel good afterward. But something about cooking just took the energy right out of me. How Sam managed to do it every single day for all his guests was beyond me. Then he ran the hotel on top of it? The man was truly a force to be reckoned with.

“Why was that so difficult?” I groaned, sitting down next to Erick at last. I buried my face against his shoulder, letting out a long sigh. “It’s just food, right?”

“I think I’m starting to realize how coddled we’ve been all this time,” Erick replied, staring down at his bowl of roasted chicken and vegetable soup. Each of us got a good chunk of a baguette from Andy’s bakery to go along with it. “Let’s set a new goal, okay?”

“What’s that?”

“We find a way to make enough money that we never have to cook for ourselves again.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Shouldn’t we try for an apartment or maybe a car first?”

“Overrated,” Erick smirked. “We need a personal chef or enough money to eat fast food all the time.”

“I hear you there,” a man across from us added. “Cooking is awful.”

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