Page 66 of Set Me On Fire

Instead, his twin shot him a withering look.

“He took me aside and told me that nothing that happened had to have any bearing on our working relationship.”

“Oof…” Jamie winced.

“That we could be professional.”

“Oh god…” Hayden rubbed his hand over his face.

“And that if I had any issues, I could always come to him.”

It felt like I’d set a burden down then. The pained expressions of everyone around the table were a perfect reflection of my own.

All except Brock.

He was sitting there, arms crossed, but he shook his head and smiled.

“That’s pretty smart, actually.”

“What?” Jamie snapped. “Um… no. Pretending like nothing has happened is…” His smile widened as she remembered her own attempt to try just that. “An understandable response.” Her tone was much more even, but then her eyes jerked up to meet mine. “And might not necessarily be a reflection of how this Knox is feeling.” She glanced at Brock. “I was trying to keep my cards close to my chest.”

“Cards…” Brock snorted.

“Nope.” I took a sip of my tea, the astringent liquid having my eyes close for just a second. “That’s not what’s happening here. I told you guys. You’ve got your whole quadruple thing going on.”

I waved my hand in their direction.

“We prefer poly relationship,” Hunter corrected primly, but I just glared at him.

“But that’s not what happened that night. We all got drunk…” Knox didn’t. I remembered that now because he stuck to drinking Coke. “And did something stupid. Not photocopying my bum.” I remembered Knox’s words, them haunting me asthey echoed around in my heart. “But still, stupid. He’s right, the only way forward is to be professional?—”

“And tell him he might be a father.” Brock was largely silent as we all talked, but we all turned as he regarded me now. “Nothing you’ve told me is going to get you out of doing that.”

I sighed, slumping down around my tea.

“I tried.”

“And you’ll need to have another crack again tomorrow.” His tone was firm, making clear he would accept no further arguments, the bossy prick. “Now, about the family dinner this week…”

The guys tookthe ingredients from my shopping bags and whipped us all up a pretty good meal. The weird nausea I was feeling eased up when I had a full belly, but the exhaustion just got worse.

“We’ve got the dishes,” Hayden said, collecting up the plates.

“You better,” I croaked. “Pretty sure you used every pot and pan I own.”

“Have a nice, hot bath,” Jamie suggested, pulling out a brightly coloured orb. “I picked up one of those bath bombs from Lush for you.”

“I love you the best out of all of them. It’s not too late to leave my brothers and shack up with me here. We could have one of those platonic marriages where we look after each other during the day and then go on dates when we want some guy company.”

“You can’t have Jamie.” Hunter tugged my best friend closer, and I caught the moment when she flushed with pleasure. “No take backsies.”

Instead, I did just as they suggested, dropping the lavender scented bath bomb into the water and sinking down into all that warmth.

My limbs loose,my head just above the water, eyes heavily closed, the tiredness that dogged my every step rose up and claimed me. In a haze, I saw a very different scenario. Knox was the one making sure everything got done right, while Charlie flicked suds at Noah. They were the ones that looked after me, not my family.

“Hey…” I opened my eyes to find that Jamie had cracked the bathroom door a little bit and peered inside. “We’re heading out. I’ll see you at your parents’ place?”

“You got it.”

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