Page 61 of Part & Parcel

Eli clucked his tongue and draped his arm over Nick. “Yeah,papá. You are.”

Nick closed his eyes. Of course he was. The only family he’d ever known was breaking away piece by piece and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it. “I’m not ready to lose everyone.”

“Vírate para que te pueda acurrucar, mijo,” Eli grumbled.

Nick snorted, hating to smile when he felt like such utter shit. But if he was translating that correctly, Eli was demanding a cuddle and Nick couldn’t help but laugh. He rolled over obediently, letting Eli pull him close.

“I ain’t ready neither,” Eli finally said. He pushed his nose and mouth against the back of Nick’s shoulder. “I thought you were wearing more clothes when I asked you for a cuddle.”

“I just got out of the shower, dude, what did you expect?” They both snickered, trying to stay quiet. Eli held him tighter instead of pushing him away.

The bed opposite them squeaked, and Nick could just barely make out Ty raising his head. “Thought it was my night for cuddles,” he grumbled.

“I pulled rank,” Eli said, right in Nick’s ear.

“You can’t pull rank anymore,” Ty pointed out, and he tossed his covers back and sat up. “What’s going on?”

“Doc’s decided to leave,” Eli said, the smile gone from his voice.

“That little town in Colorado?” Ty asked.

Nick and Eli both grunted in answer.

“Team’s breaking up on us,” Eli muttered.

Ty sat on the edge of his bed, head cocked, shoulders slumped. Without another word between the three of them, Ty pushed to his feet and shuffled across the floor between the beds. Eli scooted back, pulling Nick with him like Nick was a rag doll, and Ty crawled into the bed and tugged the covers up around all three of them.

Nick closed his eyes and relaxed into the warmth of Eli’s arms around him, of Ty’s soft breaths on his face.

“Housekeeping going to find us in the morning and be all scandalized,” Eli whispered. “Who wants to get naked?”

Nick bit his lip against a laugh. Ty began to snicker. “Nick’s already naked,” he said.

“Am not.”

“You’re also wet, dude, what the hell?” Ty said, sounding appalled as he looked at the hand he’d just put on Nick. He didn’t back away from them, though, just tossed his arm over them both regardless.

“Rico can get it, I don’t care,” Eli crooned.

It took a few minutes for their laughter to settle again. It felt good, and Nick knew this easy camaraderie was exactly what he’d sought out when he’d come back to the room and left Kelly standing in the hallway.

“Other people have always come and gone,” Ty finally whispered. “But you’ve always got us, Irish. It’s always been us three.”

Eli waited a few beats in the dense silence, then added a snickering, “Like the Three Amigos.”

Nick smiled, relief flooding him and working to soothe the heartache he’d allowed himself to let in. “I love you both.”

Ty patted his hip, and he could feel Eli’s heart beating against his back when Eli squeezed him in a tight hug. They’d done this many times over the years, usually in the middle of a desert, trying to stay warm. Sometimes it wasn’t the body that needed that shared warmth, though, it was the heart and mind and soul.

“We’ll stick together from here on out,” Ty said.

“Buy us one of those swank-ass yachts,” Eli added. “Live on the water like we always talked about.”

Nick was nodding, his eyes still closed.

Ty patted his face. “Three of us. No matter what. Deal?”

“Deal,” Nick and Eli both whispered.

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