Page 12 of Theirs to Have

“I just want to go home, please,” Mercy whispered. “Please let me out.” Cash looked completely defeated and Callan had to admit that he felt the same way.

“Fine, little one. But this isn’t over. We both want to be a part of your life, Mercy. The sooner you accept that neither of us is going away, the sooner we can move forward to try to figure this thing out. We have a long road ahead of us to figure out how this relationship will work. I’d like to get things settled before the baby comes.” Cash rubbed Mercy’s belly, and Callan was surprised that she allowed it.

“It’s been a long day, I just need some time to think things through, please.” The way Mercy was begging them almost tore Callan in two. How had things gone from a casual night of fun, just the three of them, to trying to navigate a three-way relationship with a baby on the way? He felt like he let Mercy down and Callan was ready to do anything he had to make it up to her.

“We’ll follow you home baby, just to make sure that you get there okay,” Callan said. Mercy nodded and Callan slid out of the truck, helping her down. She leaned into his body and Callan couldn’t help himself, he kissed her lips, noting her gasp of surprise.

“Sorry baby, I’ve just missed you.” Mercy gave him a half-smile as if that was all she could muster.

“We will talk about boundaries when I have more energy, Callan.” She waved and walked across the parking lot to where her car was parked and got in. He worried that they just fucked up and let her walk away, taking his and Cash’s future with her.

Callan climbed back into Cash’s truck and eyed him, “Now what?” he barked.

“Fuck if I know, man. I guess we just give her time. You saw her, we can’t push her, she’s already on edge. This much stress can’t be good for her or the baby,” Cash sounded miserable, and Callan felt about the same.

“So, we just sit back and wait for her to give us another chance?” Callan groaned.

Cash pulled out his cell, “I didn’t say that man. We just need back up and I can’t think of anyone better than Mary Parks.” Cash called Mercy’s Gram and Callan knew that they weren’t playing fair when it came to winning Mercy but there was too much at stake. Playing dirty was their only option.

Cash

Cash felt bad for bringing Mary in on their plan. Meeting her that morning was more of a courtesy but now she was proving to be a powerful ally. He knew that they could count on her to help them win Mercy over, or at least that’s what he hoped for. So far, nothing had worked. Their girl had proved to be the most determined, stubborn woman that he had ever met, and that made him want her even more. Getting to know a little bit about her the night before only had Cash wanting more.

Finding her broken and sobbing in that fucking elevator tore him in two. A part of him wanted to march up the steps to the second floor and demand that they take Mercy back. But another part of him wanted to wrap her in his arms and hide her away from the rest of the world, keeping her safe from assholes that would judge her for being with two men. Cash knew from experience that threesomes were tough on everyone involved. They were going to have to jump many hurdles before they reached the finish line, but he was beginning to believe that Mercy and Callan were worth the effort.

He and Callan had followed Mercy home, to make sure that she arrived safely. He wanted to go into that house and dragher back to his bed to remind her how good the three of them were together. He was also betting that she wouldn’t go for his caveman theatrics right now, so he choked down his natural dominance and kept driving when they saw that she was safely inside.

“We need to come up with a better plan, Cash. Watching her walk away from us wasn’t something that I figured would happen. I thought you said she wanted both of us.” Callan’s mood soured as they got on the highway to head back to his house.

“First, we need to finish the house and get you moved in. We can start a nursery for the baby, but I want Mercy to finish it. Once we convince her that we’re serious about her and the baby, she will come around. We just need to give her some time. Plus, Mary has agreed to give her a little push in our direction.” Cash smiled, remembering the plan that Mary had come up with to give Mercy a “loving nudge," as she called it.

“Good—we need all the help we can get right now,” Callan groused.

“Don’t worry, man. Mercy will be under our roof and in our bed before you know it. I have a feeling that Mary Parks can be quite persuasive when she wants to be.”

Mercy

It had been two long weeks since Gram announced that she was getting married and that she would need Mercy to move out. The night that she was fired she went home to find her grandmother making out on her sofa with her boyfriend Joe. As soon as she walked through the door, Gram announced that she and Joe were engaged and that they were going to be married in a month. Mercy didn’t have the heart to burden her grandmother with the crappy news of being fired, not wanting to ruin her celebration.

Honestly, Mercy was happy for Gram, she deserved every good thing that came her way. Gram liked to tell everyone that Mercy was taking care of her by living in her house and helping with the bills. But the truth of the matter was that Gram was the one taking care of Mercy all those years. If it wasn’t for her grandmother, Mercy wouldn’t have had anywhere to go after her parents died. Her grandmother saved her, and she couldn’t bring herself to destroy Gram’s happiness with her bad news.

Joe was going to move into the house two weeks before the wedding, giving Mercy just fourteen days to find someplace to stay, and that had proven nearly impossible since she had no job and no money. She couldn’t ask Regan and Emily if she couldstay with them, they both had such busy lives already. Regan was due with her second baby any minute now and Emily was newly married, pregnant, and about to open a free women’s clinic in town. Mercy packed her bags, telling Gram that she would get the rest later when she found a place to land and she left, promising to come home Sunday for dinner.

She drove around town for almost four hours and when her gas was just about gone, she parked in the lot at Manholes. Mercy wasn’t sure what else to do or even where to go. She knew that asking Cash or Callan for anything made her a huge hypocrite. Especially since the last time she saw the two of them, she insisted that they leave her alone and let her raise her child by herself. Now, here she sat in front of Cash’s bar about to go in and beg him to let her stay in his empty apartment. She’d laugh at the whole crazy mess, but she was just too tired and stressed to find anything funny.

Mercy took a deep breath and let it out. “It’s now or never,” she said rubbing her ever-expanding belly. She had to borrow some maternity clothes from Regan. Her friends found out that she lost her job since news traveled fast in small towns. When an ex-coworker called Emily to let her know that Mercy had been fired for basically the same reason as Em, her friend was livid. She called Mercy, pissed that she had to hear it from another person and the next morning Emily and Regan showed up at her grandmother’s house with bags of maternity clothes and things that she would need to get through the rest of her pregnancy.

Mercy finally came clean to her two best friends telling them about her night with Cash and Callan and admitting that she still wanted them both. She didn’t miss the knowing looks that her two friends shared but she also knew that jumping back into bed with Cash and Callan would be a huge mistake. They so easily let her go the first time she couldn’t bear having to walk away from them again, this time with a baby in tow. She needed to protecther heart and her baby if she was going to find her way forward. Having to go to them and grovel for a place to stay wasn’t exactly playing in her favor but she knew that they would help her and honestly, they were her only hope now.

As soon as she entered the bar she could feel both guys' eyes on her watching her every move. It had been two weeks since she saw them at the hospital, two of the longest weeks of her life. She couldn’t blame them; she told them both to get lost and leave her alone. There was a small part of her that wanted them to fight for her, but that kind of thing didn’t happen in real life, and it certainly didn’t happen for her. Needing their help now was like rubbing salt on their wounds but she had no other choice.

She strode up to the bar, not quite sure if she should sit on a bar stool in her condition or stand next to it until Cash acknowledged her. She settled for sitting, although hoisting herself up onto the stool was quite a feat and must have looked quite comical. Breathless from her exertions, she looked over to where Callan was on stage, his eyes still on her. The way that he was watching her and singing, it was almost like the two of them were completely alone and he was serenading only her. She shivered as he sang about loving a woman so much that he felt weak, and she almost wanted to be that woman for him but that too was just a fairy tale.

“Please tell me that you aren’t going to ask me for a beer, little one.” Cash was wiping down the bar and filling frosted mugs from the tap. He was trying for casual, but he looked at her just as intensely as Callan had.

“No,” she smoothed her hands over her belly accentuating how much it had grown in the past couple weeks. “I need a favor, and I didn’t know who else to ask.”

“Anything,” Cash breathed, not skipping a beat.

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