Page 41 of Break

He shrugs with his hands out. “Since college graduation.”

My god, we’re both fucking idiots. “I think I fell in love with her that night we played poker and she had you stripped naked and handing over your Rolex.”

“Ahh, junior year then. Wow.” Landon drops into a chair and scrubs his face. “So, we’ve been pining over the same fucking woman for a long goddamn time.”

“Guess so.”

“I always kind of knew, you know.” He blows out a long sigh. “That you had feelings for her.”

My heart does this horrible blur-blub thing that makes me queasy. “How so?”

“The way you always look at her.” Landon’s gaze lifts to mine, arresting me. “It’s the same way you look at me.”

Fuuuuck.

Silence falls like snow around us. The sunrises higher, bouncing light everywhere.

“We’re not going to let her go this time,” he announces. “We’re keeping her.”

“She’s not a rescue animal, Lan.”

“No. She’s our Duchess.”

“She has a life to get back to. One that she’s cut us out of, I might add.”

“Then we build her a new one with us. Show her how amazing it is to be loved by two men at the same time.”

“She doesn’t want love. She wants to be fucked into another timeline.”

“Well, we can do that too.” Landon stands up like it’s a done deal. “She’s not leaving us again, Kerrington.”

“We don’t have a say in it.”

“She loves us too.”

Now he’s certifiable. “Landon. You’re reaching.” And I hate the way my heart swells, hoping he’s possibly right.

“She came here for us.”

“She went to Mason.”

“Because she knew we were going there to see him.”

“If she wanted us, she’d have called or showed up at our doorstep, not his.”

“He’s her safe space,” Landon reminds me. “Even when they want to kill one another, they’ve always been there for each other. That gala showed how deep their love is.”

And how fucked up their families are.

Mason and Nicole’s prearranged marriage was a huge reason I never touched Nicole until that night. I don’t know what I would have done if they’d gone through with the nuptials. I’d have a miserable best friend married to the woman I don’t think I can live without.

And Landon would suffer in silence the whole time, too, putting on a brave face and keeping his true feelings about her hidden from me for the rest of our lives.

Is that the same as living a lie, or is it living half a life?

I squeeze my eyes shut and let that sink in. “What do we have to do to keep her?”

“Well, we can either make her fall madly in love with both of us, or, hear me out, we can chain her up in the basement. I’m cool with either.”

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