Page 113 of The Triple Play

“You know we love you,” Xavi said, no hesitation, just truth and something that felt like it was going to either hurt me or destroy me. “And not in some half-measured, safe, polite way. We love you with every breath, every bone, every damn inch of us. And we want to do this together, baby. Properly.”

I stared, my throat closing in, my vision already glassy.

“But if you’re not ready,” Cole cut in, his grin softening a little, “if this is too fast, if you need more time, that’s okay. You’re not going to hurt our feelings. We’ll wait. You know we will. We’re not going anywhere.”

I didn’t realize what was happening until I saw them — little flecks of oranges and reds drifting down like snow, scraps of paper falling softly around us. Hundreds.Thousands, coming from the scoreboards above. One fluttered down onto my face, and I pulled it off, squinting as I flipped it over between my fingers. And there it was, scrawled in Xavi’s neat handwriting like a secret.

Will you marry us?

My breath hitched. Another landed on me, and then another, and another, so many I couldn’t count littering down around us, most of them carrying those same four words. My knees buckled slightly, and I had to grab the boards just to stay upright.

When I looked at them again, Colton was kneeling on the ice, one skate planted steady, a ring box in his hand and that perfect smirk on his face, his dimple flashing like it wanted to kill me.

“For legal reasons,” he drawled, “you’d technically marryme. But it’s all of us, sweetheart. All of us, for as long as you’ll have us.”

That did it. The tears came all at once, blurring the lights and the ice and their faces. It hit me like a tidal wave — all of it, the love, the fear, the sheer and impossible realness of what they were offering me. The sobs hit me so hard I couldn’t breathe, hormones raging, shaking and clutching the boards like they were the only thing tethering me to the earth.

“Shit. Annie?” Cole said, his words a bit panicked. Skates cut sharp across the ice, scraping, and the gate opened, and they were on me. Fast and clumsy andworried.

Cole wrapped me up in his arms from behind, tucking me into him. “Hey, hey, you’re okay,” he murmured. “You don’t have to say yes. You don’t. We know it’s fast.”

Colton’s hands framed my face, his thumbs brushing my cheeks, more tears replacing the ones he tried to wipe away. “If this is too much, it’s okay,” he said, his gaze intense as he held me. “It’s okay, sweetheart.”

Xavi took my hands in his, squeezing, slotting in beside Colton. “Deep breaths, baby. Try to calm down. You’re not going to upset us.”

I tried to speak but choked on a sob. I sucked in a breath, then another, squeezing Xavi’s hands back, and gasped out the only word that felt like oxygen.

“Yes.”

Cole’s grip tightened around me instantly, his face pressing into my shoulder. Colton let out a sound I’d never heard from him before, half a laugh, half something like a sob. And Xavi — god, Xavi kissed my forehead and pulled us all in close, like somehow they could all hold me together.

“Yes,” I said again, louder this time, finding my voice even as it became muffled in the crush. “Yes, of course it’s yes, to all of you.”

I looked up at the three of them, turning so I could see them all at once, even through the tears.

“I love you,” I croaked to all of them. “Thank you.”

Epilogue

Annie

My arm was going numb from holding Mell in the same position too long, and he was fussing, that soft little half-cry he made when he was hungry but too sleepy to really commit to wailing. I jostled him gently on my hip, pinning the phone between my shoulder and my ear.

“Iknow,” I said, trying to keep my voice somewhat patient while pacing along the back side of the couch. “But I had a baby four months ago, Connie. I can’t just drop everything and turn up when you ask me to come in same-day, especially not when that studio is over three hours away.”

Connie sighed. “But your husband said?—”

I turned on a dime, staring at Cole over the breakfast bar as he did the dishes. “Whichhusband?”

Cole’s eyes widened.

“It was one of the C ones,” Connie said. “I’m sorry, I get them confused. Similar names.”

Mell’s fists curled up near his face and he muttered another little protest, turning his head toward my chest like a heat-seeking missile.

“Did you tell Connie I could be in the studio today?” I asked Cole, shooting him a look that saidI will actually kill you if it was you.

“Nope,” he chuckled. “Not me. Does she mean Colton?”

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