Page 81 of Never Kiss Your Neighbors

“Trish, did you tell Stella that we had sex with you?”

The silence is deafening. Then she stutters a bit before saying, “I may have made a joke about that, yeah.”

Cam frowns into the screen. “You joked about having sex with us? What kind of joke is that?”

Trish shrugs, looking like she’d rather be anywhere else but on this call, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she ended it.

“Why would you do that? “Wyatt asks.

Meanwhile, I’m fuming. All the anger I felt toward the men now has a new direction. I’m tempted to yank the phone out of Cam’s hand and give her an earful, but she’s their employee and the lie was about them, so they should be the ones to handle it.

“I didn’t think your relationship with Stella was serious,” Trish says. “Besides, you’re always walking around here shirtless, taunting me. I guess it just got in my head.”

“Our job revolves around us being shirtless, Trish. We weren’t doing it to ‘taunt you.’” We thought of you like family—like a sister—and I can’t believe you did this to us.”

Wyatt, who’s been gripping my knee through the call, takes the phone. “You’re fired, Trish. Effective immediately. We’ll be in touch about your last paycheck.” He clicks off the call and hands it back to Cam, who starts tapping at the screen.

“I’m removing her access to all our accounts.”

“The same day she lied to you, she posted footage we told her not to. Just some goofy shit Cam did that should have never seen the light of day.”

“I was flirting with the camera, pretending it was you,” Cam says.

“Oh, and that’s what you thought I was upset about, that you posted a flirty video?”

“To be honest, it was raunchy as well as flirty, but yeah. We figured you saw it and thought we were childish men who could never fit into your life or your daughter’s life.”

“I never saw it ..” I try to absorb all this new information. They thought I was mad about a video, and they had no idea I was under the impression they had sex with Trish.

I’m so mad about the time that’s been wasted. “I’m sorry I shut you out,” I say. “If we had talked, this could have all come to light much sooner.”

Wyatt moves to sit next to me on the loveseat. “I get why you’d be too angry to talk to us, if you thought we’d slept with someone else.”

Cam manages to fit on my other side. It’s a tight fit, but it feels so good to be between them again. “I can’t believe you’d think we’d do that,” he says, as he takes my hand.

“Trish planted the seed a while ago, making Stella believe we’re the type of guys who’d do that,” Wyatt says. Looking at me, he adds, “I get why you’d have trust issues, after what happened with Jessie’s father, and with your mom. I’m going to be more skeptical of people myself now, after what Trish did.”

“We’re so sorry about all this,” Cam says.

“There’s nothing for you to apologize for. You didn’t do anything wrong. I should have questioned you instead of just believing Trish, but it never occurred to me that she’d lie about something like that.”

“Me either,” Cam says. “I still don’t get it.”

“I think she was trying to chase me away because she wanted you for herself.”

They both seem mystified by the idea, and it’s amazing how humble two men who look like them can be.

“I can’t believe we almost lost you over this.” Cam slides an arm around my shoulder and pulls me close, but then leans away so he can look into my eyes. “We haven’t lost you, have we?”

I shake my head. “You haven’t lost me.”

He wraps me in both of his arms and pulls me into the best hug I’ve ever had, which is only to be matched a moment later by an equally enthusiastic embrace from Wyatt. “We were miserable without you, Stella.”

“I’ve been miserable without both of you,” I admit.

After Wyatt’s had his time with me, Cam pulls me back into his arms. “If this whole ordeal had one silver lining, it’s that we now know for certain that we can’t live without you. We need you in our lives, Stella.”

Wyatt’s hand slides up my thigh. “We’re going to show you each and every day how much we want you, and only you.”

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