Page 53 of Somewhere We Belong

My thighs clenched together as I thought of them and what it would look like to watch them. I bet they were beautiful together.

“Momma!” Sol yelled.

I turned around to see her carrying an enormous stuffed animal.

“Look, Colty won it for me!”

“That's amazing, baby!” I looked over at Colt who was looking at Sol with affection in his gaze before he looked at me.

Butterflies erupted in my stomach. Colt was gorgeous, he had that drop-dead bad boy look that I think we all fantasized about. When he was with Sol, my ovaries threatened to explode. He went from a ten to a fucking one hundred. They all did, and the way they behaved with Sol made them even more attractive. I wanted to dive into this headfirst, but it wasn’t just me. I know if I told Sol anything about us, she would be crossing her fingers that they would be her daddies and if this didn’t work out, it was not just heartache over one man, but all three of them.

“Mama, let’s go play some more games!” She grabbed my hand, pulling me towards the small section of games.

I laughed at her enthusiasm. “Ok, a few games though, let me get some tickets for the game.”

“I have some, Mama,” she said, showing me a stack of tickets that I knew had to be at least fifty dollars’ worth.

“Oh, ok.” I followed an extremely excited Sol.

“Let me hold it, Sunflower.” Theodore took the bear from her.

He smiled at me, a blush rushing up his neck. I glanced at his lips wanting another taste, wanting so much more. As Sol dragged me to her favorite game where you had to throw rings at bottles, I always felt someone's eyes on me and every time I looked up to see one of them staring at me, my resolve weakened. If they kept this up, I might be putty in their hands in no time.

16

atlas

Sol was livingher best life as we played games all day, ate too many strawberry concoctions and danced after we ate dinner. Her giggles, enthusiasm and never-ending energy was amazing to behold. It made me wonder how Nova kept up with her all by herself.

“Did you drive?” Colt asked, as we walked out of the festival that was still going strong.

He was carrying a sleepy Sol, who was fighting her exhaustion. She was crashing from all the sugar she had consumed earlier.

“We took the bus,” Nova said, looking at Sol who was sleepily smiling at her mom.

“Can we take you guys home?” I asked, hoping that we could finish our talk.

Ever since Theo admitted to kissing her and Colt liking her, I had this need for all of us to talk and work this out. I didn’t want to waste another second of us not being together.

Nova looked at us with a vulnerability I didn’t often see.

“It will be easier for her to sleep,” Theo added, holding onto the big bear Colt won for Sol.

“Ok,” she said, biting her lip.

“We are parked this way.” Colt guided Nova to the left.

We were lucky to be able to park so close even though it was outrageous what they charged. Theo said it was worth it if we got to take them home, we had been banking on them taking the bus like they did last year.

Colt unlocked the truck as Theo opened the door for Nova, helping her in, and I opened the door for Colt. Nova sat in the middle and Colt laid Sol on her mother's lap as Theo climbed in behind Nova. I narrowed my eyes at him. Lucky bastard got to sit next to her.

The drive home was quiet and about halfway home Nova also fell asleep against Theo, who never took his eyes off the girls. I looked back at them often, as I imagined what our future could look like. Colt took my hand, we shared a look, and I thought he might be thinking the same thing.

“I want this,” Theo said softly “And I still feel a little guilty about it.”

“Don’t feel guilty, babe,” I said, looking back at him.

“We talked about this, and we are all on the same page,” Colt said.