Page 145 of Fostering Chemistry
I trailed off, trying to stop the rambling. How had Aaron and Cody managed to say this? It was so damn hard.
But the smile Diego gave me, and the warmth in his eyes, made my racing pulse settle down.
“I wanted to tell you that too,” he said, “but we said it was too soon.”
“We?”
“Yeah. Cody, Aaron, and I—we had some beers on the porch the other night and talked about it. About how we all felt it, but we didn’t want to scare you off or overwhelm you, so we promised each other we wouldn’t say it.”
My jaw dropped at that information.
Diego continued on, his arms around me. “So that’s why I didn’t say it first. Don’t tell them I said any at all, okay? I don’t want them to know I went back on my word when they didn’t.”
I bit my lip to keep from commenting on that. I couldn’t decide if it was sweet or funny that each of them had vowed not to say it to me—and then had, anyway.
But that wasn’t what mattered most right now. This gorgeous, kind, wonderful man had just said he loved me, and I sure as hell loved him. I climbed onto his lap, straddling his legs so that I could cup his face in my hands and kiss him.
And as the kiss deepened, his hands running up and down my back, I realized this was the position we’d been in the first time we met, at the party. It hadn’t meant much back then, but now it meant everything.
The three men who loved me meant everything to me.
40
EPILOGUE
MIA
“God, this is good.”I sipped the cinnamon-spice chai latte. “And I didn’t even have to make it myself.”
“You’re free from the coffee shop for a month.” Tori raised her mug and tapped it against my cup. Then Hailey did the same.
We were in the coffee shop near Hailey’s condo. There’d been a lot to catch up on. The week after Thanksgiving had been so busy with final presentations, exams, and a seemingly never-ending stream of assignments to turn in. This was our first chance to catch up in a while, and the first topic of conversation was how we spent Thanksgiving break. There’d been a lot of blushing during that conversation, mostly by me.
Now the topic was schoolwork. Since today was the first official day of winter break, everything was already turned in, thank god.
“It sounds like it went really well,” Hailey said when I told them about presenting my video in class.
“Do we get to see it?” Tori asked. When I hesitated, she elbowed me. “Wasn’t it supposed to be a public service announcement?”
“Yes, but neither of you are likely to enter foster care and apply to college in the near future.”
She laughed. “True. But I’d still like to see it. I bet Aaron’s voiceover sounds sexy.”
“It’s supposed to sound trustworthy and informative,” I said. Then I smirked, too. “But yeah, it does sound sexy. And the music is wonderful.” It still amazed me that Cody had composed something brand new, music no one in the world had ever heard before, just for me.
Then I felt bad for not including Diego in the praise. “Diego’s input really made the presentation stronger.” Yes, he’d also translated the script into Spanish, but his insight helped make it more effective in the first place.
“So, what happens to Team Mia now?” Tori asked. “I hope it’s going to continue. I’ve heard they do good work.”
I broke off a piece of cranberry muffin but didn’t eat it. “I’m thinking about doing another video presentation, and they said they’d help.”
“For next semester?” Hailey asked. Her ears sparkled as she talked, and I suspected that the new diamond earrings she had on were real. I wondered which of her hot boyfriends had gotten her those.
“Just in my free time.”
Tori looked aghast. “You do homework in your free time?”
For some reason, I blushed. You’d think, after all the X-rated things I’d recently done, I wouldn’t blush anymore, but sometimes I did. “I kind of want to make it for Sara. About how to get help when you’re misusing drugs. Diego’s been helping me research it.”
