Page 48 of Knot in Bloom
“Which was?”
“Home. You wanted people to see your arrangements and feel like they’d found where they belonged.”
Her breath catches, and her scent sweetens with something warm and appreciative. “Is that what you felt this morning? Like you belonged?”
The question hangs between us, vulnerable and honest. Caleb and Reid both look at me, waiting for my answer.
“Yes,” I say simply. “Working with you, with them. It felt like the most natural thing in the world.”
“Even though you barely know each other?” she asks, glancing between Caleb and Reid.
“We know enough,” Caleb says quietly. “We know we all want the same thing.”
“Which is?”
Reid leans forward, his bergamot scent mixing with the wine and candlelight. “You. Happy. Taken care of. Safe.”
The words land like a physical touch, and I watch her scent spike with arousal and surprise. Her cheeks flush pink, and she reaches for her wine glass with trembling fingers.
“All three of you want that?”
“All three of us want you,” I correct, because hiding behind euphemisms isn’t getting us anywhere. “The question is what you want.”
She sets down her wine glass carefully, like she needs something to do with her hands. “I don’t know how to want three people. I don’t know the rules or how it’s supposed to work or?—”
“There are no rules,” Caleb interrupts gently. “Just what feels right.”
“And what feels right to you?” Reid asks.
She looks between the three of us, something shifting in her expression. More confident, more certain. “This. Tonight. All of you here with me, taking care of me after I spent years thinking I had to do everything alone.”
“You don’t have to do anything alone anymore,” I tell her, meaning it completely.
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
The conversation flows easier after that, wine loosening tongues and lowering barriers. We tell stories about growing up in small towns, about leaving and coming back, about finding the courage to want things that seemed impossible.
Sadie curls against my side as we talk, her warmth seeping through my shirt. When she laughs at something Caleb says, I feel the vibration in my chest. When Reid refills her wine glass for the third time, she thanks him with a smile that makes his pupils dilate.
“I have an idea,” she says around ten o’clock, when we’re all pleasantly buzzed and the conversation has turned to embarrassing teenage stories. “Truth or dare.”
The suggestion hangs in the air like a challenge. Reid raises an eyebrow. Caleb grins. I feel my pulse quicken with anticipation.
“Are we twelve?” Reid asks, but there’s interest in his voice.
“Are we brave enough to find out what we really want to know about each other?” she counters.
“I’m in,” Caleb says immediately.
Reid considers for a moment, then nods. “Why not?”
All eyes turn to me. “Yes.”
“I’ll start,” Sadie announces, settling back against the cushions with wine-bright eyes and flushed cheeks. “Reid. Truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
