Page 28 of Triple Pucked
My chest swells with a feeling that I don’t understand. I bite my lip.
It’s too much.
Confused, I wrap my arms around myself.
“Thanks,” I mutter.
“Also,” D’Angelo unexpectedly sounds more uncertain, “I thought that after the season ends…if you like…we could adopt a cat from the shelter.”
I spin to him in shock.
Is he telling the truth?
“Really?” I demand.
He nods.
Shay kisses D’Angelo, passionately. “Bloody love you. Hear that, Dee? Your own cat.”
Cats.
Plural.
This place islargelike Shay said. If D’Angelo is okay with me getting an animal, then I can adopt a couple of them, right?
A whole litter of cats. It could be a colony of them.
D’Angelo is studying me warily. “Ehm, what are you planning?”
“Nothing.”
Robyn drags on a cashmere white sweater, which makes her hair appear an even brighter flaming red.
She’s fucking beautiful.
“I’ve known for months that I wanted to move in with you all,” she says. “But I still didn’t know that it would feel like this.When I would see couples in love, and wonder why Wilder and I didn’t act like they did, I knew that something was missing right from the start of our marriage. I’d think: What does true love feel like?” She glances around the three of us and then down at the rings on her right hand that we each gave her: a silver22design, which is sunk into a gold signet ring, a flaming phoenix with amber eyes, and a simple silver ring with four stars to represent each of us in this relationship. “And this right now is it.”
My eyes widen.
I get it now.
Every moment in the present with Robyn, not escaping my past but not haunted by it, is what loving…and being loved…should feel like.
The healthy type and not the toxic kind that I know these three have suffered before. I will fight, for as long as they’ll keep me in their lives, to ensure they only ever feel this type of love again.
I run my hand through my slicked back hair, before turning again to Shay. “Eat.”
“You’re brilliant, bro.” Shay wriggles off D’Angelo’s lap and snatches up a blueberry muffin. He takes a large bite, not worrying about the crumbs that fall onto the sheets. D’Angelo’s fingers twitch, and he wrinkles his nose. “Up at dawn and already baking. These are delicious. How was the kitchen?”
“Best I’ve baked in,” I reply. “It had everything that I could ever need.”
D’Angelo looks pleased. “Just ask if you think of something else that you want me to order.”
Shay takes another bite of muffin. “The bathroom cupboards are even stocked with our hair gel and all our favorite shit. Can you charge it to my salary and not Eden’s?”
I scowl, flushing. “I can pay my way.”
I earn a tiny salary compared to my twin, but he doesn’t need to cover for me.
