Page 11 of 4-Ever Theirs (4-Ever 1)

“No. But I care a lot about what happens to you, dumbass. Especially over something that was my fault.” Her shoulders slumped in Cooper’s hold.

“Hey, that’s not fair.” He kissed the crown of her head lightly. “You aren’t responsible for that bastard drugging you. You know, he wasn’t even the guy you were supposed to meet there.”

“He wasn’t?” She sat up straighter.

“Nah. We know Peter. He’s a dumb fuck who doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut, but he’s not evil. He wouldn’t do that,” Simon told her before explaining the mix-up. It was the first time they opened up about that night. “We saw him up at the bar. He told us what was going on and we put two and two together…”

Andi closed her eyes for a moment, relieved. Knowing it wasn’t Veronica’s brother that tried to harm her somehow made her feel less stupid. She’d trusted her friend, and allowed that faith to cloud her judgment when it came to some of the shady things that imposter-Peter had done.

She thought about how he’d cut the bouncer off before he could be greeted by name, how he had never referred to Veronica as anything other than “my sister”, and the glimpses she’d caught of him tampering her drink. Those clues made so much more sense in hindsight. They alleviated the majority of her self-recriminations. Maybe she’d be ready to talk to the police and give her statement this afternoon.

The guys had held them off while she recovered.

“Can I ask…and you don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to…” Reed trailed off, very unlike him to seem so unsure.

“No more secrets,” she swore. “It didn’t work out so well the last time I tried that.”

“Ah, sweetheart.” Cooper rocked her lightly.

“Okay.” Reed nodded. “What were you looking for at Flesh? It’s not like you—”

“How would you know what’s like me when it comes to sex? Son of a bitch, how would I?” She hated the sting of tears that sprang up in her eyes in a flash. This was exactly why she’d resorted to something so out of character. The fear that she might not ever find out these things about herself. A huge piece of her was missing because she’d neglected to excavate it and had instead buried it deeper within herself.

If she was honest, it was partly the fault of these men, her roommates. She’d never wanted to betray them or the profound feelings she had for them. Partly, she was to blame, because she’d never had the guts to be honest about that. With them or herself.

That was going to change now.

She had nothing more to lose.

They only had days left together either way. After graduation, she was moving a couple states away for her lab tech job and they were not. Reed had a business plan to execute, Cooper was enrolled in law school and Simon—a sports medicine major—had been recruited to continue the work he’d begun with the college’s football team during his internship.

The three guys were going to stay together, probably find another roommate. Some new girl to replace her with. Maybe one who wouldn’t be too stupid to take a chance and tell them how she felt about them.

Fuck. It was now or never.

With the threat of looming awkwardness removed, she laid herself bare to them. “Look, I’m just going to say this. I probably should have gotten it out of the way a long time ago, but…I didn’t want things to get weird.”

“What are you talking about, Andi?” Simon asked, his hold on her leg growing stronger.

“I know I acted like I didn’t bother to date because I was busy studying.” This was harder than she’d imagined. Shit. She powered through without pausing or she might never finish what she’d started. “That’s not true. Not entirely. I just…never found anyone that interested me as much as you guys do. Then all of a sudden I was about to graduate and I freaked, thinking about what I’d missed out on the past few years. I wanted to do something wild for once before it was too late. Even though it wasn’t what I really needed, I figured it’d be good enough to keep me from regretting all the things I never did with you three. I was wrong.”

There, she’d said it.

Her confession hung in the air between them like a giant stinky fart.

None of them recoiled, or jumped her, or even seemed to breathe. They were killing her.

“So, now that you know that embarrassing factoid, I won’t be upset if you want to pretend to be real busy for the rest of the week until I’m out of your hair.” She cleared her throat. “Or if you want, I can pack up and get out of here early. My apartment in Cunningham is ready any time.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Reed practically snarled.

Andi flinched.

“Don’t be scared. He’s not angry,” Cooper murmured to her. “He’s trying to keep himself in control.”

“Huh?” She peeked up at him.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure we’ll be jerking off to that speech for the next twenty years.” Simon laughed softly. “Considering we’ve talked about what it would be like to sleep with you more often than we’ve fought over which team deserves to win the World Series.”

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