Page 6 of Eye of Her Storm

“You’re ours,” Tai added. “We’ll always take care of you.”

Tears welled in her eyes, and she shook her head. Several drops rolled down her cheeks as she squeezed her eyelids shut, her face crumpling. “No,” she breathed, the sound barely audible. “It’s not that simple. I…I have a tumor…a brain tumor. It’s not cancer, and it’s not treatable. It’s inoperable.”

Seth’s relief evaporated, the tendrils of hope blowing away like detritus on the wind. Her next words imploded everything remaining.

“I have three months.”

“To live?” he rasped, his throat sandpaper. Tai’s stricken face reflected Seth’s emotions, and he appeared to be panting, unable to breathe after the sucker punch.

River nodded. “I told my family tonight. I knew I had to tell you two next.”

She should have told them first! The second she’d found out, so she didn’t have to suffer alone. Hell, they should have gone with her to the appointment.

“No!” Tai exclaimed, jumping to his feet. “You… No. No, River, no.” His expression started to collapse into pain before he visibly steeled himself. He shoved his hands through his hair. “There has to be someone… Have you gotten a second opinion? Maybe, these doctors can’t operate, but maybe, someone else—”

“There aren’t any doctors who can do it. The location makes it inaccessible.”

Seth shook his head, his gaze shooting between his agitated partner and their shattered woman. “You need to move in with us,” he said suddenly. If she had three months, he wanted the rest of them, every possible second with her. He knew Tai would feel the same. They’d take care of her, love her as they should have been able to love her the past four years. The lost time almost angered him, but he pushed back any emotions that weren’t compassion and love. He’d save his anger and sorrow for in private.

“What?” she exclaimed in surprise. “No. I can’t do that.”

“Yes, you can,” Tai put in, retaking his seat, his whole demeanor determined. His arm went around her shoulders, his other hand stroking up and down from her elbow to her shoulder. “Seth’s right. The best place for you is here. With us.”

She took a deep breath, seeming to calm herself, or at least, try to. “I didn’t expect that,” she said, half to herself. “I just… I just needed to tell you, so you could… I don’t know… Understand I’m a lost cause and that you should move on.”

“Fuck no,” Seth ground out, his anger bubbling up. “That’s not how this works.”

“You’re moving in with us,” Tai reiterated, making it sound more like an order than a request. “If we hadn’t been dicking around the past four years, you’d already live here.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “Jesus…”

“But—”

“It’s especially important that you’re with us now,” Seth put in, searching for the right words. “Even if… Even if you don’t want a relationship with us, move in. Just move in with us and let us take care of you. Give us that. Give us as much time as possible.”

“I do want a relationship,” River exclaimed. She pressed her hand over her mouth as if she hadn’t meant to say that.

“Then why? Why have you been running all this time?”

She sighed. “At first—when I first came here, I mean—I’d just gotten out of a bad relationship. Really bad. I was with him the last couple years of college, and toward the end, he started hitting me, and the things he said…” She shook her head. “I didn’t trust myself to make good decisions and not land back in a bad place. I figured out pretty quick that you two aren’t like him, but I needed to heal, and I didn’t want to jump into something too fast. I was never ready. God!” she exclaimed, leaping to her feet and pacing away. She stopped in front of the bay window overlooking the driveway and the pastures beyond. “Isn’t that just like life? You think you have time, then…you don’t. I’m only twenty-six. I thought I had time,” she whispered, the last word cracking with sorrow.

“We want all the time you have left,” Seth said, hating the words because they seemed trivial and so…finite. “We want whatever relationship we can have. Lovers. Friends.” He glanced at Tai, who nodded. “Whatever you want to give us.”

River bit her lip as she turned back to them. Tai stepped to Seth’s side.

“Paisley told me today that the three of us,” she indicated their trio, “are already in a relationship. She pointed out that I’m committed to you and you’re both committed to me. That we have been for a while.”

Tai pulled her into his arms. “She’s not wrong.”

“Who’d have thought?” she replied as Seth moved forward and wrapped his arms around the two people who held his heart. He’d waited so long to have River here like this. And now, the reality of their limited future shredded him.

“Let me think about it,” River said, her words muffled against Tai’s chest.

Seth pressed his lips to her hair and inhaled her sweet scent, roses and River. “About a relationship?” he asked.

“No, about moving in. Let me think about it—not for long,” she added quickly. “I feel like I’ve wasted too much time already, but I also don’t want to rush in without considering things. Moving to your ranch wasn’t what I expected to come of this conversation.”

“Did you really think we’d write you off?” That hurt. She should know them better than that.

“No…not really,” she admitted. “I suppose not. I was scared. I’ve been so scared since I found out.”

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