Page 35 of My Best Friend's Triplet Brothers

Chapter 13

Ishookmyhead, unsure I was hearing what they were saying. “What?”

Andrew nodded, his eyes downcast. “As stupid as it sounds, it’s true. The rumors were to keep guys away from you. Again, we were astronomically wrong. We should’ve let you do what you wanted. You always liked the biggest asshole around, though, and we had a hard time staying out of it.”

“We wanted to keep you safe.” Warren leaned back in his seat. “We couldn’t touch you back then, Cupcake. You were too young and we weren’t really sure what we wanted ourselves, but we knew that we weren’t allowed to touch you. No matter how much we wanted to.”

“And we did want to. That night we tossed you in the pool? It was the worst. We stumbled across you making out with that scumbag. You were shitfaced and he had his hand up your dress.” Lucas scowled. “No way could we let that happen.”

I stood up and walked away from the table, just to turn around and stare at the three of them. “Do you think I’m stupid?”

Scowling, Andrew shook his head. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“You really expect me to believe that you three tortured me for most of my adolescence because you secretly wanted me? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Lucas grunted. “Yeah, it was pretty dumb.”

“Let me clarify. You put itching powder in my underwear for months. You cut my hair when I was eight. You made fun of me in front of your friends and made everyone believe the worst things about me. You made sure that the only person who wanted to hang out with me through my entire high school life was Macy. You were so mean to me, every single time you saw me. And yeah, I’m not over it. It’s been a decade of me moving on and I still dreaded coming here and seeing the three of you again.

“And whatever this is between the four of us? It’s that much harder because I still expect to be tricked or knocked over at any moment. The idea of you three wanting me is so hard to believe because you all spent years convincing me that I was unworthy of anyone.” I was really building up my anger into a crescendo. “And the fact that you lecture me about seeing how sexy you find me, or whatever. It’s bullshit. Of course, I don’t feel sexy around you. Each of you spent so much time pointing out my flaws. I carried that with me. I didn’t get to forget it ever happened because suddenly I’m an entirely different person now.

“You really expect me to believe that you wanted me back then and that’s why you were so awful. You must think I’m the dumbest person on the face of the planet.”

They were quiet for a moment before Andrew stood up and walked around the table. He reached for me but stopped last second and dropped his hands to his side. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry we did that to you. We were wrong then. We were stupid boys who were at war with our desires and their perceived limitations.”

“Not that that’s an excuse.” Lucas jumped in.

“Not at all. We did stupid things and we regret them. I’m sorry for the way we treated you. We should’ve cherished you then like we want to now.”

Warren nodded. “Honesty with each other is the only way we’ve been able to stay the way we are, Cupcake. We take it very seriously and we would never lie to you. What we did back then was wrong, of course. There was an ulterior motive, though.”

Andrew gently took my hand and pulled me to the couch. Warren and Lucas followed and sat across from Andrew and me. I wanted to resist and struggle against the tug to fall into Andrew’s side, but I couldn’t. I needed comfort.

“You were such a cute fucking kid, Cupcake. At first, we just liked messing with you because you’d fight back. Your face would get red, and you’d ball your fists up, and there were plenty of times we thought you were going to actually try to fight us. In the end, you’d always just disappear into the kitchen with Mom. You never told on us, for whatever reason.”

Lucas leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “You were fifteen the first time we noticed you’d started to change into a woman. You were still wearing fucking pigtails and it was ridiculous to find a fifteen-year-old in pigtails so cute, but we did. We were too old for you, though. Too old and away at college most of the time.”

“But when we were in town, we saw the way the other boys looked at you. You didn’t see it, but they followed you around like puppies. And then you started dating.” Warren groaned. “It was awful to watch. We knew that we didn’t own you or deserve anything from you. You were a kid and we were trying to become men. It didn’t stop the way we wanted you, though.”

Andrew let my hair down and combed his fingers through it. “We were experimenting with what we liked back then, and we’d only been with one woman at the same time. It’d seemed like a kink more than a real possibility. There was no way of just one of us having you, and no part of us believed that this, the three of us, would ever be something you wanted. So we acted like assholes. We kept other guys away from you and watched from afar.”

“Then, you strolled into my bathroom and caught me and it felt like maybe there was a chance. You responded to me so beautifully, Cupcake. Then, you seemed to respond to Lucas and Andrew, too. You’re perfect. You were always perfect. The time just wasn’t right.”

Lucas pushed his hair out of his face and stared at the ground. “I’m so sorry for what we did to you. What I did to you. The idea of sharing you with other guys got under my skin so much that I didn’t think through how much I was hurting you. If I could take it all back, I would.”

“We’re all sorry. We’re sorry, too, that we hurt you so badly that you’re not sure if this is real. What you’ve been feeling from us is one thousand percent real and true. We wanted you back then and we want you even more now.”

Andrew gently pulled me into his lap and stroked my cheek. “We’d never go there again. We’ll do everything in our power to keep you happy and safe.”

I let him hold me, and I took from his strength and warmth. “It’s not as easy for me as it seems to be for you three. It’s not going to go away overnight, the things you did, I mean.”

Lucas moved over and sat down next to us. He rested his hand on my calf and sighed. “We’re going to show you how beautiful you are. I hate knowing that we hurt the way you see yourself.”

“I shouldn’t have implied that it was all on the three of you. That was wrong of me. The boyfriends I’ve had in the last decade did most of the damage.” I sighed as I thought about it. “All of this is so crazy. My brain can’t work out how it makes any sense. I came here thinking I was going to have to do my best to avoid the three of you. I thought it would be more of the same. I thought I’d spend the two weeks moping over another failed relationship and then crying during the wedding because my love life is such shit. Instead, this is happening.”

“Tell us more. Let’s just talk like a normal couple would, and we can learn about you and you can learn about us. Maybe that’ll help.” Warren moved to sit on the coffee table so he could pull my foot into his lap and gently rub it.

I sighed at the feeling of him uncoiling my tightly strained muscles. “A normal couple? Is that what this is supposed to be?”

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