Page 78 of Finding Their Place

Rhett stayed silent, simply peering at me with his dark eyes.

“So, what are you going to do?” Ash asked.

“That’s the problem,” I muttered. “I have no fucking clue. I did the right thing by leaving the two of them alone to work things out once they wake up, but I carved out a piece of my heart and left it there between them where it isn’t needed—or wanted.”

“How do you know it isn’t wanted?” Rhett asked.

I shrugged. “It’s just a feeling.”

“One your recent life-changing circumstances could be suggesting,” Rhett stated. “That sense of abandonment, of not knowing where you belong—maybe it’s projecting onto the connection you’d made with Haley and Garrett.”

“Yes,” Ash agreed, nodding and giving his partner the eyes that Garrett had done with Haley. “You need to tell them,” he said, returning his wavering focus back on me.

Rhett continued to study me with steadiness regardless of the liquor he sipped. “Maybe wait until later tomorrow,” he said. “Allow them time to talk about the walls you helped bring down first. Let them get things set straight between them before dumping more emotional upheaval atop what they’ll be dealing with.”

“Emotional upheaval,” Ash muttered an echo while elbowing him. “You sound like an ass.”

“Because I am.” Rhett didn’t take his focus off me. “Wyatt isn’t selfish—I’m suggesting exactly as he would do even if he hadn’t spoken with us.”

Rhett was right. I was the type to let them work through the situation out without interference. It was the interjecting my thoughts and desires into whatever they might find that bothered me. Especially seeing as how I felt my presence hadn’t been needed once things had started to progress in Haley’s bedroom.

“Do you want them?” Rhett asked, and I didn’t hesitate to nod because I couldn’t imagine going forward without them in my life. “Both?”

“Yeah,” I whispered, my throat tight at that truth as well.

“Then go home and get some sleep, put in a good day’s worth of sweating tomorrow, then head over there after they’ve had time to settle their own shit and spill your guts. They’ll either welcome you with open arms, or you’ll walk away brokenhearted. At least you’ll have an answer and can move on.”

The problem with Rhett’s advice?

I didn’t want to move on.

26

Garrett

Soft warmth pressed against me, and I knew I dreamed. Keeping my eyes closed to prolong the heaven my imagination awarded me, I snuggled in closer. The scent of lavender and sleepy Haley filled my lungs.

My lips twitched—and so did my morning wood.

Small hands ran over my back, hot breath on my neck…

Haley.

I blinked my eyes open, my breath held.

A gorgeous spill of maroon hair lay across the pillow we shared. One of my hands fisted in her tresses. The other clutched at her round ass cheek, keeping her tight against my groin.

Aching groin.

“Holy shit,” I croaked out a whisper, and Haley released out a throaty sigh.

Adrenaline rushed through me, and I held still, barely breathing as the night replayed in my head—and I grinned like a damn dork, thankful as fuck Wyatt had initiated what I’d been dying for.

Wyatt.

I lifted up enough to see he didn’t cradle Haley’s backside like I’d wanted him to be doing.

“He left us,” I said, dropping my head back down, my smile fading. Why the hell had he taken off?

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