Page 54 of Faking it with My Billionaire Bosses

Cole’s arms tightened even more. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to let you go, though, Sonnie. I’m crazy about you. I’m crazy about your sister. I think I even like your best friend. There’s nothing about you that I don’t lo—... I just want you in my life. I want to make you happy.”

Price balled the paper up and shoved it back into his pocket. “The last thing we need to talk about is what Samantha said about the security videos of us together.”

I stiffened. “Was that true?”

His jaw tightened and I could see the muscles working. “She was trying to get access to several security systems. We went through her hard drives and there’s nothing she was able to get. Just in case, though, we have a trusted security expert handling the deletion of any possible evidence. Nothing will get out.”

“What’s wrong with her?” It was a rhetorical question, but by the silence, I knew they were thinking of an answer.

Drake met my eyes and nodded, like he was making a decision before speaking. “When we fired her, she said something. Our marriage ended because I found out she’d cheated. I was done immediately, but if I’m being honest, I think I was done before she cheated. I was focused on work and I didn’t care enough to make the effort. She cheated but she still wanted to be married to me. I didn’t. I ended the marriage and except for that one drunken night, never touched her again. I was cold. I thought I’d get away from her and I was happy about it but when she fought to stay around me, I got angry and treated her like she was no one to me.

“Yesterday, when she realized how much we care about you, she was happy. She wanted me to feel the way she’d felt all those years when I was cold to her. She wanted to hurt you enough thatyou’d be that cold to me. I’ll never forgive her for how she treated you, but if she felt how I felt last night, for years… There’s no excuse for how she treated you, but it’s also not surprising she’s as mean as she is if she’s been that miserable for all these years.”

Watching him feel empathy for Samantha might’ve felt wrong if he hadn’t made it so clear that he cared about me, not her. I saw his heart in his words and knew how sincere he was. He didn’t like knowing he’d hurt Samantha, even though he couldn’t stand her. His willingness to admit he’d been wrong was just another positive. I’d watched Mom’s boyfriends treat her and everyone else like crap and never feel bad about it. They never would’ve apologized, not in a million years, or even admitted they’d messed up.

“We want to be with you, Sunflower.” Cole gently laughed at the way my head snapped around to face him. “Yeah, Gia gave me all your secrets. She and Rosie are really rooting for us, which makes me feel a little more confident in my belief you belong with us, even though we fucked up. We don’t deserve you, but we want to spend our lives trying to. Can you give us a chance?”

“I can’t promise I’ll be perfect, Cupcake, but I promise you I’ll always try to be a better man for you.” Drake closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Please stay with us. I don’t want to lose you.”

Price reached across the table and rested his hand over mine. “No more pretending we’re fake dating. No more going on dates we don’t want to go on. It’s just us. I want to do this with you for real. Move in with us. I want to do all the family shit with you I never thought I’d make time for. I want it all. Rosie and Monster, too.”

Cole pressed a kiss to my shoulder. “I never want to wake up without you next to me again. Please, give me another chance.Forgive us for being fucking idiots and let us prove to you we’re worth taking a chance on.”

I looked around at the three of them and took a deep breath. “I’ve spent my entire life expecting the worst. My mom proved to me again and again that people will hurt you every chance they get. When Samantha said all that shit, I just…I felt like the other shoe had finally dropped. I’d been expecting the fairytale to end at some point and it finally was. Not that being hated in the media has been a fairytale. But I think I was almost glad it had finally happened. I could exhale since the worst had happened and I’d been proven right.

“Being with you three scares me. I have nothing. You guys have everything. Being with you forced me to give up the little I did have, so losing you means I lose everything. If Gia hadn’t flown in last night, I would’ve tried to sneak into my house and I would’ve hidden under my covers all night while waiting for someone to knock my pitiful door to scream questions at me.” I heard a kid laughing from the other side of the park and watched as his mom held him in the air and spun around. “I want to be with you because I choose to be, not because I have to be. I know I’ll probably never have as much money as you guys, but I want to know that if something happens between us, I can support myself.”

Price nodded. “Fine. We owe you the original amount we’d decided to pay you for the public dating. There’s your nest egg. We’ll never leave you with nothing, Sonnie. If you need more security, marry me.”

I gaped at him. Had he just…?

“I’m serious. Marry me. Or one of us. No prenup, no protections. I don’t give a shit about the money or house or whatever else. If you ever left us, the money isn’t going to soothe that pain. You could take all of it if you wanted to.”

“Price…”

“Marry one of us.” Cole loosened his grip on me slightly and blew out a breath. “Marry all of us. Fuck. I don’t care. Just don’t let this be a goodbye speech.”

“You can’t just—”

Drake let out a bark of laughter. “We can. Marry us, Cupcake. Take whatever you want. It can all be yours. Just be ours.”

I struggled to get out of Cole’s lap and stood at the end of the picnic table, staring at them. “You’re all insane. I don’t want your money. I want my own money. I want to bring something to this relationship. This isn’t a goodbye speech. I… I can’t say goodbye. I don’t want to. From the moment I met each of you, I’ve been tripping over myself while falling for you. Thinking this wasn’t real hurt so much, but listening to Rosie berate me for daring to be unhappy with you three made me realize a few things.”

Cole stood up. “What did you realize?”

“My little sister loves you. She’s a lot like Monster. She rarely likes anyone. She loves each of you, though. She told me to just get over this.” I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “Men who win Rosie over can’t be bad. Men who watchMean Girlssix times in a row can’t be bad. Men who apologize when they hurt someone… You can’t be bad. And if you’re not bad, then I want to be brave and take a chance.”

They each came towards me but stopped when I held up my hands.

“I want to be with you. I need to work and bring something to the table, though. Maybe I won’t always have that fear and need to have a backup plan, but for now, it makes me feel safer if I know losing you three wouldn’t destroy me completely. So, I need you to fix the media stuff. I want to be able to go out again and work. You need to stop spoiling Rosie completely, too. She’s already a pain and if you give her absolutely everything she wants, she’ll become the worst.”

Drake grinned. “Is that all?”

“I don’t know. I knew that once I was here with you guys, I’d forgive you and forget everything I wanted to say.” I felt my heart speed up as they moved closer. “Um… I want a dog! Not right now, but soon maybe. I also want to live at Price’s house for now, if that’s okay. Monster seems to like it. And when I get a dog, the land will be perfect. I still want to go to the class, too.”

Price rolled his eyes. “You should be teaching the class, baby. But yeah, you’re going to the class. You’ll be our special guest. Maybe even our wife, if you’ll agree to marry us by then.”

“You’re insane if you think this was a proper proposal.” I closed my eyes as they surrounded me and held me tight. Tears still threatened to spill over as I breathed them in. “I hated last night.”

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