Page 20 of Shared by my Ex’s Best Friends (Twisted Desires #2)

Chapter twenty

LIAM

I don’t usually initiate these things. But tonight, I can’t sit back.

Something’s shifting between all of us, and if we don’t acknowledge it, I’m afraid an opportunity we never saw coming will slip between our fingers.

And maybe lose them, too.

I text both of them and ask if they want to grab a drink. No preamble. Just: Dive bar by the venue. You in?

Ten minutes later, we’re parked on beat-up stools at a bar that probably hasn’t changed since the ’90s. The wood under my elbow is scarred and sticky.

A neon Miller sign buzzes faintly over the jukebox, which is stuck playing ’80s rock ballads on a loop. The place smells like old beer and too-salty popcorn.

Jake’s the last to sit down. He drops into the stool across from me and raises a brow, all sharp-edged grin and too-aware eyes. “You okay, man? You don’t usually summon the troops like this, especially without Nick.”

Ethan’s already got a whiskey in front of him, fingers curled tight around the glass. He hasn’t said a word, but his eyes are trained on me—steady, assessing.

Like he already knows what I’m about to say and is waiting to see if I’ll actually say it.

I take a breath. Then another. Then I spit it out.

“It’s Maya.”

Jake lets out a dry laugh. “Of course it is.”

Ethan’s jaw ticks, but he still doesn’t speak.

I press on. “I have feelings for her. Not just… attraction. Not just wanting her. It’s more. It’s real. ”

The silence that follows isn’t tense, but it’s heavy —thick with unsaid things and the weight of what we all already know.

Ethan breaks it, voice quiet and calm. “You’re not the only one.”

I turn to him. “What?”

He meets my gaze without flinching. “I have feelings for her too. Have for a while. Since before she and Nick broke up two months ago.”

Jake exhales, long and low. “Well, hell. Guess it’s my turn.”

I blink. “You’re serious.”

Jake nods slowly, folding his arms on the table. “Dead serious. I’ve been trying to play it cool, not push too hard, but… yeah. I care about her. A lot.”

Another second passes.

Jake runs a hand through his hair and cracks a lopsided grin. “She kissed me, you know. In the rain, by the gazebo.”

Ethan’s lips twitch, like he’s surprised but not upset. “She asked me to help with the floral arrangements after everything fell apart. I showed her a drawing I did of her… one I didn’t mean for anyone to see. She saw it, and… things shifted.”

Jake lifts an eyebrow. “Shifted how?”

Ethan gives him a look. “You can guess.”

I stare at the table, the wood grain warping under the dim light. “Same thing happened when I helped her fix Danielle’s dress.”

Jake whistles low. “She’s got a way of making you feel like you’re the center of her whole orbit.”

Ethan takes a sip of his drink. “She’s not trying to manipulate any of us. That’s not her.”

“No,” I agree. “She’s just… magnetic. Honest. God, she’s everything. ”

“She’s impossible not to fall for,” Jake says.

“Yeah,” I murmur. “She is.”

We fall quiet again. The bar hums around us and my thoughts swirl.

Jake taps his fingers against his glass. “So what the hell do we do?”

I shake my head. “I don’t think she wants to choose.”

Ethan shifts. “Are we okay with that?”

It’s not an accusation. It’s a real question. He’s not asking what we’ll tolerate. He’s asking what we really want .

I don’t answer right away. I close my eyes, think of Maya—her laugh during while we worked on decorations, the way she brushed hair from her eyes while looking up at me, barefoot in the venue hallway. The sound of her voice when she says my name.

I picture Jake kissing her in the rain, Ethan tracing her face on paper and sharing more than ideas about centerpieces.

I should feel jealous.

I should be angry.

But all I feel is this overwhelming protectiveness. This fierce, aching need for her to be safe and happy and loved from every direction.

“I don’t want to lose her,” I admit, the words scraping their way up my throat.

Ethan nods slowly, his jaw tense. “Neither do I.”

There’s a long pause. Jake leans forward, resting his forearms on the table, his expression uncharacteristically serious.

The usual spark in his eyes is still there—but tonight, it’s tempered by something deeper. Something intense.

“Look,” he says, “I’ve never shared a damn thing in my life I didn’t have to. Not a girl. Not my heart.”

He glances between us.

“But Maya? She’s different.”

A pause. A breath.

“So maybe… we don’t make her choose.”

My breath catches. I blink at him. “You’re serious.”

Jake meets my eyes, steady and sure. “I’ve never been more serious about anything.”

Ethan studies him, a flicker of disbelief passing over his face before it fades into something more contemplative. “You really think that could work?”

Jake lets out a breath and shrugs. “I don’t know. I’m not saying it’s simple. It’s probably going to be messy as hell. But I know Maya, and if anyone could love all three of us— fully , without guilt or confusion—it’s her. She’s got the biggest damn heart I’ve ever seen.”

The words hit me somewhere deep. Right in that soft, vulnerable place I’ve been guarding for weeks. A part of me that’s been holding tension like a clenched fist, waiting for something to give.

I picture her again—laughing with Jake, shoulders brushing against Ethan’s in quiet comfort, looking up at me with that wide-eyed trust.

I see the way she carries everything for everyone else, even when it costs her. The way she hides what she wants so she doesn’t disappoint anyone.

What if we stopped being part of the weight on her shoulders? What if we let her want what she already does—without shame?

“So,” I say slowly, “it sounds like we’re all on the same page?”

Ethan looks down at his glass, thumb tracing the rim. “I think we are.”

I glance between them—Jake, bold and brave, whose loyalty runs deeper than he lets on. Ethan, quiet and intense, with emotions that burn beneath the surface like a fuse.

And me, caught in the middle, the one who never expected to fall this hard, this fast, for a girl who somehow lit all of us up like we’d been waiting for her our whole lives.

“Then maybe we ask her,” I say quietly, the words tasting like both risk and relief.

Jake’s mouth curves into a smile—something softer than his usual smirk. “Together?”

I nod. “Yeah. Together. She deserves to know she doesn’t have to carry this alone. Not if we’re all in.”

Ethan lifts his glass again, his voice calm but sure. “To giving this a try.”

Jake raises his beer. “To not screwing it up.”

I laugh, surprised by how light I suddenly feel. “To Maya.”

The three of us drink. Not awkward—just sure.

For the first time, the chaos doesn’t feel like something we have to fix. It feels like the start of something we’re finally choosing.