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Tobie

We returned from Mexico tanned, relaxed, and happy in time for the NHL draft.

A part of me hadn’t wanted to return at all. I’m excited about starting my master’s, and the guys are excited about joining their NHL team, but Mexico had been incredible.

The draft, the biggest night of Caleb, Reid, and Javier’s hockey career, goes as expected.

They’re all heading to Virginia.

None of us knows what the future holds, but who does?

They won’t always be on the same team or even in the same city. Life is going to pull us in different directions, and we’ll have to fight to carve out time to see each other.

Before we separate, they come to Lawrenceburg to help me pack for grad school.

“Grad school is only a year,” I say quietly. “I can come to see you every weekend.”

“And we will come to see you when we have time off between practices,” Reid says.

I’m not sure when their games will be, but I’ll have weekends off from school, so I will probably be traveling to see them more than they can come to see me.

“Then we’ll live together,” Javier says.

Because after I graduate, I’ll find a teaching job in Virginia. “You’ll be the best players in the NHL.”

“And you’ll be the best teacher,” Caleb says.

We spent a lot of time in Mexico talking about the future. We all want kids. Just not yet. Marriage isn’t going to work for us, and that’s okay. What we have is more than I ever believed I would have.

I remember saying those exact words to them on the private plane back from Mexico.

And then Caleb, Reid, and Javier told me about part three of the plan.

A different kind of marriage.

A commitment ceremony with all of them and me. Maybe we could do it in the backyard of our new Virginia home when I’ve finished with grad school. Just us and the people we love most in the world. What did I think?

I cried for nearly an entire hour. I was that happy.

“Do you want to take all these books?” Javier asks, standing in front of my bookcases. “There’s space in the condo for them.”

Speaking of condos…

“You don’t need to buy me a condo, Javier. I’ll only be in Ann Arbor for a year.”

When he doesn’t immediately respond, I sigh. “You’ve already done it, haven’t you?”

“I found the perfect place when we were in Mexico,” he says, drawing me into a hug. “It’s in Angell and close to your school, so it’s convenient, and it’s safe.”

None of those amenities make me think this condo is cheap.

Over his shoulder, my gaze clashes with Reid, who mouths, “Three bedrooms with a gym in the building.”

I open my mouth to tell Javier it’s too much, but this is Javier, and he loves me. This is how he shows his love for the people he cares about.

“Thank you.” I kiss his cheek. “Maybe we could keep the condo after. Ann Arbor is really pretty.”

His smile is everything. “Anything you need, Gatinha . It’s yours.”

We soon resume packing up my life in Lawrenceburg.

“We didn’t decide on a prize,” I say.

“Huh?” Reid pauses his packing.

“When you bet that you’d have Marc on his knees begging to take me back, we didn’t decide on a prize.”

Caleb smiles at me. “We have you. What other prize would we want?”

My eyes prickle with tears. “And I got you.”

I’m probably taking more than I need, but I won’t be coming home as much as I did when I was in Lamont. My life will involve bouncing between Ann Arbor and West Virginia, at least for the next year, and it still feels so surreal. “I keep thinking you’ll stop me.”

Caleb studies me from my closet. Serious. But beneath that gruff exterior lies the heart of a soft and squishy man who loves me. “Do you want us to stop you?”

I shake my head. “This is something I’ve always wanted.”

“It’s a year,” he says. “You’ll kick ass.”

“You won’t replace me, will you?” I ask, voicing a secret fear.

“We could try,” Reid says slowly.

My stomach clenches as I stare at him. “ What ?”

He walks over to me. “But I’m not sure where we would ever find a beautiful girl with these pretty gold-rimmed glasses, an infectious giggle…”

“The sweetest smile,” Javier says.

“And who we could love half as much as you…” Caleb adds.

Reid grins at me as I fight back tears. “I’m not sure a girl like that exists anywhere but right here, and I’m looking at her.”

Laughing, I hug him.

“There won’t ever be anyone but you, Tobie,” Reid says. “I love you, and yours is the only pussy I want to worship.”

A soft throat clearing makes me blush, and I bury my face against Reid’s chest.

“You didn’t hear that, did you, Dad?” I call out.

Javier is shaking with laughter as is Caleb when my dad says, “Well, I guess you’re never too old to learn something new.”

We fill the room with laughter, even if it takes me a minute before I can look my dad in the face.

Dad’s cheeks are pink. “You ready for dinner, Junebug?”

He’s taking us out for dinner before we head to Virginia for a full week of house viewings. We have three contenders, and we’re all excited to see the insane house that comes with an ice rink in the basement.

“Just need to grab my shoes,” I tell Dad.

“I can get dinner, Mr. Myers,” Javier offers.

Dad shakes his head and wraps his arm around me. “I’ve never seen my little girl this happy. Her mom would have loved to see this. And I told you to call me Bruce.” He kisses my forehead and turns to smile at Javier. “This meal is on me. Just no more talk of?—”

I clap my hand over his mouth. “Oh my God, I’ll die if you say it, Dad. I will literally keel over on the spot.”

He peels my hand from his mouth and smiles as he leads the way out of my room. “Let’s go to dinner. How’s the prep going for the start of the season?”

Dad isn’t into sports. He’s like me—never really into it.

But as we head out for dinner, and Caleb, Reid, and Javier fill him in on all the preseason training they have coming up and who their biggest rivals are, I can see most of it is going over his head.

But he’s still nodding. Still listening. Still trying.

Because it’s important to them and me, he’s making it important to him.

That’s love.

It wraps you up and brightens the dark corners of your heart—the parts you hadn’t realized were shadowed at all.

And as you reach for dreams you were too afraid of before, the fear that you’ll fail and have nothing isn’t so sharp because you aren’t without anything.

You have love.

“Tobie?” Caleb is smiling at me as Javier holds the car door open for me. “You ready?”

For the start of my new life?

To start living my dreams alongside the three men I fell so deeply in love with, I cannot imagine a future without them in it?

“Absolutely.”