Page 15 of Theirs for the Holidays

“Stuff?” Sawyer replies, grinning. “You mean stuff like the kissing from last night?”

My cheeks definitely go pink with the memory of their lips on mine. “Yeah. Stuff like that. It stands to reason that we might have to kiss in public sometimes.”

“Fine with me,” he says, shrugging like it doesn’t matter either way.

“Me too,” Lennox agrees.

Rhett is the last one to speak up, and his eyes sweep over my face a bit before he nods too. “It’s fine.”

Well, that’s one thing down.

“Okay. Okay, that’s good to know. Um… I guess then we have to think about the future of this thing. Where does it lead? How does it end? I know you don’t want to be stuck here, pretending to be my boyfriends forever.”

And it kind of hurts a little, knowing how true that probably is.

Lennox hums a little, collecting pastry crumbs off the table with the pad of one finger. I notice it’s his good hand, steady and sure.

“We at least have to stay through the wedding,” he says. “We’re your plus three, after all.”

“Right,” Sawyer agrees. “And after that, we can say that you dumped us.”

I can’t help the snort that bursts out of me. “Yeah, okay. I’m sure that’ll be believable.” As if anyone could look at the three of them and then look at me and believe that I was the one who dumped them. Even if that’s the story we go with, people are going to think that they’re the ones who kicked me to the curb, one hundred percent.

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Lennox asks. “It makes perfect sense. We’re long distance, and there are three of us. Anyone will believe that it was just too hard to juggle it all, and you wanted to focus on someone local. Or just dating one person so it doesn’t interfere with your business.”

The others seem to agree with that for once, and I sigh internally. There’s nothing I can really say that won’t make me sound even more pathetic than needing my ex’s brothers to pretend to date me so I’m not alone at a wedding, so I just leave it alone. No point in arguing.

“I thought of something else,” Rhett says. “We should definitely get on the same page with the cover story. The online dating thing is good, but we need a timeline or something. So we’re all telling the same story.”

“What Violet said last night makes sense,” Lennox admits. “We got back in touch online and started talking and it grew into more.” He shrugs. “I don’t think it has to be deeper than that.”

“Who reached out first?” I ask.

“I did.”

“Why you?” Sawyer demands. “It could have been any one of us.”

“Because I spoke up first,” Lennox shoots back. “It doesn’t even matter.”

“Then it doesn’t have to be you,” Rhett puts in.

Sawyer rolls his eyes. “Right, because anyone will believe that you, famous hermit that you are, reached out to someone on social media without being prompted. You can’t even text someone on their birthday.”

Rhett opens his mouth to say something back and then closes it again. “Whatever. It doesn’t fucking matter. I’m just saying we need to have a straight story.”

I bite my lip and then interject. “I reached out first. I hadn’t heard from any of you in a while, so I sent a message to see if you were alive. I messaged Rhett first, didn’t hear back, so I reached out to Lennox and then Sawyer. Eventually you all responded and we started talking.”

That at least cuts off the argument before it can brew any more, and all three of them nod.

“We asked you what’s been going on, you talked about your work and Isabelle and Andrew getting married,” Lennox says.

“It was nice to connect, and I started chatting with each of you at night after work. It was a nice way to unwind,” I add.

“How long ago are we saying this started?” Sawyer asks.

I think about that one. It can’t be too long, or my mother will be all demanding about why I never told anyone. She’ll probably be like that anyway.

“I think it makes sense for it to be kind of new,” I tell them. “Like we’re still feeling things out. That will help cover up any mistakes we make, too.”