by Rye Hart
Sighing, I slid my hand down my face. I turned my chair and stared out the window, listening to the sound of people checking in for the weekend. Thursdays and Fridays were our busiest days, which meant less time to think and more time to work. I listened to happy couples chattering about what they were going to do for the day and families arguing over what they were going to eat. I rolled my eyes as people walked by, my eyes fixated on the landscape in front of me.
When my brothers and I first got this thing started up, we were so excited. Dylan took the helm as the oldest when he graduated from the local college. Took some business courses and thought he was hot shit and all. He said he was dead set on building something we could all be proud of one day. Then when Mom and Dad died, he threw himself into his work with a vengeance.
So did the rest of us.
Their deaths didn’t surprise us, but the proximity of them did. Dad’s liver and kidneys finally gave out, and Mom had a heart attack a couple days later from all the stress. Between having a weak heart to drinking with Dad like they’d done throughout their whole marriage, it was a miracle she was still standing. But the stress of him dying and having to bury him was what did her in.
We all threw our lives into this business to get away from it. I think Dylan more than all of us was impacted by their deaths. As the oldest, he saw it as his responsibility to take care of all of us. Especially when Mom and Dad started getting worse. He split his time between building up this main resort and paying their medical bills, trying to get them the best care he could.
But when two stubborn-headed people don’t want help, there’s not much anyone can do for them.
As we graduated, we all found our own positions in the company. And the more manpower Dylan took on, the bigger we grew. We fell into our niches purely by accident, and the accident had taken us to heights we could never have dreamed about. It was a hectic life full of reward and sacrifice, but it was worth it.
The day was long, and I was glad it was over. Katie stayed in her office for most of the day, not even emerging for lunch when I knocked on her door. I was worried about her. How swamped she was with stuff and the long hours she was working some days. This was supposed to help her get some money so she could get off to doing what she wanted to do. This wasn’t supposed to chain her to a job she didn’t want.
I wanted to talk to her about it, but she never came out for me to intercept.
I heard her heels clicking by just before six. I went over to my door and threw it open, trying to catch her before she left for the day. But just as quickly as she had walked by, she disappeared, her blonde curls fluttering behind her as she dashed into the women’s restroom.
Then a few minutes later, she was out the door without a word said to any of us.
“Wyatt!”
I turned my head at the sound of Dylan’s voice.
“Come on! Meeting time.”
Meeting? The hell kinda meeting did we have on a Thursday night? It was time for my ass to go home. It was time for me to roll in bed, watch television, and try to get some sort of fuckin’ inspiration as to how the hell I was going to start advertising for this new resort we were building.
But as Caleb and Andrew went walking past me, I shut my office door and followed.
“What gives?” I asked. “Somethin’ wrong?”
“We all gotta talk,” Dylan said.
“Should I have stopped Katie on her way out?” I asked.
“No, because this is about Katie,” Dylan said.
“All the more reason to have her here.”
“We need to get this all out on the table,” Dylan said. “So, I’ll start. I know Katie’s slept with all of us.”
“Seriously? We’re doin’ this now?” I asked.
“I also have a theory that we all have feelin’s for her,” Dylan said.
“We all know Wyatt professed his love to ‘er on pizza day,” Andrew said.
“Wait, what?” I asked.
“And you’ve got it written all over that face of yours whenever ya see her,” Caleb said.
“Well, what about you guys? Dylan, I see how you look at her,” I said.
“We all look at her a certain way because Dylan’s right,” Andrew said. “What’s the damn point?”
“So, we’re all on the same page?” Dylan asked. “We’ve all slept with her, and we all care about her?”
“You askin’ us if we wanna share?” Andrew asked.
“I’m not sure I can share her, guys,” I said. “I mean, this is Katie we’re talkin’ ‘bout.”
“I’m not keen on sharin’ her either,” Andrew said.
“Nope. She’s mine no matter what I gotta do to make her see it,” Caleb said.
“Okay. Lemme get this straight. We all screwed around with her, we all like her, yet we’re all unwillin’ to share her,” Dylan said.
“Sounds about right,” I said.
“Then that means the four of us need to sit down and have a conversation. Together. As adults,” Dylan said.
“I can get behind that. It’s the only way we’ll get answers,” Andrew said.
“She hasn’t talked to any of y’all ‘bout how she’s feelin’? ‘Cause she opened up to me a little bit about it,” Caleb said.
“She did to me, too. Yesterday. I kind of blindsided her,” Dylan said.
“That why she was cooped up in her office all damn day? ‘Cause ya pissed her off?” I asked.
“What did she say?” Andrew asked.
“She said she was uncomfortable with makin’ a decision because she had feelin’s for all of us,” Dylan said.
“‘Bout what she told me,” Caleb said.
“Wait, really? She’s got feelin’s for all of us?” I asked.
“You heard ‘em. And that includes you, lover boy,” Andrew said.
“There’s been so much shit goin’ on ‘round here that I can’t keep up with it all. Who’s screwin’ around with who and who knows what. It’s gettin’ old,” I said.
“Which is why we all need to sit down and talk,” Dylan said.
“But is it a good thing to, ya know, spring this on her?” I asked. “Shouldn’t she know ‘bout this meetin’ and all?”
“With how she took me bringin’ up the idea of choosin’, I don’t think so,” Dylan said.
“Way to go asshole,” Andrew said.
“Look, I fucked up. I get it,” Dylan said. “And now, we gotta fix this. She’s feelin’ lost and confused. I think if we all sit down with her and explain to her that it’s okay for her to feel how she’s feelin’, she won’t feel this way anymore.”
“I think her hearin’ what Dylan said from all of us might help. Ya know, that she’s wanted ‘round here for more than her company, no matter what choice she makes,” Andrew said.
“But ultimately, we gotta pose this question to Katie,” I said. “You know, her choosin’ between us.”
“What if she chooses all of us?” Caleb asked. “That’s a possibility.”
“Like we all said, I don’t think any of us could stand to share her,” I said. “I know I couldn’t.”
“Well, it ain’t your decision, hotshot. If that’s what she wants, and you care ‘bout her enough, ain’t you gonna give her what she wants?” Andrew asked.
I didn’t know how to answer that question. Standing in a room with my brothers discussing the fact that they’d all had her made me sick enough to my stomach. But the idea that Katie wanted that dynamic?
It was beyond me.
“Andrew’s right, Wyatt. In the end, it’s not your choice. It’s Katie’s. And if she cares about all of us and wants all of us, who are we to deny her that?” Dylan asked.
“Who are we? We’re men with feelin’s, Dylan. That’s who we are. You mean to tell me if she marched in here and proclaimed she wanted to share all of us, y’all would go back on what you really wanted just to have a piece of her?” I asked.
“Look, we’re gettin’ ahead of ourselves. We don�
�t even know what Katie wants. What’s the good in us all getting’ riled if there’s nothin’ to get riled about?” Andrew asked.
I couldn’t stay and listen to any more of this bullshit. I stormed out of Dylan’s office, plucked my keys from my pocket, and headed to my truck. I’d been in love with Katie for longer than any of them. Ever since I first saw her smash a softball all the way down the damn yard. Fuck, I must’ve been fifteen years old when I finally admitted to myself that she was the woman for me.
I’d loved that woman ever since I knew I could love women. And I wasn’t going to stand in some cramped-up room with a bunch of assholes who couldn’t love her the way I did but thought they could.
I jumped into my truck and pulled away, speeding out onto the main road. I was ready to go home, shove my face full of food, and wind the fuck down. Work wasn’t going to get done, and marketing shit was going to have to wait until tomorrow.
I needed to get my anger under control before I talked to Katie tomorrow. Because no matter what my brothers thought, she needed to know about that meeting.
Katie needed to know what was coming her way.
CHAPTER 30
KATIE
I was closing the front desk for the afternoon and preparing for my weekend. I felt like the guys had been tip-toeing around me all day, and I didn’t like it. Dylan had blindsided me a few days ago with that conversation, but as I took the time to think about it, I understood where he was coming from. All he had wanted to do was settle my mind and let me know they all knew. He was trying to inform me of things and reassure me that whatever decision I made would be okay.
The issue was it felt like I had to make a decision, and I couldn’t. In all my life, I could never have imagined that I would be in the middle of a mess like this. Yes, I’d wanted them all at one point in my life. Yes, I’d fantasized about being with all of them at once. But for it to actually be happening? I could hardly believe it. And now, here I was, struggling with these feelings I had no idea what to do with.
“Katie? Could I talk to ya for a second?”
I looked over at Wyatt. He was the first brother to talk to me all day about something that wasn’t work-related. I felt my heart flutter in my chest as I smiled, then I closed down the computer and locked up the rest of the station.
“Sure. What’s up? Is everything okay?” I asked.
“Could we talk somewhere private?”
It was the tone of his voice that made my stomach drop to my knees. I knew we hadn’t finished our conversation from the beginning of last week, and I was concerned he was going to ask me about my feelings again. I cared about him. I really did. But I wasn’t sure if “love” was the correct word for it yet. My heart sped up whenever I was around him, but my heart did that when I was around his brothers, too.
Would Wyatt be okay with that? Was I okay with that?
I followed Wyatt into his office and shut the door behind me. Whatever was going on in his head, I could tell it was serious. He leaned against his desk and folded his arms over his chest, showcasing the strength in his shoulders. I had to close my eyes and draw in a deep breath to keep my thoughts from clouding over with lust. His bright green eyes were studying me, and his strong jaw was clenched. I wanted him to smile at me.
But at that moment, he was serious and appeared somewhat worried.
“So, I feel like I gotta tell ya somethin’, but I’m not sure how you’re gonna take it,” he said.
“Just say it, Wyatt. We’ll go from there,” I said.
“Dylan called a meetin’ last night. After ya left work.”
“Was I supposed to stick around for this meeting? Is he upset with me?” I asked.
“No, no. Nothin’ like that. It was a meetin’ about you.”
“About me?”
“Yeah. My brothers were discussin’ what to do with everythin’ that’s—goin’ on with all of us.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“We all know you’ve slept with all of us. Dylan was tryin’ to figure out how to approach ya with it. But I felt like it was wrong to slap ya upside the head with somethin’ like that.”
“Honestly? I’m not sure how I feel about you guys having a meeting about me, but I get why it happened.”
“I didn’t feel it was right to keep it from ya, though my brothers wanted to.”
“Why?” I asked. “Why wouldn’t they want to tell me something like this?”
“Don’t know,” he said with a shrug. “Maybe they’re scared you’ll get pissed or somethin’. Either way, it didn’t sit right with me, keepin’ ya outta the loop. I’ve been in love with you for way longer than any of those guys have.”
I was stunned by his words. Did that mean the rest of them felt that strongly about me? I could feel my eyes widening in shock as Wyatt dipped his gaze to the floor. I could hear him drawing in deep breaths, trying to calm himself after going out on such an emotional limb.
“Can I be honest, Wyatt?” I asked.
“I wish ya would be. We’re all kinda in the dark ‘bout all this. How you feel ‘bout all of it,” he said.
“I’ve wanted all four of you since you guys first came over to play with Hunter.”
“What?” he asked.
“Well, don’t look so shocked,” I said. “I know I was only six years old, but I ‘loved’ you guys in the way a six-year-old girl could. Then as we got older, that matured and changed with age and time. But it’s always been there. It’s never changed.”
“All of us?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “All of you.”
“Seems like that would make it harder to choose who you’re gonna be with.”
“Why do I have to choose?” I asked. “I know you guys have shared women in the past. Why can’t I be one of those women? I want you all—including you, Wyatt. Why can’t I have all of you, too?”
I watched him clench his jaw as he looked over at the wall. I now felt very uncomfortable. Wyatt wasn’t happy. In fact, I could see a small spark of anger mounting behind his eyes. I reached behind me and put my hand on the doorknob, twisting it so I could crack the door. He shot his gaze over to me quickly, like he was trying to figure out how to make me stay.
If Wyatt was this unhappy with me being shared, then it meant that his brothers probably felt the same.
“Are you angry?” I asked.
“I get it,” Wyatt said. “Why ya want all of us.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” I said.
“I gotta get some stuff to Dylan. But I’m glad we had this talk.”
“Wyatt, please don’t do this. Talk to me.”
“Look, Katie, I’m not here to argue with ya. I can’t tell ya how to live your life, only you can do that. I’ll talk to ya later.”
Wyatt pushed himself off his desk. He grabbed some file folders, then headed for the door I was leaning against. He scooted behind me, my eyes finding his beautiful emerald orbs before he slid out the door and into the hallway. I watched him walk away with his shoulders slumped and his feet shuffling. He looked defeated.
I felt my heart shatter into pieces as he disappeared around the corner.
I gathered the rest of my things and left before any of the others got any bright ideas to talk. My soul ached, and tears wouldn’t stop falling. Wyatt had looked so hurt. So upset with me for wanting to be shared. Did he think that I was trashy for wanting it? I couldn’t choose between the four of them. It wasn’t a possibility for me. And the more I slowly got them all to open up about it, the more I was finding that they were unwilling to share me.
I felt my dreams slowly slipping away from me.
“Katie? What’s wrong?”
I sniffled as Whitney’s face appeared on my laptop.
“You’re gonna think I’m stupid, so just save it, okay?” I asked.
“Whatever it is, you can talk to me. What happened?”
“I’ve—uh—”
I knew she was going to chew me alive for th
is. When I admitted to her that I’d slept with all the brothers and wanted to settle down with them, I knew she was going to be incredulous. She was the one who had warned me against this, to not get emotionally caught up in my game playing or whatever it was I was doing. I wrung my hands in my lap as a tear dripped onto my skin.
“I talked with Wyatt today, and I think they are going to ask me to choose one of them to be with,” I said.
“And you don’t want to do that?”
“No. I want them all. I’ve cared for all of them for as long as I can remember.”
“Katie, caring about them and being in a relationship with all four of them are two different things.”
“I just don’t know what to do,” I said.
“Look, you’re reeling from a marriage you stopped, and you’re trying to rediscover what your life means now. And that’s okay. It’s okay to want to screw around and have men you think are attractive and do what you need to do to get yourself settled. This can’t be an actual thing you think you can do,” she said.
“I don’t know what to do,” I said. “Help me, Whitney. I care about these guys.”
“You ended your engagement at your rehearsal dinner a month ago, Katie. You’re letting your emotions get the best of you.”
“No, I’m not. If anything, I haven’t been allowing my emotions to run my life in a long time. And sure, it got me my law degree, but it also got me Michael.”
“He was good for you until a point. But you stopped listening to everyone around you who told you he was getting bad for you. Including me.”
“So what? I should believe every word you say and not try to do anything else?” I asked.
“When your emotions are in upheaval like this, yes,” she said.
“You’re a piece of work. I came to you specifically with this because I didn’t need someone cheering me on like Lizzie would. I needed someone to rationally talk me through this. But no. All you care about doing is telling me I’m an idiot for doing this and that they’re just going to toss me away now that they’ve had me.”
