He was twenty-two years old the last time he was single. Still finding his way in the world. But he was a different man now, a stronger man. Brady and Trina had helped him uncover that strength within himself, and he would forever be grateful for his time with them. But now, just as they were moving on, it was time for him to move on as well.
He stared at Aaron’s face one more time. There was no happiness for him there. Not anymore. And while he knew being alone wouldn’t make him happy either, it had to be better than choosing to be unhappy.
With a deep breath, he opened the options menu. Then, he chose to look forward into an unclear future, hoped fate would be kind, and hit Delete.
Chapter 29
Trina woke to the faint sound of her phone buzzing from somewhere in the next room. Groaning at the harsh sunlight filtering through the curtains, she snuggled deeper into Brady’s arms and willed herself back to sleep. Brady’s phone buzzed next. Her eyes opened. There was only one person who would be texting both of them, one after the other, at this time of the morning.
Rolling out of bed, she tugged on one of Brady’s t-shirts and headed for the living area to find her phone. The battery was almost flat, but she was still able to open Jeremy’s text.
You and lover boy are invited to breakfast in 30 minutes. Come for the coffee, stay for the announcement.
Announcement? She cringed. The last announcement she’d been present for had led to anguish and awkward discussions with her brother about her sex life. Although, it had also indirectly led to her saying yes to a relationship with Brady, so it hadn’t been all bad.
Heading back into the bedroom, she climbed onto the bed. “Brady, it’s time to wake up.”
He didn’t open his eyes as he pulled her down on top of him. “You’re insatiable,” he muttered in a low voice as his hands slid down to take hold of her hips.
“Yes, I am,” she said with a leer, “but that’s not why I woke you.”
Brown eyes blinked open and she held up her phone so he could read the text. “What announcement?” he asked, furrowing his brow.
She shook her head. “No idea.”
Taking the phone, Brady ran a thumb over the screen before tossing it onto the bed beside them. Trina turned her head to see what he’d written.
Done.
She snorted at his typical brevity as he rolled over to trap her beneath his body. “Thirty minutes isn’t very long to quench my insatiable appetite,” she pointed out.
Lifting his head from her breast, he ran one hand down her body until he reached her clitoris, stroking the tight bundle of nerves with one fingertip. “I’ll be quick,” he told her, “but you’ll be quicker.”
Trina’s laughter was interrupted by a gasp as his finger slid deep inside her body. Maybe thirty minutes was long enough, after all.
When they walked through the front door of Trina’s apartment, thirty-three minutes later, they were greeted by the duel scents of bacon and freshly made pancakes.
“Perfect timing.” Jeremy glanced at them over his shoulder before returning his attention to a pan of scrambled eggs. “Breakfast is almost ready.”
“Can we do anything to help?” Trina asked. In the excitement that had gone on since she’d said yes to Brady’s date, she hadn’t had any time to think about how the three of them would handle this new transition from lovers to friends. Especially when she and Brady would continue to be a couple. Now they were confronted with it, she was overcome by the potential awkwardness of the situation.
Jeremy pointed at her with the end of his spatula. “You can start by not acting all weird around me,” he said with a pointed look. “And you can give me a friendly hug.” He held out his free arm and she walked into his embrace, squeezing him tight around the middle. She felt him drop a quick kiss on top of her head before he let her go. “That’s better.”
“Smells divine,” Brady said as he gathered cutlery from a drawer and set the table. “Thank you for the feast.”
Turning off the stove, Jeremy started to dish up their breakfast. “You’re welcome.” He loaded the plates with pancakes, crispy bacon and fluffy scrambled eggs. “I figured our breakup should be celebrated in style.”
“Our breakup?” Trina asked in surprise. She hadn’t really thought about the end of their three-way relationship as a breakup. The term had such negative connotations. She’d been thinking of it more in terms of them simply not having sex anymore. Jeremy was right though. It was more than that. The three of them had been inseparable for the past few months, both in and out of the bedroom. It was like they’d been living in a little two-apartment bubble world of their own making. The bubble had popped the instant she said yes to Brady’s date. They all knew it, but Jeremy, with his usual bluntness, was the first to put it into words.
“Yes, we’re breaking up,” Jeremy said. “But I don’t want either of you to make a scene about it. No tears and no begging.” He handed them each a plate. “I don’t want to have to make some lame speech about how it’s not you, it’s me.”
“We promise to be good,” Brady said with a smirk as they sat down at the dining table. “That was the announcement you were talking about?”
“Not quite.” Jeremy slathered his pancakes with maple syrup, but made no move to eat. They both stared at him expectantly. He stared at his plate. “I’m moving out.”
Trina’s hands dropped to the table where her cutlery struck her plate with a loud clatter. “Why?”
“Come on, Trina.” Jeremy’s gaze met hers and she glimpsed the darkness behind his smile. “You know why.”
“I know things are different now and it’ll be a bit of an adjustment, but we can get past it, can’t we?” She reached out for his hand. “I don’t want to lose you.”
“You’re not losing me, I promise,” he assured her. “We’ll be together again, but for now I need to be on my own for a while. Plus, you guys need time to be a couple, and you can’t do that with your ex-lover lying around like outdated furniture.”
“Jeremy,” Brady said, his voice low with warning.
“I know, I know,” Jeremy said, rolling his eyes at the other man. “What we had was all beautiful and shit, but I’m trying to make a point here.”
“Where will you go?” Trina asked.
“While you two were lazing around in bed, I was making phone calls.” He started cutting up his breakfast, as if the topic of their conversation was of no great importance. Trina glanced at Brady, who gave her a shrug before he followed suit. Trina forced herself to join them, though she wasn’t sure she could eat anything. “I’m going to see a couple of one-bedroom places this week,” Jeremy continued. “I’ll stay with my sister until I find something.” For a moment he paused, giving her a look of regret. “Sorry about leaving you in the lurch so soon after I moved in.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Brady cut in. “She knows the owner now.”
“True. You think he can do me a deal on the rent?” she asked Brady with a flirtatious grin.
He winked at her. “I’m sure we can sort something out.”
“There you go, then. Everything is going to work out fine,” Jeremy said. “Now, let’s eat. I’ve got packing to do.”
Trina forced herself to chew and swallow, though her appetite for the delicious food was gone.
By mid-afternoon, they’d managed to box up Jeremy’s belongings, ready for a moving crew to collect when he found somewhere new to live. He’d packed everything he would need in the meantime into an old travel backpack that now sat beside the front door.
The three of them stood in the living room, staring at each other as they tried to find a way to say goodbye.
“I’m going to look at this as the start of a new adventure,” Jeremy said, his mouth pulled into a wide smile. “Which means this was my origin story and I’m pretty sure that makes you,” he pointed a finger at Brady, “my mentor.”
“Mentor?” Brady pulled a doubtful face. “No way, I was the love interest.”
Chuckling, Jeremy said, “Maybe you were both.” Trina felt like her heart was going to break as she watched the two men pull each other into a back-thumping hug. “You taught me what it’s like to be loved instead of owned,” Jeremy told him. “Thank you for that.”
“Take care of yourself,” Brady replied, his voice rough. “Find someone with great penmanship and a generous heart. No more settling for less than you deserve.”
Jeremy laughed as he nodded. “I promise to be very demanding.”
Trina took a deep breath when he turned her way, trying to be as calm about their breakup as the men seemed to be. “Who am I in this origin story of yours?”
Stepping forward, he took her hands in his. “My stalwart ally and best friend.”
Trina bit into her bottom lip, blinking repeatedly, but it didn’t help. “I’m sorry,” she cried as she felt a single tear make a break for it, rolling down her left cheek. “I know I’m not supposed to cry, but I’m going to miss you so much.”
“I’ll miss you too.” As he pulled her into his arms, she saw a shadow of grief, raw and terrible, past over his face. It was so fast she almost missed it, but it told her how much his cheerfulness was costing him. He held on so tight she could barely breathe, but she didn’t care. “We’re soul mates, Trina,” he murmured in her ear. “We were meant to meet and change each other’s lives. But you’ve given me the strength to move on and build a life of my own. And it’s gonna be incredible.”
She nodded against his shoulder, before pulling back to kiss his cheek. “Come back,” she whispered, “as soon as you can. Our door will always be open for you.”
“I’m counting on it,” he replied as he stepped away. Picking up his heavy pack, he slung it over his shoulder. “Don’t fret my little chickadees,” he told them as he opened the front door. “I’ll be back.” Then, the door swung shut behind him, and he was gone.
Trina let go of her tears, allowing them to fall unheeded. Strong arms came around her and she turned into Brady’s chest, holding on tight. When her tears slowed she took a deep breath and looked up at him. “I hate goodbyes.”
“I’m gonna miss him as well, but it’s the right thing. And he’ll be back before you know it,” he added with a bittersweet grin. “No one can stay away from you for long.”
Trina gave a watery laugh. “Until then, we have each other,” she said, excited about the future in ways she’d never before dreamed she could be, “and the rest of our lives to look forward to.”
“You bet your arse, we do.” Brady lowered his head and his kiss was sweet, tender and filled with love. “As long as I have you, I will always have everything I need.”
Epilogue
Six months later
Brady woke up when his phone buzzed. Groaning at the early morning intrusion, he rolled over to curl around the warmth of Trina’s sleeping form. If his mother was inviting them over for Sunday brunch again he would go freaking insane. He knew his parents were happy he’d brought home another woman when he walked back into their lives—a fact that irked Trina, though she’d learnt to deal with it—but the lengths they were going to in order to make Trina feel ‘part of the family’ were ridiculous. They would have scared off a more timid woman. Thankfully, his lover was made of sterner stuff.
Not that he could tell at the moment, with her all softness and warmth in his arms. Burying his face against the back of her neck, he smiled when her hair tickled his nose.
His phone buzzed again.
Trina groaned this time. “No brunch today,” she moaned. “I’m too tired.”
“What time did you come to bed?” he asked, dropping kisses between her shoulder blades.
“Around one-thirty.” She rolled onto her back and her arms curled loosely around his waist as he slid over her. “I got all my work up to date though. A couple more months and I’ll be able to go full-time.”
Settling between her thighs, Brady pressed lazy kisses across her chest until she gave a contented sigh. “You could always quit your day job now,” he suggested—again.
Her lips curved into a lazy grin. “Soon,” she replied. “I want my cranky boss to help pay for the wedding first.”
Brady smiled at his powerhouse of a fiancée. Trina had gone from strength to strength over the past six months, first with her artwork and then her marketing prowess. Her determination to succeed in her new venture had blown him away. Between her growing business skills and his industry contacts, they were building a solid business that, at times, saw them bringing in more work than they could handle. Brady had been forced for find another freelance editor to take on some of the load and Trina had found them a virtual assistant to handle the basic administration tasks, which freed up her time for more covers. He’d been right when he’d suggested they would make a good team. They made the best team, in every sense of the word, and he’d never been happier.
Trina’s phone buzzed twice in quick succession.
Brady lifted his head, looking at Trina’s phone, then his own, before meeting Trina’s excited gaze. “No way,” she whispered.
They both scrambled toward their phones at once.
“Yours buzzed first,” Trina said. “What does yours say?”
Brady brought his phone to the middle of the bed, so they could read the messages Jeremy had sent together.
ETA 20 mins.
That was followed by…
This morning’s breakfast shall be brought to you by me and the letter B.
Brady grinned as he shook his head. “It’s about bloody time he showed up.”
“The letter B,” Trina mused. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“No idea. What did he say to you?”
Trina brought up her messages.
B as in boyfriend, because that’s who’s coming with me.
And then…
So get the hell up!
“Jeremy’s got a boyfriend!” She squealed so loud as she jumped out of the bed, Brady wondered if he’d suffer permanent hearing loss.
Laughing at her excitement, he checked the time on the first message. “We’ve got about ten minutes before they get here.”
“Crap.” Trina rushed around the room, putting on underwear before pulling a dress over her head. She jumped when her phone buzzed again. “What did he say?”
Picking up the phone, Brady read the message. “He wants to know if we’re dead, but says that won’t stop him from showing up.”
“You’d better text him back,” she said with a snort.
Brady replied on his own phone. “Alive. Kicking. Hungry.” He hit send.
“How is it a professional editor has so much trouble stringing a whole sentence together?”
He gave her a droll look. “I use language efficiently.”
“Oh yeah?” She opened the second closet door. “I use actions efficiently,” she said, right before she threw a t-shirt at his head. “Get dressed.”
Jeremy couldn’t keep the grin off his face as he stood on the driveway and stared up at the closed doors on the top level of the apartment block. Ah, the nostalgia.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t have given them more warning?”
Turning to the man who stood beside him, Jeremy lifted a single eyebrow. “Hey, this is restrained for me. I was all for storming in and jumping on them. I still have a key, you know?”
Harrison gave him an incredulous look. “You think I’m letting you anywhere near a bed with these two? I don’t think so.” He hefted the bag he carried under one arm before wrapping his free hand around the back of Jeremy’s neck. “Call me a selfish bastard, but I’m not sharing you with anyone.”
“Ditto.” Their mouths joined in a kiss and Jeremy savoured the taste and texture of the man who had come to mean more to him than life itself. “Besides, I would never do anything to make you sad,” he continued. “Your smile is my sunshine.”
He’d fought for Harrison’s smile, and every time he saw it he lost his breath all over again, bu
t in a way that caused his heart to thump with joy.
“It should be,” Harrison said in a low voice. “You’re the one who gave it back to me.”
Jeremy hadn’t expected it to happen so fast, never thought he’d fall in love so completely. It had been hard for him to trust in it, but from the moment he had, it was like all the parts of his life had fallen into place. And he felt peace.
“If it’s too much we could head home right now,” Jeremy reminded him.
“And do what, spend another Sunday in bed?” Harrison’s gaze ran over his face, his eyes alight with memories of their last three Sunday’s in a row. “We do have enough croissants here to last at least a couple of days,” he pointed out.
Jeremy gave a low chuckle. “Croissants in bed, huh? Sounds messy.”
“It’s meant to be,” Harrison replied, trailing the tip of his tongue up the length of Jeremy’s neck. “Then I get to lick pastry crumbs off your skin.”
A groan escaped as his head tilted to the side, giving his lover better access. “You know all the ways to distract me, don’t you?”
“I’m sure I could find a couple more.” Harrison slid a hand down to cup Jeremy’s hardening cock through his jeans. “If I try real hard.”
“They’ll understand,” Jeremy muttered, his breath coming faster as he started pushing Harrison back down the driveway. “We’ll come back another day.”
Laughing, Harrison turned them around so they were heading back toward the stairs. “No way,” he said, shaking his head. “These people are important to you. You’re important to me. We’re not leaving until I’ve met them.” Grabbing Jeremy by the front of his shirt, he pulled him forward for another bone-melting kiss. “We’ll go home to bed after breakfast.”
Everything We Need (Finding Forever Book 4) Page 18
