Page 102 of By All Accounts
“Silas is hisboyfriend.”
Sophie squinted and shook her head. “I’m certain he said fiancé, and I’m certain he’s said it more than once.”
“That absolute piece of shit,” I grumbled, even though I didn’t really mean it. “The audacity of him to lord over us while keeping a secret like that.”
“Ask him about it on Friday,” Daniel suggested.
“Oh, I’m going to.”
Marshall Covington, the brother I held in highest regard, the man I unofficially viewed as the true patriarch of our messed up little family had a secret fiancé in the wings? How dare he. I wondered if Hunter knew. There was no way he didn’t because there was no way Lincoln didn’t know, and when Lincoln and Silas weren’t fucking their respective Covington brothers, they were joined at the hip.
“Can we get back to the original elephant?” Sophie tapped her fingernails against the underside of my chin and I fought a shiver.
“We’ll figure out the houses,” I repeated our earlier agreement.
“Maybe we can spend some nights here, some nights there.”
I noticed the way she didn’t call it their house and my house, and the earlier tension at the base of my spine evaporated into nothing more than helpless want for the two of them.
“You’ll witness,” Daniel said.
“And you’ll take off the third week in September to come on a trip with us,” Sophie said, leaning her head back so Daniel could kiss her temple.
The two of them had clearly talked through this whole conversation on the way over, or maybe even some point before, I wasn’t sure. And this was what I’d signed up for, wasn’t it? I knew what it meant to come into an established relationship, and I understood there were still decisions that had to be made together before my opinion even entered the mix.
I also knew that wouldn’t be forever.
“I can’t come on your honeymoon with you,” I muttered.
“Of course you will,” she said simply.
“Of course you will,” Daniel repeated.
The two of them watched me with matching looks in their eyes. It was a dangerous kind of hope, the kind that spoke of uncharted territory and uncertain futures guided by not much more than dreams and wants. I knew the same emotions were reflected back when they looked at me, and there was no way I could tell either of them no. I didn’t want to tell either of them no.
With Sophie and Daniel in front of me, I was on the brink of seeing everything I’d wanted for myself realized. I’d been told for so many years I was too much, that I wanted too hard, loved too deeply, and now here were the two of them saying everything I’d been told was a lie.
I swallowed hard, leaned in, and kissed the corner of Sophie’s mouth, Daniel’s lower lip.
“Of course I will,” I promised.
Daniel stretched forward, flinging himself over Sophie’s shoulders to wrap one of his hands around the base of my neck. He yanked our foreheads together, Sophie smashed against my cheek as she slid one of her hands around my waist to hold me up in front of them.
“That’s enough elephants for tonight,” I said under my breath, and when Sophie laughed, it sounded so delightful I had to shake myself out of their hold or risk losing my mind entirely.
“Hopefully for a while,” I said.
She reached across the counter and hooked her finger around the edge of my plate, dragging it toward the empty stool to Daniel’s left. She did the same to my silverware and my drink, angling her head to the place she’d decided I was supposed to sit. And so I did.
The three of us finished the dinner I’d cooked, watched a cartoon on my couch, and then fell into bed, naked and warm and wanting.
CHAPTER 35
SOPHIE
Two weeks after our first night at Finn’s, I stood in front of the mirror in my bedroom and frowned at my reflection. Daniel came up behind me and knocked the side of his head against mine. His hair was still wet from the shower, and I sidestepped him so he didn’t ruin my blowout. He chased after me, pinching my ribs playfully before turning to look at his own reflection.
“I’m as nervous as I was the first time I met your parents,” he said to me.
