Page 44 of The Cabin-A Reverse Harem Romance
“I think I’m ready to go to sleep now,” she said.
“Good,” I said.
I kissed her one more time, and watched as she walked up the stairs, to lay in bed with two of my best friends. The whole scenario was weird, to say the least, but what was even stranger was that I didn’t feel weird about it. It didn’t matter to me if she loved Trevor and Sean as well, because I knew she loved me too. I couldn’t explain it at the time, but all that mattered was her happiness.
* * *
Chase didn’t say much to me that morning. He’d at least pretended to be asleep when I got back inside, and I collapsed on the fold out sofa, exhausted and ready to sleep at last. My mind had drifted off to Elise, and I dreamt of us – of all of us – happily together, raising the child inside of her. What woke me up wasn’t Chase, or even Trevor or Sean. It was Elise.
She crawled into bed with me, curling up around me. When I opened my eyes, she smiled.
“Good morning, sunshine,” she said.
“Good morning,” I mumbled, still half asleep. “What time is it?”
“Time to get up,” she said.
Her smile wavered a bit, and that’s when I realized it was mostly for show. Something was bothering her, and it very nearly stopped my heart cold.
I sat up and noticed Chase was snoring away in the chair, and there was no sign of Trevor or Sean. It was just Elise and me. I feared she was regretting what had happened the night before, so I got right down to it.
“Everything okay?”
She shrugged. “I took the pregnancy test,” she said, her voice barely a whisper.
“And?” I asked.
“It said I’m not pregnant,” she said. “And I started spotting a bit today, so it’s probably not a false negative.”
I’d expected her to be happy, to be overjoyed at the news that she wasn’t expecting her ex’s baby after all, but there were tears shimmering in her eyes, and a sadness to her that I couldn’t explain.
“Want to talk about it?” I asked.
“Not much to talk about. I thought I was pregnant, but I’m not,” she said. “It happens, I guess.”
Her blue eyes looked so pitiful and sad, and I knew there was more to the story that she wasn’t telling me. I reached out for her, and she came to me easily, resting in my arms even though her body was tense, and she sniffled quietly. I knew that sometimes it was better to let others talk at their own pace, to not push them. She’d talk to me when she was ready. This wasn’t my story to tell, or to force out of her.
It only took her a second to start opening up, however.
“It’s, just for a moment, I was actually excited,” she said, crying softly against my shirt. “I’d always wanted to be a mom, and I thought this was my chance. You know?”
“You’ve got plenty of time left for kids, Elise,” I said.
“I know, but what if I don’t meet anyone worth having kids with, Nolan? And by that, I mean any one person,” she said. “I’m so caught up in the four of you, and that’s no way to live life, is it? Not to have a family like that? It’s not possible. Who was I kidding?”
“Shhh,” I said, holding her close, stroking her velvety soft hair against her head. I had no answers for her. “Only you can decide what you want out of life, Elise. I don’t have the answers.”
“You always have the answers, Nolan,” she said, her attempt at a half-hearted joke I’m sure.
She was right though. I always had the answers. I was the one who always knew what to do, where to go, and I had a plan. This time, however, I had none. I had nothing, because there was no handbook outlining how this was all supposed to happen. There was nothing I could say or do to help her. She had to decide for herself what she wanted.
“For some questions, there are no easy answers,” I said. “You have to decide what’s right for you. Do you want to be with more than one of us at a time?”
She pulled back, staring at me like I’d suggested something dirty.
“I can’t, can I?”
“Maybe? Why not?” I said. “I can’t speak for the others, but –”
“No, that’s no way to live,” she said, biting her lip. “It’s not fair to any of you. And God, Aaron would be so upset at me for even thinking about it. You’re his best friends, like brothers to him. This is not the way to treat people you care about.”
“You’ve done nothing wrong, Elise,” I said.
I wanted her to believe me, and I didn’t think she’d done anything wrong, but I wasn’t sure how the other guys would feel about it. Chase stirred on the chair beside us, causing Elise to sit up suddenly like we were teenagers getting caught doing something we shouldn’t have been doing. She wiped at her eyes and climbed out of bed.
