Nicole Edwards - Travis

“Look, we do need to get back to Dallas,” Luke said as he pulled Sierra up against him.

“Oh, and Gage, if you’re interested in a job, I know this resort who needs a security team. I heard that the owner was actually thinking about hiring an out of work cop to manage things for him.”

Gage flipped his gaze to Travis’, his eyebrow going up in question.

Hmmm. Did he fail to mention that to Gage?

Travis and Luke had talked about Gage managing the resort shortly after they found out he was undercover. Since he was a friend of the family, Travis had wanted to bring him on if he was interested. He just never got around to discussing it yet.

“Thanks, I’ll have to talk to the guy,” Gage told Cole as they shook hands.

Luke slapped Travis on the back and leaned down close to his ear, “Whatever you do, don’t fuck this up.”

Travis laughed. “Pot. Kettle, right?”

“Damn straight.”

♂♂♀

After Luke, Cole and Sierra made their exit, the three of them stuck around long enough for Travis to drop cash on the table to cover the coffee and that was it.

Now, as Gage stood on his front porch, he watched Kylie’s truck pull down the driveway with Travis at the wheel. Because they had all arrived at the diner in separate vehicles, and neither of them wanted Kylie to drive when she was so upset, Travis decided to leave his, and he called Kaleb and asked him to get it when he could.

Gage felt a wave of déjà vu. Kylie was suddenly back in their lives after what felt like forever and a day, but had only been less than a week. The only difference now was Kylie was coming to see them on her own. For once, neither Travis nor Gage had interfered. And now Gage was ready to have that conversation they should’ve had before this all happened. The one that might’ve prevented any of the suffering that they’d had to go through to get here.

Gage walked out to the truck and opened Kylie’s door for her, taking her hand in his as they headed into the air conditioned house. June was in full swing, and now that the storms weren’t blowing in cooler air, it was downright uncomfortable to be outside for more than a few minutes.

Once inside, Gage led her to the living room and let her crawl up onto the couch. He watched as she kept her eyes down and curled her feet up beneath her. She looked so broken, and he had to fight the urge to want to pull her into her arms and tell her everything would be ok.

As much as he wanted that to be the case, they still had to talk.

“Need anything?” Travis asked Kylie, and when she shook her head, he sat on the couch beside her, but not too close.

Gage sat down beside Travis. For some reason, he felt as though he needed to keep some distance between him and Kylie. She’d hurt him and the throbbing ache was still alive in his chest, even if seeing her was the closest he’d come to any sort of relief in several days.

“For the record, we had no idea they were going to do that,” Travis told Kylie as he crossed one leg over the opposite knee and reclined back into the couch.

“I know.”

“Do you?” he asked, his temper rearing its ugly head.

Kylie met his gaze head on. “I do. I talked to Sierra, and I think they did it because Zoey asked them to.” At the mention of Zoey’s name, Kylie looked at Gage, but he didn’t say anything.

What could he say? It wasn’t like he could change the past, no matter what Kylie wanted.

“I owe you an apology,” she told Gage. “I was so shocked to find out that you had been with her…” Her words died off.

“We know this is new to you, Kylie,” Gage began, unsure where he was even going with this. “And maybe we should’ve told you that we had a history with this sort of thing. For me, because nothing I’ve ever experienced came even close to this,” he said as he waved his hand to encompass the three of them, “I didn’t even consider the subject relevant.”

“So, it is different from when you were with her?” Kylie sounded surprised.

Gage glanced between the Travis and Kylie. If he was going to lay it all on the line, now was his opportunity. He could tell them he loved them and be done with it. Whatever their reaction, he’d have to live with it.

When he opened his mouth to speak, nothing came out.

“It’s a lot different,” Travis said calmly, speaking directly to Kylie. “Like I told you before, until you, I had never loved anyone. And until Gage, I hadn’t loved anyone after you.”

Gage was staring at Kylie as Travis spoke. When the last words came out, he jerked his head in Travis direction. Gage’s heart skipped a beat. Maybe two. He stared at Travis, replaying what he’d just said over in his mind, trying to figure out if he’d misinterpreted it. When Travis turned to meet his gaze, he knew he hadn’t.

“I should have told you before,” Travis said, his voice low. “I’ve spent the last three days trying to come up with the way to say the words, but I chickened out.”

Gage couldn’t say anything at all.

“And I should’ve told you, too,” Kylie added. “Both of you.” She angled her body on the couch to face Travis more fully and said, “I loved you the very first day I met you. I spent ten years hoping I’d stop loving you. The day Gage took me to see you, I realized it hadn’t worked.”

The room was so quiet, the only sound was the air coming through the vents from the air conditioner.

“And Gage, I fell in love with you before you brought Travis back into my life. The day you came to my house, and we made love for the first time, I knew I’d never stop loving you. No matter how badly you hurt me.”

“I’m sorry,” Gage said automatically.

“I’m not,” Kylie added. “I didn’t like it at the time, but if you hadn’t dug around in Travis’ past and found me, we wouldn’t be here. And I don’t even know exactly where we are at this point, but I can tell you, I...” Kylie stopped as a sob tore from her chest.

Gage wasn’t sure which one of them moved faster, but Gage was on one side of Kylie as Travis was moving up to her other side, their arms going around her.

When she got herself under control, she started speaking again. “I don’t want a divorce,” she told Travis. “I don’t know how this works or even what’s legally acceptable, but I want to be married. To you both.”

“Baby,” Travis whispered as he pulled her close.

“Sierra said she had two husbands,” Kylie hiccupped as she buried her face in Travis’ shirt.

“They aren’t legally married, but yes, there are some ways to go about it,” Travis replied, his eyes locked on Gage’s.

As he sat there staring into pools of steel blue, Gage finally found the words he’d been searching for, and they fell from his lips although the rest of his body didn’t seem to be working. “I love you,” he whispered to Travis.

He hadn’t thought Kylie could hear him, but she looked up at him just as Travis said, “I love you, too. And Kylie, I love you, baby.”

Kylie held Gage’s stare for long seconds. The words were on the tip of his tongue and he had every intention of telling her, but he was holding back because he knew once they were out there… if she ever walked away again, he wasn’t going to survive it.

She must’ve realized he was having a hard time because she moved closer, taking his hands in hers. “I’m sorry. I know you might not be able to trust me, but when I tell you that I love you, I want you to know that the only other person I’ve ever said that to is Travis. I don’t take the words lightly.”

Gage slid his hand into Kylie’s hair, holding her so she continued to face him. “I trust you, Kylie. That’s never been the issue. I’ve just never realized I could love anyone as much as I love you and Travis. And truthfully, it just scares the shit out of me.”

“I’ve always been told that a little fear is a good thing,” Kylie whispered as she leaned in to press her lips against his. “It means you’re alive.”

♂♂♀

Not in a million years did Travis ever believe he’d be here. The place, the people, the conversation. For so long, it’d been a dream and yet here they were, sitting in Gage’s living room, professing their love for one another. Copping to their fears and their mistakes.

They weren’t lying in bed, bodies wrapped together and sharing the sweet words that seem so easy to speak in the heat of the moment. Not that he’d ever spoken the words that way either, but this was much more intimate than he ever expected.

Too bad his true nature was kicking in because Travis’ cock was as hard as a baseball bat, and he was ready to strip them both and alternate fucking them both until they were screaming his name. He’d be more than willing to tell them he loved them a million times after the three of them came.

His opportunity presented itself when Kylie kissed Gage, but as he moved closer, she pulled back. He waited, breathless and eager, and he wasn’t disappointed because Kylie leaned in again and this time Gage pulled her to him, cupping the back of her head as their mouths pressed together.

Travis wasn’t sitting this one out, and he quickly got in on the action, moving up behind Kylie, lifting her so she was sitting on his thigh as they crushed her between them. Travis grabbed the backs of their heads and inserted his close enough so they had to break the kiss.

“What are you doing?” Kylie giggled.

Yeah, it probably looked a little ridiculous, but he had his reasons.

“I’m planning to kiss you,” he explained. “Both of you, right now.”

And that’s exactly what they did, the three of them shared a kiss hot enough to torch the place down. Maybe that was because they expressed their love for one another, or because they’d spent so many days apart. Travis didn’t care. He would put more effort into thinking about it once they were naked.