Chapter 21
Sadie wasn’t there when Dawson pulled up to the kerb in front of the house they’d rented together for years. He couldn’t decide how he felt about it. He needed to see her, talk to her, so that they could get this all out in the open. Lance the wound so they could heal. He missed his best friend. He also wanted to keep the men he’d fallen in love with. And he didn’t want to have to choose between them.
“Maybe I should go in alone,” Dawson said, hesitating.
“You want me to wait in the car?” Gideon asked, amused. He glanced behind himself to where Riley had parked behind them. “I don’t think he’s gonna do that.”
Of course he wouldn’t. Why they’d insisted on coming with him, he had no idea. He could grab some of his stuff on his own. He didn’t need an escort or moral support. If Sadie had been home, he couldn’t have let Riley go in with him. And yet Riley had told him in no uncertain terms they were coming along as well.
Dawson couldn’t believe he got off on Riley’s controlling, asshole behaviour. “Let’s just hurry in case she comes home.” He couldn’t believe he’d even said that. He’d never once tried to avoid Sadie in his life. They’d all but grown up together. In the past, he would have known what her plans were and where she could be found. They rarely didn’t know each other’s locations.
And now look at them.
When he circled the car, Gideon stopped him from moving towards the house, instead pulling him into his arms. Dawson sagged into them, the hold comforting and warm.
“It’s gonna be alright,” Gideon promised. “We’ve got you.”
Dawson clung to him for a second longer and then pulled away. “I’m just getting some clothes; it’s fine.” They didn’t need to travel in pairs. Or… threes.
Gideon ducked his head curiously into their living room as Dawson took them through the place, not being subtle in the least about checking it out.
“Up to your standards?” Dawson asked in amusement.
“Just looking. Now I have a visual for where you are when you aren’t with us for the night.”
“I don’t sleep on the couch.”
“Are you going to show us your room? I believe it’s the only bed of ours that we haven’t been naked in.”
“We’re not getting naked,” Dawson said. He planned to be in and out way quicker than it would take to fuck them in his bed. The longer they stayed, the more chance Sadie had of coming home. The idea of them on his bed, though… No, he had a plan. They were going to stick to the plan. They could fuck later.
Riley watched them both, one hip against the counter, looking like sex incarnate.
No . No. They were not having sex in his room. He didn’t care how tempting they were. They were going back to Riley’s after this, and he had a perfectly serviceable bed there. All of them could attest to that, multiple times over. Even his couch worked well for some of the things they did together.
Gideon moved into the bedroom with Dawson. Riley chose to stay in the doorway, surveying the room with his ice-blue gaze.
“The bed is made,” Riley observed.
Probably best not to point out that Marshall had probably done it the last time he’d been over because he couldn’t help himself, and he had declared Dawson and Sadie slobs years ago. An unfair assessment: they kept their house perfectly fine to the average person. Dishes got washed, clothes were clean, and they even washed their sheets every month.
He found a small suitcase in the wardrobe, with no memory of purchasing it, and dumped it on the bed before unzipping it. In went some more underwear, a hoodie he’d been missing, some of his toiletry supplies, and a couple more pairs of pants and T-shirts. He had no way of knowing how long Sadie would refuse to talk to him, and he didn’t want to come back until he’d given her sufficient space. However long that took. He couldn’t rush her; it would only make things worse.
Riley straightened, turning his head.
“What?” Dawson asked, dreading the answer.
“A car just pulled into the driveway.”
Couldn’t be Marshall. He always parked out the front. He had a “spot.” The last time someone had already parked in it, he’d complained about it for an hour.
It could be Darcy, but he never came over without calling or checking they were home first with a half dozen messages and at least three voicemails. Which meant Sadie.
His luck couldn’t be that bad. They’d barely been there five minutes. He eyed the window long enough that Riley said, “No,” in his usual brusque tone, and Dawson had to give up on his idea of climbing out of it so she didn’t see them. They were on the bottom floor, and the window would fit them. Why couldn’t it be an option? They could be gone before she knew they were here.
“We drove your car,” Gideon said. “And it’s right out front for everyone to see. She’s going to know you’re here.”
“She doesn’t know you’re here. You could climb out the window.”
“My days of chasing perps through open windows is long gone,” Riley said drolly.
“But you did, once upon a time?”
“Remind me to tell you about one of the first arrests that Quinn and I ever conducted. It’s a miracle we both survived it.”
Dawson couldn’t decide if that made him want to know more or less . A bit of column A, a bit of column B. Riley stood right in front of him, so it wasn’t like it had killed him. Or Quinn.
“Let me just”—he put his hands up placatingly—“talk to her first before she sees either of you.” He tugged Riley into the room and out of view. “If you hear screaming, use the window.”
“No one is going out the window.”
“Just stay here.” He’d wanted her here, and now he didn’t. If everything could slow down for two seconds so that he could think, he’d love that.
Sadie waited for him in the kitchen, standing beside the table with her car keys still in her hand. Dawson wouldn’t blame her if she planned on sticking him with them. He’d even stand still for her.
She looked him over with pursed lips. “You look like shit.”
“Not sleeping properly does that.” He didn’t look that bad, did he? Riley surely would have told him.
“Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?” she asked.
Fucking hell, this isn’t how he wanted this to go down. “Sadie, please—”
“No. No, I can’t do this with you.” She turned her back on him and then whirled back around to face him. “How could you? My own brother, Dawson. The same brother who I didn’t even know about and who wants nothing to do with me. I know we never made the sibling rule because I don’t have siblings, and Marshall is… Marshall, but I feel like it’s a given, right?”
Dawson said nothing. He’d always found those kinds of pacts—and the movies that had them in it—kind of unfair and unrealistic. No matter how close friends were, dictating who they could and couldn’t sleep with—barring exes and current partners because they weren’t remotely the same thing—was the real line being crossed.
Riley wasn’t wrong when he said that what they did together wasn’t any of Sadie’s business. At the same time, Dawson knew he’d fucked up by keeping it hidden for so long. Besides, Riley and Sadie might share blood, but it didn’t make them siblings, not really. Riley’s refusal to have anything to do with her made Dawson’s actions so much worse.
“I’m sorry.”
“And that makes it okay?”
“Of course it doesn’t. I—” He cut off as footsteps sounded behind him. He already knew who they belonged to before Riley came around the corner.
“Fucking Christ, Riley, I asked you to stay in my room.” It hadn’t been a suggestion.
“Considering that you’re speaking about me, I have a right to be here,” Riley said. “And I think we should all be part of this discussion.”
“Oh my fucking God, are you kidding me? You brought him here?” Sadie glared first at Dawson and then Riley. Dawson tensed when she turned her gaze on Gideon. “And who the fuck is this? Another long-lost brother who would prefer to fuck my best friend than even have one single conversation with me?”
“Be very careful,” Riley warned, taking a step to move in front of Gideon and block her path. “If you bring him into this conversation, and have nothing to nice to say, the problems we have will get a whole lot bigger. Don’t ever think about sharpening your claws on him.”
“Wait, I do know you. You were the one that escorted me out of the station. Did you come here to do the same thing?”
“We’re not here to cause issues.”
Instead of biting back the way Dawson knew she wanted to, she closed her eyes. When they opened again, unshed tears sparkled against her bottom eyelashes. Dawson felt about two feet tall, knowing how much he’d hurt her. He’d never meant for any of this to happen. He should have told her from the start, shouldn’t have let Riley make the ultimatum of not speaking about it and letting the elephant in the room get bigger and bigger until they couldn’t contain it any longer. Until it had no choice but to implode.
“Sadie, I—I’m sorry, I—” He couldn’t say it was a mistake. Nothing he’d experienced with these men could ever be called that, and he wouldn’t say it even if it meant salvaging their relationship. He couldn’t let them find their feet again based on a lie. They needed to step forward, not back.
She turned and walked out without a word. Dawson’s heart dropped to the floor.
He went to follow her. They needed to get this out now, instead of letting it fester. He couldn’t let her run anymore, and he couldn’t keep hiding like a coward.
Riley grasped his elbow. “No, I’ll speak to her. Go with Gideon and finish getting what you came here for.” He strode out the door before Dawson could say a word.
“No one is going to die, right?” he said, glancing at Gideon.
“Riley knows enough to hide a body without getting caught,” Gideon helpfully answered.
Comforting. “I’m more worried about him than her.” This didn’t seem like the best time for them to have their first real conversation. Tensions were so high, Riley never held his punches, and Sadie didn’t listen well when angry.
Gideon nuzzled Dawson’s cheek and kissed him. “They need to work it out. They have to because they both want to keep you, and this is the only way they can.”
He wasn’t sure he liked being the bone in that kind of analogy.
Please don’t let this make it worse.