60. Stella
CHAPTER 60
STELLA
F rom one extreme to another, their eyes go from narrow to wide as saucers. They also suddenly become hard of hearing. “What?!” they both say at the same time, raising their voices so much that I worry they’ll wake Jessie.
“I guess you didn’t realize I knew, but I did. You told me you didn’t want any other women, then you fucked your editor, and who knows how many other women.”
“We did not!” Wyatt says with conviction, though his voice is lower after seeing me glance toward Jessie’s bedroom window.
Cam’s on his feet now, and has disturbed Goldfish from his sleep. “Stella, where did you get an idea like that?”
I fold my arms over my chest and sit back against the cushion. “Directly from Trish herself. Why? Did you tell her to keep it a secret?”
“My god, Stella. We didn’t do that. We would never do that!” Wyatt’s at the edge of his seat, looking at me like I’m speaking a foreign language.
“Trish told you that?” Cam asks, incredulous. They’re both pretty convincing. Maybe they should try to use their internet fame to get acting jobs.
“She did. Was it just a one-time thing, or have you kept on fucking her?”
Cam falls to his knees and reaches for my hand, but I avoid his grasp. “Stella, it’s not true. We’ve never had sex with Trish. We haven’t so much as looked at another woman since we met you.”
Wyatt’s head is in his hands. When he looks up, he asks, “How could you have believed that?”
Cam looks between me and Wyatt. “Why would Trish have said that? She’s never been anything but a friend and coworker. Even flirting with her would be inappropriate.”
Wyatt comes to kneel in front of me, too. “Stella, it’s a lie. You have to believe us.”
They both look so heartbroken that I can’t believe they’re lying to me, but I’m still wary. “I’m usually inclined to believe women,” I say in nearly a whisper. I’m so confused.
Cam rubs my knee. “I understand that, and I know women are not believed as often as they should be, but in this case, Trish is lying, Stella.”
“Didn’t you say that Trish also told you we messed around with our followers? Something about revolving doors in our bedrooms?” Wyatt asks.
I give a small nod. “Something to that effect.”
“At the time, we thought she was making assumptions from online comments, but maybe there’s a pattern here.”
Cam pulls his phone out. “I’m going to call her.”
As he taps her number, I decide that I’m pretty sure I believe the men. What follows makes me certain.
“Hellooo,” she answers. Cam has her on speaker, and as soon as I hear her voice, I’m right back at their house with her, basket of muffins in my hand, my world being upended.
“I’m putting you on FaceTime,” Cam tells her. “Wyatt and Stella are here, and we all want to talk to you.”
“Okay …” Her tone changes completely after she hears my name.
“Trish, did you tell Stella that we had sex with you?”
The silence is deafening. Then she stutters a bit before saying, “I may have made a joke about that, yeah.”
Cam frowns into the screen. “You joked about having sex with us? What kind of joke is that?”
Trish shrugs, looking like she’d rather be anywhere else but on this call, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she ended it.
“Why would you do that? “Wyatt asks.
Meanwhile, I’m fuming. All the anger I felt toward the men now has a new direction. I’m tempted to yank the phone out of Cam’s hand and give her an earful, but she’s their employee and the lie was about them, so they should be the ones to handle it.
“I didn’t think your relationship with Stella was serious,” Trish says. “Besides, you’re always walking around here shirtless, taunting me. I guess it just got in my head.”
“Our job revolves around us being shirtless, Trish. We weren’t doing it to ‘taunt you.’” We thought of you like family—like a sister—and I can’t believe you did this to us.”
Wyatt, who’s been gripping my knee through the call, takes the phone. “You’re fired, Trish. Effective immediately. We’ll be in touch about your last paycheck.” He clicks off the call and hands it back to Cam, who starts tapping at the screen.
“I’m removing her access to all our accounts.”
“The same day she lied to you, she posted footage we told her not to. Just some goofy shit Cam did that should have never seen the light of day.”
“I was flirting with the camera, pretending it was you,” Cam says.
“Oh, and that’s what you thought I was upset about, that you posted a flirty video?”
“To be honest, it was raunchy as well as flirty, but yeah. We figured you saw it and thought we were childish men who could never fit into your life or your daughter’s life.”
“I never saw it ..” I try to absorb all this new information. They thought I was mad about a video, and they had no idea I was under the impression they had sex with Trish.
I’m so mad about the time that’s been wasted. “I’m sorry I shut you out,” I say. “If we had talked, this could have all come to light much sooner.”
Wyatt moves to sit next to me on the loveseat. “I get why you’d be too angry to talk to us, if you thought we’d slept with someone else.”
Cam manages to fit on my other side. It’s a tight fit, but it feels so good to be between them again. “I can’t believe you’d think we’d do that,” he says, as he takes my hand.
“Trish planted the seed a while ago, making Stella believe we’re the type of guys who’d do that,” Wyatt says. Looking at me, he adds, “I get why you’d have trust issues, after what happened with Jessie’s father, and with your mom. I’m going to be more skeptical of people myself now, after what Trish did.”
“We’re so sorry about all this,” Cam says.
“There’s nothing for you to apologize for. You didn’t do anything wrong. I should have questioned you instead of just believing Trish, but it never occurred to me that she’d lie about something like that.”
“Me either,” Cam says. “I still don’t get it.”
“I think she was trying to chase me away because she wanted you for herself.”
They both seem mystified by the idea, and it’s amazing how humble two men who look like them can be.
“I can’t believe we almost lost you over this.” Cam slides an arm around my shoulder and pulls me close, but then leans away so he can look into my eyes. “We haven’t lost you, have we?”
I shake my head. “You haven’t lost me.”
He wraps me in both of his arms and pulls me into the best hug I’ve ever had, which is only to be matched a moment later by an equally enthusiastic embrace from Wyatt. “We were miserable without you, Stella.”
“I’ve been miserable without both of you,” I admit.
After Wyatt’s had his time with me, Cam pulls me back into his arms. “If this whole ordeal had one silver lining, it’s that we now know for certain that we can’t live without you. We need you in our lives, Stella.”
Wyatt’s hand slides up my thigh. “We’re going to show you each and every day how much we want you, and only you.”
Cam nuzzles my cheek as he gives my arm a squeeze. “In fact, I’m ready to carry you over that fence and into our house, and never let you go,” Cam says.
“Not to break the mood, because I would enjoy that very, very much, but I can’t leave tonight, not after Jessie’s fall.”
Both men nod. “Of course,” Wyatt says.
“But let’s make that happen very soon,” I say.
“In the meantime …” With a finger on my chin, Wyatt turns my face toward his and meets my lips with the sweetest, most satisfying kiss, one that’s filled with tenderness, relief, and what I’d swear might be love. I give it all back to him as gratitude washes over me in waves.
I was already incredibly fond of these men, but absence has increased that feeling immeasurably, and my heart feels like it’s grown so big, my chest can’t contain it.
Cam takes his turn next, and as warmth fills my entire body, I’m certain that the best thing I ever did was kiss my neighbors.
I’m just as sure that I never intend to stop.