Chapter 15 Nolan
Logan and Blake appeared in the living room with varying degrees of consciousness. Logan looked like death warmed over, his hair sticking up at odd angles, his eyes barely open. Blake was already fully dressed but moving slowly, like his brain hadn't quite caught up with his body.
"This better be important," Logan muttered, collapsing onto the couch. "I had a dream I was being chased by extremely aggressive swans and I'd like to get back to it."
"Why swans?" Blake asked.
"I don't know, man. Dream logic."
"We need to talk about last night," I said, cutting through their tangent before we could get sidetracked into a discussion of Logan's subconscious.
Both of them went very still.
"What about last night?" Logan asked carefully.
"About the fact that we all kissed Mira. About what that means. About how we're going to handle this situation without destroying our friendship and team dynamics."
Silence.
"So," Blake said eventually. "We're acknowledging it happened."
"Obviously it happened," I said. "We can't just pretend—"
"I vote we pretend," Logan interrupted. "Pretending seems safe. Pretending is familiar. I'm very good at pretending."
"Logan!"
"Fine." He sat up, running his hands through his already chaotic hair. "Fine. Cards on the table. I like Mira. Like, really like her. In a way that's progressed past 'she's pretty' into 'I think about her constantly and get irrationally jealous when other people look at her' territory."
"Same," Blake said quietly.
They both looked at me.
"Yes," I admitted. "I also have feelings for her that extend beyond professional or friendly interest."
"So we all like the same girl," Logan said. "Who also happens to be our housemate and performance coach. And we all kissed her last night. That's... not ideal."
"That's a fucking disaster," I corrected.
"Language, Captain."
"Shut up, Logan."
"Make me."
"Children," Blake interrupted. "Can we focus?"
"Right." I took a deep breath, trying to channel my captain energy into productive problem-solving instead of panic. "We need to address the obvious sexual and romantic tension that's threatening to destroy everything. We need to figure out—"
The front door opened. Mira walked in, clearly coming back from an early morning run based on her athletic wear and flushed face. She stopped when she saw the three of us in the living room.
"Am I interrupting?" she asked.
"No," I said at the same time Logan said "Yes" and Blake said "Maybe."
Mira's eyebrow rose. "You're having a meeting about me. Without me."
"It's not—" I started.
"You're discussing what happened last night," she continued, walking into the living room with the confidence of someone who'd spent their life performing in front of judges. "Making decisions about my life, about our situation. Without including me in the conversation."
Fuck.
"We were trying to figure out the best approach before—" I tried.
"Before what? Before presenting me with your collective decision?
" Mira crossed her arms. "I've spent my entire life having other people make choices for me.
My parents decided I'd be a figure skater before I could walk.
Coaches dictated every aspect of my training.
Sam controlled our relationship and partnership.
And now you three think you can sit here and decide how to 'handle' this situation without my input? "
"That's not what we were doing," Blake said gently.
"Wasn't it?" Mira challenged. "What were you going to do? Draw straws? Establish a schedule? Decide which one of you 'gets me' while the others step back?"
The three of us exchanged guilty looks.
"We hadn't gotten that far," I admitted.
"Well, thank god I interrupted, then." Mira sat down in the remaining chair, her posture straight and defensive. "If we're having this conversation, I'm part of it."
She was right. Of course she was right. I'd been trying to protect everyone by controlling the situation, and in doing so, I'd fallen into the exact pattern of behavior she'd just escaped with Sam.
"You're right," I said. "I'm sorry. This conversation should include you."
"Thank you." Some of the tension left Mira's shoulders. "Now. What exactly were you discussing?"
"How to handle the fact that we all have feelings for you," Logan said bluntly. "And we all kissed you. And we all want—" He gestured vaguely. "More."
"More," Mira repeated.
"Yes," Blake confirmed.
They all looked at me. Because of course they did. Captain handles everything, including romantic disasters.
"The traditional solution would be for you to choose," I said carefully. "To decide which one of us you want to pursue a relationship with, while the others step back."
"And if I can't choose?" Mira asked quietly.
My heart stopped. "What?"
"I've never been allowed to choose anything before," she said, her voice carrying a vulnerability that made my chest ache.
"Every decision in my life has been made by someone else or dictated by circumstance.
And now you're asking me to choose between three people who—" She stopped herself.
"I don't know how to choose. I don't know what the right answer is.
I don't even know if there is a right answer. "
The three of us moved simultaneously, some coordinated instinct to comfort her kicking in.
We ended up in an awkward pile of limbs around her chair—me crouched beside her, Logan sitting at her feet, Blake leaning over the back of the chair.
Creating a protective circle that was probably smothering but felt right.
"Okay, this is ridiculous," Mira said, but she was smiling through her tears. "You all rushed to comfort me like concerned golden retrievers."
"I prefer 'majestic wolves,'" Logan said.
"You're a golden retriever, Logan. Accept it."
"Harsh but fair."
The tension broke with unexpected laughter, all four of us realizing how absurd we looked—tangled together in a failed group hug around a chair.
"Can I ask a question?" Mira said once we'd extracted ourselves and resumed normal sitting positions. "Have any of you ever... shared someone before?"
The question caused shocked silence.
Logan recovered first. "Define 'shared.'"
"You know what I mean."
Logan and Blake exchanged a look I couldn't quite interpret.
"Blake and I had a threesome freshman year," Logan admitted. "One night, very drunk, someone we both found attractive. It was purely physical. No emotional components. We never talked about it again."
I stared at them. "You what?"
"It was college experimentation," Blake said defensively, his ears turning red. "It happened once. It was fine."
"How was I not aware of this?" I demanded.
"Because we never talked about it," Logan said. "Like I said. It happened, it was fine, we moved on."
Mira was watching this exchange with fascination. "So it's possible. Theoretically."
"In hockey culture, sharing partners occasionally happens among close teammates who trust each other completely," I said, the words coming out more clinical than I intended. "It's not common, but it's not unheard of. Usually with the understanding that it's physical without emotional attachment."
"But this would be different," Blake said quietly. "Because we all have emotional attachment."
"To each other and to Mira," Logan added.
We all sat with that for a moment.
"I've been fantasizing about all three of you," Mira admitted suddenly, her face flushing. "I can't imagine choosing just one because in my head, it's always all of you together. And I don't know if that makes me broken or greedy or—"
"It doesn't make you any of those things," I interrupted. "It makes you honest."
"So what do we do?" she asked.
"We could try," Blake suggested hesitantly. "See if it works. No pressure, no expectations. Just... exploration."
"That's insane," I said automatically.
"Is it?" Logan countered. "We all want her. She wants all of us. We trust each other completely. Why is it insane to try?"
"Because it could destroy our friendship, our team dynamics, our season—"
"Or it could make us stronger," Blake interrupted. "If we communicate and set boundaries and actually treat each other with respect."
I looked at Mira, who was watching me with hope and fear warring in her expression.
"What do you want?" I asked her.
"I want to try," she said quietly. "I want to see if this could work. I want to stop choosing between things that all feel right and see if I can have something that makes me happy without sacrifice."
The vulnerability in that statement destroyed any remaining resistance.
"Okay," I said. "We try. But we communicate. Clear boundaries, honest feelings, no pretending things are fine when they're not."
"Agreed," Logan and Blake said simultaneously.
"So we're doing this," Mira said, sounding slightly dazed. "We're actually doing this."
"We're doing this," I confirmed.
The sexual tension that had been building for weeks suddenly felt unbearable.
We were all acutely aware that we'd just agreed to something that would change everything, that we were sitting in a living room at 9 AM having just committed to attempting a relationship that defied every conventional expectation.
"I should probably shower," Mira said, standing abruptly. "I went running and I'm gross and—"
"Mira," Logan said, standing too. "We don't have to do anything right now. This doesn't have to mean immediate physical—"
"I know," she interrupted. "But also, I've been fantasizing about this for weeks and now that it's actually possible, I'm having trouble thinking about anything else."
The honesty in that statement made all three of us freeze.
"What exactly have you been fantasizing about?" Logan asked, his voice slightly hoarse.
Mira's face flushed deeper. "Things. Multiple things. Involving all of you. Sometimes separately. Sometimes... not."
"Not separately," Blake repeated carefully. "Meaning—"
"Meaning together," Mira confirmed.