Page 104 of Stuck with my Brother's Firefighter Besties

I sighed, running a hand over my face. “What are you saying? That we walk away? Because I can’t do that. I won’t.”

“None of us is walking away,” Jaxon said firmly. “But we need to be realistic. This isn’t some fairytale. People are going to judge her, us. Nate already does. And she’s going to feel that pressure.”

Ryan nodded, his gaze distant. “She’s already carrying so much. And now, with the arrest and those photos getting out… she’s going to need us more than ever. But we can’t just be three guys circling her like vultures, waiting for our turn. We need to be a team.”

“A team?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” he said, leaning back. “We need to sit down with her, talk about what this really looks like. Lay everything out… boundaries, expectations, how we handle things like Nate or the public. We owe her that. We talked about sharing and agreed to try. But now we need to figure it out for real.”

Jaxon took a long drink from his beer, then nodded. “It makes sense. We’ve been thinking about what we want, but we need to focus on what’s best for her. If this is going to work, it has to be solid. No cracks for people to exploit, no confusion.”

I let their words sink in, the weight of them settling heavily on my chest.

They were right.

We’d all jumped headfirst into this without thinking about the logistics, the consequences.

“I hate seeing her hurt,” I said quietly. “I hate knowing that she’s caught in the middle of all this because of us.”

“She’s not caught,” Ryan said, his voice steady. “She chose this. She chose us. But it’s up to us to make sure she never regrets it.”

The room fell silent again, each of us lost in our thoughts.

Finally, Jaxon straightened, setting his empty bottle on the counter. “So, we talk to her. Tomorrow. All of us. No more tiptoeing around this. We figure it out together.”

Ryan nodded, a hint of determination in his eyes. “Agreed. No matter how messy it gets, we stick together. For her.”

I pushed off the doorframe, feeling a flicker of hope beneath everything else.

“For her,” I echoed.

It wasn’t going to be easy. Hell, it might blow up in our faces.

But for Lila, for the chance to make this work, we were willing to try.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-THREE

Lila

I wokeup to the soft glow of morning light spilling through my curtains and the faint snuffle of Biscuit curled up at my side.

For the first time in what felt like weeks, my chest didn’t feel like it was weighed down by a thousand stones.

The heaviness of fear, of indecision, of guilt… it wasn’t gone, but it had lessened, like a storm clearing after a long, relentless night.

And in its place was something new.

Determination.

I sat up slowly, stretching and rubbing the sleep from my eyes as Biscuit yawned and gave a little wiggle, demanding his morning attention. I ran a hand over his soft fur, the simple act grounding me.

I didn’t know exactly when it had happened, but somewhere between the chaos of Rick’s appearance, the guys standing steadfast beside me, and the endless whirlwind of emotions, something had clicked in my mind.

This was what I wanted.

The thought should have scared me.

It was unconventional. Messy.

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