Page 91 of Triple Play
“Did you just get home?”
“Yeah.”
We stare at each other. He knows why I’m here. I can see it in the way he’s blocking the doorway, protective, ready to shut me out if I’m here to cause problems.
“I need to talk to her,” I say quietly.
“She’s sleeping.”
“I know. But I need—” My voice cracks. I clear my throat. Try again. “I need to talk to all of you. Please.”
Something in my tone must get through to him because his expression softens slightly. “Grant—”
“I’m not here to threaten anyone. I’m not reporting anything to housing. I just—” I run a hand through my hair. “I need to tell her the truth. Tell all of you the truth. And then if she wants me to leave her alone, I will. But I can’t do that without trying first.”
Jordie studies me for a long moment. Then he nods. “Give us ten minutes.”
He closes the door and I lean against the hallway wall, trying to breathe through the anxiety that’s threatening to choke me.
This is it. No more running. No more pretending I don’t care. No more protecting myself at the expense of everything else.
I’m going to lay it all out. The guilt. The fear. The love I’ve been trying to bury for two years.
And then she’s going to choose.
Maybe she chooses them. Maybe this changes nothing.
But maybe she gives me a chance. Maybe knowing why I ran makes a difference. Maybe I’m not too late.
The door opens again. This time all three of them are there. Elise is wearing Jordie’s shirt, hair messy from sleep and sex, standing between them like she belongs there.
She looks at me and I see everything in her eyes. Confusion. Wariness. A hint of the hurt I put there.
But also something else. Something that might be hope if I’m not imagining it.
“Grant.” Her voice is soft. “What’s going on?”
I look at all three of them. At the life she’s building without me. At what I could have had if I hadn’t been such a coward.
Then I take a breath and tell them the truth.
“I’m in love with you,” I say to Elise, my voice rough but steady. “I have been since you were nineteen. And I’m done pretending I’m not.”
The hallway goes silent. Nobody moves.
Then I keep going. Because I’m already all in. Might as well burn it all down.
“Two and a half years ago my twin brother died in a car accident I was driving in. I walked away. He didn’t. And every day since then I’ve been trying to figure out how to live with that. How to want things. How to be happy when he can’t be.”
Wyatt’s expression shifts. Understanding. He knows about loss. About guilt.
“Six months after Mason died, Elise kissed me at a bonfire and it was the first time since the accident that I felt anything besides grief. She made me want to live instead of just survive. And that terrified me.”
Elise’s eyes are bright. Not quite tears but close.
“So I ran. I ghosted her for two years because feeling that much scared me. Because wanting her felt like betraying Mason. Because if I let myself have her and lost her too—” My voice breaks. “I couldn’t survive losing someone else I love.”
Jordie’s arm tightens around Elise’s shoulders. Protective. But he’s listening.
