Page 43 of Misadventures of a Curvy Girl
The nightlight is so Ben can find his way in the dark.
Away from us.
My heart squeezes as I press my face into Caleb’s warm chest and let the steady swell of his breathing lull me back to sleep.
I wake alone in the morning, which is normal for us. Ben never sleeps the whole night in here, and Caleb gets up around dawn to tend to the farm. I stretch and sigh at the darkened nightlight. I want Ben to stay the night with us. His bed is only a twin—something I think was an intentional choice, meaning no one could ever sleep in his bed with him—so it has to be Caleb’s bed. I wish there was a way to tell him I’d be happy to sleep with lights on, the television on, anything he needed, without it becoming awkward, but I can’t think of the right words. The words to reassure him that I don’t think he’s broken or damaged, that I simply want to share everything with him. Sleep included.
I’m going to talk to him about it, I decide as I shower and get dressed. Today. If it’s nightmares, then we’ll work through it. If it’s space, then I’ll sleep on the floor. I’ll do anything it takes, but it makes me miserable to feel him slipping away every night when the answer could be within our reach.
However, talking to him may come sooner than I planned. I get downstairs to find both men waiting for me in the kitchen, which is not normal.
“I made breakfast,” Ben says, pulling out a chair for me and presenting me with a mug of coffee and then a plate of irresistible farm food. Fried mushrooms, eggs, and bacon, with a thick slab of toast, butter melting on top.
“Thanks!” I take the plate, and I’m about to demolish the toast when I notice them looking at me.
I’ve never liked being watched while I’m eating. It makes me immediately and terribly self-conscious, as if I’m doing something wrong by it. As if I should have refused the food or asked for raw kale and sunflower seeds instead.
But there’s nothing about Caleb or Ben that looks anything other than their normal handsome and slightly-obsessed-with-me selves right now. Caleb has his usual bearded grin as he sits next to me, and Ben his usual hungry gaze as he sits on the other side.
Relax, Ireland. They aren’t Brian and your sister. They’re not judging you.
It’s still hard to take that first bite, but Ben’s look of masculine pride as I moan around his meal is worth it. They love to take care of me—I’m in danger of being downright spoiled. They wash my hair in the shower, they launder my clothes, and they pack my bags. They plug my phone and laptop into chargers if I forget to at night, and they put jars and vases full of fresh sunflowers in every room simply because they know sunflowers make me smile. They give me the second-best spot on the couch—Greta-dog gets the first-best—and then, of course, there are the hours and hours of mind-blowing sex.
So it’s not unusual for them to pamper me with a delicious meal, but it is unusual for them not to be working right now. For them to be here watching me eat instead of out in the fields or in town, or even working on restoring the tavern now that some of the insurance money has trickled in.
I glance between them, wondering if I should stop eating.
“Move in with us,” Caleb blurts out, and Ben groans.
“We were going to wait until after she ate,” he says irritably. “Remember?”
I swallow and look at them both. They are deadly earnest, sitting on the literal edges of their seats with green and brown eyes trained on me.
“You aren’t serious,” I say weakly.
“We’ve never been more serious about anything,” Ben says after giving Caleb a let-me-handle-this look. “We’re in love with you.”
My mouth drops open.
Caleb laughs. “Peach, it can’t be that much of a surprise. We can’t keep our hands off you, we call you constantly when you’re away, and we never let you out of our sight when you’re here. Of course we’re in love with you.”
“I just—I—” I’m stammering and also trying to keep my chin from quivering. “No one’s ever said that to me before.”
Both boys blink at me with such sweet surprise that I have to rub at my nose to fight off the sudden about-to-cry sting there. And then before I can do or say anything else, I’m being yanked into a fierce embrace between the two of them, and even on their knees around me they’re still tall enough that I feel completely surrounded.
I bury my face into Caleb’s neck, rubbing against his soft beard.
“We’ve been in love since the moment we met you,” he says softly.
Ben is moving my hair aside to kiss the nape of my neck with firm, warm lips.
“We’ve known you were ours since day one,” Caleb continues. “Please say yes, Ireland. Please say you love us back. Move in with us.”
My heart’s so full it feels like it will burst.
How can this be real? How can this be true?
And how is it that I’ve never wanted anything as much as to be with these two men for the rest of forever?
