36. Aidan

CHAPTER 36

Aidan

It’s two a.m. and I don’t give a fuck.

I’ve picked Simon up from the airport and we’ve had the drive to Blake’s apartment to discuss what comes next.

But what comes next is simple—we tell Mr. and Mrs. Blake Wilder that we’re in love with Mrs. Wilder, that we really like Mr. Wilder, and we’d like to live happily ever after with them.

See? Simple.

But they happen to be two of the most stubborn, emotionally closed off people we know so we’re bracing for a fight.

Still, we know we’ll win. Because they want this too. I know they do.

We just kind of screwed up by not telling them how we feel before now.

Is it fast? Maybe.

But how long should it take to fall in love with amazing people, anyway? As soon as you realize they’re amazing and you have a pretty good sense that you will think they’re amazing for the rest of your life, what else is there?

Miraculously, I find a parking spot on Blake’s block and we stride through the lobby of his building minutes later.

His doorman recognizes us from previous visits. “Evening, gentlemen.” He doesn’t seem bothered by the hour.

“Evening, Victor,” Simon says.

He remembered the doorman’s name. I really love this guy.

We ride up to Blake’s penthouse in silence. The doors swish open and we step off and into the dimly lit hallway. It’s so weird to me that penthouses don’t have doors. But I guess the elevator acts like a door. Not just anyone can come up here.

We start down the hallway to the living area, but Simon puts a hand on my arm, stopping me after only three steps.

“Wha–”

Then I hear it.

Snoring.

I frown. Why can I hear Blake snoring from here? We’ve been to his apartment. The bedroom is clear across the penthouse.

Simon sighs heavily. I look over at him.

“He’s on the couch,” Simon says.

“He’s…” That sinks in. “He’s what ?”

Simon nods. “That has to be it.”

The living room is five more paces in front of us. I stalk toward the sofa and the sleeping giant who is sprawled over the cushions on his stomach.

His hair is wild, covering his face, he’s in lounge pants, and one leg is bent at what is a decidedly uncomfortable angle, while the other hangs off, his foot touching the floor.

The idiot.

“Blake,” I say, nudging his foot. “Wake up.”

He snorts, then rolls. But doesn’t open his eyes.

“Blake!” I say louder. “Hey! Wake up!” I kick at his calf and start to lean in, but he suddenly jerks upright, his entire body tense. I step back in case he starts swinging.

He looks around. “What? Hey, what?” He scrapes his hair back from his face. “Who’s there?”

Simon leans over and clicks on the lamp that sits on the end table.

Blake blinks in the sudden brightness. Then he focuses on us. He scowls. “What the hell, guys?”

“What the fuck are you doing?” Simon asks him.

Blake scrubs a hand over his face. “I was sleeping. Kind of.”

“Elise better be in your bedroom,” Simon tells him. “So help me God, if you dropped her off at her apartment on your wedding night–”

“She’s in the bedroom,” Blake breaks in, sounding very grumpy.

Oh, he’s grumpy? The guy who married my girlfriend earlier today without telling me is grumpy?

“Why are you on the couch?” Simon demands. “What did you say or do to make her kick you out of bed?”

“She didn’t kick me out. It’s been a long day.” He sits up and leans to rest his elbows on his thighs, his big hands hanging between his knees. He stares at the floor. “She took a bath and then she fell asleep. I didn’t want to bother her.”

"Bother her?" I repeat. “Why would sleeping in your bed with you bother her?”

He shakes his head. “This is all messed up.” Then a thought seems to occur to him and he looks up at us, frowning. “What are you guys doing here? It’s the middle of the night.” He focuses on Simon. “I thought you were in London.”

“I was in London,” Simon says. “Until I found out from my boyfriend that my girlfriend got married. Decided I should come back and find out what the fuck is going on.”

Blake looks at me. “You didn’t explain it?”

“I did. And we decided that all of this bullshit about you two faking the engagement and this marriage being temporary and whatever else the two of you are telling yourselves, needs to end. Tonight.”

Blake looks at us for a long moment. Then he takes a deep breath and blows it out. “Thank God you’re here.”

Simon lets out a long breath as well. I give a choked laugh. “Thank God?”

“Man, I’m so fucking in love with her,” Blake says running a hand through his hair. “I don’t know what to do. I got her wrapped up in this thing as a fake relationship. Then she agreed to marry me, but all because of the damn cabin. I don’t know how to tell her I love her. How do I make that believable?”

I roll my neck and sigh. “You just tell her, man. You just tell her and you have to trust that she knows you well enough to know you’re being honest.” I look at Simon. “We haven’t told her either. But we’re going to storm in here at two a.m., and confess our feelings. It could easily look like we’re just reacting out of jealousy because of the wedding, but the truth is, we’re crazy about her. Neither of us can imagine our life without her. It hasn’t been very long, but it just feels right. The four of us feels right.”

Blake is watching me. He nods. “I guess that’s another thing I wasn’t sure about. Honestly, if I gave her the choice between me or you two, I’m sure she’d pick you. You guys have your shit figured out. You know what you want. You can give her whatever she wants. Hell until this morning, I really believed that what I wanted was to move to Minnesota by myself and live in a cabin in the woods.”

Simon looks surprised. “That’s not what you want anymore?”

Blake gives a soft laugh. “I mean, I still love that cabin. I’d like to spend time there. But I happened to fall madly in love with a woman who is not exactly, secluded-cabin-in-the-woods material. And I love everything about her.

Also, she has two other boyfriends. One of them is a firefighter and kind of has to live in the city. Chicago needs him to live in the city. The other one is a billionaire or something though I honestly don’t really know what he does. Maybe he could do it from the cabin.”

Simon and I both chuckle.

“But,” Blake goes on. “It seems that he probably needs to be close to an airport. Or have really reliable Wi-Fi at the very least. So the full-time cabin thing is probably not going to happen.”

“You would give that up for us?” I ask him.

He nods. “I have pretty quickly realized that being alone is not nearly as appealing as being alone with the three of you. I’m not saying that I want to go to a bunch of parties, and fundraising events, and galas, but, turns out there’s two other people who can fill in for that stuff. This foursome thing is actually pretty great. So yes, I would stay in Chicago for this. For you.”

Simon claps his hands together. “Excellent. This is going a lot better than I expected.”

“Yeah, now we just have to make the pitch to our girl. She’s the one who’s going to take some convincing.”

“Do you think so?”

We all swing around at the sound of Elise’s voice.