AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Being with all of them was an impossible dream, but it was staring me in the face.
So what about my friendship with Roe? Where did that leave us?
The realization hit me; it wasn’t my choice to make. It was Roe’s decision to make, and I had to be okay with whatever the outcome.
“How do I step up, Roe?” I asked, wanting my friend’s advice. He’d been there for me for years, always being a friendly ear and a solid confidant. “I want to be as brave as Zali and go for what I want. Flynn too. He’s so open and loving. He never lets anything get between him and what’s important. I want to take a chance like Tris did. He put his faith in Zali and Flynn and stepped straight off the ledge. It made him vulnerable as hell, but he’s happy. They all are.”
Roe studied me, his brows furrowed. “Aren’t there rules against a professor dating his students?”
“That’s what you took out of that?” I huffed out a laugh, but it held no humour. “Yes, there are rules. Tristan can kiss his career goodbye if the university ever found out about him being with either of them, never mind both. The rules protect students from being taken advantage of by a person in a position of authority.”
Shaking my head, I smiled fondly. Even just thinking about the three of them had butterflies fluttering in my belly and love hearts appearing around my head like in a cartoon. “The thing is, they’re the ones that hold the power. He’s so head over heels in love with both Zali and Flynn that he’d do anything for them, including walk away from his job.”
Monroe nodded and met my gaze, asking, “Does he feel the same about you?”
I grinned, effervescent bubbles surging through my veins and heat crawling up my throat. “Yeah. He does.”
“So, it’s all happy times, then? You and Tristan, Zali and Flynn, and Ry whenever you decide to spring that on him. In love and living your happily ever after?”
“I want that, but I also want your acceptance and support. I don’t want to lose you, and I absolutely don’t want it to affect your relationship with Zali.”
“We’ll see,” he muttered, and my heart sank.
Here I was, hoping that I could pull off the impossible and experience a future together with all of us happy, while Roe was still deciding whether to toss me out of his life like last week’s garbage. Talk about putting the cart before the horse.
I looked at him then, and aside from the worry, I saw his resigned acceptance. I saw his reluctant realization that I was genuinely in love with Zali and wasn’t going to give up on him either. I wouldn’t lose him as a friend because I didn’t try—I wouldn’t give up fighting for us until he told me that nothing could save our friendship—but I also couldn’t let it stand in the way of what I had right in front of me.
“Was Rosa’s dad happy when you started dating?” I asked, changing the subject.
He huffed, part annoyed and part sad. “No. He didn’t believe that I was good enough for his little girl—I didn’t either. I worked every damn day to prove him wrong, to support her in achieving her dreams, but he never changed his mind. He blamed me when she and Ash died, and it destroyed what semblance of a relationship we had. Nowadays they only keep in contact with Zali, but you know what she’s like—she’s too protective of me.”
“She is.” I smiled, warmth flowing through me to the tips of my toes. “She’s pretty incredible.”
He studied me, his eyes never leaving my face as he observed my reaction. “You sound like me gushing over Rosa.”
“Yeah?”
He nodded, his gaze going somewhere far off. “I fell for Rosa the moment I saw her. She was standing in the sun and flicked her hair over her shoulder. I’ll never forget the way the blond and red in it shimmered in the light. It took me a hot minute to gather up the courage to speak to her.” He smiled wistfully and then chuckled. “I took her to opera on the beach for our first date.”
I hesitated, looking at the man in front of me and having trouble picturing him in that kind of scene. “That’s… romantic.”
Roe met my gaze and smirked. “I was trying to impress her, but I’d worked so much overtime that week to afford the tickets, I was struggling to stay awake. She shouldn’t have given me the time of day after I drooled all over her, but she asked me for a second date when I dropped her off.”
“What did you do?”
“We went fishing.”
I snorted out a laugh. That was so much more the Roe I knew.
“I already knew she was the one, but when she pulled up with fishing rods strapped to her roof, I was all in. I gave her all of me without hesitation. I loved her with all my heart.” He pursed his lips, still consumed by his heartbreak.
The pain of losing her had been dulled by the passage of well over a decade, but it was still so raw for him. Zali too.
“I want the same for my daughter, Ezra. I want her to experience falling for the great love of her life. Beyond anything she’s already achieved, I just want her to be happy.”
“I want that too.”
“Are you that man?” he asked, peering at me and seemingly staring into my soul.
