Gordon asks.
“Enough,” I say.
More looks are exchanged, and then Sean grins. “So that’s why you rushed up to Danna’s. You wanted to find out what it was like to have ten men at your beck and call.”
“I went to see my cousin,” I protest, but he smiles knowingly.
“What did she tell you? Did she show you their huge bed or tell you they never sleep apart?”
“No.”
“Did she describe what it was like to have ten men working to please her?”
“No. She’s a married woman. A pregnant married woman.”
“She got pregnant the same way all women do.” He chuckles, looking down at my belly area and raising one eyebrow.
“She told me she fell in love with them.”
“Before or after she had sex with them?”
“Again with the sex.” I roll my eyes, exasperated. “And anyway, what has Danna got to do with this? I’m talking about what I heard, and you’re just proving to me exactly what I think this is all about for you.”
“And what is that?” John asks softly.
“Pity and sex.”
“Fuck.” Gordon shakes his head and stands, stomping out of the room like a bear with a sore head.
“He can’t deal with this kind of conversation,” John says. “And pity and sex aren’t where our heads are at.”
“So, where are they?”
As I speak, a rumble of footsteps sounds in the den and hallway. I turn and find all my missing foster brothers parading in, led by Gordon. I guess he didn’t stomp out because the conversation was getting difficult. He wanted all his brothers by his side for this conversation. Something about Gordon’s action thrills me. Like the Jackson brothers, these men do act like a unified group.
“Maggie thinks we pity her.”
“Nah, Maggie,” Daryl says. “You got that wrong.”
“No pity here,” Dwayne adds.
“You’re all good,” Donovan finishes. I guess the triplets all think with one mind, but what about the rest?
“We loved your dad,” Hunter says.
“More than our own families.” Trey shuffles his feet as though admitting that fact was hard.
“We have a connection with you, Maggie. We promised your dad we’ll take care of you. Now, there are two ways we can do that. You can be our sister. We can help you like real brothers would… step in like fun uncles for your kid…” Reggie trails off as though he’s happy considering that scenario and less happy considering the alternative.
“Or we can try what your cousin has,” Logan says with a wink. “We want to stay together in this house. It’s been the only home we’ve ever felt happy in. If we don’t find a way of doing that, there’s a danger we’re going to end up all over the country, with different priorities. Plus, you’re hot.”
Gordon clears his throat as though he’s disappointed with the way his brothers are articulating this important thing.
“We know you don’t know us very well,” John says.
“And this isn’t anything that we need to rush…” Harley adds. “But is it something you’d consider?”
Wow. They’ve seriously managed to outline their plan and put all of the pressure back on me. I thought they’d deny the vote. I thought that when push came to shove, they’d fumble their words and confuse their intentions and talk themselves out of it, but that hasn’t happened at all.
In a way, as they congregate together to tell me I have two options, they’ve shown how tight they are.
Brothers or lovers. Either way, they want to look out for me.
In a few days, I’ve gone from having no one to support me through this pregnancy to having eleven amazing men.
The question is, what do I do next?
12
I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to do.
Eleven men stand around me, waiting for a response, but how can I make this decision? They make the options sound so easy. Either way, I’ve got support, but they don’t know what they’re letting themselves in for. Me with my big mouth. Me who went behind my best friend’s back to sleep with her ex-boyfriend, knowing deep down they had unfinished business but wanting to taste just a little of the life she had. Me who knew my mom was tired but created more burden for her anyway. I’m not the kind of girl they need in their lives.
Life is so much more complex than they make it seem. Maybe this is what comes of having stability and happiness growing up. Maybe the life these men had with my father was so good they can’t imagine things not working out. I