Rory clapped Oliver on the shoulder, a gesture both soothing and threatening. "You made a mistake. You can apologize for it."
Oliver shrugged. "Do you know what I was really angry about?"
Callum could bet. "That you may have gotten her pregnant."
An unwilling sympathy flared through him. Callum didn't want to feel for Oliver, but he knew how those lost children haunted him. Perhaps if he and Yasmin had made the decision together that they weren't ready for children, Oliver might have forgiven himself. But the bitch had convinced him that she'd wanted those babies. She'd sworn that she had miscarried, and Oliver had blamed himself for not seeing through her.
"Tori would never deceive me the way Yasmin did. If she found herself pregnant, she would talk to me. Even I'm not that stupid," Oliver said. "I know intellectually that Tori is as far from Yasmin as a rabbit from a rabid tiger, but in the moment, I reacted poorly."
"All right, then we huddle up here until we come up with a plan of action," Rory suggested.
Callum was a bit worried Rory would ask him for a white board and dry erase markers and turn this entire thing into some weird business meeting. "What kind of action can we take?" The enormity of the situation hit him. They really were fucked. He loved Tori. Rory loved Tori. Oliver would never admit it, but he loved her, too. "No matter what we do, she gets hurt. Two of us do, as well."
Could he actually battle it out with his own brothers? That hadn't seemed like a real possibility until tonight. Now Callum wasn't sure he had the right to take her from them … or them from her.
"Or we do this together like we should have from the beginning," Rory cut into his thoughts. "We go after her as brothers looking for a wife. We treat her with respect and love."
Though he'd just been thinking the same thing, Callum recoiled. "That sounds terrible. Especially the 'respect' part. That sounds very much like none of us will be getting any."
Rory stared at him, a single brow arching over his left eye. "I put forth a plan, and the only problem you have is with the word respect?"
"I can respect her and still sleep with her." Callum was actually shocked to find he was okay with everything else.
Perhaps they could share her, share the intimacy. Share the responsibility. Lift each other when they were down. Become a team to create a truly cohesive family.
Yes, he didn't mind that concept at all, but the no sex bit wouldn't work. Ever.
"As it happens, I agree with you," Rory assured. "I think we should take her to bed as soon as possible. When I talked about respect, I meant we have to think about her needs. We have to respect that she might need a bit of time to get used to the idea. We definitely have to respect the relationship we're attempting and one another. So no plotting behind my back to run away with her. I will hunt you down. You might be the athlete in the family, but I was the marksman."
Callum grinned, feeling something ease inside him. "Don't run off with our girl or I'll shoot you like that fox at Benedict Pine's eighteenth birthday party and beer bash. Got it. Hey, I just thought of rule number two. Never mention anything that happened at Benedict Pine's eighteenth birthday party. Tori is surprisingly sensitive for a girl from Texas. She'd be upset about the fox. Well, and the strippers."
Oliver slapped at the bar, gaining Cal's attention. He scowled. "What is wrong with you two? It's not going to work. Cal, do you understand what he wants?"
"He wants to share Tori."
"You do know he's not talking about a time share. You're not going to sign up for custody of the wife and pass her off when your turn is up. He's talking about all three of you in bed together. Do you understand what that means?"
"It means we're going to have to learn to communicate so our balls don't ever touch. I'm serious about that, Rory. Perhaps we'll come up with a series of hand gestures."
Rory rolled his eyes. "Certainly. We'll get right on that." He stopped and smiled at Callum in a way he hadn't in forever, as if they were young and had a secret. "We're going to give her what she needs. She needs all of us."
Oliver stood. "You're insane if you think that will work. What will you tell Claire? How will our sister handle this ménage of yours?"
"It will be a marriage," Rory corrected him. "And Claire is the one who made me see I was being a ridiculous prude. She'll stand by us."
"What about when the tabloids start questioning your and Callum's sexuality?" Oliver pointed out.
Callum couldn't care less. "I've got about a thousand women who will testify to my intense heterosexuality." That actually sounded quite bad. He winced. "Rule number three-never mention our 'number' to our wife."