Belle deserved someone who could love her without hesitation and trust her with his whole heart. Kell had lost huge chunks of his over the years. She was sweet and brave, smart and funny. And loyal, he admitted. Everything he wanted in a woman. And he would never completely trust her through no fault of her own. She deserved better.
Eric watched his best friend dance. Kellan looked back at the big goof with a shake of his head. Tate towered over Belle by about a foot, his long arms wrapped around her petite frame. His size fourteen feet weren't exactly the most nimble or light, but somehow he and Belle looked good together. They looked right. Kell knew he should be happy for Tate and Eric-and he was-but watching them create their happily ever after was going to hurt.
Still, he loved them, so he'd step aside. Kell owed them that. They'd saved him, after all.
The three of them had gone to law school together. By then, Eric and Tate had already become a team, managing to seduce women left and right.
After graduation, Kell had married and thought he'd found his future. Then it had all come crashing down. Next thing Kellan knew, he fled DC only to find himself sleeping on Eric and Tate's craptastic couch in a bad part of Chicago. It hadn't been long before he'd begun teaching them how to truly run an office, because while they were great lawyers, they'd turned out to be lousy businessmen.
Kell had been relieved that he had something to offer them. In return for their friendship, for being the only people in the world willing to take him in when he'd been down, he gave them his acumen-and his undying loyalty.
Was he really going to watch them settle down with Belle and not join them?
"He thought about claiming her two weeks after she came to work for us, you know." Eric sat back, leaning negligently against his chair as he watched the dance floor. "He would have approached her with good intentions, but probably said something horrifically stupid that would have made her run. The only reason he didn't try? He was worried about you. He knew you liked her too, but he didn't want to do it wrong and embarrass you. He also knew you weren't ready."
"Oh, I doubt he waited for anyone but you." Tate was Eric's other half. Sometimes Kell worried he was just the extra guy, the one who refereed when necessary. Though seemingly opposites, Tate and Eric had an almost psychic connection Kell didn't completely understand.
Eric frowned his way. "Me? I've been ready. And trust me, he didn't put off going after Belle because he worried about embarrassing me. He does that all the time without caring how much I want to strangle him. But he looks up to you. He actually told me you were pretty smart."
Kellan snorted. Tate didn't think anyone was smart. "He was being sarcastic."
"He wasn't. Tate might be an ass sometimes, but he's honest. He knows damn well that you saved us."
Years ago, but Tate was a little like an elephant. He never forgot. "You put too much liquid cash in property. You didn't have a good billing or accounts receivable system in place. I just came in and managed the money better."
"You saved us. We thought we were the shit after we graduated. We were arrogant. You actually knew what to do."
He'd just adjusted a few processes and made some calls to bankers he knew to renegotiate some loans. Then he'd joined their business. "I didn't have a job and I wasn't going to find one in DC. I fixed the business problems as much for myself as the two of you."
"We're a team." Eric put a hand on his arm, a familiar gesture he'd come to view as actual affection. "We worked together then. We'll work together now. I know you probably never thought you'd end up in a ménage relationship, but look around you. It can work. God, man, especially for you."
"Why the fuck do you say that?"
Eric didn't back down. It was one of the reasons they'd stayed friends. Eric saw through his bullshit and didn't allow Kell to shove him away. "Because if you're left alone, you'll die that way. You might have sex but you'll never really let a woman in."
That was nothing he didn't already know. "You guys want Belle. I respect that. But I don't have any interest in settling down."
He'd been there. Done that. Gotten his soul ripped out of his body and pissed on.
"I don't think you'll give any relationship enough time to grow without us. But if Tate and I handle the heavy lifting in the beginning, you might soften up enough to realize that not every woman is like your ex-wife. You don't have to commit now. Tate and I will take care of her until you're ready."