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  "We're all fine...can't say the same for a few of the Borderliners...but are you fine?"

  Sighing faintly, I found I still couldn't lift my face from his chest. "I somehow got drunk, which is not like me at all. Please believe me...I don't have a drinking problem. I've never even had more than two drinks in one night before."

  From somewhere beside us, Nick spoke in a low, soothing voice, and I felt a hand that I was pretty sure was his begin to smooth my hair.

  "Let's get you upstairs to the spare bedroom."

  Now I lifted my face, wanting to look at Nick's own.

  "No. I just feel like I want to be held all night. Can we all sleep in the same bed? I mean...." Hiccuping twice, I paused briefly. "I mean...unless that might be too difficult for you both...just to hold me all night without doing much else for right now."

  Nick leaned in and brushed a brief, tender kiss against my lips. "With a few thick blankets between you and me, and you and Blaine, I think that should be fine."

  I didn't want to overly frustrate either of them, but I did just feel like I wanted to be held. And Nick's idea of thick blankets between us did seem like a good solution.

  Once Blaine carried me upstairs and put me in Nick's bed, the two of them got me a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants with a drawstring so I could pull them tight to fit, and then they left the room and changed their own clothes while I was changing.

  By the time they both reentered the room, both clad in t-shirts and sweats like I was, and both of them carrying thick blankets, I was feeling more than a bit chatty, with my head still spinning from the wine. And once the two of them had turned off the lamps and had crawled into bed on either side of me, placing the thick blankets between our lower bodies, I launched into a rapid recitation of all the thoughts I'd been thinking while changing.

  "I just want to tell the two of you a few things. Number one, I think I'm falling in love with you both. Number two, I want you both to make love to me at some point...probably not tonight, but maybe soon. I already decided that, while sober...that I want you both to make love to me at some point.

  “Number three, even though I want you both, I'm kind of nervous about the whole thing, because I've only had one sexual experience, and it was very bad and painful, and I'm afraid of that happening again, and I'm also afraid of not knowing how to do things right and somehow displeasing the both of you.

  “Thing four, could we put up some kind of signs all around Southern Kentucky, saying something like Helena: A Safe Community. And then maybe general directions. I just think it would be helpful if good-hearted, non-dangerous travelers like I used to be, and like Tracy and Chris used to be, could know that there's a safe community not far away they can go to. Also, increasing our numbers might eventually give us more strength in numbers against the Borderliners and anyone else that wants to fight us.

  “Also, I'm hoping that some new community members might provide a dating pool for Chris." Stomach lurching in a very sudden sort of way, I paused. "Also...I think I'm going to be sick."

  Blaine had me in the bathroom within seconds and held my hair back while I vomited almost pure wine into the toilet.

  When I was done, he even flushed the toilet for me, pulled me onto his lap, and began stroking my hair, holding me to his chest with one arm. "All done now."

  I really was falling in love with him, and deeply. That hadn't just been the wine talking when I'd said that. I felt the same about Nick, who was coming over from the sink, where he'd been readying me a cup of mouthwash, like I'd asked him to in between heaves.

  Crouching beside Blaine and me, he handed me the cup of mouthwash. "Feeling better now?"

  I nodded. "Yes. Just sorry you both had to see all that."

  While I filled my mouth with mouthwash and began swishing, Nick had a seat on the floor with the corners of his mouth twitching. "I've seen much, much worse in my life."

  Blaine grunted. "I've eaten much, much worse in my life."

  I wasn't sure if he'd meant to be funny, but I had to quickly spit my mouthwash back in the cup so that I didn't swallow it while I giggled a little. Once Nick had dumped the contents of the cup in the sink and had rejoined Blaine and me on the floor, I asked them if they'd been about to ask me to move in with them before they'd been called away.

  The two of them exchanged glances, and Nick said no, alarming me, but just for a second. Because when he spoke again, he explained exactly why the move-in question hadn't been the question.

  "We were going to ask you to marry us...to be our wife, our only wife, forever."

  For a long moment or two, I couldn't breathe, could only look into Nick's jewel-green eyes. "Well, are you still going to ask me that? Or did all my drunkenness and vomiting change your minds?"

  Eyes twinkling, Nick glanced at Blaine before returning his gaze to my face. "No, it didn't at all. But before I say anything else...before I ask you a particular question...I just want to say a couple of things beforehand. The first is that Blaine and I have both begun falling in love with you, too. We both think that we'd like to have children with you, within a forever-bonded family.

  “And that's the second part of what I wanted to say. We don't have the capability to do any kind of paternity testing here in Helena, and most everyone likes it that way. Blaine and I have talked about it, and we really like it that way...really like the idea that any and all children born to you will be our children.

  “Not Blaine's child, or my child, but our child. Regardless of whether or not paternity ever becomes pretty clear, based on looks, Blaine and I will still both be equal fathers to that child. And we both want to make sure that you're perfectly comfortable with this whole arrangement...with having the genetic paternity of a child being a complete non-issue."

  "Well, I honestly think I like it better this way than the alternative. I think that even if paternity testing was available to us, it probably wouldn't be the wisest thing...on a few different levels. I actually really like the idea of you and Blaine seeing any baby as equally both of yours, no matter what."

  Nick glanced from Blaine to me, fighting a smile. "We were both hoping you'd say that."

  "Well, so...do the two of you want to ask me anything right now? Because I think I've sobered up and am capable of rational thought and decision-making again."

  Nick soon got on bended knee, right there on the bathroom floor, presented me with a stunning emerald-and-diamond ring, and formally asked me if I would marry him and Blaine. Blaine didn't get up or get on bended knee, but that was perfectly fine with me. Remaining on his lap, with his arms around me, just felt so right.

  With tears in my eyes, I answered Nick's question with a clear yes. Grinning, he slid the ring on my finger, and he and Blaine soon each kissed me on the mouth, despite the fact that I'd recently vomited and had only rinsed with mouthwash, intending to brush my teeth when I got up.

  Soon I did just that, and then Blaine picked me up again and carried me to bed, even though I could walk just fine. I certainly didn't mind at all.

  Once the three of us were in bed, lights off, separated by blankets once again, I asked them where they'd gotten the ring. Nick said that it was from the vault of an antique store in Chamberlain, and that there were others if I wanted to maybe pick out one myself, but I said I wouldn't dream of it.

  "I want this one...that you and Blaine picked. I think it's gorgeous. It's perfect."

  I really thought so. And, despite the fact that it had happened in the bathroom, I thought Nick's proposal, while I'd been wrapped in Blaine's arms, had been perfect, too.

  Not to mention that receiving a proposal on a bathroom floor after a night of drinking and vomiting seemed just about right for a woman living through a Bloodsucker apocalypse.

  Just as I was about to drift off to sleep, I asked Blaine and Nick what they’d done for a living before the apocalypse. It just seemed like something I should know about two men I was now engaged to.

  Nick answered first. "I was in the mi
litary. Army ranger."

  "And what did you do, Blaine?"

  "A lot of different things." He paused so long that I wondered if he was going to continue. "I was best at fixing cars."

  With visions of myself wearing a white dress floating around in my mind, I soon fell asleep, wrapped in Nick and Blaine's arms.

  CHAPTER 14

  A week or so later, just about two weeks after we'd met, I became Nick and Blaine's wife while wearing a long white satin sheath dress that I thought was just as beautiful and perfect as my engagement ring. Nick wore dark dress pants and an Oxford shirt. Blaine wore clean jeans and a clean t-shirt, and I didn't mind in the least that he wasn't more dressed up.

  In fact, my heart had done a little stutter when I'd seen him and Nick dressed how they were, each with their different style. I loved them both just how they were, and I never wanted either of them to ever change.

  The simple ceremony was performed by an older man in his sixties who was a non-shifter and former Methodist minister. He'd serendipitously arrived in Helena with his young grandson just two days earlier, after having seen a sign posted somewhere about ten miles east.

  Nick and Blaine had actually taken my drunken idea to post Helena signs and directions for travelers seriously, and they'd ultimately decided it was a good idea, dispatching some of their men to post a dozen or so signs as far as a hundred miles away.

  Using an old fashioned ink well and pen to write in stunningly beautiful calligraphy, the minister had written up a marriage certificate on thick cream-colored paper, and Nick, Blaine, and I signed it after the ceremony.

  I signed my name in careful cursive, Nick signed his name with large, bold strokes, and Blaine just scrawled a large capital B. Surveying the contract with our different signatures that kind of seemed to reflect our individual personalities, I thought it was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen in my life. I'd frame it later.

  After the living room wedding, which had been attended by a small, intimate group of about a dozen, Tracy, Elisa, and Kathy set up a buffet and even a little bar area in the kitchen, and a loud, boisterous, crowded wedding reception ensued. Nick uncorked a bottle of champagne, an exceedingly rare treat in post-apocalyptic times, and he and Blaine made a toast of sorts together, both speaking briefly about their "beautiful new bride" and how they hoped for "many, many happy years." I toasted them similarly, heart swelling. When the champagne ran out, Nick refilled everyone's glasses with wine so that Chris could make a toast.

  While everyone clinked their glasses and said cheers, Blaine spoke near my ear in a low voice with the edges of his mouth twitching. "Careful, now. You know how goofy you get on wine."

  He seemed to have a much higher tolerance for alcohol. Once he'd drained his wine in two or three gulps, he refilled his wine glass with a few inches of whiskey and knocked that back, too. Somehow charmed by him in some deep, profound way that I often was, and experiencing a sudden, strong rush of love for him, I asked him to kiss me right then, and he did, to clapping and cheering of everyone present.

  Nick kissed me next, dipping me at the same time, to more clapping and cheering and a whistle from Kathy.

  She was actually being exceptionally nice to me. She'd told me congratulations and had given me a genuine-seeming smile, and while I'd been walking up the carpet "aisle" in the living room, she'd watched me, becoming clearly misty, as if she were a proud mother. A few moments later, while I'd been walking past her, I'd caught a glimpse of her wiping her eyes. She'd also been the one to pick my wildflower wedding bouquet and a posy of white flowers for me to wear in my hair. She sure was a funny one to figure out.

  After everyone had enjoyed large plates of delicious buffet food, Elisa brought out a beautiful triple-tiered vanilla wedding cake she'd made, and after thanking her, I cut the first slice with one of Nick's hands and one of Blaine's hands covering mine.

  Once everyone else had slices, I fed Nick and Blaine bites and they fed me bites, and without smearing frosting all over my face. I'd warned them both that although I knew some women thought it was cute and fun to get a face full of cake at their wedding, I didn't think I'd be one of those women.

  At no point during the wedding or reception had I become anything more than just slightly misty, but that was soon to change when a barrel-chested shifter named Jim said he had a wedding gift for Nick, Blaine, and me. Like Blaine, Jim was a rough-around-the-edges kind of guy who spoke in a gruff sort of manner. Before the apocalypse, he'd spent a few years in prison for something that had happened during a bar fight.

  While everyone present looked on, he handed me some kind of a scroll tied with a dark blue ribbon. "No cameras anymore, of course, so I figured you might like a picture to remember your day. Did it during the talking part of the wedding."

  Face reddening a bit, he took his seat, and I undid the ribbon and rolled out the scroll on the table, eyes instantly filling. In pencil, Jim had done a gorgeous, remarkably detailed sketch of Blaine, Nick, and me, each of them holding one of my hands, standing up by the minister during the ceremony. The quality of the sketch was on the level of a very talented professional artist, and it was one that I would have expected a professional artist to require hours to do. Obviously incredibly talented, Jim had to have done it in less than fifteen minutes.

  While everyone crowded around, looking at the sketch and murmuring admiration, I surveyed it with a huge lump in my throat, then looked up at Jim and spoke in a wavering voice. "It's so, so beautiful. Thank you."

  Reddening further, Jim said it was "nothing." But like the wedding certificate, I'd frame the sketch, too, and would treasure it for the rest of my life.

  Soon, after a few more gifts, mostly things for the home, I tossed my wildflower bouquet, and Tracy caught it. Which made everyone laugh, because she, Trent, and Donovan had just gotten married the day before.

  After that, Kathy, Elisa, and Tracy started cleaning up, refusing any help from me, and Kathy told the men to go enjoy a drink in the living room if they wanted.

  When they'd all cleared out, Kathy handed Elisa and Tracy a couple of vases that Tracy had given me as gifts and asked if they could please go put them in a storage closet down the hallway. "Just because Eva might not want to use them right away. And also please maybe carefully wrap them in something...see if you can find some tissue paper or just use hand towels. Just wrap them carefully so they don't break."

  It was clear to me, and probably Elisa and Tracy, too, that Kathy wanted a minute alone with me. And once Elisa and Tracy had left with the vases, she got right to it, having a seat at the table with me and immediately beginning to study her nails.

  "So, obviously, I don't have a clue about your past relationships before the virus, and I don't know what specific kind of relationship you've had with Nick and Blaine the past couple weeks, or what already has or hasn't been going on in this house, and you're very young, and...."

  Sighing, Kathy paused, still surveying her nails and cuticles. "Well, do you have any questions or concerns or anything? In this day and age, most of you girls seem to have a lot more knowledge and experience than I had when I got married for the first time; but I always ask because...well, who knows.

  “You're very young, and I have no clue what has or hasn't been happening in this house, so...who knows. Since none of you girls have mothers, I figure better to ask than have one of you fearful or confused about something when some simple advice or answering of a simple question could help."

  I was finding Kathy surprisingly endearing at the moment, and I almost wanted to giggle for some reason, but of course I didn't. Not least of all because I was one of those inexperienced young women that Kathy sought to help.

  Over the course of the previous week, I'd slept in Nick's room, alone, while he'd slept in one of the spare bedrooms and Blaine in the other. The night of our engagement, I'd awoken to use the bathroom and had found Blaine awake, staring up at the ceiling. When I'd returned to bed, he'd gotten out, apologizing.<
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  "I just can't do this anymore, Eva. Sorry."

  While he grabbed his pillow and one of the blankets, I asked him what he meant, and he said that he just wasn't able to sleep right next to me right then.

  "Even with the blankets between our lower bodies?" I'd asked.

  "Even with the blankets," he'd said, then had given me a quick kiss and had left the room.

  Getting back into bed, I found that Nick was also now awake, and he asked if I'd mind if he took the other spare room, saying that he'd barely slept all night. Knowing that I was going to miss the feel of his and Blaine's arms around me, but not wanting him to lose any more sleep, I'd told him to go right ahead.

  The next day, I'd gotten it into my head that maybe I wanted to wait until our wedding night to become intimate. Nick and Blaine had both said that was fine, but that with that being the case, we should definitely continue our separate sleeping arrangements until then.