The Bucket List (A REVERSE HAREM ROMANCE)

BONUS CONTENT

***ALBANY***

I turned sideways and studied myself in the mirror with a frown. Turning back to the front, I soothed my hands down my sides and over my hips before letting them drop to my sides. I was supposed to look sexy but the dress wasn't doing anything here.

With a shake of my head, I walked into my closet and searched for another dress. I pulled four out and studied each one of them before I hung them up again. They weren't sexy enough. Half way through searching I paused.

I didn't need to dress to impress. Every one of them except for Severide had seen me naked. I wasn't going to dress up for dinner with them. If they weren't happy with my attire then things wouldn't work out at all.

Turning, I pulled the dress off and reached for a pair of jeans and one of the few fancy satin button down shirts I wore. Buttoning the last button, I pushed it into the high waist of my jeans and then walked out of the closet to take a look in the mirror.

"Much better," I muttered.

I pulled my hair into a high ponytail and added some lip gloss. Grabbing my phone and wallet, I pulled on some flats and then walked out of the condo. I double check to make sure the door is locked before I walked down the stone path towards my car parked in the drive.

The closer I got to the twin's house, the faster my heart started beating. How was I supposed to greet them? With a hug or a kiss? Or maybe an air kiss like they did in the movies? Definitely not a handshake. But by the time I arrived, my questions hadn't been answered yet.

"Hey," Thomas greeted as I got out of my car.

I gave him a nervous smile. Luckily I got my answers when Thomas wrapped an arm around my waist and tugged me to his chest. My hesitation only lasted a moment. I hugged him back as tightly as I could.

"You have no idea how much I fucking missed you," he muttered against my ear. "Did you miss me?"

"Do you even have to ask? I missed you."

Thomas pulled back slightly and reached up to cup my cheek. With a chin pressed to the underside of my chin, he tilted my head back as his lowered. I blew out a breath and allowed my eyes to flutter closed. Our nose brushed. Any second now his lips were going to be pressed to mine.

Someone cleared their throat close by.

Thomas's forehead dropped to mine. "Can't you just go inside and come back in say twenty minutes?"

"You'd love that, wouldn't you? But no I can't."

Muttering under his breath, Thomas straightened and stepped away to glare at Kieran. I held my breath as I waited for the fighting to start, but it didn't. With a smirk playing around his lips, Kieran stepped forward and pulled me in for a hug that was a lot shorter than Thomas's was.

"Severide is starting to freak out," he said. "Let's go inside before he drops dead."

I punched him. "That's not funny."

Storming past them, I entered the house and followed the voices towards the living room. Severide was lounging on one of the single couches with a shockingly familiar dog on his lap.

"Spotty!"

The dog's head snapped up but he made no move to jump from Severide's lap. Moving forward, I leaned down to pet him as I gushed over him. His tail waggled and his tongue hung out of his mouth, making drool drop onto Severide's leg, but he showed no recognition of me.

"I'm afraid his age is starting to catch up on him," Steven said from the doorway.

I glanced up at him and then focused on Spotty again. He looked healthier than he had that day when we took him out to the park. But like Steven had pointed out, he looked his age. I pressed a kiss to the top of his head and then looked up at Severide.

He gave me a smile. "You look beautiful, cupcake."

My cheeks flushed with colour. Leaning down, I moved to pressed a kiss to his cheek, but he turned his head t the last minute and captured my lips instead. It was a brief kiss but it was enough to make heat fill me.

Sex toys wasn't as good as the real thing. A part of me actually wanted to skin right to third base with all of them. Shaking my head, I walked over to Steven to greet him.

If things worked out then we'd be moving to third base soon enough.

***

"I visited some old friends from high school." Thomas took a bite of his chicken. "It helped me clear my mind and of course think about all the shit and sort it out in my head."

"Will you tell me about why you always fought?"

For a moment everyone at the table froze. Steven cleared his throat as his eyes darted from his brother to Kieran. It was clear he knew about it but why hadn't they told me? My eyes darted to Severide who was staring down at his half full plate.

"There was. . .Kieran and I uhm. . ."

"They fucked," Steven interrupted his stuttering. "It happened a few years ago when we went to on a trip to celebrate."

I started choking. It wasn't something I expected. Thomas had given no signs of being. . .gay. I took a few sips of water and stared at him in shock. He scratched his chin and then cleared his throat before he looked up at me.

"Have you ever. . .again? After that night?" I questioned.

"No." His lips twitched. "I freaked out and yeah, our relationship got fucked up because of that. But it's not going to happen again and no I'm not gay or bi-sexual. I love women, more especially you, but let's not get into this now."

We ate in silence for a few more minutes until Steven broke it. He lowered his cutlery and linked his fingers together as he looked at me.

"Albany," he paused. "That night after we came home from the hospital, you asked me if I wanted kids. Do you remember what I said?"

***"Hell no. Fuck, do you know how much work they are? How much it's going to cost to put one kid through school?"***

My eyes dropped as I swallowed the lump in my throat. How could I forget it? It was one of the reasons why I made the decided that we needed to sort things out before we could go any further.

"I want kids," I blurted out before he could utter another word. "I want a family."

"I know you do." My eyes shot up to his. "I should've told you the truth instead of well, making you believe that I didn't want any kids."

"You want kids?" I questioned, hopefully.

He gave me a small smile. "I did something stupid for a woman I thought I was ready to spend the rest of my life with." His smile faded. "I had a vasectomy. It's something I really regretted and unfortunately it's not something I can change."

"So you can't give me kids either?"

"No, but between Thomas and Kieran I'm sure we'll be able to start the family you've always wanted."

I smiled and then started laughing when I caught the look on Kieran's face. We couldn't change what happened in the past but we still had our future ahead of us. My eyes locked with Severide's. I could see the hope in his eyes.

Maybe the break was exactly what we needed.