Rigby waved his hands. “No, no, hear me out. These are our options right now. Number one, we stop all this. We get Nova her own place, because she’s too fucking tempting to resist.” He threw Nova a heat-laden smirk. “Number two, we take this to a physical level and Nova can just bed hop until she wants to choose one, or none, of us. Satisfying, but not actually a long-term solution. I don’t think Nova is going to be happy to be a bed warmer forever.”

I looked at Nova, and she was chewing her bottom lip like she was going to gnaw it right off. I wanted to lean over and replace her teeth with my own.

The idea of tasting her, being with her, and then her choosing someone else, hurt more than I wanted to admit. I wanted all of her or none of her; they were my two choices. Anything else made fire burn in my chest.

“What’s the third option?” I asked impatiently, though he’d already told us. I just wanted him to lay it out for me like I was a layman.

The coffee table groaned as Rigby sat down on it. “We go into this with an idea of commitment. Of permanence and exclusivity. River and me, we’re on the road six months of the year, longer if we make the playoffs. That’s no way to have a committed relationship with anyone. But you’d be here. A steady presence, taking care of Nova and Huey when we are away. I’d smooth over the rough emotional edges you guys have, so you don’t cut her with all your damage. She wouldn’t be shouldering the entire emotional load of your relationship until she quits.”

I wanted to argue that wasn’t how it happened, but the few committed affairs I’d had—because they were never relationships—would support his theory. I looked over at River, trying to judge what he thought, but his face was unreadable. Nova just looked shell-shocked.

“I bring nothing to the table,” River said softly, his face still a blank mask.

Rigby tried—and failed—not to roll his eyes. “It’s not a business transaction, Coop. It's a relationship. You get out what you put in.”

Surprisingly, it was Nova who moved across the couch to sit beside him, her fingers twining with his. “You bring something.”

River surprised me when he didn’t move away. Shit, maybe Rigby was right. “What do you think of this?” he asked Nova, the first person to ask, like she wasn’t literally the center of this whole little charade.

“I should move out.”

I froze, my whole body going cold, then hot. I really didn’t want her to leave.