Desi pats his arm and leans forward. “He’s…fine. Cranky as usual, but he didn’t reference my blatant homosexuality even once on this last trip, which I’ll take as progress.”
“Yeah, he just referenced my age fifteen times,” Wyatt grumbles.
Desi grins, then slides onto Wyatt's lap. “I believe we made him regret ever questioning your stamina, darling.”
Trip runs his hand over his face. “Look, I love you two together. I’m on board with the whole love thing. Truly. But I swear, I’ll give you a million dollars if you’ll never say words likestaminaandregretin front of me ever again.”
Desi cackles, kisses Wyatt's nose, then returns to his seat. I decide not to point out that Desi’s hands have slipped under the tablecloth and Wyatt’s face is turning a not-terribly-subtle red from whatever Desi’s doing.
Yes, I believe I will keep that to myself. No need to traumatize the rest of the table.
We settle into breakfast and make quick work of the delicious food. Soon enough, everyone gets up and begins to wander out while Trip follows me to the coffee station.
“Can you stay after everybody leaves?”
I nod and go back to the table. Trip was cool the other night when he walked in on us, but I know he isn't happy. This situation creates complexities, or it very much has the ability to.
He sits down across from me and cups his coffee, cradling the mug in his hands before looking me in the eyes.
He lets out a heavy sigh.
“Mira, Trip. I know this is a big leap of faith. But what you walked in on…”
“I don't need the details,” he says, covering his face with his mug.
I laugh, happy that he’s willing to be a bit silly with me. “I wasn't going to give you any, but…what happened right before you walked in is that we all said we love each other. And it was our first time doing so. I thought you should know that.”
Trip sets his coffee on the table and runs his fingers through his beard, which he’s growing out a little longer these days. “I knew y'all were dating or something, but…that's a little more serious, isn't it?”
I look at my hands and nod. “It very much is. I mean, the three of us have all been very happy bachelors. We weren’t looking for thisat all.But I think anybody who knows Colt knows that he is secretly built for relationships. And you only ever met me after my divorce from Ofelia, but I still maintain—and so does she—that it was a very successful marriage that ended when it needed to. I have no problem with commitment. I was just having fun until something caught my eye.”
“It was Warwick, right? Warwick was the one who caught your eye?”
I nod. “It was surprising. When someone is a true-blue, one-night-stand kind of person, I'm pretty good at accepting that at face value. Something got a little confused when he wanted another go-around. And Colt was finding that he had the exact same problem with our Warwick.”
Trip takes another sip of coffee, looking thoughtful. “You know, when I met Sam, I did all of these things that, in retrospect, definitely meant I was interested in him, romantically, sexually,” he says, tapping the table. “But I was damn near already in love with him before it registered that A: I wasn't straight and B: he was the guy for me. With everything that Wick’s been through, it doesn’t surprise me that it took him a little while to figure out what was going on.”
“Yeah, Colt and I figured it out a little earlier than he did, so we might have…conspired against him. Solo un poco,” I say, pinching my thumb and forefinger together.Just a little.“But I know that it's going be scary for you. And I want you to know that we've talked in-depth about what we've got together. We can't see a future that doesn't have all of us in it. But our promise is to be kind and honest, which are qualities the three of us bring to the table already. I used my ongoing relationship with Ofelia as an example and said that while I don't really see an end to this, if it did end, there’d be no reason to be unkind to each other.”
Trip sets down the cup of coffee and shuffles some papers stacked off to the side.
“Do I want three of my employees involved with each other? No. It's not my favorite if I'm real honest. Would my mother haunt me until the end of my days if I didn't provide a safe space for y’all—Wick, especially—to explore a genuine, loving relationship? Absolutely. And I don't get a say in what that looks like for him.”
He shuffles the papers again and sets them down, then picks them up and straightens them. I stay quiet, letting him parse through his thoughts.
Biting his lip, his voice rough, he continues, “Wick and Sparrow saved this ranch over and over again. And I’ll tell you truthfully, I’d sacrifice a lot for that man, even if the thing I’m sacrificing is good sense. He loves this ranch down to its roots, and if he's willing to let himself love you both, then I'll never stand in the way of it.”
“Thank you, Trip,” I say, grabbing his arm. “I love them, and they love me. And we all have relationships with each other and then as a group. I've been involved in sexually open couples before, but never something like this. And it feels very different. Very grounding.”
Trip looks a little uncomfortable, but I go quiet, letting him find his words. “I don't want to get too much into your business, but what about the sleeping arrangements?”
I grin. “They’re a little ridiculous right now. We’re mostly in my room because I have the biggest bed, but then we each sort of maintain our own spaces.”
“Well, with Abel out, do you think you'd want to knock through the wall between your room and Warwick’s? Give yourselves a little more space?”
I snap my head up, shocked. “Really?”
“Luke said something the other day about Colt being pretty handy. If this is something long-term, you can make the adjustments upstairs that you need. It's meant to be your space. It’s just drywall. and if this is who we are, if this is how we’re going to run this ranch, then I want to give y’all the best opportunity to succeed.”
