I don’t know why there’s a difference, but there is.
I take a deep breath. “I want to propose to Leo, if that’s all right with you, Sir.”
He reaches out and strokes my head with his left hand. Even before he speaks relief fills me because of the playful smile curling his lips. “Finally overcoming your fear?”
“Yes, Sir. Except I need you to be okay with it, too. I don’t want to ruin what we have. I won’t do it if you aren’t.”
He holds out his hand to me. When I take it his fingers close around mine and he gently tugs, his meaning clear. I clamber up onto the sofa with him, my head in his lap so I can stare up at him.
There’s something downright serene in his smile now. “You marrying Leo makes the most sense, don’t you think? If I marry you, it would create a scandal because of our work relationship. It also means I couldn’t work for you anymore and be there for you whenever you need me.
“Leo’s never worked directly for you. It’s believable that you met him while he worked for President Samuels, and that you met me because I was his roommate. I can still be your body man and even live here still. That logically gives me access to both of you. If Leo was to marry me it gives him some access to you, being my spouse, but not as muchlogicalaccess. Then there’s no good reason for me to live here, or for him and me to keep coming to the White House at all hours.”
Those are all points I already considered. “Yes, Sir. But areyouokay with it?” I need for him to say it. I need tohearit.
His fingers massage my scalp as we talk. I love it when he or Leo does that. It almost always drops me into subspace and has kind of become a secret signal between us. When there’s no time—or guaranteed privacy—for him to play with me, I can sit there, close my eyes, lean my head against him, and he cups my head with one hand and massages it with the other.
“Yes. I amabsolutelygood with you proposing to Leo.” He smiles. “It’s about fucking time.”
Relief washes through me. I love these two men. I love them desperately and finally understand something Leo once told me: that I needed to decide what scares me more—loving them, or losing them.
Losing themdefinitelyscares me more.
Farmore.
I’m ready to own my relationship with Leo.
The worst potential personal fallout is my parents disowns me. I hope that won’t happen, but who knows? I don’t care what Stella thinks.
Jordan basically lost his parents in high school. At least he had his grandmother to help him out.
Leo isn’t estranged from his parents. I guess we’ll soon find out how they feel about their son being the First Spouse.
Considering they absolutely adore Jordan I have a feeling this might be a bit much for them to swallow. I could be wrong.
“When do you want to do it?” he asks.
“Weekend after this one, during the Saturday hike.” Jordan and Leo are slated to accompany me on the hike. The whole weekend is a bunch of adaptive sporting events for the wounded vet organization, including shooting, track and field, wheelchair tennis, basketball, volleyball, and rugby, and more. It’s meant to highlight adaptive sports.
Since I am a wounded veteran,duh, I readily accepted when they reached out and asked if I’d come help them with their ribbon-cutting on their new facility. And that was before we knew whether or not it’d be one of the last ceremonial things I ever did as POTUS.
So I’m giving a talk earlier in the day, followed by participating in a hike with other veterans on the facility’s brand-new recreation path, which is set up for both able-bodied and disabled walkers and hikers of various skill levels.
“Hmm. You’ll have press up your ass for the event. You realize that, right? Even during the hike. Not a full pool spray but enough that it will draw attention.”
I suck in a deep breath. “Yes, Sir,” I quietly say. “I want official pictures of me dropping to one knee in front of him.” A horrible thought hits me. “You don’t think he’ll say no, do you?”
Jordan chuckles. “There’s absolutelyzerochance of that. Do you have a ring?”
“Yes, Sir.” I sit up and rise from the couch so I can retrieve the jeweler’s box from my desk. Kev helped me buy them so I wouldn’t trigger any news stories from a clerk reporting on it. And I needed it done in secret so I could reservethissurprise for Jordan.
I return to the couch with it. Instead of resuming my position next to Jordan I slowly kneel in front of him. He holds his hand out to me to steady me.
I open the box. I will admit feeling more than a little satisfaction when his gaze widens as he realizes there are three wedding bands inside.
“Will you marry me, Jordan? I mean, marryus? I mean…” I sigh. “Youknowwhat I mean. I need to know you’ll be with us every step of the way because I love you, and Leo loves you, too. We belong together, the three of us.”
He blinks, his eyes widening and momentarily looking a little too bright, like he’s close to tears.
