He takes a deep breath and blurts out, “I’m bisexual, and Grandmother wouldn’t let me come out of the closet. By threatening you, she was making it so I couldn’tembarrassthe family name by being queer.” He sneers when he says the last part, showing how he feels about that.
“Oh no, Ash, that’s awful. I’m so sorry.” It’s her turn to wrap her arms around her brother, and I give them a moment to comfort one another.
“So does that mean you and Jacinta aren’t in a relationship?” she asks as they separate. “Is she your… beard?”
Ash snorts, and I put a hand over my mouth to smother my laughter. “Oh, she’s not my beard. She’s my girlfriend, but I’m not her only boyfriend.”
She frowns, then her lips round in surprise. “Oh okay, polyamory. That’s what it’s called, right? Some of the older girls at school read books like that. Reverse harem, I think they are called.”
“Yes, kind of like that,” he answers, but then he looks at me. “Maybe you should explain it.”
“Ha! Chicken,” I scold him, and he shrugs without denying it. “Okay, well, all the men you just met are my boyfriends.”
“But Alex, Shane, and Jace are like the ‘it’ throuple,” she argues, and Ash shakes his head.
“Yes, they are, but it’s because Jacinta has been keeping her involvement with them a secret for my sake. They are like me, bisexual, and Jacinta is a part of their relationship.”
“What about Cole and Riku? Are they as well?” she asks.
“No, Riku and Cole are heterosexual, and I have one-on-one relationships with them.”
The little crease between her eyes is adorable as she tries to get it all straight within her mind. Once it all seems to settle in, the cheeky little shit turns to Ash. “Well, why aren’t you involved with all that delicious man meat as well?”
Ash’s mouth drops open in surprise, and laughter bursts from my lips as Edie giggles. He’s stammering, so I decide to throw him a bone. “Ash used to be in a relationship with Alex, but it didn’t end so great. So maybe we just leave them be while they work out how they are going to navigate this whole complicated thing.”
“Well, you’d be stupid not to tap any of that, I’m just saying.” She crosses her arms, and there’s a stubborn set to her jaw.
“So none of this bothers you?” I ask, unable to hold back my curiosity. I might also be feeling slightly protective of Ash. He survived his grandmother’s harsh criticisms, but I don’t know if he’d make it through this if his sister wasn’t supportive. He looks at her like she holds the world in her hands, and I have a feeling he’d just fall apart if Edie decided she couldn’t love her brother as he is.
“No, why should it bother me? As long as you treat Ash well and love him as much as you love the others, I’m happy for him.”
“You wouldn’t be opposed to coming to live with us?” I ask her, and even Ash looks at me with surprise. “Well, I kind of figured it’s a discussion we need to have. As much as I don’t want to leave Dad’s place, it really isn’t practical to have all of us live there, not with Hope and the McCallisters living there too.”
“You… You want me to live with you?” she stammers, looking between me and Ash.
“Yeah, of course I do, but I haven’t really asked Ash to live with me yet either, so I guess I’m jumping the gun. You two might want to stay here in London, but as much as I enjoy visiting, I have no desire to live here permanently.” I’m rambling with embarrassment now.
“Whatever you decide, I would love to live with you,” she assures me. “If it means I don’t have to go to that bloody boarding school again, I’d be happy to have a home anywhere.”
“No, I’m sure we can work something out, even if we get you a tutor because we travel so much. It might be disruptive to take you in and out of normal schooling.”
“Did you know that Alex has his teaching degree?” Ash says conversationally, leaning back against the stable door.
“Seriously? I had no idea. When did he have time to do that?”
“He was doing it when we were together between modeling gigs. He knew that modeling wouldn’t be forever, and I’m sure by now you realize how much he loves children.” I blush because I’m intimately familiar with exactly how much he loves kids and wants his own. “So he did a teaching degree as a backup. He focused on the little ones, but it wouldn’t take much to get him up to speed to teach Edie. That’s assuming he finished, but maybe I’m wrong.” Ash brushes off his clothes and holds out a hand for me. He pulls me up and places a kiss on my lips. “Thank you,” he whispers as Edie giggles.
With a lot shared between us, we make our way back to the house. We’ve got a lot of decisions to make. Edie and Spencer make those decisions particularly important, ones we need to make soon, but I hope we can all at least make it through Christmas first.
ChapterTwenty-One
Jacinta
Christmas comes in a whirlwind of activity, food, drinks, and gift giving. Although I told the guys I didn’t want them spending money on me, of course they didn’t listen.
Shane gave me a blown-up photo he must have taken in Hawaii. It’s of Jace, Alex, and me strolling down the beach, hand in hand, after our dinner. Jace designed me a sexy set of exclusive lingerie in bright red. Riku gave me a small taser to keep in my bag, which I completely appreciated for its practicality. Knowing that his gift was meant to give me safety and comfort gave me the warm fuzzies in a different way than the others’ gifts. Cole’s present is from him and Spencer—a framed drawing that Spencer did of him riding DS when he came to visit. Ash gave me a signed set of paperback novels from one of my favorite authors. It’s a series I’d been reading on my kindle. I can’t believe he was sneaky enough to have a look at it without me noticing.
But Alex’s gift was the one that had me laughing the most. He gave me a book of baby names and a pregnancy test. Could he be any less subtle? I had just finished processing that when he disappeared and came out with a big box. When he put it down on the ground, it shuddered like there was something in it.
