I glance at Quin since he’s a dean—not the dean of my department but still a dean. He doesn’t appear to care in the least that I shirk my responsibilities onto my assistant coach. He’s watching me, clearly listening, while he eats his lunch.
“Anyway. I’m going to start by saying this is probably going to bounce around a bit because there doesn’t seem to be a logical order to my thoughts, but it’s all relevant. So… I met someone. We spent five weeks together on Kala. It’s different from the kinds of relationships I’ve had in the past because this time, he’s involved with Oscar as well. We’re a throuple. I get that we’re new, but Oz and I had already been making plans to expand our family—kids. New, bigger, forever home. Oz is looking into expanding his business. It’s all a lot of big steps. These are things that we’d started talking about before we met our new boyfriend. Again, we all know we’re kind of jumping the gun, but it also felt wrong to leave him out of these discussions, you know?”
“Definitely,” Zarek says. “That’s a difficult decision to make—include him even though you guys are just beginning or involve him and risk pushing too quickly.”
“Exactly. We chose to involve him because it’s important to us that he doesn’t feel like Oz and I are taking an important step forward in our life together while he’s irrelevant to the situation. That’s as far from the truth as it can get.”
“We’re not talking about kids yet,” Declan says.
“What?” I ask, confused.
“I’m not sure how this is going to play into a personal question, but we’re not talking kids yet. I still feel like a kid myself.”
“Oh.” I shake my head. “No. Sorry. I’m getting there.”
“Patience,” Quin says.
Declan throws a grape at him.
“This guy we met… We shared a lot about ourselves. We spent hours,weekstalking. Learning about each other. Spending time together. The thing is, some information wasn’t exchanged. I guess it felt like it just wasn’t relevant or maybe we thought we’d shared it, but… the guy we met? He’s here.”
Declan’s smiling once again as he watches me, but Zarek looks surprised. Quin still looks impassive as he eats, though he’s watching me, listening, with a small smile lingering as he does.
“He’s on my team,” I say.
Zarek’s eyes go wide. “One of your players? Seriously?”
I nod. “Yeah. And because I have absolute trust in Harper, I didn’t even pull up the new roster until the first practice. He tried to warn me via a phone call, but he only figured it out minutes before practice was to begin. Obviously, I couldn’t talk.”
“Ah,” Quin says. “I heard some kids saying that something spooked you the first practice.”
I huff. “Yeah. I was shocked. I just stared at him like a creep.When I tell you that I was useless for that entire practice, I mean that. Thank fuck for Harper. That woman needs a raise.”
Declan snorts, nodding.
“Okay, first—I’ve already taken myself out of any situation that could be construed as me showing him any preferential treatment. Harper is now in charge of all that. The thing is, our options seem limited. I can step down for a couple years until he graduates. He’s offered to quit, but I don’t want him to do that. I can quit. Oz makes enough money for me to be a house husband, and he wouldn’t be hurt at all if I stayed home with him all day. But I love my job, and I don’t really want to quit. However, I know it’s only a matter of time before we’re figured out.Now,I’ve made it to my question. Did you have any backlash when you two got together?” I ask Declan and Zarek.
Zarek and Declan look at each other, but the latter’s already shaking his head.
“You mean besides Frosty,” Zarek says, giving me a bemused smile. “No. No one’s said anything to us in the last three years.”
“But this is different, right?” Declan says. “We’re colleagues in a more lateral way, and our jobs—our entire departments—have no interaction with each other.”
Yeah, that’s not useful. I look at Quin and raise a brow. “As a dean being involved with these two lowly peasants? Have you received any backlash?”
“We’re not involved,” Declan mutters, glaring at me.
Zarek chuckles, wrapping his arm around Declan’s shoulders and pulling him down. “Of course you’re not, baby.” He kisses Declan’s temple while Declan huffs in irritation. I try my damnedest not to laugh.
Quin watches it with amusement.
Okay, I don’tactuallythink they’re involved. Their story is complicated, and I know for a fact that I don’t have all the details. What Idoknow, I’ve gleaned from comments and conversations that I’ve overheard when hanging with them.More than 90% of the time, I’m not sure what’s going down with them.
Declan and his twin share a best friend—Simon. Simon was straight until four years ago when he fell in love with his former college professor. That professor is Quin. Somewhere in there, the besties got into a big fight that led to the six of them—Declan and Zarek, Damon and his husband Sage, and Quin and Simon, living under a single roof.
I don’t know what happens in that house, but I have some questions from time to time. I don’t ask them, but I certainly have them.
Also, this stuff all began during their last year at college, and they moved up here to Glensdale the summer before Declan started working here. Quinlan got a job here first, as the dean of the trade department.
