Art laughed. “I love you two, you know that, right?”
“Um—” Graeme began.
“Yes, love, we know,” Ryan said with a sarcastic smirk.
“We are all much too far up our own arses at the moment,” Art went on, as if he were holding a board meeting. “No one is getting any effective work done, and since it’s too wet outside for us all to distract ourselves either with gardening or unearthing treasures in the gamekeeper’s cottage, I suggest we have a good, old-fashioned orgy.”
Dead silence followed his suggestion.
Art couldn’t keep a straight face. His lips started to wobble, and he had to contort his face in all sorts of ways to stop from giggling.
Ryan let out a breath. “You’re not serious,” he said, more as a statement than a question.
“That was a joke?” Graeme asked, looking just a bit crestfallen.
“It was a joke,” Art said, breaking into a smile at last. “Although if you’re up for it, you know I’m always ready to go.”
“That wasn’t a joke, by the way,” Ryan told Graeme with a twinkle in his eyes.
“Yeah, I got that,” Graeme said.
The tension started to bleed out of the air between them. Nothing could have made Art happier. The three of them really were so good together. As soon as all the nonsense of work and challenge was over, they really would have to get naked and explore all the ways they could make each other blush.
“What I’m actually suggesting,” he said in a much softer voice, “is that the two of you take a break and come up to the attic with me as I search for more primary source material for the paper I need to present to my dean so that he’ll continue to approve funding for the excavation instead of firing me for being a complete heathen that he can’t control.”
Art’s suggestion was met with a thread of worry as Graeme and Ryan exchanged a look.
“Are you really in danger of being fired for—” Graeme didn’t finish his question.
“Nope,” Art said, then clipped the look of relief that came over Graeme’s face by finishing with, “You’re not allowed to worry about that. My precarious position with the university is secondary to your garden presentation and Ryan’s show.”
“Arthur,” Ryan said in the daddy voice that never failed to get Art’s blood pumping. “You didn’t tell us that you’re in trouble, too.”
“Because it’s not trouble,” Art insisted, moving around the table to pull at Ryan’s chair, prompting him to stand. He continued around to Graeme’s side of the table. “My job is just a job. There are other universities in the world that have faculty far more eccentric than me. If I play my cards right, I could end up with an even better job. If I need to. But we’re not there yet.” He winked at Ryan as he grabbed Graeme’s hand and pulled him to his feet.
“I guess we could use a break to help you,” Ryan said, tidying up his sketches a bit before heading for the door.
“Yeah, it’s your turn for help,” Graeme said as he and Art followed him.
“See?” Art said with a broad smile. “We’re already functioning like a proper throuple should.”
He knew his words would trip Graeme up, and maybe Ryan, too, and he wasn’t wrong.
“I…I don’t know about…those things,” Graeme said, face going pink.
Ryan glanced across at Art with a look that said, “Don’t shake the baby” as they made their way down the hall to an old set of stairs that would take them to the attic, walking three abreast.
“There’s no use in hiding from the truth anymore,” Art said, pretending they were discussing something light and funny as Ryan pulled open the door to the attic stairs. “I love you and you love Graeme and Graeme loves me and I love him and he loves you and you love me, See? It all lines up perfectly. We just have to stop running away from the truth.”
“You know,” Ryan said as he flicked on the lights and started up the stairs, glancing back over his shoulder at Art. “Sometimes you boggle my mind.”
“I’d like to boggle it even more, if you’d let me,” Art replied cheekily.
To his surprise, Graeme snorted into a giggle behind him. When Art turned to check on him, he said, “I can’t help it if you’re funny. My mind exists in a constant state of…bogglement? Is that a word?”
“It is now,” Art said, smiling like the sun had come out.
They left the attic door at the bottom of the stairs open, and also left the door at the top of the stairs open so that people in the rest of the house would know where they were and not call the police if they somehow went missing. It was a joke to him,but after the palaver with Nally Hawthorne’s stalker showing up at the house with violent intentions, the family was vigilant about knowing where everyone was at all times. Art suspected they could all track each other’s exact location with their phones.
