“Absolutely,” Art said. “We will be there for you every step of the way. I’ll even learn to sew. Graeme can walk the runway in your showstopper gown if he needs to.”
Graeme balked, then burst into laughter. Art laughed with him, his eyes shining with affection for Graeme. It gave Ryan hope and made him count his lucky stars that he had these two amazing men with him every step of the way.
“We can do this,” he said. “I might be stuck with one o’clock on a Thursday, but there will still be buyers and press there. It could be so much worse.”
Art nodded in agreement, but Graeme’s smile suddenly dropped. “Thursday?” he asked.
“Yes?” Ryan’s confidence started to deflate again.
“Thursday the fifth?”
“Yes,” Ryan answered slowly.
Graeme glanced from Ryan to Art and back again. “I have that meeting with Mrs. St. Ives about redesigning her garden on Wednesday the fourth.”
“Can you ask her to change it?” Art asked.
“I don’t think so,” Graeme said, pushing a hand through his hair and looking anxious. “She’s heading off to visit her daughter the next day, and she said there’s some big event taking place at Penwith Grange for a few days before that. She was very apologetic, but she has a narrow window of availability.” He looked stricken as he turned to Ryan and said, “She invited me to stay overnight in Cornwall, and I feel like I have to accept if Iwant to get the job. I don’t think I can make it back in time for your show.”
“I’ll go with you,” Art said, jumping in with excitement in his eyes. “I’ll drive you out, and we’ll get up bright and early the next morning, fawn and flatter over Mrs. St. Ives until she gives you the job, then drive back from Cornwall before the show starts.”
“That’s really early,” Graeme said.
Art shrugged. “That just means there won’t be any traffic on the roads. We can absolutely do this.” He held out a hand to Graeme.
Graeme’s smile returned. He took Art’s hand, then turned to Ryan, offering his other hand. “We can do this,” he repeated Art’s words. “We’re stronger together. I’m in way over my head and I know nothing about how threesomes work, but I know we can do more together than we can alone.”
Ryan was so touched his eyes stung with rare tears. He grasped Graeme’s offered hand, then took Art’s with his other, finishing their connection. “You have no idea how much I appreciate this,” he said, voice rough. “Now, if only I had a decent idea to shape my collection around, it would be?—”
Out of nowhere, the idea hit him. It felt like all the rubbish that was blocking the dam of his creativity was suddenly washed aside and a tsunami of ideas flowed in its place. Triangles started to bounce around in his head, and every design and technique that involved three points swirled together, spitting out images of gowns and suits and every outfit under the sun.
“I’ve got it,” he said, staring straight ahead and just letting the ideas flow.
“Got what?” Art asked. “Because if it’s the clap, then we’ll have to invest in some seriously water-tight prophylactics.”
Graeme laughed, but Ryan was too energized by the ideas hitting him to join in.
“The power of three,” he said. “Three points. Everything in threes.”
“I beg your pardon?” Art asked, blinking rapidly.
“I don’t have any more objection to threes,” Graeme said bashfully.
Ryan loved them all to bits, but he couldn’t afford to stand around being silly anymore. “I have ideas,” he said, letting go of their hands and heading for the door. “All of a sudden, I have so many ideas. I have to get them all down.”
“We’ll help,” Art said, he and Graeme following after him as they left the office and headed back up to the studio.
Ryan wasn’t sure how they could help, but he was confident that they could. Everything was starting to fall into place, and even though it wasn’t even close to what he imagined things would be, it was a start.
SEVENTEEN
The restof August whizzed by in a blur of work and mounting, unrequited lust. In one respect, Art loved it. He got to spend intensive time with the two men he was quickly coming to feel like he couldn’t live without. Ryan spent most of his time away from Hawthorne House in London as his designs came together, but given the fact that a new semester was about to start at Royal London College and Art was back in the thick of preparing for his classes again, he was able to dash over to the fashion district to help out when and where he could.
Graeme was also up to his eyeballs in work, both where it came to keeping up with the planting and tending of the Hawthorne House gardens and where his designs for Penwith Grange were concerned. Robert Hawthorne had the clever idea of offering a horticulture class through the Hawthorne Community Arts Center, which meant Graeme had help with all his digging and planting and arranging, but he was still dizzy with activity most of the time.
All of it meant that the three of them couldn’t spend the time they wanted to together. The closest Art came to getting his rocks off with either of his men was the random Tuesdayafternoon when he’d caught Ryan in the hall after he’d returned home from a meeting with Gloria, yanked him into one of the storage closets, and dropped to his knees to suck him off.
“This is ridiculous,” Ryan panted as Art rose on wobbly legs, wiping the corner of his mouth. “We need more than five minutes in a closet.”
