“Yes, Reed. Whatever you want.”
“I’ll be the best boy from now on.”
He took each of my hands and kissed both my palms. The gesture filled me with love. Just when I didn’t think my feelings for him could get any stronger, they did.
“You’re already my best boy, little prince.”
“Thank you, Daddy.”
Leaning into King—no, myDaddy, I corrected myself—I let go. For the first time in my life I decided that I could simply step onto a different path. It wasn’t like me to be reckless anymore. King’s presence catapulted me out of my comfort zone and into a new reality, a better one in the best way possible.
Fourteen
Eloise
“Hey! I’m not going to blab your shit to Dane,” Tiana assured me as we rode back toward the stables at my brother’s house. For reasons I couldn’t explain, I was still struggling to accept Reed and Kingston. Rather than taking it out on them as I tended to do, I’d come over here, intending to talk it out with someone who didn’t know me quite as well as Karsyn, but who got me on a deeper level.
Tiana understood me in a way most people didn’t, having had moved away from our hometown for almost a decade herself. Dane broke up with her after his high school graduation when our parents relocated to Europe practically in the middle of the night without warning. Somehow they’d found each other again, along with their shared boyfriend, Tanner.
“It’s not that,” I finally answered her.
“Then what is it? What’s bugging you today?”
I rubbed my hand along Spitfire’s mane. She was a gorgeous American quarter horse forced into early retirement due to lack of funds by her previous owners. Slowly pulling myself out of my thoughts that had nothing to do with the actual problem, I glanced at Tiana. “How do you deal with two Daddies?”
“Very carefully,” she suggested with a gentle shrug of her shoulders.
“Good life advice.” I cracked up. We returned to the stables, brushing down the horses and cleaning the stalls. There was something about manual labor along with spending time with the horses that made me feel instantly lifted. Tiana brushed Bullet, the fastest horse in the stable. He was technically my brother’s horse, but he seemed to fall in love with her much like Dane had. She spoiled both of them.
“I was mostly kidding, Eli. Anyhow. It’s not rocket science. What’s not making sense to you? Maybe I can help navigate.”
“I’ve never been in this sort of relationship, a throuple with two dominant partners. Reed has been so much in his head! I can’t seem to get through to him. Kingston…. well… he’s different. He's super chill all the time. It’s almost annoying.”
Tiana nodded several times. “Every single dynamic is different just like every relationship is different. Why don’t you think you get through to Reed?”
“He’s grumpy. Oh! And he brats King all the time.”
“I brat to pretty much everyone. For me it’s usually when I need reassurance. Marissa swatted my ass a few weeks ago.”
“She did not!” I almost dropped the brush in my hand.
“Oh yes she did! Swatted my thighs. Jesse wasn’t home or he’d have bent me over the kitchen table!”
Jesse was Tanner’s brother and he had taken on an Uncle dynamic for her since she needed extra love, attention and discipline. I nodded knowingly. “Yes, he would have because sometimes you need Jesse to remind you how loved you are. Did Marissa’s hand do a good job?”
“Shockingly well. Don’t worry. I got it good the next time I saw Jesse,” Tiana said, letting out a long breath. “Anyways, Reed is in a job he hates. At least that’s what King told Tanner at work. Not that he gossips or anything, it was just shop talk.”
I forgot for a minute that as a firefighter Tanner worked at the same firehouse as Kingston. Interesting. I wondered if he had any additional insight that I could ask him for.
“Who said what to King Tanner?” Tanner strode to the stalls holding my brother’s hand.
Tiana snorted. “Ha ha, Daddy. You said to me that Kingston told you that Reed is in a job he hates.”
“Ah, I did. But it’s not our business to share, buttercup,” he said, raising an eyebrow at her.
“Sorry, Daddy. I’m trying to help Eloise not overthink.”
I finished my task and crossed my arms, leaning against the stable wall. “I won’t gossip. Listen, I’m not into all… this.”
