“Although?” Jayne prompted.
“I had a conversation with my dad that we’re going to need to talk about, the three of us. He’s thinking about retiring, and he wants me to take his place.”
“Are you serious?” Jayne kissed Everett’s collarbone. “That’s amazing!”
“If things were different, sure.” Everett loosened his grip on Jayne and melted into the pillows, then yawned. “If I accept, then it means that Tuesday through Saturday, I’ll be spending my nights at the club. With you working early, and me working late, we’d have Sunday to spend together, but the rest of the week would be just like this—a couple sleepy hours to catch up between when I get home and when you go to work. I don’t want to turn down the offer, but I feel like if I accept, we’ll never get to see each other. I don’t want that, either.”
“You would turn down a job offer for me?” Jayne pulled away from Everett’s chest and peered at him through the dark, trying to parse his expression, but the shadows hid most of Everett’s finer details. “Everett…”
“It’s not an entirely selfless decision.” Everett ran his hand down Jayne’s side, caressing his skin with a touch so gentle, it made Jayne shiver. “When I think of the future, I see me, and you, and Caleb together taking Parker on trips on the weekends, or enjoying time on the couch together on a Friday night while Caleb throws popcorn at my head and you elbow him in the side.”
Jayne had to hold back a laugh—he didn’t want to wake Caleb.
“We wouldn’t get to have that if I accepted my father’s offer.” Everett sighed and rolled onto his back. Jayne, not wanting to be far, snuggled up to him. “Between you and Caleb, we wouldn’t need my money—if you choose to stay, that is—but…” Everett paused thoughtfully. “I think that’s a conversation best saved for another day.”
Since Jayne and his family had come to stay at the condo, no one had talked much about the inevitable—that one day soon, Jayne would find an apartment of his own and move out. On bathroom breaks and at lunch, phone in hand and in a gloomy mood, Jayne had gone through the motions of finding a new place, but the more he scrolled through rental listings, the less he’d wanted to commit. At the time, he’d chalked it up to each apartment having some fatal flaw—visible mold on the ceiling, signs of a rodent infestation, outdated and likely unsafe appliances—but hearing Everett talk about the future made Jayne realize that the problem hadn’t been the apartments he’d been looking at.
The real problem had come from within.
Without Caleb and Everett there to live with him, no place would ever feel like home.
“You want us to stay?” Jayne asked.
“Of course I do, but it’s a conversation the three of us need to have together.” Everett’s hand found its way to Jayne’s hair, and he started to stroke it absentmindedly. The sensation of his fingertips was bliss. “If you stay, I don’t think it’d be in our best interest to keep living in the condo. It’s too cramped in here. Wherever we settle, we’ll need room for Shep and Parker. I think, if we want to do this, we’ll need to start looking at houses, which is why the three of us need to sit down together and have a conversation. I know that you haven’t been with us long, but I’m thinking that if you don’t want to be tied to a mortgage, Caleb and I can put it in our names, and we can draft you a rental agreement so you don’t feel like you’re being locked down. Neither of us want you to feel trapped.”
“You think I feel trapped with you?” Jayne had to hold back another laugh. “That’s probably the craziest thing I’ve ever heard, and I used to date Bastian. I don’t know if there’s been a time in my adult life when I’veeverfelt so free.” The grin on Jayne’s face softened into a goofy, lovestruck smile. He traced a finger along Everett’s chest, following the dips of his muscles. “What you and Caleb have done for me in the brief time that I’ve known you has shown me who you are. I was hurt by a man who was supposed to love me, and I was led to believe that I didn’t deserve anything better than the abuse I received. You and Caleb didn’t try to change my mind—you changed it without meaning to, just by being you.”
The scent of Everett’s body wash clung to Everett’s skin, and Jayne, who adored the way he smelled, breathed it in. It was funny how such small details could make him feel so comfortable and at peace. There was nowhere quite as safe as his new spot in bed between his men—nowhere he could be more himself.
“I love you,” Jayne said simply. His hand came to a stop, and he let it rest on Everett’s flat belly, just above his navel. “I’m not afraid.”
For a short while, nothing was said. The dark cushioned their silence, making it comfortable rather than awkward. It didn’t bother Jayne. With his head on Everett’s chest, he’d heard Everett’s heartbeat start to rush—even if Everett never replied, Jayne wouldn’t have been disappointed. Biology didn’t lie.
Jayne was loved.
But Everett didn’t let it come to that. He shifted onto his side and took Jayne in his arms, rolling them over so Jayne was pinned beneath him.
Words weren’t needed, but Everett spoke them regardless, and Jayne felt their sincerity sink straight to his soul. “I love you, too. It may take some time, but we’ll figure out how to make this work.”
Jayne didn’t doubt it.
“Mmgh,” came Caleb’s sleepy voice from nearby. He rolled over and locked his arms around both of them. Even in the low light, Jayne was able to see that he was awake enough to have heard their conversation. “We’re saying it blatantly now? Thank fuck. Jayne, I love you so fucking much that I was ready to burst. Everett, too, of course. Although Everett is already well aware of how crazy I am about him. Everett, just in case youdon’tknow, I fucking love you.”
Everett smirked. “And I love you as much as I love us.”
“Us.” Caleb yawned and kissed Jayne’s shoulder. “Mm, yeah, I love us, too.”
Jayne had always imagined that poly relationships would be unbalanced, and as such, would lead to heartbreak. At one point, the thought that his heart could love two people so entirely had felt more fiction than fact, but then he’d met Caleb and Everett, and they had changed his mind.
Love was not the selfish thing he’d once believed it was. Love was understanding, and it was limitless. Jayne knew, with utter certainty, that what he felt for both his men, whether together or apart, was total devotion.
“I don’t think I need to say it,” Jayne told Caleb quietly, “but I love you. My life would be such a different place without you and Everett in it. I’m so glad for both of you, and for us. You’ve made me a better person.”
The corner of Everett’s lips lifted. “And you’ve shaped us into people both of us are proud to be.”
A kiss followed Everett’s promise, silencing them both. It was a slow, simmering thing that cut out all other distractions and curled Jayne’s toes. Everett’s stiffened length brushed against Jayne’s thigh, and minutes later, Jayne’s legs were locked around Everett’s waist. Everett sank home inside Jayne’s heat-slicked body. Not long after that, Caleb claimed him, too.
It didn’t matter where they lived, Jayne decided dozens of minutes later as Everett bit back a moan and came, his knot swelling in time with Caleb’s to lock their bodies together, nor did it matter what contracts they drafted, or how long it would take before they found a solution to their problems. If all he had with Everett were a handful of hours between the end of Everett’s work day and the start of Jayne’s own, he would make the most of their time together, and they would make it work.
