“Okay, so. We have pretty much been living together since Dev came to watch the dogs, and that was over a month ago, right?”
Seth nodded.
“I know things are strained between you and Angel, but do you think you’d go live there again, even if you patch things up with him?” Leaf looked at Dev but Seth threw an exasperated eye roll his way. “What?”
“Aren’t you being a bit direct?”
“He is, but he has a point. And I’m used to him by now, so that’s fine.” Dev grinned. “I’ve sort of been waiting for you two to figure out what you want to do here.”
“So if we gave you a key and helped you with your stuff, you’d move in?” Seth asked, looking hopeful in a distinctly puppy-doggish way.
“Yeah, of course. I already live here, more or less. I don’t know what Angel would do with the house, if he’d get a roommate or something, but I don’t care. If I tell my dad I want to move here, then he’ll figure the house situation out with Angel. It’s Dad’s house—we just live in it.”
Both Leaf and Seth looked at Dev, knowing it wouldn’t be that easy. Dev had to be going through some pretty heavy things with his brother, but if this was what he chose, they’d certainly welcome him with open arms.
“Great! Now I can tell you about my idea,” Seth said cheerily. “I’ve been thinking about doing some writing while I’m on this sabbatical, but that means that I need my desk back.” Before Dev could say anything, Seth held up a hand. “I think, with how there’s only room for two desks downstairs, we should make one of the empty rooms upstairs into Dev’s office.”
“Why his?” Leaf asked, genuinely interested in the answer.
“Because I work at random hours sometimes,” Dev said, his eyes bright. “If I work upstairs, you can still come visit me there. I can work during the night while you sleep and be upstairs, but also, you two always work days. Why should one of you be confined upstairs?”
It did make sense, Leaf had to admit it.
“Exactly. I thought about whether it would work best for Leaf, but then he’d sink into his emailing and we’d never see him.” Seth smiled at him.
Yeah, that was true as well. Leaf did have a habit of get a bit lost in his work, writing up advice and answering lengthy emails if he had the chance. He didn’t work alot, but when he did, he was pretty much blind and deaf to anything else.
“When do I move?” Dev asked, looking at them with a huge grin on his boyishly handsome face.
“Whenever you’ve packed, I suppose.” Seth smiled back at him.
“Can I make a suggestion?” Leaf looked at them both, wondering when he became the voice of reason. “What about going to your parents’ anniversary party and moving after? You might want to tell them you’re moving in with us officiallyafterthey’ve met us.”
Dev mused at this, but Seth beat him to it. “Yeah, actually, that’s a good idea. They might be okay with the idea of us for now, but I think we should meet them first too.”
“I guess this—moving in together with you two—is as official as we can make this, whatever it is,” Dev said, smiling wistfully. “So I agree with you. Let’s go meet the ’rents and I’ll move after.”
Leaf glanced at Seth, who seemed to catch what he thought as well.
“Hey, sweetheart,” Leaf said, going to crouch by Dev’s feet by the couch. “You’re family now. Hell, you gave us another kid.”
Dev snorted but still avoided Leaf’s gaze.
“I was thinking that we should all get rings. I mean, we haven’t worn rings before, but maybe it’s time?” Seth said quietly.
They couldn’t get married, all three of them, and somehow Leaf felt good about not having married Seth before, only because if he had, Dev would seem even more like an outsider.
“This is about the three of us now. You complete us, Dev,” Leaf said, reaching to cup Dev’s cheek. “So what kind of a ring do you want?”
IN THEend, they all decided that they’d figure out surprise rings. Dev and Seth for Leaf, Seth and Leaf for Dev, and Leaf and Dev for Seth.
Or that had been the plan, right until they found an Etsy shop that did gorgeous titanium rings with wood inlays in the shape of puzzle pieces.
They sent emails to the owner and requested three different colors of wood that would represent each of them. Then each ring would have two of the shades, so that everyone would have the others with them at all times.
The rings were expensive, but none of them cared because they weren’t going to be getting new ones any time soon.
The order would take a while to complete, so the next bit was going to Anaheim.
