Jaq crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m pretty sure that I’ll have to travel with my husband, and eventually, we will be having our own children, right?”
“Of course. I already talked to Cort about me not traveling as much. I want to be here with you. Call me crazy, but I’d like to spend more than a few weeks in my home country.”
“I suppose that might be nice.”
“Cort and Thomas are in their quarters right now,” I said after reading the text from my brother. “Do you want to go and talk to them?”
Jacques nodded.
“Good. Then I can show you to my room.”
I slipped my hand into Jaq’s, and we made our way across the hall to where my brother and his husband had their family quarters. The guards outside the doors barely gave us a glance.
“Hi, Uncle Jaq!” Julien raced across the room, still wearing his superhero pajamas. “Uncle Erich!”
“Uncle Jaq!” My littlest nephew, Markus, squealed and ran toward my fiancé. My little nephews were a pretty good indication of how adorable our children would be, considering it was my brother and his brother. Our children would be double cousins, if that was a thing.
“What are you two up to?” Thomas asked. His eyes were full of worry as his gaze ping-ponged between us. Though Jaq and I had been seeing each other in secret for years, Thomas probably had no clue. It wasn’t as if we were often in public together.
Jaq sat down on the couch with Markus in his lap. Clearly, he spent a good deal of time in his brother’s space, since he was quite comfortable. He looked to me, still a little panicked. I put a hand on his shoulder.
“Well, we’ve come to tell you exciting news,” I said.
“What’s going on?” Thomas looked between me and Jaq and Cort. Perhaps we should have had this conversation during breakfast. We were about to lay a bomb on this man, and he hadn’t had his coffee yet. Not only that, but based on the kids’ energy level, they had been up for a long time.
Cort smiled widely. “Ah, everything must have gone well then.” He grinned broadly.
Jaq blushed a deep scarlet.
“It’s Erich?” Thomas said, his voice laced with surprise. “He’s your…”
Jaq nodded.
“For how long?”
“Since your wedding.” Jaq’s voice had an edge to it. He snuck a glance at me over his shoulder. He began to bite at his lower lip again, and I squeezed his shoulder.
“Since my wedding? Five years ago?” Thomas turned to Cort. “Did you know?”
Cort shook his head. “I did not. I suspected Erich had someone special, but I never asked because I wanted to respect their privacy.”
“Oh, goodness, and what, you two are making it official now?” Thomas asked.
Jaq nodded. “If that’s all right with you and His Majesty, we would never—”
Cort held up a hand, and Jaq immediately went quiet. “Jaq, I thought we were past this kind of thing. You do not need to use my title when we’re among family. And we would be honored to have you be with my brother.”
“Jaq! We’re ecstatic about it. I’m just shocked. No one told me.” Thomas sent an exaggerated glare at his husband.
“I suspected, and then I had a talk with Erich yesterday. I didn’t want to say anything until he had a chance to talk to Jaq.”
“You suspected and you didn’t tell me, darling?”
The tone of his voice told me this was going to be a topic of conversation later on.
“What was I going to say? That your brother and my brother were having an affair? I suppose I could have said that I—”
Thomas came toward Jaq and wrapped him in his arms. “You’re happy. You love him?”
