Brantley smiled. “Good stuff, huh?”
Baz shook his head. “Man, there are just some things you don’t need to know about your friend’s parents’ love life.”
That earned him a laugh from a couple of others who were listening in.
Taking his seat, Baz grabbed his napkin. “Let’s just say, I think the fondness was mutual, although Cindy has moved on.” He placed his napkin on his lap. “She’s worried about him. I explained what we’d uncovered so far, and she said it sounded just like Toby. Apparently, he’s a flight risk on a good day.”
While Baz hadn’t minded spending the day with Reese’s mother or listening to JJ interrogate her about her past encounters and preferences for threesomes, there’d been a few times he had wanted to gouge out his eardrums to avoid hearing the details.
“Polyamorous relationships are fairly common,” Evan chimed in from beside him.
“Are they now?” Brantley joked. “And you’ve got experience?”
“Well, no. But I’m from Miami, and I moved to Austin. The two cities are known for their diversity.”
“He makes a good point,” Slade added from his spot across from Baz.
“So nowyou’rethe expert?” Brantley scoffed.
“What if I am?” he countered with a shit-eating grin.
“Don’t try to bullshit a bullshitter,” Brantley retorted. “We both know you’re a one-woman man.”
“Doesn’t mean my woman has to be a one-man—” Slade cut himself off with a laugh. “Nope. I can’t even get the words out.”
“I’m not sure this can be classified as polyamory.”
Baz’s head snapped over to see JJ pulling out her chair on his other side. He hadn’t realized she’d returned.
“Then what wouldyoucall it?” Slade asked.
“More like a threesome, maybe. I guess it’s all relative, but I do know that polyamory is more about having multiple committed partners. And often, the relationships are separate and far more complete than what Cindy shared with Toby. Plus, there’s a hierarchy.” She eased down into her chair. “There’s a primary and a secondary relationship—or more than one—with other people. They know about each other, but one partner doesn’t necessarily interact with the primary or secondary partners.”
“She’s a walkin’ Wikipedia, that one,” Slade mumbled around a mouthful of food.
“I didn’t realize you knew so much about it.” There was humor in Brantley’s tone. “You been doin’ research?”
“It interests me,” she told him.
“Interests you?” Slade asked. “As in, you’reinterestedin havin’ one?”
“No, dumb ass,” she said with a grin. “I’ve got my man. I definitely don’t need another.”
Baz felt that all-too-familiar warmth fill his chest just from her acknowledgment. It was still hard for him to believe that he’d come this far with JJ, that they were in a committed, monogamous relationship, considering she’d been opposed to them from the jump. To complicate matters, they’d veered wildly off track, breaking things off before they really got started. Baz had ended up screwing a random woman—or believing he had, anyway—and he’d thought he had lost JJ forever.
So to hear her claim him so easily after all they’d been through … well, that made him feel about ten feet tall and bulletproof.
“Besides, Cindy wasn’t havin’ a separate relationship with Toby. The only time they were together was with Thomas present.”
A groan sounded, drawing all eyes to the end of the table where Reese was pulling out his chair.
“Time to change the subject,” Brantley announced.
“No, it’s fine,” Reese grumbled, dropping into the chair. “But if I hear one person mention my mother, sex, or Toby’s name in the same sentence…”
Baz grinned as he forked food into his mouth. He understood Reese’s pain to a certain degree. He’d grown up in a house with parents who preferred intimate relationships with other people over one another. Although they’d continued a very close friendship, neither of them had tried to hide their affections for other people. Now that he thought about it, they hadn’t tried to hide their affections for one another either.
“Cindy cared about Toby,” JJ said, her tone reflecting her desire to tread lightly on the subject. “But they did not communicate with one another directly when he wasn’t around. Only through Thomas. According to Cindy, she loved her husband, and Toby was his friend. She never would’ve done anything to jeopardize that relationship.”
