He laughed and sat up and started plating pizza. “Okay, then let’s eat first, cuddle second.” He held a slice out to me and I bit right into it.
“So, what do we do now?” I asked.
“About you and me? Or you and me and Kayden?”
I shrugged, still hesitant to acknowledge where this was headed.
“What would that even be? A throuple?” I asked.
Jace smiled. “Yeah, if that’s what he wants too.”
“Is it weird if I ask him on a date?”
“Not if that’s what you want,” Jace said, taking a bite of pizza.
“I mean,” I sighed.
“Stop using your head, Liv. It can talk you out of anything,” he said gently.
“My heart wants to take my boyfriend’s boyfriend on a date and see if he wants to just close this whole open-triangle thing we’ve got going on for good.”
Jace laughed. “You ask him out and I’ll spend the evening with Kaylee.”
“What if he says no?” I asked, terrified that this whole thing could come crashing down if Kayden didn’t also feel something between the two of us.
“He’s not going to say no, Liv,” Jace said confidently. “Neither one of us is ever going to say no to you.”
We finished our pizza and snuggled back up. I pulled a blanket off the back of the couch and tossed it over us, resting my head on Jace’s chest. As we watched the movie, my mind filled with images of the three of us together on the couch watching a movie, the three of us raising Kaylee together, and the three of us going to sleep in one bed at the end of the night.How have they not made any movies about that kind of happy ending?
Chapter Thirty-Two
Jace
Mom walked into mystudio, and I nearly dropped the can of spray paint I was holding when I saw her standing in the door. I’d come here for a few hours to finish up one of the paintings I was working on for the rehab facility after Kayden left my condo to sequester himself away and finalize his designs. Olivia had texted to tell us that she was taking Kaylee to the hospital for Sunday visiting hours and would be there with her mom and Carl for the day.
When Liv and I had gotten back to my place after our date, Kayden looked like he’d thoroughly enjoyed his one-on-one time with Kaylee, despite his very obvious tiredness of having spent a full day with a toddler. He’d smiled at us when Olivia and I had walked in holding hands, dropping them quickly before Kaylee noticed. Liv made it clear she didn’t want Kaylee to have any more changes or uncertainty right now, which meant no obvious signs that we were together romantically until we knew exactly what we were going to say to her.
She’d also told me she was happy that Kayden and I often spent the night together. She said she preferred it to knowing that I was alone, since sleepovers for her and I weren’t really an option yet. I planned to start going into the office an hour early each morning so Liv could clear me an extra hour for lunch. That way, I could have some alone time with her every day, and I would be spending more evenings at her place for dinner with her and Kaylee too.
“I didn’t expect you here this morning,” I said to Mom as I pulled the N-95 mask down off my face. Spray paint had always been my favorite medium but there were necessary safety precautions to take when using it, especially inside.
“I came in to review a couple of submissions from a new artist. I ran out of time last week and didn’t want them to wait much longer,” she said, looking me over. “You look a lot better than you did a few weeks ago.”
I can’t believe it’s been that long. We had a pretty close family, and I usually saw them more often, but I supposed over the last couple of years with Leo’s hockey schedule and the time I spent with Liv and Kaylee, it had become more typical to go a few weeks in between visits.
“Yeah, things are really good,” I said. “Kayden and Kaylee have met a few times, and Liv seems happy. They all do.”
“Youlook happy, Jace,” Mom said.
A grin took over my face. “I am. I really am. I’m in love with them, Mom.”
“I know.” She chuckled. “That wasreallyobvious a few weeks ago. So, the three of you are…figuring it out?”
I laughed and set down the can of spray paint. “How are you not batting an eye at this? It’s like you expected me to be in a relationship with two people at once.”
“Ima and I have been talking about it, and we suspected this was the direction things would go. You’ve been in love with Liv since you met her, Jace, and your agony over Kayden’s feelings made it obvious you were falling in love with him too.”
“Still, most people assume that means their child will have to make an impossible decision.”
