Some people might think that our first date was a disaster. A bad omen or a sign of things to come. But even with the plethora of odors that would maybe never quite leave my nose, and even with the sadness I’d felt seeing the condition of some of the animals, it had still been a good night.
“Does that kind of thing happen often? Like tonight, with the animals?” I asked Blue, who had gone quiet as he stroked the little gray tabby.
“Not too often, but more often than we’d like. Rex is a big sponsor for things like that, so even when it’s out of our operating area, we will pitch in a lot of the time.”
“When will the animals be ready for adoption?” Jax asked. “I’m still thinking of that little dog. He’d be a good surprise for my dad.”
“They have to finish their health checks and then there’s a waiting period. They’re tested for temperament and stuff like that. It will probably be a couple of weeks. But I’ll talk to Rex tomorrow, and we can let the shelter know that there’s someone interested already.”
“That easy?” Jax looked at Blue with stars in his eyes like he hung the moon.
“That easy.” Blue booped the end of Jax’s nose and his smile softened. “Just like loving you.”
Then he looked at me and he had that same expression he wore when he looked at Jax all schmoopy and sappy. “Just like loving you too.”
I wasn’t dumb enough to believe that it would always be this easy between us. That every failed date would still be satisfying in ways I couldn’t measure. That every messy thought I had would be received with grace and understanding. That there would be no bumps in the road. We were three men navigating a relationship together. There were times when it wasn’t going to be easy for any of us.
It wouldn’t be easy, but it would always be worth it.
THIRTY-FOUR
JAX
Epilogue– a month later
Even cleaned up, Waldorf, the dog from the shelter that I’d spotted a month ago was still a scruffy-looking little guy. More fur than face, the near constant wriggling made him look like a fuzzy, off-white blur. For now he was contained on my lap with a gift bow attached to his collar. We’d tried to put him in a box so we could surprise my dad that way, but Waldorf wasn’t a fan.
Our first date might have only been a month ago, but I was two hundred percent sure that Ash and Blue were it for me. Was I nervous about the three most important people in my life finally meeting? Of course I fucking was. Hence, Waldorf, the world’s fuzziest ice breaker.
“I apologize in advance for all the dad jokes you’re going to be subjected to. The man doesn’t know when to stop.”
“It’s better to have a dad who tells jokes than a dad who is a joke,” Blue quipped, tossing me a wink in the rear view mirror.
“Dude. That was dark,” Asher said from the passenger seat. As he was the youngest of our group, I tried to make sure he wasn’t always stuck sitting in the back seat when we all went somewhere together. I didn’t want him to feel like we thought he was a little kid or something.
Maybe it didn’t bother him. He didn’t mind being the youngest one of the group. Mostly he seemed to mind being what he called the messiest. He was still figuring things out for himself, still trying to navigate adulthood, but who wasn’t? It was a sensitive subject for him, though, so Blue and I did our best to be as supportive of him as possible.
“Do I look okay?” Asher asked as we climbed out of the car at my dad’s house. He smoothed his hands over his shirt, a simple pale blue button-down. I’d told him not to over-dress, but I think he was worried about looking too young for me. We compromised in the end and he at least rolled the sleeves up and left the top two buttons open.
With an armful of wriggling puppy, I went up to Asher and kissed his cheek. Little Waldorf tried to get in on the action, which made Asher laugh. Blue slid his arm around Asher’s waist.
“You look hot,” Blue said.
“Well, that wasn’t exactly what I was going for. I’ve never met someone’s dad before. Oh, God, what if he hates me?”
“My dad doesn’t hate anyone. Well, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, but he doesn’t hate anyone who doesn’t have it coming. Like my ninth grade math teacher, who hated jocks.” Waldorf wriggled some more and I set him down, keeping hold of the leash that was attached to his harness. “If you’re super worried about it, though,” I said as I pressed the leash into Asher’s hand, “you should be the one to give him Waldorf.”
“Jax, no. That’s?—”
“Are you boys going to come inside or are you going to stand on the front lawn and gossip all day?” Dad shouted from the front porch before disappearing back inside.
“You heard the man.” I grabbed Asher’s free hand and led him toward the house. Waldorf was all too happy to follow, though he kept his nose to the ground and sniffed everything he came across.
Before I opened the door, though, I stopped and stole a kiss from Asher. “You’re going to be fine, I promise, but you need to breathe.”
Asher’s shoulders rose and his chest expanded as he sucked in a deep breath. When he got wound up the way he was now, either from nerves or from the overwhelming emotions, he tended to say things that went off script. That’s how things went south that day with Sawyer. It had happened since, not with Sawyer, but with Blue.
Blue’s apartment was deemed too small to house three kittens and a momma cat, so Asher suggested he take them to his apartment. Then he called Blue in the middle of the night in an absolute spiral of panic about how he was somehow not good enough to be a cat dad.
