“How about you kids take a seat, and I’ll check on dinner? It should be done soon.”
I led my boyfriends to the dining room where they took a seat at the round table. Dad had gone all out and not only had he put a tablecloth on and set the table properly, something he hadn’t done the whole time I’d been alive, but he’d put a flower arrangement on the table. Asher dropped into a chair, and I stood behind him. Putting my hands on his shoulders, I started to massage his tense muscles.
“You’re not the only one worried about making a good impression,” I told them, but it was more for Asher’s benefit. Blue looked laid-back, like the meeting was a mere formality, and that their place with me was already assured. He was right to be so relaxed. “This table has never had a tablecloth. Not in my whole life. I didn’t think we even owned one. And flowers? Dad wants to impress you.”
“Really?” Asher sounded like he didn’t believe me.
“Really. Because you’re important to me. And he wants you to feel welcome here because now you’re important to him too.”
Dad swooped in a minute later with a steaming hot casserole dish and Waldorf hot on his heels. Waldorf seemed hell-bent on sniffing out his new territory, and his feet clicked softly as he walked around. Dad set the casserole dish on the table, then set the oven mitts off to the side.
“I wish I was a better cook than I am. Even after all these years of doing it, my ability is lacking in a lot of areas. But I can make a bunch of different casseroles.”
After we dished up and started eating, Waldorf, who had been exploring the house, wandered into the dining room and flopped down at Dad’s feet with a groan.
“I can’t thank you kids enough for him.” Dad looked down at Waldorf, who was already asleep, likely worn out from all the excitement. “I have a feeling that he’s exactly what I needed.”
I looked at Blue, and then Asher, and I reached for both of them. Grabbing their hands, I squeezed. “I found what I needed too.”
“You sappy asshole,” Blue teased, and if he dashed a tear away, well, I didn’t see it.
Asher merely looked at me, unblinking for a long moment like he was frozen. And then he smiled a soft kind of smile. “Me too,” and he squeezed my hand.
Under the table, Waldorf sneezed violently, breaking the sweetness of the moment and we laughed together.
Like a family.
And it was perfect.
THIRTY-FIVE
BLUE
Epilogue- A few monthslater
Jax and I met for drinks alone for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Asher had practically insisted on us going out without him. It wasn’t our fault that he wasn’t twenty-one yet. He also insisted that it would be good for us to get some solo dates in.
We decided to meet at a local place called The Anchor. I hadn’t been there before, but mostly because I didn’t drink much. Even now, on our third solo date to the same bar, I stuck to one drink. The food was worth coming out for, though. And if we wanted to play, there were pool tables and a dart board. Mostly, however, Jax and I were content to sit in a booth and nurse our drinks and spend the evening talking.
The first time we showed up here, the bartender, Mickey, had gone ten shades of red, meaning he definitely recognized us. It wasn’t unheard of. It had happened a time or two before. By thesecond time we came in, though, Mickey was able to tamp down his shock and he treated us like we were old news.
Under the table, Jax’s foot hooked around my ankle. “Penny for your thoughts,” he said.
Even when he wasn’t smiling at me, I swore there was a gleam in his eyes whenever he looked at me.
“I still can’t believe you’re mine,” I told him, reaching across the table for his hand. I’d always been a physically affectionate sort of person, and I’d relied on platonic affection from my friends, but there was something so different and delicious about affection from someone I loved. And not only did Jax know that I was a sucker for it, but he seemed all too happy to shower me with it. He gifted me with little touches like the foot around my ankle, the one that slid up the back of my calf, or the way his thumb stroked across the back of my hand.
“That’s funny, because I can’t believe you’re mine.”
“It’s still weird to be on a date without him.”
“We say the same thing when we go for breakfast without you, sleepyhead.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault that I’m not a morning person. I blame genetics.” Truthfully, even if I were willing and able to get up at the insanely inappropriate hour of eight o’clock in the morning, I’d make up an excuse to let them go alone. Drinks were our thing. Breakfast was their thing. And Asher and I liked to go to the movies together. We’d snuggle up in the back row and spend too much money on snacks and we didn’t care if it was a movie we’d seen. We just liked hanging out together in the dark.
Asher and I had rough teenage years, and in some ways it felt like we were doing things together that we might have done when we were younger. Like paying for a movie so we could make out in the back row.
With solo dates came solo sex. We’d decided as a group that the only sex we had to discuss beforehand was sex for work.Asher was unsure if he wanted to film with anyone who wasn’t us, but he remained okay with the fact that sometimes we were going to have sex with other people. But sex between the three of us in any combination was one hundred and ten percent allowed. Which was good, because Jax had been giving me sex eyes all night.
