Ours.
I walk into the office five minutes early and head to my office just to have another thought. I detour through to HR and stick my head into her office.
Lucy Patterson is sitting at her desk. “How do I change my address in the system?” I’ll have to change it on my health insurance, too. And Katie’s school.
“You moving?”
“Moved. Over the weekend.”
She grabs her notepad and holds it up. “Just write it down for me. I’ll change it in the system right now.”
Five minutes later…one official change is made.
I smile all the way during the walk to my office.
* * * *
I’m sitting out in the parking lot waiting for Arlo when it suddenly hits me how domestic all this feels.
Yet, in some ways, it feels like nothing’s changed.
Because for the past four years, aside from the moving and change of address stuff—and the shiny new joint banking account—we’ve already been a family. There have been times I helped shuttle them or Lucas to work or school because of a car issue, or they helped me get to work, or getting Katie to school.
This is an extension of the past four years. Hell, Arlo and Zoey are the beneficiaries of my life insurance policy so they can take care of Katie. In my will, I name them her guardians if something happens to me and Jerilyn’s dead.
Because…
Because they’re my family. My chosen family.
Even beyond that, because I always felt more like I was part of a family when I was just friends with them than I ever did when I was in an actual romantic relationship with Jerilyn.
Why’d it take me so long to figure that out?
It’s moot, I know.
I also called Mike this afternoon and asked him to start putting together what we’d talked about last week. He’ll have that ready later this week, and we can take another long lunch to go in and sign everything.
Arlo walks out, sees me, and approaches. When he opens the passenger door, he sets his stuff in the seat. “Hey, come check this out.”
I get out and lock the car. He leads me back through the dealership to what is obviously a private lot area behind the service building. We head over to an older Toyota four-door car. Doesn’t look like it’s in bad shape, but it probably has some miles on it. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s a car.”
He playfully shoves me. “For Lucas.”
I shrug. “Dude, it’s a car. It has wheels. Does it run? Beyond that, you know I’m useless.” I bought my last two cars here and basically told Arlo what I could afford a month and what color I wanted, and he did the rest and handed me keys.
I’m literally not a gearhead.
“It was traded in yesterday. The shop checked it out for me today. It’s got some normal wear, nearly a hundred thousand miles on it. Needs tires and could use brakes, a tune-up, and a good detailing. But it’s sound. I can buy it for three grand, which is basically what they gave them in trade-in value, because they still owed a little money on it.”
“Is that a good deal?”
“Below Blue Book.”
“I mean, it’s a car. You know he’d love it even if it was some old rusted POS.” It’s definitely not a rusted POS, though. I would have killed to have a car this nice as my first ride.
“You going to help me teach him how to drive?” I know that tone of Arlo’s. Slightly playful. He’s…fishing.
For something.
When Arlo’s gaze meets mine, I realize this is a true moment.
We’re officially full-time together now, and this is a family decision.
I try out words I never dreamed I’d be saying. “Is it in our budget?” I quietly ask, and his smile fucking beams. Like a damned supernova. Those were obviously the right words, words he wanted to hear.
“It is.”
I nervously glance around. “Man, people are going to think you’re about to poison Gotham’s water supply, you keep grinning like that.”
“I can’t help it. You said ‘our budget.’”
I shove my hands into my pockets and study my loafers. “Yeah?”
He nudges my foot with his. “‘Ouuuurrrr buuuudget,’” he softly singsongs.
I know my face is red, and it has nothing to do with the sunny Sarasota day. “Yeah?”
But I’m smiling, too. I can’t help it.
Damnit, this feels good.
He chuckles. “Let’s go. I’ll swing through sales and tell them to write me up for it and I’ll do the paperwork tomorrow.” He pokes my shoulder and I look up to find him still grinning. “We should price out auto insurance. Maybe see if it’s cheaper to add you to our policy, instead of you having to pay separately.”
“You’re not wasting any time wrapping me up with you, are you?”
His smile fades, a deep seriousness to his gaze that I also recognize all too well. “I’ve wasted too much time already. If you think I’m going to hesitate now, you’re out of your fricking mind, mister.”
He steps closer, his voice low and full of possessive heat that hardens me in my slacks. “You belong to us, and we belong to you. This is the way life is going to be from now on. Get used to it.” Before I can process it, he’s brushed a peck across my lips and is already turning to head into the building, leaving me scrambling to follow.
Fuck, now I’m hard.
I’m also wishing I hadn’t wasted all those years between us because of my fear.
Chapter Ten
Arlo
Damn, I love scrambling Nolan’s brain like that.
I know he’s following me as I wind my way through the service department and back to the sales office, where I tell them I have dibs on the Toyota trade-in. I already test-drove it earlier today and once they told me it was solid mechanically, I knew it’d be mine.
But I wanted to hear Nolan ask that question.
I honestly thought I’d have to nudge and coach him a little longer than that to get it out of him, though.
I have to reach down and adjust myself because I’m so damn hard right now.
Ten minutes later, we’re heading home, and damn right I spend the entire ride with my hand resting on his thigh.
I can’t wait to tell Lucas about his new ride.
Yes, it’s in our budget. Yes, it’s coming from my end of the budget, but damn right I’m going to transfer the money into our new joint account and write the check for it out of there.
Because all three of our names are going on the title. This car is for our son. Therefore, it’s only right it comes out of our account.
From this point forward, except for our income taxes, everything’s a joint venture.
Everything.
And I’ll keep hammering that point home to our guy until it finally sinks in and becomes second-nature to him. Might take a while, and I get that. Even though Zoey had been away from Bill for a couple of years, there were still old, dysfunctional habits she defaulted to when we first got together. Patience, love, and repetition finally helped her past them.
When we make it home, Lucas and Caine are there, sitting in the living room, listening to music, and doing their homework.
I know I should wait until Zoey’s home to tell him, but I’m too excited. I take out my phone and pull up the picture of his car that I took earlier today. “By this time tomorrow, you’ll have a car. Now you’ll have to learn how to drive.”
His jaw literally drops. Nolan watches, looking amused, as Lucas launches himself from the couch and nearly knocks me over with the force of his hug.
“Oh, my god! Thank you!” He grabs my hand and stares at my phone. “That’s amazing! Thank you!”
“Aw,” Caine jokes. “I like driving him.”
“You’ll still get to,” I tell him. “He’s going to be a while before we let him drive alone. He needs practice. One of us will probably drive him to school, and let him practice, and you can bring him home after school. Besides, I want to
have some things done to it first.”
Lucas brushes tears away. “Thank you!”
I reach over and ruffle his hair. “You’re very welcome. Keep your grades up, though. And like I said, we’ll have some rules about it.”
He nods.
Finally, he releases my hand and Nolan and I head to the bedroom to change clothes.
Once we’re locked behind our bedroom door, Nolan pulls me into his arms and kisses me.
“You know, if she comes home and catches us screwing when we should be getting dinner started, or at the very least working on the house, she’s liable to chew us out, right?” I tease.
He smiles. “You know you are getting yourself laid tonight, right?”
“I can hope.”
“The look on his face.” He slowly shakes his head. “That was fantastic. I think you’ve done more to help him on the road to healing over the past forty-eight hours than any amount of counseling could do for him.”
“We’re a family. He’s our son.” I stare into his sweet brown eyes and pick out the flecks of amber and honey in them. “Our meaning yours, too.”
We change clothes without screwing each other’s brains out and return to the living room. Nolan starts working on dinner while I start working on reorganizing the desk that we moved out of what is now Katie’s room, which now sits in the corner of the dining room. Sometimes I work from home if they don’t need me in there first thing, because I work a lot of late days and get called frequently on weekends. Zoey’s used the desk on occasion, too, when she’s worked from home.
I feel a little bad that we can’t give Katie the spare bedroom that’s “Nolan’s” bedroom, because it’s larger. But it won’t make sense should Jerilyn question the situation. She’d immediately wonder why Nolan has the smaller bedroom when he lives here full-time.
By the time Zoey gets home from work, Nolan nearly has dinner ready, Caine’s already headed home, and I’ve managed to organize the desk and the rest of this corner of the dining room-home office area. It’s progress, at least.
She called dibs on organizing Katie’s room, because she’s the one who thought to pay attention to where everything was before we packed.
“Mom! Oh, my god, thank you!” Lucas practically tackles her when she walks in. I turn where I’m sitting in the office chair at the desk and smile at her pleased but confused expression.
“Um, context?” she silently mouths.
I mime holding a steering wheel, and she immediately groks my meaning. “You’re welcome, honey.”
I stand and walk over to kiss her. “Welcome home, sweetheart.” After she kisses Nolan hello, I walk with her to the bedroom and show her the picture of Lucas’ car.
“Hmm.” She gives me that playful smirk. “Couldn’t say anything about this to us at lunch?”
“Honestly? I was working too hard to keep from popping wood in front of the lady at the bank.” I grin, feeling completely unrepentant in this moment and making her laugh.
“You are a happy man right now, aren’t you?”
“How could you tell?”
She reaches down to palm the front of my shorts, which are now tented. “That, for starters. And the shit-eating grin that seems plastered to your face in a way that would make Jack Nicholson proud.”
“Aw. That’s my second Joker analogy today. Thank you. Love you, too, babe.”
She playfully swats me on the shoulder. “Nerd.”
“And yet you still married me.”
“And, technically, so has he.” She hooks a thumb over her shoulder in the general direction of our kitchen, where the referenced “he” is happily putting the finishing touches on what I believe is spaghetti and meatballs.
“Admit it. Life would be dull if it wasn’t for me.”
She kisses me again. “Yes, it would. I wouldn’t trade what we have for anything.”
* * * *
It’s after ten when we finally call it an evening and head for the shower together after saying good-night to Lucas. We knocked out some more tidying, and now the dining room, while more crowded than before, at least has some order to it.
Zoey focused on Katie’s room and nearly has it put back together in as close a layout to how it was at Nolan’s apartment as she could manage.
One benefit of Katie being in the room she’s in is that it’s the farthest one from our bedroom.
So, that’s something, I guess.
I had, in all honesty, forgotten about getting laid. But then Nolan’s wearing a playful smile and pushes me back against the shower wall to kiss me and disconnect my brain for a little while. The one-two knockout is that Zoey drops to her knees and swallows my cock.
Ooooh, yeeeaaahhh…
His hand closes around the front of my throat, pinning me in place, and a sweet jolt spikes through my nervous system.
He leans in close. “Be careful what you wish for, mister,” he softly says. “You’ve got me here every night.”
My cock twitches where Zoey’s perfect mouth is working on me. I force myself to keep my eyes open. “Bring it.”
His smile widens. When he holds up the bottle of lube in his other hand, I realize he must have grabbed it on his way into the shower. “Feel like pitching? Or did I just drop you down the rabbit hole?”
I reach up and snatch the bottle out of his hand, although it would be soooo easy to let him have his way with me tonight. “Get over here,” I hoarsely say, gently tapping Zoey on the top of the head to get her to release me and focus on him.
He smiles as he leans in for a kiss before he releases me and faces the wall, bracing himself. Doesn’t take much before I’m sliding into him while Zoey’s going down on him. Once my thighs meet the back of his, I reach around him and start pinching his nipples.
The sharp hiss I get in reply makes my cock twitch. I’m a twitchy little fucker today. I haven’t been this perpetually hard and horny since our college days.
It’s hard to resist biting him, so I don’t even try to resist. I clamp my teeth over the back of his shoulder and bite down, hard.
“Fucker,” he gasps, but he’s now trying to hump himself between her mouth and my cock, in a way that tells me he won’t last long at this rate.
In reply, I roll his nipples between my fingers, and the combination of the chuckle and moan I get from him nearly makes me come.
I feel Zoey reach around us and cup my ass in her hands, digging her fingers in and squeezing, working her fingers between my cheeks to play with my hole.
Skimming my hands down his torso, I settle them on his hips, still biting him as I start to fuck him in earnest, before I blow my load without getting the full benefit of it. When we were in college, we couldn’t go shirtless around anyone, because we both usually had bite marks all over us.
I start long-stroking him. I know Zoey will get him off in short order, so I don’t have to worry about him, just myself and giving him a decent ride. When I finally release my bite, I look to see I left a decent mark on him.
“Keep your shirt on around Katie,” I remind him, and his gasping laugh punches through my soul and emotionally sends me to my happy place.
He’s ours now. This doesn’t feel real, in some ways. It’s better than my dreams. Joy fills our home, and Jerilyn and Bill can go screw themselves.
“I’m almost there,” he gasps. Perfect timing, because I’m barely holding on. When he trips over the edge, I feel his body squeezing around me even before his first moan erupts.
The shower’s full of steam, and the only sounds are flesh slapping, the water, and our soft, matching gasps and groans as I fill him and he fills her mouth.
When we both fall still, he reaches down to stroke the back of her head. “That will never get old,” he softly says, making her chuckle.
“Love you, too,” she says.
We untangle, and help her to her feet before I drop to my knees. He holds her cradled against him, her back pressed against his chest and keeping her upright while I use my
mouth and fingers to make her come. He kisses her, muffling her moans. If I hadn’t just blown it’d probably make me hard all over again.
Finally, the three of us are standing there, Zoey between us. “We need a big shower,” he mumbles. “And multiple showerheads. Or one of those overhead fancy setups.”
“Big soaking tub,” she adds. “Big enough for all three of us.”
“Two vanity sinks,” I say. “He and I can share one.”
She laughs.
We continue standing there. “Either a second water heater,” Nolan says, “or one of those instant-hot ones for our bathroom. We’re going to go through a lot of hot water.”
“Probably.” As it is, when we had to replace ours three years ago, I upgraded us to the largest unit we could fit in the space in the utility room, fifteen gallons larger than our old one.
Eventually, we make our way into bed and curl up together. I get the middle tonight, and it feels…
Like perfection.
“Love you both,” I say, feeling choked up. This is the longest stretch we’ve gotten to spend together, and that streak will only get longer from here on out.
“Love you, too,” they both say, softly laughing at the stereo.
If this is what life has in store for us?
Bring it.
* * * *
We get the car handled and when I drive it home for Lucas on Wednesday, he and Caine spend hours looking up stuff about it online and talking about the things Lucas wants to save up to do to it, like upgrading the stereo.
The sullen teen is gone, as if he never existed. This smiling, laughing boy is all our Lucas, and it’s damned good to see him back in residence.
By Friday, all three of us are feeling little nervous when we kiss good-bye that morning and go our separate ways to work. Zoey and I both have made arrangements to leave work early and be home when Nolan arrives home with Katie.
We’ve asked Lucas to be home, too, because we want a family dinner tonight.
Our first full family dinner with Katie.
Nolan sends me and Zoey a text on our group thread later that afternoon.
On our way.
I’m almost home, because I got delayed at work despite trying to get out of there early. Zoey’s already home and waiting for them.
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