A few minutes later, I’m freshly showered and downstairs in the kitchen, wearing my comfiest sweatpants. I love the way they sling low on my hips, and the material is so, so soft. I neglect to put my shirt back on; the temperature is just so perfect inside right now, and if we’re being completely honest, I never much liked wearing clothes anyway.
Let’s try that breakfast one more time, I think as I quickly prep the bagels, then get the eggs and bacon out of the fridge. A moment later and the telltale sizzle of bacon fills the room, along with those delicious smells. I look down and pat my stomach; my abs would prevent anyone from accusing me of avoiding the gym, though I don’t quite have the washboard six-pack that Jack does.
Did, at least. It’s been years since I’ve seen him shirtless.
My thoughts wander off for a bit, imagining his body. I used to see it often, glistening with sweat when we would work out in Sully’s basement gym together. I remember stealing glances all the time. I just couldn’t help myself. Maybe that’s why I was so shocked when Jack blew up at me for kissing another boy. I just figured that I was being so obvious about it all that he must have known from the beginning.
Serves me right for being so trusting, I guess. Or naïve?
I’m snapped out of my reverie by the sounds of floorboards gently creaking. Cate must be up. A smile spreads over my face as I put the bacon on a napkin to let some of the excess grease soak up. I start prepping the eggs, whisking in just a little bit of cream to keep them thick and rich. Scrambled, just like she liked when we were kids.
I’m so, so happy for Cate. Granted, we’ve spent way more time in bed than in conversation, so I only have a small part of the picture of her life, but it seems like she’s done very well for herself. A woman as impressive as that, and with such killer curves on top of it?
I can hardly believe she’s single.
I reach down to adjust myself, grinning. Can’t say I’m not happy about how that’s worked out for me so far, though.
Even over the din of the stove, I can hear the stairs slowly creaking, footsteps making their way gingerly down. My ears are finely attuned to every sound that this house makes. I think all of ours are. This house was every bit as important to our lives together as we were to each other. I know for a fact that, for me, it felt more like home than my own. Not that my real home was difficult—not like Cate’s and Jack’s were, in their own very different ways—but still, between all the time I spent here at Sully’s and how much like family he made us all feel, when I think of home, it’s always been here.
I slide the eggs onto the plate next to a toasted sliced bagel and a healthy serving of bacon, just in time to watch Cate slink into the kitchen.
“Hey, you,” I say, beaming.
Damn, she’s gorgeous.
“Hey, you,” she says back, and I can hear the tentative edge to her voice.
She isn’t quite dressed yet, but she does have my robe wrapped tightly around her like a blanket of armor. She’s always had that. Armor. Can’t blame her, the way her mother was, but I hope it doesn’t take her long to figure out she doesn’t need it around me.
I turn off the burners and quickly move everything to the sink for cleanup later.
“I’m glad you slept in,” I say, giving her a reassuring smile. “You clearly needed it.”
“I think I did,” she says with a self-conscious laugh, as if for some reason she thinks she should have been Superwoman instead. Able to deal with all the emotional hits Sully’s death dealt us, plus the upheaval of her life, without flinching. It makes me want to wrap her up in my arms and not let go.
I must be staring, because her cheeks go pink, and the hint of a matching smile appears at the corner of her lips.
Kind of makes me want to have a taste, and I grin even wider, still loving the fact that I finally have.
She’s delicious.
“I must have been tired,” she says, looking away. “After everything that happened yesterday, I don’t think I could have kept my eyes open even if I’d wanted to.”
I wash my hands, quickly dry off, and sling the dishtowel over my shoulder. I can feel her eyes gliding over my body, starting from my chest and dropping down to the cut of my hips. I smile and reach one hand out, using my curled index finger to gently raise her chin, guessing that she’s not nearly as comfortable with the sex now as she had been while it was happening.
“It’s all okay, you know,” I say, and I can tell immediately that she knows what I’m talking about.
“Is it?” she asks, eyes darting up to mine. Her voice starts steady, but then starts to quietly unravel. “Honestly, I don’t know how I feel about what happened yesterday. I was just so tired, and everything moved so quickly and… God, Dylan. The smells and the sights and all of the sounds, it brought so many memories back, and you and Jack…”
I take a step forward, closing the gap between us, and wrap my arms around her shoulders. I delicately take the back of her head in the palm of my hand, her silky hair running through my fingers. She stops talking, seeming grateful not to have to say more, and rests her head on my chest.
Feels pretty much perfect.
“It’s all okay,” I repeat. “You’re home, you’re safe, and you’re with someone that you can trust.”
“Promise?” she says, picking her head up for just a moment.
“Promise,” I say without missing a beat, and I can tell right away that—unexpected or not—it’s just as right as everything else has always been between us. Cate and me, we’ve always fit. Time apart and years between us hasn’t changed that a bit.
I smile, and the little hitch in her breath when she smiles back has me leaning in. I gently catch her soft lips in mine, and the minute I do, both of us exhale and melt into each other, like we’ve just let go of all the stress in the world. I like that. I like to take care of people, and I want to do that for her, especially. She’s always mattered to me.
My fingers trace a delicate line along the side of her face and neck, and I give her lower lip a gentle nibble as we break apart.
Her eyes flutter, and she draws in a deep breath. “That… oh, that’s so nice,” she says on an exhale. Then she takes a deep breath, and sort of squares her shoulders. It’s kind of adorable. “But we can’t complicate things, Dylan,” she says, sounding like she’s not sure whether she wants me to agree or talk her out of that statement.
I shrug and smile. It doesn’t seem that complicated to me, but I’ve always been pretty comfortable in my own skin, and Lord knows I’m a fan of the pleasures in life. If sex is stressing her out, though, we can table it for now in favor of other things.
“So then, let’s not complicate it,” I say agreeably, noting how my answer makes the last little bit of tension leave her shoulders. I grin, nodding my head over toward her full plate of brunch. “Hungry?”
Her eyes go wide, then narrow as she looks at me. “How many calories in that feast, pal?”
I laugh and shake my head, then take her plate in my hand, moving over to the table.
“That’s the wrong question. Sit, yeah? Relax a second?”
I set the plate down and draw her chair out.
She sits and settles in, and I take the chair right next to her, spearing a bit of both bacon and eggs and bringing the fork up to her delectable mouth.
“You’re gonna love this,” I say confidently. I know Cate, and I know food. I’ve got no doubt at all that I’m right.
She opens her mouth hesitantly, and once she tastes it—just like I thought—she lets loose with a sexy moan that reminds me of the other things we’ve done here in the kitchen, and her eyes positively glitter.
“Oh hell, Dylan,” she says, grinning at me while chewing. “Pardon my manners, but you’re right. Nothing beats a classic.”
“Coffee or orange juice?” I say, pleased with her reaction as I set the fork on the plate.
“Coffee.” She waits a beat, then smiles and tears a piece of bagel off. “No. Orange ju
ice. I love orange juice.”
“Coming up,” I say, and leave her to her meal, walking toward the fridge and pulling a pair of glasses down to pour our drinks. Cold brew for me, orange juice for her.
“So,” Cate starts between bites. “What’s the deal with the townhouse, Dylan? I just need someone to be straight with me. Did Sully really leave it to all three of us?”
My thoughts blink over to Jack for a moment, putting just the smallest damper on an otherwise wonderful morning. He mattered to me, too, but he’d always been so quick to anger. It’s a side of him I’d thought he was working to get rid of, but Sully’s death had hit him hard and anger had always been what he was most comfortable with when he felt anything too strongly. In his blood, as he’d often said, and I know he figured it was just part of who he was.
It doesn’t have to be, though. At least I hope not, for his sake.
Cate is still waiting for my answer about the townhouse, not that I know much.
“Yeah?” I say, pouring the drinks. Her eyebrows go up at the uncertainty of my answer, and I shrug. “Far as I know, all three of us own it together. I don’t know all the ins and outs, though. Haven’t been able to match up my schedule with Gary’s yet to go over it, but I know he needs us to sign some paperwork or something.”
Cate nods. “Is that why Jack was coming over yesterday?” she asks.
“We were going to talk about the townhouse, yeah,” I say. “I’m not sure that he has all the details either, though, but at the least we were going to talk about practical things.”
Her eyebrows go up. “He’s still a lawyer though, right? Hasn’t he gone over the will?”
“Jack? Sure. But I guess this kind of law isn’t his area of specialty.”
And honestly, the way he’d shied away from discussing the will when we’d talked, I’m pretty sure it brought up more of those emotions he wasn’t that well equipped to deal with. I don’t mind waiting for us all to sort it out, though. Honestly, just having the two of them back in my life is more important to me than a real estate transaction.
“I just can’t believe how angry he was yesterday,” Cate says, frowning. “I barely get into town and he just explodes. I know he always disliked me, but I just can’t for the life of me understand why.”
I put the pitcher in the fridge and walk the glasses back to the kitchen table. “Sometimes there’s no getting inside that man’s head,” I say as I put the orange juice down in front of her.
“Yum,” she says, her mood brightening. I’d like to always do that for her. “Thank you so much, all of this is so wonderful.”
She picks up the glass and takes a tentative sip, smiles conspiratorially, then takes a nice long gulp.
“Anytime. So yeah, I thought Jack and I were going to talk about the townhouse over dinner yesterday, but you saw what happened. I’ll need to give him a call and figure out when he wants to reschedule.”
“Gary has to be the one to make anything official though, right?” she asks.
“Yeah, I think so. Maybe I’ll give him a call and see if he can reach out to Jack; maybe that’ll go over more smoothly than me reaching out directly.”
Cate frowns. “I wish Sully were here,” she says. “He’d be able to fix this.”
“Probably,” I say, smiling. No probably about it. Sully always brought us all together. “I know you weren’t there long, but remember the funeral, Cate? How packed it was?”
Her lips curl into a fond smile. “Yeah. Everyone really loved that man.”
“They did,” I say. “I bet he solved a lot of problems in his time.”
“Jack,” she says, closing her eyes on a frustrated sigh. “If only Sully could solve one more for us, yeah?”
I just smile. We’ll work things out with Jack. I’m not sure how, but a part of me trusts that it’s true.
Cate shakes her head, then looks at me again, smiling. “Sully called me Wildcat to piss off my mother, and he knew it would make me feel powerful. Maybe not at home in New York, but for sure in this townhouse. She was never the boss here. He was.”
I laugh. “That he was. He helped me start on the path to realize my dream of being a chef. All I needed was a place to stay and an office to work in, and he gave me both.” I smile, but feel a damp note take hold, remembering one of the details Gary had shared during the reading of the will. “I really hope I’m able to find another place close by, once we settle the house business.”
Cate does a double take. “Dylan, why wouldn’t you just keep on living here? Sully wouldn’t have wanted you out there, anyway; you know he was fond of you in his kitchen and in his office. I don’t quite get how the three of us are supposed to share ownership, but I, for one, would never want you to leave.”
“Thanks,” I say, reaching out to squeeze her hand. “The contract has a deadline, though. Didn’t Gary tell you?”
“A deadline?”
I’m going to take that as a “no” about Gary. Understandable, maybe, from what Cate had told me about how the day before had gone down for her.
“Yeah,” I say, wishing I understood more of it so I could explain it to her. “Right now, the house is technically owned by the estate, but there’s a deadline for the three of us to decide how to handle it and formally transfer ownership.”
She looks stricken, and I hate that I’m springing something on her she wasn’t prepared for.
“By when, Dylan?”
“Sometime in the summer,” I say. “A few months away, not entirely sure. We’ll have to get the date from Gary.”
By now, Cate is ignoring the rest of her breakfast, turning toward me and staring intently. This is her business face, I think, and I can see why she got as far as she did in her line of work.
“Dylan, all of the best memories in my life are here.”
“Mine too,” I say, smiling. “This place changed my life. You all changed my life. I’d be working fast food right now if it weren’t for all of this, and I’m so grateful for it every single day of my life. Still, even if you and I worked something out, I just can’t afford to buy Jack out on what I make now, especially with tuition. From the hints he’s dropped, I’m pretty sure he just wants us all to agree to sell and split the profits.”
Her eyes harden at that, and she presses her lips together tightly.
I shrug, not liking it any better than she does. “I still need Gary to spell it out for us, but I’m pretty sure that whatever we do, we have to all three agree to,” I tell her. “I don’t graduate until late June. I think it’s before the deadline, but there’s no way I can line up a job or the savings in time if Jack isn’t on board with keeping the place.” I flick my eyes over to hers. “What about you?”
Cate frowns, shaking her head. “I have savings; I was planning on staying here when I thought the townhouse was left to only me. But I can’t live on that forever, and it’s nowhere near enough to buy either of you out. Damn it. How can Jack want to sell it?”
“Yeah, I don’t know,” I say, not able to wrap my own head around it, either. Jack’s always pushed good things away, though. I clear my throat. “I could use the money, obviously, I’m sure we all could, but how much is that worth to lose this place?”
“Absolutely not,” she says, shaking her head. She stands up and takes her plate to the sink, running the disposal and clearing the small scraps left. “We’re not going to let that happen.”
I’d like to agree, but it depends on Jack… who stormed out.
Last time he’d walked away from me, it had taken too many years and the death of a man we both loved to bring him back into my life. I’d like to be more hopeful that things will be different this time, and honestly, I’d be willing to do a lot to make it happen, but it wouldn’t work if it was all one-sided.
I cut a glance at Cate. She’s wonderful, but she’s always had her own issues with Jack. Another thing I’d love to help ease, regardless of the townhouse. She’s got her back to me, cleaning up, and I sigh and fold my han
ds on the table, resting my head on them, facedown. I know every creak, every smell, every nail of this house. Sully never treated me like anything but family, and always made sure I knew that I was home here.
I can’t help but go over and over the current situation in my head. He was always bringing people together, smoothing things over. This is so unlike him. Sully wasn’t a stupid man; he knew about the division between the three of us—mostly centered on Jack—and I can’t imagine he didn’t see any of this coming. I just don’t understand, and I’ve racked my brain over it until I’ve exhausted myself. I need more information.
I need Jack and Cate.
“Jack’s being a vulture, just like my mother,” Cate says bitterly from the sink, finishing a quick scrub of the dishes and the frying pan, setting everything on the drying rack. “I can’t believe either of them.”
I look up. “Your mother?”
“Yeah. She was horrified at how Grandpa’s estate was handed out to almost everyone he ever met. Every dollar found its way into the pocket of someone he’d touched along the way in his life. That’s why the funeral was so crowded. Sully knew how to treat people.” Cate turns the water off and dries her hands, frustration apparent in every jerky, abrupt motion. “Mother is such a snob. Nobodies, that’s what she called them. A pile of nobodies with their hands in Grandpa’s pocket.”
“Nobody was a nobody,” I say, not offended, even though I have no doubt Cate’s mother included me in that category. She was a MacMillan. I’m just a Smith. I snort, shaking my head. “That’s not how Sully operated,” I say to Cate. “Not ever.”
Cate finally turns to look at me, smiling again at the reminder. She takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly.
“He also didn’t give up on anyone, right?”
“Right,” I say, reminded of how much like him she can be under her armor and insecurities.
Mine: MMF Bisexual Menage Romance Page 8