Before I can continue to speak, my phone vibrates. I pull it away from my face and see who it is.
Mother. Of course. Everything in my life was just too happy. Why wouldn’t she choose now to call me up?
I hit the ignore button, and continue my conversation with Dr. Salisbury. “Yes, I think that’s a perfectly reasonable idea. It sounds like Mrs. Salisbury has excellent taste.”
And there it is again, buzzing against my face like an unwanted gnat. I sigh internally.
“Dr. Salisbury, I apologize, but I have a call that I need to take from a family member. Yes, I’m sure all’s fine, but I promise you’ll be the first to know. Sure thing, same time tomorrow. Take care.”
I end the call and pick up Mother’s. “Yes?”
“Three months, young lady,” is how she decides to start.
I sigh. “Mother, if you called me to do this all over again, now’s not a good time.”
“Oh, going to run off to that class you teach?”
I narrow my eyes, but remain silent.
“Yes, I know all about it. At a gym, with no personal clients. It’s like I told you, no one is ever going to bother hiring a chubby girl to tell them how to get fit. The idea is positively absurd.”
I can feel my heart rate rising and my skin starting to flush, but I take a breath, determined not to let her get to me.
“Mother, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know exactly what I’m talking about, Caitlin MacMillan. I’m talking about a spoiled little brat in the middle of an early midlife crisis, who walks off her job and deserts her family in order to… what? To teach truck drivers and waitresses how to tone up for summer?”
I open my mouth to speak, but feel my throat closing up tight.
I’m not going to cry on this call, though.
I’m not going to give her the satisfaction.
“Mother,” I finally force myself to say. “For your information, I have an interior design client. I’m starting my own firm.”
“Oh,” she says sarcastically. “Now you want to do your job? After you abandoned us in the middle of our busiest season? The summer seasonal was a complete bust, young lady, thanks to the fact that we were shorthanded on a minute’s notice. You did that, Caitlin. I hope you’re proud of yourself.”
“I am,” I murmur.
“You what?” she shouts at me.
“I am, Mother!” I shout right back.
“That’s it, Caitlin. You know, I called to be a good sport and offer you one last chance to have your old job back in time for fall. But if this is your attitude now, I fear you’ve done nothing but lower yourself to the standards of those classless Boston townies, just like your grandfather did.”
Just then, I hear the front door shut. I look over.
Thank God, it’s Jack.
I’ve never been happier to see him, especially looking the way he does. My emotions are high and fraught, and watching him smile at me while he takes off his tie is doing all sorts of good things for me. Mostly, though, I’m just completely relieved. The knot in my throat loosens up, and I feel like I’m able to deal with this now.
I’m not alone, and I feel like I can handle anything.
“Did you hear me, young lady?” my mother snaps, and I realize I’ve missed more of the venom she’s been spewing.
She’d maligned Sully, though. I hadn’t missed that.
“Yes,” I respond coldly. “I heard you. You keep that man’s name out of your mouth.”
She sputters for a second, not used to me standing up to her in the slightest. Then snarls, “And if you don’t straighten that attitude out, you can feel free to keep the MacMillan name off of your business cards. No more chances. Everyone who is anyone will know that Caitlin MacMillan is a flake, pure and simple. Just another faux-artistic modernist in a sea of mediocrity.”
“You do whatever you think you have to do, Mother,” I say, and hang up the phone before she can respond.
It feels good.
“So,” Jack says, sitting down next to me on the couch. “That was ol’ coal squeezer herself, eh?”
“You know it,” I say, shaking my head with a sigh. “It’s like she somehow monitors my happiness level, then calls me whenever she knows it’s just too damn high.”
“Believe me, I remember,” Jack says, and we take a moment to laugh about the memory of that day in the kitchen.
I really had lost it when she’d called that time. But then again, it had definitely led to very good things.
“God,” I start, tension easing out of me. “That feels like ages ago now.”
“Yeah, that wasn’t either of our finest days,” he says, wrapping an arm around me.
I smile and snuggle in.
“I hate her,” I say. It feels wrong to think that of one’s own mother, but it’s true, and it feels good to say out loud. “I just hate her. She’s an evil, nasty woman, and always has been.”
“Hell, I can relate to that,” Jack says, squeezing me a little closer.
I can hear his heart beating through his chest, and it soothes my entire body.
“My old man makes my ma call me up just to ask for money,” he adds, rubbing his hand up and down against my arm in a soothing rhythm. “Once a week, minimum, I gotta hear her go on and on about who pisses off who, who stabbed who in the back, who’s in jail now, who just got outta jail, how much my old man lost at the track, oh and by the way could you send some money? Least I can do because they raised me up so well, apparently.” He shakes his head. “Pricks. The whole lot of ’em. At least we had Sully, I guess, right?”
“Agreed,” I say. “Only the summers for me, though.”
“Y’know,” he starts, “I really used to think you were just some spoiled rich kid, way back then. Just another socialite’s daughter, lookin’ down your nose at me and my thrift store clothes.”
“I was just shy.”
I sigh. If only I’d learned to stand up for myself at a younger age, would my life have turned out differently? But then again, I really like where it’s at now, so maybe everything had a purpose after all.
“I was shy and terrified,” I go on, wanting Jack to understand. “Because you were so gorgeous and dangerous and everything that I’d never seen before in my life. And there I was, just a fat mess with too many pimples and no self-esteem. I couldn’t have ever landed someone like you in a million years, as far as young me was concerned.”
“Hey,” Jack says, stroking my cheek. “That’s all bullshit. You were gorgeous even back then. I just, y’know, thought that you didn’t talk to me because of who I was and where I came from. I was so jealous of what you had. Money, Sully, this house.”
“I guess that makes two of us,” I say. “I was so jealous of your looks, the way you swung around like you could handle anything in the world. Sully loved you more than he loved me.”
Jack laughs, shaking his head as he squeezes me close. “That’s not true.”
“I was just a little fat girl who didn’t know what she wanted. I kept failing at everything I tried.”
“Hey, now,” he says, pulling my head back and kissing me on the forehead. “No more of that, okay?”
“But—”
“No buts,” he cuts me off. “None of that is true, Cate. None of that was ever true. We all know better now. I know I do, Duchess. I’m sorry we lost so much time to it.”
“Me too,” I say, patting his arm. “It’s okay. We have this now, and that’s the important part.”
“It’s really too bad you can’t just choose your family, isn’t it?” he asks, grinning at me.
I laugh. “Definitely. God. I would divorce mine if I could.”
“You ain’t the only one,” he says.
“Well hey, you two,” comes a voice from the door.
Both of us crane our necks back to see Dylan, looking exhausted but elated, and so damn good in those jeans and that black v-neck. It clings to his body in all the right ways.
“Maybe we can, eh?” Dylan makes a gesture that encompasses all of us.
I smile, relaxing in Jack’s arms. “You’re right. Maybe we can. Maybe we already have?” I ask, looking up at Jack.
“Yeah,” he says, and I can hear the relaxation soaking in his voice. “I think we already did. Get over here, Dylan, you’re missing out on some prime-time snuggling here.”
He does, and we end up wrapped up in each other on the couch, bodies touching one another in a perfect, safe pocket that’s just our own and no one else’s.
This is us.
This works.
And I’m safe here.
26
Jack
“Mr. Kelly!” Gary exclaims as I walk into his office. He’s put together, as always, perfect pocket square and all. If anyone did suits better than me or Sully, it was Gary for sure.
“Gary, how’s it going with you?” I reach out and we shake hands.
“It’s been a trying week,” Gary says. “As they say in film, I’m getting too old for this shit.”
I laugh and shake my head. “Y’know, that might be the first time I’ve ever heard you swear.”
“Oh, well.” He smiles and rounds back to his side of the desk. “I was in the Navy for a few years out of high school. You pick up one or two curses in the line of duty.”
“I bet,” I say, still grinning.
“So! I understand you want to discuss the terms of the contract for Mr. Sullivan’s property,” Gary says, flipping open a folder on his desk.
“I do,” I say.
“Excellent. I’m certain we can find a buyer with no trouble at all, once everyone signs the appropriate paperwork.”
“Actually,” I start, “We’ve, uh, decided to keep the house.”
“Oh!” Gary exclaims, looking puzzled. “Forgive my surprise, Mr. Kelly, you just seemed so adamant before about wanting to sell.”
“Yeah, well, a lot’s changed since then.”
Christ, has it ever. So much. I know a ridiculous smile is stretching my cheeks, but can’t stop it.
“Very well,” Gary continues, nodding. “Then all I need to know is who we’re transferring the deed to, and I can have this sealed and delivered by courier in no time at all.”
“Perfect,” I say. “It’s going to be distributed equally between the three of us, so just let me know what I have to have all of us sign, and I can handle that on my end right away.”
“Oh,” Gary says, and I tense a little, because his tone of voice doesn’t sound good.
“What’s the problem, Gary?”
“Well, Mr. Kelly, per the terms and conditions of Mr. Sullivan’s will, it’s just not possible to put the house in everyone’s name. You’ve read it over?”
I did. I mean, I skimmed it. Like I’ve said, estate law is not my area, and now it sounds like maybe I missed something that I should have looked a little deeper into. Unless Gary just doesn’t get what I’m saying?
“No, see, we’re looking at joint tenancy here,” I explain. “We’re all okay with owning equal portions. Want it that way, so that no one person has power over anyone else.”
The slight tightening at the corners of his mouth tells me it ain’t gonna be that simple.
Shit.
“That’s just the problem, Mr. Kelly,” he says, folding his hands on top of the desk in front of him. “Joint tenancy, amongst other forms of ownership, are not options per the will.” He takes out a pair of small, round reading glasses, and flips through a couple of pages in the will. “Mr. Sullivan was quite thorough in his stipulations. He’s set it up so that your only viable option is for one single entity to retain sole ownership of the property. If that doesn’t happen by the specified deadline—” a couple of weeks, if I’m remembering it right, “—the property must be sold, and funds will be distributed equally amongst the three of you.”
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Sully must’ve had a reason, but I don’t get it. One thing I do know, though, was that he knew his stuff. Unusual or not, if that’s the way he wanted it, the will is gonna be rock-solid. No loopholes available, and of course Gary will follow it to the letter.
I feel the office start to close in around me, and I shake my head, wanting him to tell me something different, even though I’m thinking that hope’s probably in vain.
“That can’t be right,” I say. “Why would Sully do that?”
“Well, obviously, I cannot speak directly as to Mr. Sullivan’s intentions,” Gary starts, taking his reading glasses off. “But I can only imagine that he wanted to ensure that the three of you really take your time with this decision, and determine who the best caretaker shall be. He hated seeing any of you fight. Maybe this was his way of trying to ensure that peace was to be made, in one form or another.”
“Alright, alright,” I say, holding my hands up. Gary’s got no more useful insight than I do, but the man is thorough. If this is the way it is, then this is the way it is, I just… “I just don’t know what I’m going to tell the others. I don’t think we’re comfortable having this in just one of our names.” I look Gary in the eye. “When do we have to make this decision by?”
Gary moves the folder aside to look at the large calendar blotter on his desk. “Today is Monday, July 17th, and it appears that the decision must be made in full by Tuesday, August 1st.”
I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. “We want to make this our family home, here,” I mumble.
Gary’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “Your… family home? For the three of you?”
I grimace. Yeah, probably sounds weird.
“It’s complicated,” I say, shaking my head, but he doesn’t press it. Doesn’t even look judgmental, even, which is refreshing.
“I am most sincerely sorry for all of this,” Gary says, looking genuinely sympathetic to how he sees me taking all of this. “For what it’s worth, I am very glad that the three of you seemed to work out your differences. I think Mr. Sullivan would have been very pleased about that. And, if I may—he considered all of you family. I know this for a fact. Whatever your arrangement, I have no doubt that he’d approve.”
“Goddamn, Gary, I just…” I shake my head. “I don’t know what I’m gonna do here. How do we work it out?”
He looks pained, and I know he hates not having an answer. “Well, perhaps—”
“No, no,” I say, cutting him off and standing up. It’s not his problem to solve. He’s doing what Sully asked of him. “It’s alright. This isn’t your fault, I know you’re just executing the will. I just gotta figure out how we’re going to deal with this.”
Gary stands up and nods sadly, holding out his hand. “Very well, Mr. Kelly. Again, my sincerest apologies; it’s not my intention to stand in the way of your wishes.”
“I know, bud,” I say, and shake his hand. “We’ll figure it out and be in touch.”
“Please take care,” Gary says as I walk out the door.
By the time I’m back on the street, my mind is already racing for solutions. I have no idea how I’m going to break this to them. Can I break this to them? After all we’ve done to get this far in our relationship? Things have been so good, so damn good, and I’m just not willing to do anything that will jeopardize this peace that we’ve all found with each other.
I mean, I guess we could just figure out one of us to put on the deed. We’re all pretty committed here. But all I can think about now is how much money I’m putting into the renovations, and how much work Cate has been doing to redecorate the entire house from the ground up. And Dylan, my God, he’s the one that makes it our home, a safe ground for all of us to coexist together.
It just won’t feel right unless it belongs to all of us. It wouldn’t be fair to any of us, not now, not when we just figured out our triad. But that’s not the kind of relationship—the kind of family—that gets recognized any way but in our hearts now, is it?
Shit.
Fucking shit.
I take a b
reath, pushing back my knee-jerk rage. No, I’ll figure something out. Cate and Dylan have done more than enough to make sure that the townhouse is transformed into our home.
It’s my turn to fix this.
27
Dylan
God, this summer sure is gorgeous. I can’t get enough of the sunshine. I know Cate and Jack chafe under the humidity, but I love it. I’ve always loved it. The more light, the better, as far as I’m concerned.
We spent the last week clearing out Sully’s old patio together. It was the one place that he’d just genuinely never seemed all that interested in, back in the day. Or maybe, now that I think of it, he knew it was one of the places we loved, and left it for us. Cate, Jack and I used to treat it like our own personal jungle, weaving in and out of the overgrown plants and grass. Hours of imaginative play, or just a place to get away.
Of all the work we’ve done on the house so far, though, this might have been the roughest part of all. Not that it took us very long to clear out all of the old plants and clean up the leftover junk, but as we did, it became rapidly apparent that we were gonna have to sink a whole hell of a lot of cash into this venture. By the time that phase was done, we were left with just a big drab square of cracked cement.
At least, that’s all I could see.
Cate, of course, saw what it could be with her designer’s eye, and funding it? Well, Jack really came through. Boy, did he ever. We were able to get the cement redone in no time flat, and even got to add a platform area in the back. We surrounded it with very tasteful polished oak planters; Cate’s idea. On top of that, Jack and I decided that we would build our very own brick barbecue together, something the two of us can do over beers.
Now, it still needs a whole lot of work and a whole lot of love, but I think we’re all willing to put both into it. For now, I’m just happy to have ourselves an outdoor space for summer. We added some nice patio furniture, and it’s become one of our favorite places to spend time together on nice days like this.
Mine: MMF Bisexual Menage Romance Page 28