“I’m okay,” Jamie said. “You can keep driving.”
Callum nodded, put the car back in gear, and pulled back onto the road. Next to him, Jamie belatedly pulled his seat belt back on.
“How did your parents react?” Jamie asked after a few moments. “To the news that you and Nerea — you know?”
“Were dating, or were poly?”
“The second one.”
“We’ve never actually had that conversation. Can you imagine? Talking about feelings and personal lives? Terribly un-British.”
Jamie cracked a smile. Callum counted it a victory.
“Nerea’s parents, though — I’m not sure what they were most angry about. That I’d gotten her pregnant before I married her, that I was English, or that we were both still seeing other people. The end of her university career was also not appreciated. She tried, but the circumstances were too chaotic.”
“She was pregnant before you were married?”
“Oh yes. It’s why everything happened so quickly. There was respectability to be maintained,” Callum said dryly.
Jamie’s mouth started to twitch up at the corners. “You had a shotgun wedding!”
“No, we didn’t,” Callum protested.
Jamie was grinning full out now. “Yes, you did. Oh my God. Why doesn’t anyone know this?”
“The internet wasn’t around back then, and it can’t do math now.” It was Callum’s turn to be sulky, or at least act sulky, because it seemed to make Jamie smile. “What happened was, I told her I’d marry her. She said that was lovely. And told me exactly what she was going to expect of me, regardless of our marital status. If I hadn’t been head over heels in love with her already, I would have been then.”
“Wow,” Jamie said.
“Mhmm. Mind, I broke most of those promises within a year. Except for the ones about financial stability and sexual freedom.”
“Has Nerea forgiven you for that yet?”
Callum sighed. He was glad to hold Jamie’s hand for this conversation and also glad he didn’t have to look at him while he admitted these things. The countryside spread out before them, brown and green and gold in the winter light. The road was busy with holiday travelers. Callum tried to imagine a life without these things — without Spain and Nerea and the home they’d built together — and couldn’t. The mere prospect was bleak and terrifying.
“I’m not sure she ever will,” he said. “I don’t want you, or anyone else, to get the wrong idea. I didn’t introduce her to polyamory, because the fact is I happen to be made of relationship failure, or I was for a long time. I was sleeping around and behaving terribly while she was a woman with complex relationships and a lot to teach me.”
“Don’t shame yourself,” Jamie said.
“I’m not ashamed of what I was doing, just how I was doing it,” Callum clarified. “And frankly, I was talking foolish risks.”
“Huh?” Jamie shook his head as if to clear it.
“It was the eighties.”
“Oh. Shit. Sorry.”
Callum shrugged. What else was there to say about that?
“But you and Nerea are happy together, right?” Jamie frowned like he was trying to puzzle that out. “You didn’t marry her because you were scared.”
“I’ve never been scared enough of anything,” Callum said. “We’re together because we’re together. And very happy. And we were then, too. Our marriage has never been bad, although there were rough patches.”
“What kind of rough patches?” Jamie asked, half curious and half wary.
Callum sighed. There was no better illustration of the point than the argument that had followed the wedding when the girls were little. He was ashamed to relate his dreadful behavior to Jamie, but Jamie deserved to know the bad of his history as well as the good.
Jamie listened without interruption.
“I had to learn to be more responsible and more present,” Callum said once he’d retold the story. “And the credit goes to Nerea for giving me the chance to learn how to do both of those things. It’s part of why you running here, as delighted as I am to get my hands on you, worries us. Well, me. Nerea too, but I won’t speak for her. You can’t solve problems where you aren’t.”
“I also can’t solve problems if no one is listening to me,” Jamie said.
“Here’s the thing,” Callum said with a reassuring squeeze to Jamie’s hand. This boy was wonderful and wanted to do everything so right. But he was going to have to learn how to fix situations when he made royal messes of them. Callum had taken far too long to absorb that lesson himself, but maybe he could save Jamie a few decades of pain and regret. If so, Callum’s own screw-ups might have been worth it. At least a little.
“You’re going to hate this,” Callum continued, “but no one is obligated to listen to you. Which is something it’s going to get harder and harder for you to remember, the older you get and the more successful you are. You let your parents know what is happening in your life, you remind them you’re willing to discuss any questions they have, and you stay in touch so they realize you’re the same person you were yesterday, just maybe a little more mature.”
“Do you think it would help if my parents met you?”
“Right now — and I say this as a man with three daughters who tries not to be a boorish, archaic, misogynist twit but sometimes is — probably not. I’ve spent time hating everyone my kids have dated. If your parents are uncomfortable with your relationships, they’re uncomfortable,” Callum said honestly. “But you know them, and I don’t.”
Jamie shrugged. “The only thing I know is that I don’t want to lose any of you. You and Nerea or my family.”
“I can’t promise you that’s going to be possible,” Callum said, because a life of poly had taught him that keeping everyone happy was never guaranteed. “But don’t put off calling home again. It’ll only make things harder in the long run.”
Chapter 27 - Nerea hears an unexpected confession
Now that the kitchen was needed to make food in large quantities for the house guests that would soon be arriving, Nerea moved her command center for wedding operations into Callum’s office. It was comforting to sit at his desk to work and be surrounded by so much that reminded her of him, with the room’s muted colors and the fragrance of old wood and paper. The spines of the books, some gleaming in faded jewel tones, others with battered jackets and covers, stretched from floor to ceiling. There was a stack of books on the windowsill that Callum had pulled out, presumably titles he thought Jamie might like or otherwise felt necessary for him to read.
With Callum gone, all Nerea could do was keep busy until he and Jamie returned. She did her best to stay occupied with working on the centerpieces for the wedding, but she was too distracted and upset to concentrate and kept making mistakes. Thoughts of Jamie’s distraught face kept creeping back into her mind.
Nerea had just ruined an attempt at a centerpiece, again, when Thom rapped on the door frame with his knuckles.
“Yes?” Nerea looked up from her sad excuse for handiwork.
“Since I’m having a devil of a time talking to your husband, would you mind if I talked to you?”
Nerea frowned at him. She didn’t do Callum’s relationship management for him, but she’d had the sense all morning that something was wrong with Thom. Thom’s face right now did nothing to allay her fears, and she didn’t like that one bit.
“Have a seat,” she said cautiously.
Thom pulled a chair over from the table by the window, but didn’t sit down. “It’s about, well.” He rubbed his fingers over the worn carving on the back of the chair. “It’s about — ”
“Thom, a word of advice.”
He looked up at her, his eyes a bit wild.
“The longer you delay, the worse I think this is.”
“I’m dating your daughter,” he blurted.
Nerea blinked. “Which one?” She had a single daughter, a married poly daughter, and a monogamous d
aughter who was about to have her wedding. She could only hope Thom wasn’t dating that last one.
“Piper,” Thom said desperately.
“Thank goodness that’s the least complicated answer. Now sit down.”
Thom, obediently, sat.
“So this is what’s had you on edge all day.”
“All day, all week, all month.” Thom looked miserable.
“Callum’s going to burst something when he finds out.”
“I know,” Thom moaned.
“How long has this been going on?” Nerea asked.
Thom picked up a pinecone that was meant for the centerpieces and rolled it between his palms, not looking at her. “Since May.”
“It’s December now.”
Thom said nothing.
Nerea leaned back in Callum’s desk chair. “That explains the company she had over that she wouldn’t talk about. Callum may punch you though.”
Thom let out a deep sigh. “Believe me. I know.”
“Have you tried to tell him?”
“I’ve been trying for months!” Thom protested.
“You should have tried harder!”
“Yes, and he should be able to recognize that other people have lives even when he’s distracted by his newest fling.”
“Is he ever not distracted by a fling?” Nerea asked.
“No, which is why we’re having this problem now!”
Nerea started laughing. Mainly because there wasn’t much else she could do. He and Piper were both adults, and, in truth, Thom hardly deserved to be yelled at. Making him more afraid also wasn’t going to help him do what he needed to do, which was to talk to Callum before he found out on his own.
“I’m not going to tell him for you,” she said eventually, once she had stopped laughing and once Thom had slumped down miserably in his chair again.
“I didn’t think you would. Just — God, this was not how I was hoping to have this conversation.”
“Yes, you were hoping not to have it at all. Now. I’m not going to rage at you like Callum will. But,” she pointed her pen at Thom. “I have some concerns.”
“I am ready and willing to hear them,” Thom said.
Nerea was fairly sure she could get him to say or do absolutely anything right now, which was the sort of power she wasn’t sure she should be trusted with. Yes, she was the responsible one, but even she had her limits.
“Good,” she said. “For one, she’s fifteen years younger than you.”
“Sixteen, if you want to be brutally honest, but Jamie’s twenty years younger than you,” Thom protested.
“Closer to twenty-five, the world is different for women, and don’t talk ’til I’m done.”
Thom snapped his jaw shut.
“You’ve just gotten divorced. It is finalized now, yes? Please tell me yes.” Last Nerea had heard from Katherine, it had been in the final legal stages.
Thom nodded.
“Tell me.”
“Yes, it’s finalized.”
“So you’ve just been through a messy and painful divorce from a woman I’ve known for years and consider a friend. That’s awkward enough as it is, but we can cope with that. But now you’re rebounding, and the woman you picked for a rebound is my daughter.” It was funny, sad, and worrying, and Nerea couldn’t help but think about telling Tonio about this whole mess. Piper had once been very much like a daughter to him and Nerea was absolutely certain he would laugh at the vengeance the universe was apparently wreaking on Callum with this turn of events.
“It was an accident. I didn’t even know who she was when I met her.”
“Do we want to discuss how this implies you either have latent attraction for myself and Callum or you slept with my daughter without knowing her last name?”
“Can we go for neither? I’d like to go for neither," Thom said, pained.
“Also, house rules. I don’t care if you sleep together under my roof. In fact, it would be easier if you did, because if I can put both of you in the same room it’ll make guest arrangements easier. But you have to tell Callum before any of that happens.”
Thom nodded.
“Unlike Callum, I will not penalize either of you for the fact that women like sex too. But Thom, for the love of God, whatever you’re doing, be clear with her. And make her be clear with you too. Her worst qualities are all Callum’s.”
“And her best are all yours?”
“See, now we’re getting back to that latent attraction issue. Seriously, though. Communication. And if you’re going to have an epic meltdown with her, for any reason whatsoever, try to keep it out of my house and avoid the day of the wedding?”
“I’ll do my best,” Thom said.
“I’d appreciate it.”
“Callum’s going to murder me, isn’t he?” Thom said morosely.
“I’m afraid so, and you damn well better tell him before everyone gets drunk at the wedding.”
Chapter 28 - Jamie finds an ally
Nerea met their car in the driveway. Jamie kissed and hugged her and then clung. He inhaled the scent of her perfume and the warm, familiar smells of the house. It helped steady him, if only a little.
“Do you want to go upstairs and lie down?” she asked as Callum carried his bags into the house.
Jamie shook his head. “Do you have stuff I can do?” He wanted to stay busy, not be left alone in idleness with his own thoughts.
“Oh darling. Christmas and the wedding are in a matter of days. I have so much for you to do.”
Jamie spent the rest of the morning sweeping, dusting, and vacuuming. The only other person in the house beside Callum and Nerea was Thom Abbott, who Jamie had met briefly at Nerea's gallery opening. Thom was quiet, made intelligent conversation, and didn’t fuss at all about the fact that Jamie was dating both his best friend and his best friend’s wife. Thom also kept to himself enough that Jamie didn’t feel weird about occasionally taking a break to snuggle up to Callum or Nerea.
All through the morning Aoife sent him frantic texts, asking him why he had gone and why he wasn’t calling. When he finally worked up the courage to go out to the back garden to call her, she was in tears. Jamie felt like the worst person on the planet. But, as he explained to Aoife, he couldn’t go home. Not yet. Not until he felt more sure of himself, his place in the world, and had come up with something like a plan to make everything okay again.
At least Aoife was willing and even eager to talk to him. He wasn’t sure the same could be said about his parents. Or his other sisters. None of whom he had heard a word from. He assumed that Aoife would tell their mother he was safe.
CALLUM AND NEREA’S youngest daughter Piper arrived after lunch. This time it was Nerea — in her seasonably inappropriate convertible — who went to meet her at the airport.
Jamie’s first impression of Piper, when they arrived back at the house, was of a girl about his age who looked like Nerea and talked like Callum, two traits that combined to make her highly unsettling, at least to Jamie. He worried Piper might react sharply to his existence as Margarita had at first, but to his pleasant surprise she greeted him warmly and didn’t ask any awkward questions.
Jamie discovered exactly why she had been so magnanimous when he barged into the last room at the very end of the second floor hallway carrying an armful of sheets to make up the spare room beds. There was Piper — and there was Thom. With their tongues down each other’s throats.
Thom, once they’d pulled apart, looked like he wanted to sink through the floor. Piper looked like she wanted to kill Jamie. Jamie restrained his impulse to laugh and instead backed out of the room slowly to let them at it.
Given that neither Callum nor Nerea had mentioned the fact that Thom and Piper were dating, Jamie assumed they didn’t know. Maybe they hadn’t told or maybe he had walked in on the worst-timed first kiss. He didn’t particularly care. He just didn’t want to be the messenger of any further family relationship drama.
Half an hour later, Pipe
r banged into another guest room where Jamie was struggling to get a possibly too-small fitted sheet on a double bed.
“Oh good,” she said. “I was looking for you.”
Jamie straightened up and blinked nervously at her. As he did, the wretched sheet popped off the mattress again. “I’m not going to tell them.” He didn’t want to incur Piper’s wrath, and what she did was none of Jamie’s business. Or her parents’ if she chose not to tell them.
“Tell them what?”
“Oh, nothing. I mean. I didn’t see anything, so how could I tell them anything?
Piper narrowed her eyes at him. Then she looked at the sheets, and Jamie’s miserable efforts to get the bed made. “Why should I trust you?”
“Your parents already like me, and I’d prefer to keep it that way. Not playing the messenger.”
“All right,” she said cautiously. “Why are you here early?”
“I’m, er, having drama with my parents.”
“What kind of drama?”
“My baby sister’s getting married, and I shacked up with a movie star and his wife.”
“Ah,” Piper said delicately. She watched Jamie struggle feebly with the sheets, “Do you want help?”
“Please.”
They worked in silence for a few moments. Then Piper spoke again.
“What part of Dublin are you from? One of my uni flatmates was Irish so I went a few times.”
Jamie smiled, not at the small talk, but at the offer it represented. They were going to be allies. And what Jamie needed, as he sorted out the mess of his own family relationships, was allies.
OF THE FIVE PEOPLE around the dinner table that night — Callum, Nerea, Jamie, Piper, and Thom — Jamie suspected that only three of them knew how awkward a meal it really was. Unperturbed by anything more than the details of the upcoming holiday and wedding, Callum and Nerea made easy conversation. Nerea asked Thom what he’d been up to in London, and Callum ribbed Piper about some long-running inside joke. Neither of them seemed to have the least idea that Piper and Thom were together. And Thom and Piper, sitting at opposite ends of the table, barely even glanced at each other throughout the whole meal.
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