by Alie Nolan
“Good,” Ness smiled. “He seems like a lovely man.”
“He is.”
“Jake tells us the two of you own a bakery,” Steph said. “How did you get into baking?”
I nodded, placing my menu to the side. “It was his dad’s bakery,” I started. “I met him…” I debated how much to tell them about how Elliott and I had met. I wasn’t sure I wanted to tell them that after I’d left, I’d spent months living on the streets, until Elliott had offered me a place to stay in exchange for help in his bakery. “I met him at his bakery, on my eighteenth birthday,” I finally said. “He offered me a job, I took it and moved into his flat above the bakery, and that was that, I guess.”
Both women quietly listened to me speak, but I could see they had questions just waiting to burst free.
“Where were you living before then?” Steph asked. “Between when you left and your eighteenth birthday must have been… what, four months?”
I was shocked that either of them would have been able to work that out. The fact that Steph had meant she not only remembered when I left, but my birthday too. In ten whole years, she hadn’t forgotten.
I sat mute for a moment, not sure how I wanted to proceed with answering the question. I knew me telling them I’d been homeless before I met Elliott was going to make them upset, and that was the last thing I wanted to do.
Ness’ face morphed into one of sadness, mixed with concern. “You weren’t living anywhere, were you?”
I lowered my eyes, not able to bear looking into her sad eyes, and shook my head. “No, I wasn’t. But it all worked out, so it’s fine.”
I thought I heard a sob escape one of them, but when I looked up, I couldn’t tell which one of them it had been.
“Well, all that matters now, is that’s you’re safe and happy,” Ness stated matter-of-factly.
“I am both of those things,” I assured them.
As we ate our lunch, we chatted about lots of things. I asked them each about their jobs—Steph ran a hair salon, and Ness was a primary school teacher—and they asked me things about my life.
There were multiple times when I wanted to include Matty’s name, after I said Elliott’s—it had become so ingrained in my brain to think and say their names together, that it was hard to break the habit now.
Every time I sidestepped talking about Matty it was like a punch to the gut.
I didn’t know who this situation was going to end up hurting the most. Matty, Elliott, Jake, or myself, but it was starting to become clearer in my mind that I didn’t want to keep hiding what the three of us had.
I wanted a life with them, and to build that, we needed to come clean and let everyone know what we were to each other.
We needed to come up with a plan for how we were going to tell Jake.
“I like the tattoos,” Ness said, as she looked at my hands then I took a bite of my sandwich.
“Thank you,” I smiled.
“Do you remember Mitchell?” she asked.
I had a vague memory of the skinny young man who’d been friends with Harri’s sons, Zach and James. Zach and James had been in their first year at uni when I’d left, and I thought I remembered Mitchell being their flatmate?
“I think so,” I said. “Zach and James’ flatmate at uni, right?”
Ness nodded. “That’s the one. Well, he’s a tattoo artist now. He actually has a studio in Portridge. You should swing by, if you actually have any skin left to tattoo, that is,” she chuckled.
“Thanks, I’ll do that.” I was always on the lookout for good tattoo artists.
Once we’d finished our meal and were finishing up with our second cups of coffee, Steph’s expression morphed into one that I took to mean she was about to say something important.
“We agreed before we came here,” Steph started. “That we weren’t going to ask you why you ran away.” Ness reached her hand out and entwined it with Steph’s. “We know that whatever your reason was, it was what you felt you needed to do at the time, and we respect that.”
Steph wiped a tear away from her cheek, and Ness’ grip on her hand tightened.
“We just want you to know, that we never stopped thinking of you as one of ours. And we never will.”
“Ever,” Ness added.
“And now that you’re back in our lives, to us, you are our son again, whether you like it or not,” Steph let out a watery chuckle.
This was so much more than I could have ever hoped for out of this lunch with them.
It felt a little like coming home.
Like I was slotting back into a place in their hearts that I’d left empty when I left them.
My heart hurt for them, at how their son disappearing in the middle of the night must have torn them up inside, but at the same time, my heart hurt for seventeen-year-old me, who hadn’t been able to believe that they truly loved me as much as they obviously did, and who hadn’t believed he was more than something that could be tossed aside and forgotten about.
Great, now I was crying too.
I swiped the back of my hand against my cheeks, wiping away the tears that were rolling down them.
I was so grateful to have them back, and although I knew it would take some time to adjust, I was looking forward to a time when I could maybe be close to them the way the rest of their kids were with them.
I’d never had parents—except the few months I’d lived with Ness and Steph—and the idea of my future children getting to have these wonderful women as their grandmothers made a fresh batch of tears well up in my eyes.
I just had to hope that Ness and Steph wouldn’t take back all the wonderful things they’d said about me being their son after they found out about Elliott’s and my relationship with Matty.
TWENTY-FIVE
Matty
I was tidying up my exam room at the end of the day, when my phone starting ringing on my desk.
The name on the screen showed me it was Christopher, and I eagerly answered it.
“Hi, Chris,” I said into the phone.
“Matty, hi,” his gravelly voice greeted me. “I thought I’d wait until the end of the day to ring you, so I wouldn’t interrupt anything. Do you have a minute to chat?”
“Of course,” I told him. “What can I do for you?”
I was assuming it was about the litter of puppies Valerie had mentioned.
“Val said she spoke to you, and I just wanted to ask when you next had a free evening to pop over and check on the latest litter.”
“I have time now, I’m just about to leave work.” I looked at the time on the wall clock. “I can be there in twenty, if that works for you.”
“If it’s not too much trouble, that would be perfect, thank you so much.”
“No trouble at all,” I assured him. “See you in a bit.”
“See you soon.”
I disconnected the call and grabbed my bag from the floor under my desk.
Heading out into the reception area, I was shocked to see Caleb and Elliott walking through the door.
I saw Wyatt, sitting at his desk, in the corner of my eye and noticed his face light up when he saw them too.
“What are you guys doing here?” I asked as I rushed towards them, kissing Caleb first, and then Elliott. It only registered after I’d done it, that we were in front of the windows looking out onto the high street, and anyone could have seen us.
I needed to be more careful, but it was so hard to not be touching or kissing them all the fucking time.
“We thought we’d surprise you,” Caleb said.
It was Monday, so the bakery wasn’t open, and they’d had the day off.
“We came to pick you up and take you out to dinner,” Elliott added.
I looked over my shoulder and saw Wyatt staring at us, looking like the human embodiment of the heart-eyed emoji.
I turned and gestured to Wyatt.
“This is Wyatt,” I told them. “I don’t think you got a chance to meet properly at my b
irthday party.”
Caleb shook his head.
“No, we didn’t,” Elliott said.
“It’s nice to meet you, Wyatt,” Caleb smiled.
Wyatt was practically drooling on his desk.
“You too,” Wyatt croaked out.
I laughed.
Caleb, Elliott, and Wyatt started chatting when I realised I’d told Christopher I would head straight over to the shelter.
Shit.
“I’m totally down for dinner, but I have to run a quick errand, do you two wanna come with, or wait for me here? I shouldn’t be more than half an hour.”
“Where are you going? What errand do you need to run?” Caleb asked.
“I have to go check on a litter of puppies over at a rescue shelter a few miles away,” I answered.
“Oh, we are definitely coming with you if your errand involves us getting to meet adorable dogs,” Caleb said excitedly, and Elliott chuckled.
Turns out the only thing more adorable than the dogs themselves, was my two men turning to absolute mush the second they saw a dog. I walked them through the shelter, making my way towards Christopher’ office, and every time I looked over my shoulder, they’d got sucked into cooing at and baby-talking to another dog.
It was so cute.
They were so cute.
I wondered why they didn’t have a dog already, because they clearly both loved them.
“You guys can wait here,” I told them. “I’ll be back in a few.”
There wasn’t much point in them checking on the puppies with me, they would have more fun out there with the dogs.
Checking on the litter was quick, and all the puppies and the mum were doing well. Once I had finished up with them, Christopher followed me out to the main area to find Caleb and Elliott.
They were almost exactly where I’d left them—Caleb booping the nose of a Jack Russell through the caged-off room it was in, and Elliott telling a cocker spaniel what a good boy he was.
“Chris, these are my friends, Elliott and Caleb,” I gestured to them and they both turned to face us. “Guys, this is Chris, he runs the shelter.”
“Nice to meet you both.” Christopher shook both of their hands. “I need to finish up some paperwork, but you guys feel free to hang out with them as long as you want,” he gestured to the dogs. “Thank you again, Matty, I’ll call you in a couple of weeks with an update.”
“You’re welcome, anytime.”
Christopher left and Caleb and Elliott returned their attentions to the dogs.
“How come you guys don’t have one?”
“We’ve talked about it, but we wanted to wait until we moved out of the city.” Caleb answered.
“You guys want to move?”
“Yeah, we’ve always talked about buying a new house somewhere outside Portridge. Somewhere quiet where we could have a big garden for a dog to play in, and maybe some extra bedrooms for a few kids.”
The idea of them as dads made my heart melt.
I’d always wanted a big family, like my own… was that something I’d get to share with them?
I already knew I was completely, head-over-heels in love with them, and the thought of getting to spend the rest of my life with them, getting to have kids with them, made my heart feel like it was going to leap out of my chest.
“You want kids?” Elliott asked me.
I nodded, and both of them smiled.
The three of us having kids.
It sounded like a perfect future to me.
Maybe they’d want to get married too—not like, legally, because they were obviously already married to each other, but some kind of ceremony would be nice one day.
I knew this was all a realistic possibility for us… once our relationship wasn’t a secret.
I was one hundred per cent certain that, for me at least, telling my family was worth the risk. If it meant I got to have that perfect life with these two incredible men—a house, a dog, some kids—I’d do just about anything.
I just hoped they felt the same way.
TWENTY-SIX
Elliott
It was as though something unsaid had caused a shift between us. In the best way.
I’d seen it in Matty’s eye when we’d spoken about kids at the shelter earlier that day—the hope, the longing. He wanted to share that with us. I’d been able to see it clear as day in the way he smiled as we spoke. He’d been picturing the same future I had been.
The three of us, raising a family, growing old together.
We’d spent a little while with all the dogs at the shelter—I was now certain we needed to move, because I wanted to take at least seven of those dogs home with us—and then we’d driven back to Caleb’s and my house.
The minute we walked into the house, Caleb and Matty were tangled together, their mouths crushed together, and their hands grasping at each other’s clothes.
I closed the front door and leaned back against it.
Watching Caleb crowd Matty against the wall, I automatically reached down and cupped my growing erection through my trousers.
Fuck, they were so beautiful together.
They pulled each other’s shirts off, before moving on to undoing each other’s trousers, and dumping the clothes in a heap on the floor in the entryway.
They explored each other’s bodies with their hands and mouths, putting on a show for me, until I was so hard my erection was pressing painfully against the fly of my trousers.
I pushed off the door and stalked towards them.
I took Matty’s lips first, followed by Caleb’s and then led them upstairs.
I needed to be inside one of them—I didn’t care which—within the next two minutes or I was going to self-combust.
Once we were in the bedroom, they went straight to the bed and Caleb lay down, pulling Matty on top of him.
I quickly undressed and grabbed a bottle of lube.
They were writhing against each other, their kisses sloppy and hurried.
“Suck me,” Caleb told Matty, sitting up against the headboard as Matty slid down him and settled himself between his legs. “I want you to suck me while I watch Elliott fuck you.”
My erection throbbed, as Matty moaned. “Fuck, yes.”
Matty’s lips wrapped around Caleb’s cock and Caleb watched me with lust-filled eyes as I poured lube into my palm, spreading it across my fingers and erection.
Matty’s head was bobbing up and down enthusiastically, and his movement only briefly faltered as I slid a finger down his crease.
I teased the puckered skin of his hole, running the pad of my thumb in slow circles over it, before slipping one, and then two, fingers inside his tight entrance, slowly working him open.
Matty moaned around Caleb’s cock when I nudged his prostate, and Caleb’s head fell back against the headboard. He never broke eye contact with me though, and the weight of his stare made the moment feel so much more intense.
I replaced my fingers with the head of my cock, and slowly pushed inside Matty’s body.
Matty’s hands were braced on Caleb’s thighs as he worked his head up and down—watching Matty sucking Caleb while I fucked him was fucking incredible, it was like watching the best porn I’d ever seen, while also being a participant.
I kept my thrusts controlled, because if I pounded into Matty too hard or fast, I knew I’d throw off the rhythm of his mouth on Caleb.
Matty released one of Caleb’s thighs, and reached under himself—presumably to fist his own erection—but my thrusts threw him a little off balance, and his hand went back to his original position.
I wrapped my arm around him, reaching under him, and taking his cock in my fist.
The pre-cum he was leaking eased the friction as my hand slid up and down his length.
He moaned and whined, the vibrations clearly too much for Caleb, because his body tensed, and his eyes squeezed shut as he bucked off the bed, coming deep in Matty’s mouth.
I increased the pace of my
hand, twisting as I reached the head, and Matty released Caleb’s softening cock as he shouted and came.
“Ungh,” I moaned as his channel constricted around my cock, drawing my own orgasm out of me as I felt his cum run down the back of my hand.
“Fucking hell,” Caleb growled. “You two are the hottest thing ever.”
I pressed a kiss to Matty’s shoulder blade and slowly pulled out.
A primal sense of ownership came over me, as I watched my cum slowly dribble out of his well-used hole.
Caleb pulled Matty up his body and peppered his face with kisses.
“Shower?” I asked them both.
They both nodded and got up to follow me into the en-suite.
We swiftly showered and dried off—our next house we’d need a bigger shower—before heading back into the bedroom.
We stood at the side of the bed, as our tongues tangled in a languid kiss, our heads angled perfectly so our mouths all met in the middle.
“Matty, would you ever want to top either of us?” Caleb asked, once we pulled back.
Matty shrugged. “I guess, I’d like to try it. Although I am more than happy bottoming,” he giggled.
“I was just thinking,” Caleb wrapped an arm around each of our waists and pulled us close. “I’d really like to have the two of you fuck me at the same time.”
That tore a moan from Matty and had my spent cock waking back up.
Holy fuck.
I could already imagine how tight Caleb would be with both of us inside him, filling him up to his limits.
“Fucking hell,” Matty breathed. “I’m so down to try that.”
Caleb chuckled. “Good to know.”
Caleb gave Matty and me each another kiss and then we got into bed and cuddled up together under the covers.
Matty lay between us, on his back, and was fiddling with my wedding ring. He moved it slightly down my finger, and his face lit up in a smile when he saw the tiny tattoo that was usually completely hidden behind the band.
“I didn’t think you had any tattoos,” he said. “I thought I’d seen every millimetre of your skin, clearly I haven’t been thorough enough,” he chuckled.