Rhythm of Three (Rule of Three) (15 page)

“Oh.”

He rubbed his face. “They went to stay at a hotel. Took a taxi.”

“Oh,” she said again. “Okay. Were they still…upset?”

“Hell yeah.”

She bit her lip. “I’m sorry, Chris.”

“Fuck, you don’t need to be sorry. They’re the ones who are being dicks.”

“Chris.”

“Whatever. I’m done. I tried to talk more to my dad when he came back. It’s like talking to a wall. He’ll never change. But that’s his problem.”

She closed her eyes, sadness filtering through her. “I guess that’s true.” She paused. “D’you want to go back to sleep?”

“Nah. I’m awake now. That coffee smells good.”

“I’ll go pour you a cup.” She moved off the bed and retrieved her own mug.

Chris followed her out, naked except for his blue- and white-striped boxers. “That was ugly last night,” he said, taking the mug from her when she’d added the cream and sugar he liked. “Sorry you had to go through that, Kass.”

“Yeah.” She hesitated. “I wish you had told us you were going to do that.”

He stared at her. “Oh.”

“I mean, I’m glad you did it. But…we should’ve talked about it first.”

“Shit.” He slumped against the counter. “D’you think that’s why Dag took off?”

“I don’t know. Maybe that was part of it. He was pissed at your dad, for sure, but, damn, Chris, that was a big decision to make without even telling us. You have to
talk
to us.”

He blew out a long breath and rubbed his forehead. “Yeah. You’re right. Jesus. I’m sorry, Kass.”

“But you don’t need to apologize for your parents’ behavior.”

“I know, but I feel bad. You didn’t deserve that. You haven’t done anything wrong, Kass. You know that, right?”

There’d been a time when she’d felt that way, when she’d felt like things had gotten so messed up, people had gotten hurt because of her desire to be a little bit bad and have a naughty threesome. Dag had told her that what they’d done didn’t make her a bad person, because she’d never intended to hurt people, and what she’d done had been out of love.

She gave him a crooked smile. “Oh, Chris. This is a mess.”

“We knew it was going to be messy. But we all agreed to do it anyway. Because it’s worth it.” He moved closer and set down his coffee to pull her into his arms. “I love you, Kass. That makes anything worth it.”

“I love you too. But it’s hard.”

“I know.” He leaned his forehead against hers. “I know. But we can do it.”

“What about Dag? I feel sick that he left.”

“I came back.”

Kassidy’s and Chris’s heads both whipped around at Dag’s voice from the kitchen door. He stood there, gripping each side of the doorframe in his hands, dressed the same as Chris, in a pair of boxer shorts, his dark hair messed up, his jaw shadowed with stubble. So beautiful.

“Dag,” she breathed.

“What the hell, man?” Chris muttered. “When did you get home?”

Dag hitched one shoulder. “I don’t know. Around two in the morning. You two were asleep. The guest room was empty, so I crashed there.” He lifted an eyebrow. “Your folks didn’t stay last night?”

Chris shook his head. “Went to a hotel.”

Dag lifted his chin.

Tension crawled up Kassidy’s spine, tightening her muscles. The air in the room vibrated.

“Why did you leave?” she asked Dag quietly.

“I was pissed off.”

“Got that, man,” Chris muttered.

“Yeah. I was pissed at you.” Dag scrubbed a hand over his face. “I just wished you had told me you were gonna do that. I wasn’t ready. I lost my mind. I nearly punched your dad. That was not cool.”

“Okay, yeah. I should have talked to you guys first. I get it. But I thought about it all week, and I didn’t know for sure I was going to do it until that moment.”

Dag nodded and met Chris’s eyes. “That took guts.”

Kassidy’s heart swelled. She looked up at Chris. “That’s true, honey,” she whispered. “A lot of guts.”

“Yeah, well, it took guts to stand up to my dad for insulting me and Kass.” Chris swallowed. “Meant a lot to me that you did that.”

“Fuck. Meant a lot to me that you told them,” Dag said.

And then the three of them were together, one of Dag’s arms around Chris, the other around Kassidy, and she was crying, but smiling.

“I love you guys…” she sobbed, “…so much.”

“Kass, what you said… about not being sure about this anymore…”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I started to have doubts.”

“There are gonna be more hard times,” Chris said. “We gotta get through them together.”

“Yesterday…” she sniffled, “…the wedding invitation… I felt so bad. And then we came home, and, Dag, you were here, and I couldn’t even hug you, and I missed you so much last week…and then your parents being so shitty to us… Sorry…”

Chris huffed out a laugh and kissed her hair.

“What about the wedding?” Dag asked, brushing Kassidy’s tears away with his thumb.

“The invitation was to me. And one guest.”

“Oh. Of course. Fuck.”

“So I called Taisha to see if I could bring two guests.”

“You did what?” Dag and Chris both said at the same time.

“I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t take just one of you and leave the other at home. Danielle offered to take Dag as her guest, but that didn’t feel right. I wanted you there with me. Both of you. So I called Taisha and asked her, and she was kind of… Well, I don’t blame her—you can’t just ask to add another guest to the list. But it made me feel sad, and so I sent the reply back saying we’re not going.”

“Hell,” Dag said.

“Shit,” Chris said.

“That took guts too, Kass,” Dag whispered. “Love you.”

“Yep,” Chris said. “Brave girl. I love you too.”

She smiled through her tears at that.

“And you bought that sexy new dress,” Dag commented.

Her smile went crooked. “I can take it back.”

“Hell no. You look fucking awesome in that dress.”

They each kissed her cheek. “We’ll take you out somewhere special,” Chris said. “You can wear the dress.”

She closed her eyes, emotion expanding so big inside her she squeezed her eyes tighter as more tears gathered.

“You should have told us about the wedding invitation, babe,” Dag said. “We’re here for you. Always.”

“You weren’t here. You were in California.”

“I’m always here,” he repeated firmly. “Even if I’m not. You pick up the phone and call me, or whatever. That goes for both of you. And, anyway, I’m not leaving again.” He grinned. “Man, I need a Coke.”

Epilogue

“Happy birthday, Dag.” Kassidy kissed his cheek.

He stood inside the condo, looking around at the crowd of people. Wow.

He’d known Kassidy was planning a party for him, like Chris’s a few weeks ago, so it wasn’t a surprise, but he hadn’t realized she’d invited her whole family, as well as their friends. Hailey was there, and her parents sat on the couch side by side, Dave’s arm stretched along the back behind Hope.

Their reaction to Kassidy telling them about the three of them had been markedly different than Chris’s parents’. They’d been upset, yeah, but they’d listened to the three of them and tried to understand. Dave had been shocked at first. Hope, not so much. Kassidy had been right, her mom was pretty perceptive and had picked up on Dag’s feelings for Kassidy already.

Hope had explained her concerns though, concerns because she knew there were going to be some tough moments in life if they wanted that kind of relationship. It wasn’t that she thought they couldn’t deal with those problems—it was just that, as a mother, she didn’t want her daughter to
have
to deal with them. Dag got that. Every parent wants their kid to have a perfect, happy life. But life’s not like that—for anybody. So they’d have a few extra challenges. They knew that.

“Thanks, babe,” he murmured, sliding an arm around Kassidy’s waist to give her a squeeze. Then Chris came up to them both and laid a hand on his shoulder. Their eyes met and they shared a smile.

“The big three-oh,” Chris said. “Old man now.”

Dag grinned.

He noticed the bar set up in the dining room. “You hired the same bartender.”

“Yeah,” Kassidy said. “He was fun.”

Dag started to ask who was paying for it, then kept his mouth shut. If they wanted to do this, fine. They knew what they could afford and what they couldn’t, and he’d find other ways to spoil them.

“I could use a beer,” he said, moving into the room. He shook hands, hugged, slapped shoulders with their guests, until he got to the bar and requested his drink. The bartender slid him a cold one with a smile.

He’d had a late business-dinner meeting that he’d had to schedule on his birthday, but he’d promised Chris and Kassidy he’d be there as soon as he could. His business was moving forward. He had investment money, he had the prototype designed and tested, and he’d hired a marketing guy who’d already lined up potential clients, one of whom they’d met with tonight. And looked like they would be their first sale.

That was just one more reason to celebrate.

He opened gifts, laughed with everyone, enjoyed the evening. By the time all the guests had finally left at nearly three in the morning, everyone having so much fun they didn’t want to leave, he realized he hadn’t gotten a gift from Chris and Kassidy.

Not that he was all about the gifts. Having them in his life was gift enough.

What a fucking sap he’d turned into. He grinned.

He helped clean a few things up before they headed to bed. In their bedroom, he unbuttoned his shirt and tugged it out of his dress pants, then pulled it off his arms and dropped it on the floor. He paused, then with a wry smile he picked it up and tossed it in the hamper, like Kassidy kept on him about. He yawned and used the bathroom. When he emerged into the bedroom, lit by only one lamp beside the bed, Chris and Kassidy were sitting on the bed. Chris sat on the side, Kassidy in his lap, one arm around Chris’s neck. She held a small wrapped package.

Dag grinned. “I thought maybe you forgot to buy me a present.”

“Well,” she said. “We had a hard time. Because what do you buy a thirty-year-old multimillionaire? A Ferrari? A swimming pool?”

He laughed.

She patted the bed beside them and he sat, bare-chested, and accepted the package.

As soon as he got the wrapping paper off, his chest clenched. He stared at the glossy black box, then slowly pulled the lid off. Inside was a silver pendant.

He lifted his eyes to meet first Kassidy’s, then Chris’s.

“Thank you,” he said hoarsely. He pulled it out.

It was the same charm he’d given Chris for his birthday—Trilogy—this one on a black cord.

“You know what it means,” Chris said in a low voice.

“Yeah.” He swallowed. “Kass, can you help me…?”

He turned his back and she fastened it at the nape of his neck. The charm felt cool but quickly warmed to his skin.

“That’s not all we got you,” Kassidy said. “We
are
getting you a swimming pool.”

His forehead tightened. “What?”

She glanced at Chris. “We talked about it and we do want to move. We want to pick out a place with you. It’ll be ours. And we’ll even let you spend some money on it. But it has to have a pool.”

Emotion swelled inside him. “Awesome. Thank you.” He touched the charm resting on his sternum.

Chris cleared his throat. “Kass, can you move?”

She shifted and Dag reached for her, pulling her onto his lap. He kissed her mouth, slow and sweet, and murmured another “thank you” as Chris moved to the dresser across the room.

“I know it’s not your birthday,” Chris said, turning, obviously speaking to Kassidy. “But I got you a present too.”

Kassidy blinked, then smiled. “Okay. I like presents.”

And Chris handed her another box, this one not wrapped and instantly recognizable as being from the same little jewelry shop. She sucked in a breath and opened it to reveal a third pendant—same charm—this one on a polished silver chain, glittering in the lamp light.

Her head snapped up to look at Chris, and Dag hugged her tighter. “Oh my God,” she whispered. “Thank you. Of course we should all have one.”

Chris moved behind her to fasten the chain around her neck.

“Beautiful,” he said. He kissed Dag, then her. Then he dropped to a crouch in front of them. “I want you both to have rings,” he continued. “As well as the pendants. Some day.”

Dag went very still and felt Kassidy do the same in his arms.

“I know these are a symbol of our love,” Chris said. “But I want to have the traditional symbol too. It won’t be completely traditional. But I want people to look at your left hands and know you’re taken.”

“And you too,” Kassidy whispered, grabbing his left hand.

“Yeah. Me too. I want to wear your ring. I don’t know what we’re going to call this relationship. Can we call it a marriage? A commitment? What do we call each other? Husband? Wife? Partner?”