“You’re okay with this?”
“Honey, I don’t have a say in it. I didn’t particularly agree when he brought Tyler home. Not that I don’t love Tyler, because I do. He’s a sweetheart. It’s not a choice I’d have made, or have had him make if I’d had a say in it. You’re adults.” She took another sip of tea. “Am I getting any grandchildren out of the deal?”
“It’s way too soon to think about that. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.”
“That’s probably wise, sugar. You’ve got a lot of years yet to make that decision.” She sighed. “Why don’t you marry one of them? It would make all three of y’all’s lives easier, wouldn’t it?”
“No. Like I told our lawyer, if I can’t marry both of them it wouldn’t be fair to marry one of them.” She looked at Peggy. “I won’t choose. I love both of them. I know it’s weird.” She took a moment to compose her thoughts. “They approached me first. They’d already made up their minds. I knew I loved them, but I never…it didn’t seem possible. I assumed they were gay. I was so happy to be a part of their lives, they welcomed me in. When they finally confessed how they felt it was like I hit the lotto.”
Peggy’s wry smile traveled to her eyes. “I’d wondered if something was going on. Tommy was so upset when you got hurt, but there was more to it. Every time I talked to him on the phone it was Nevvie this, and Nevvie that. Sounded like he did when he first met Tyler, before he finally admitted they were a couple.”
Nevvie blushed again but met Peggy’s gaze. “It’d break my heart to lose either one.”
Peggy looked like she wanted to ask something else. She studied her hands for a moment, picking at her fingernails. “What happens in the future? I mean, any other surprises? You know, partners?”
“No. The three of us agree we wouldn’t share well with anyone else. It works for us. I don’t think this would have worked out the way it did if they hadn’t been together for so many years, either.”
Peggy nodded. “Okay, then.”
* * * *
Nevvie felt a hundred pounds lighter with her crushing anxiety gone. When the boys returned nearly an hour later, the women were still in the kitchen, assembling pies for the next day.
Tyler raced into the kitchen ahead of Thomas and slid to a stop inside the doorway, scoping the situation. Thomas appeared seconds later, nearly crashing into him.
The women turned, their hands covered with flour. Peggy shook her head. “What on earth are you two doing? You dang near gave me a heart attack.”
Tyler looked at Nevvie, trying to read her. She smiled and he let out an audible sigh of relief. “Uh, everything all right?”
Peggy leveled her gaze at him. “Why wouldn’t it be, Ty?”
Nevvie choked back a giggle. For the first time since she’d met him, she realized Tyler was without a plan or rejoinder.
Thomas cleared his throat. “Um, how is everything, Mom?”
“Tommy, you need to sit yourselves down. I’ve seen expectant fathers calmer than you two.”
“Secret’s out, boys,” Nevvie said. “She knows.”
Tyler closed his eyes and quietly swore. Thomas approached his mom. “Now, Mom—”
“Hush.” Peggy looked at Tyler, cutting him off. “You too, Ty. I’ll say this once. You put this poor girl through hell because you were too chickenshit to confess. You should be ashamed of yourselves.” Both men looked at the floor, like a couple of scolded children. “She’s perfectly adorable, and as I already told her, it’s none of my business. How you deal with your sisters is up to you. I’m not fighting that battle for you.”
Thomas nodded. “Thanks, Mom.” He kissed her cheek. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know how to tell you.”
“I consider myself an enlightened person, boy. I do have the Internet and HBO. I just don’t need to know the details. And you—” she jabbed a flour-covered finger at Tyler, “should have known better than to let him get away with not telling me.”
Tyler looked appropriately chastised. “Sorry, Mom.” The way he said it sounded like “mum.”
Nevvie couldn’t hold back her laughter.
“What are you laughing about, sweetheart?” Tyler asked, approaching.
Thomas smiled, sensing Tyler’s thought. “Yeah, what are you giggling at?”
The men surrounded her, tickling her. Nevvie couldn’t fight back with her hands full of dough. “All right! Uncle!” Each man planted a gentle kiss on her cheek before releasing her.
Peggy smiled, shaking her head. “I imagine you’ve got your hands full with these two.”
Nevvie blushed and went back to rolling pie crust. “We have a lot of fun.”
Thomas and Tyler sat across the table and watched them work. Peggy smacked Thomas’ hand when he tried to snarf a piece of raw dough.
“You should have seen her, Mom,” Thomas said. “She’d only been working at the office for a few weeks and she discovered an embezzler. Asshole robbed me for nearly a half-mil over the years.”
Tyler nodded. He winked at Nevvie and managed to steal a piece of dough from her board before she could stop him. “She’s amazing, Mom. She’s a wonder, truly. She helps me edit my manuscripts, manages the business end for me. I have so much more time to write now.”
“How is the latest?”
“Sent the manuscript to my agent last week. So far, so good.”
They all fell quiet for a moment. The men watched the women roll out crust and line the pie plates.
Peggy cleared her throat. “At least now I know why you insisted on staying at a hotel.”
Thomas dropped his gaze. “Well, it would have been weird trying to explain it over the phone. I didn’t know how you’d react.”
She reached over and gently smacked him on the cheek with a flour-covered hand. The shock of her action more than the actual force stunned him. “Look here, Thomas Ryan Kinsey, have a little more faith in me than that. How did I react when you brought Ty home?”
Thomas stared at her in disbelief, his left cheek still bearing her flour handprint. Tyler smirked.
Peggy wagged a finger at him. “Don’t you be getting smart either, Tyler.”
Nevvie tried to hold her giggles and couldn’t.
“Have y’all checked in yet?” Peggy asked.
Thomas shook his head.
“I don’t know how you plan on telling your sisters, Tommy. I’m assuming you’re going to. Y’all would be the only overnight guests. None of the rooms have a bed big enough for the three of you, so someone’s going to have to bunk alone. Unless one of you wants to keep falling out all night. I don’t mind you staying over. I would prefer some discretion, if you get my drift, but you’re always welcomed. You’re family.”
“I need to tell them,” Thomas said. Tyler reached over with a napkin and wiped the flour off Thomas’ face.
Peggy sighed. “I’ll make the eggnog extra strong and serve doubles before you do it.”
* * * *
The women put the pie crusts in to bake while the boys unloaded their luggage and cancelled the reservation. Nevvie got the last word, and the boys grudgingly settled in Thomas’ old bedroom with her next door.
Thomas gave Nevvie a tour of the house and large property while Tyler answered an email from his agent that came through his BlackBerry.
“See? I told you she’d love you.”
“Your sisters might not be so easy.”
He hugged her to him under an old pecan tree down near the pond. “Let me worry about that.”
Nevvie closed her eyes and breathed in Thomas’ scent. “She asked me about grandkids.”
His rumbling laughter rolled through her. “That doesn’t surprise me. Remember, I’m the only boy. I think she saw her chance for another Kinsey fly out the window when she met Tyler.” He hesitated. “What did you say?”
“I told her it was too soon to think about that.” The three of them hadn’t even discussed it yet.
Thomas’ eyes burned into hers. “Is i
t something you might want to think about? In the future?”
She nodded, trying to ignore the sudden, aching need fighting for attention in her lower belly as he hardened against her.
He buried his face in her hair. “It’s your choice, sugar. It’ll only be your choice—if, when, how many. Whatever you want.”
Tyler called to them as he walked down from the house. “Karen’s on her way with a bunch of stuff for tomorrow.” He smiled, his blue eyes twinkling. “I just got another reaming for not making you tell, Thomas.” He put his arms around both of them, kissing them. “Make sure you spend the weekend sucking up to Peggy, right?”
“I will.” Thomas looked at Nevvie. “See? This worked out fine.”
“No, we haven’t told your sisters yet.”
Tyler took her into his arms. “Karen will be the easiest, I suspect. She’s next to youngest. She was the first of the girls to welcome me into the family.”
Nevvie had memorized their names. Oldest to youngest: Emily, Katie—short for Kathryn, Cheryl, Karen, and April. She’d asked Tyler to help her prepare when Thomas wasn’t around. Thomas wouldn’t understand her desperate need to not fuck this up, but Tyler did.
All too well.
“Mom asked her about grandkids.”
Tyler froze, then looked into her eyes. “And?”
“I told her it was too soon yet.”
“Yet?”
“That’s a strong maybe, Tyler.”
He hugged her. “Oh, sweetheart,” he whispered. “We love you so much.”
“I already told her it’ll be her decision if and when, that we’ll go along with whatever she wants to do.”
“Absolutely.”
“Give me a chance to get used to what we have first, boys.”
The men held hands with Nevvie as they returned to the house.
Chapter Twenty-One
Karen was four years older than Thomas and looked most like him. Tall and lanky, her shoulder-length brown hair was sprinkled with grey. Thomas made the introduction when his sister walked in, her arms full of groceries. Nevvie mustered a nervous smile and accepted Karen’s warm hug after she’d set the groceries on the counter.
“It’s nice to meet you, Nevvie. There’s always room at the table.” She turned to Thomas. “Where’s Blue Eyes? I need help unloading.”
“I’ll help.”
“If I wanted to look at you, bro, I woulda asked you for help.”
“Quit putting moves on him, Karen. He’s taken.” Thomas winked at Nevvie, who stifled her nervous giggle.
“Tyler!” Karen bellowed. “Where the hell are you?”
Peggy winced. “Watch your volume, missy. You weren’t born in a barn.”
“You screeched?” Tyler appeared in the kitchen doorway, and Karen’s eyes lit up. She flew into his arms.
“There you are!”
He gave her a perfunctory hug and Nevvie noticed Peggy glanced at her before looking at her daughter.
Thomas nervously shifted his weight. “Uh, sis, we need to talk.”
“You’re breaking up, and I can have him?”
Tyler had sidled around the table to stand by Nevvie, slipping his arm around her waist. Best to get it over with.
“Not exactly. We’ve added to our family.”
Two plus two equaled seven in Karen’s mind. She squealed with joy. “A surrogate? You’re going to have a baby? That’s gr—”
“No, Kar,” he said. “She’s not our surrogate.”
Tyler held up Nevvie’s left hand, displaying the ring. “Surprise.”
Stunned, Karen looked at Thomas, then Tyler, then Nevvie’s ring, then her mother. “Momma,” she finally whispered after several long moments, “do you have any bourbon?”
“Top cabinet, sugar. Use a large glass. You’ll need it.”
“Kar, we love her,” Thomas said to his sister’s back as she retrieved the bottle. “We both love her.”
Karen nodded and poured three fingers, thought about it, then added another splash. She leaned against the counter and took a sip. “Momma, how long have you known?”
Peggy glanced at the clock. “About three hours.”
Karen nodded and took another sip. “Right.” Sip. “What does this mean? What are you, like, reverse Mormons or something?”
Tyler smiled. “Not quite. I believe the appropriate term is ‘polyamorous.’”
“Right.” Sip.
Nevvie hoped Karen would be staying a while and didn’t live far, the way she was drinking.
“Momma, are you okay with this?” Karen hesitantly asked.
“I wouldn’t have asked them to stay if I wasn’t. That’s why Tommy insisted on going to a hotel. He was scared how I’d react. I talked them into staying.”
“Right.” Sip.
Thomas touched Karen’s shoulder. “You okay?”
Karen’s eyes widened as she still tried to process the news. “Sure.” Sip. She was halfway through what she’d poured.
“I love her. I love her as much as I love Tyler. He loves her, and she loves us. It just happened.”
Karen closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Okay. You didn’t, like, start a cult or something?”
He smirked. “No. The only potential future additions will be born into our family, not married into it.”
“Too much information, Tom.”
Tyler’s arm tightened around Nevvie’s waist, reassuring her. One down, four to go.
Karen looked at Thomas. “Em and Kate are gonna shit bricks. I gotta be there when you tell them. I can’t wait to see their faces.” She drained the rest of the glass in one gulp, wincing. “That’s enough of that. Okay, so who’s gonna help me stagger out to the car and get the rest of the groceries?”
* * * *
The boys walked outside with Karen. Nevvie, shaking from nerves, leaned against the counter. Peggy patted her shoulder.
“She’ll be fine once the booze wears off. Good news is, she was probably the one you needed to worry most about. He was closest to her, like twins, even though April was closer in age.”
“I hope this doesn’t get nasty.”
“Darlin, there’s nothing to get nasty about. They like it or lump it. They’ll behave themselves whether they want to or not. It’s my house.”
“I still can’t believe you’re taking this so well.”
Something shifted in Peggy’s eyes and her face took on a sad expression. “Life’s way too short. If Tyler and you make him happy, then what more can I ask? Like I said, don’t be offended if I don’t brag about what y’all are doing.”
Nevvie smiled. “I understand. Thank you.”
Peggy hugged her. “You didn’t have a close family growing up, did you?”
“Is it that obvious?”
“Honey, I’ve seen beat dogs less scared than you.”
* * * *
Karen promised not to tell anyone and stayed to help with the preparations. An hour later Thomas drove her home in her car, with Tyler following in the Ridgeline.
Nevvie grabbed a shower, and by the time the boys returned she was ready for bed, chatting with Peggy in the living room. Nevvie said good night and each man gave her a hug and fairly chaste kiss.
It was weird having her own bed. Not bad, but…
Lonely.
It was also weird sleeping with clothes on, even if it was only a T-shirt and an old pair of Thomas’ boxers. She’d grown used to the three of them piling together, warm skin on skin, the contact soothing her to sleep and keeping her nightmares at bay. Since their new arrangement she hadn’t had a single bad dream.
She was drifting to sleep when her bedroom door opened, then someone slipped into bed with her. Instinctively she snuggled against the warm body.
Tyler.
His scent, subtly different from Thomas, betrayed him even before his arm slipped around her waist.
“Are you asleep, love?”
“Not yet, but I’m tired.”
He kisse
d the back of her neck. “Not that. We didn’t want you sleeping alone.”
“Thank you.”
Nevvie quickly fell asleep with Tyler wrapped around her. At one point in the night she felt the mattress dip, but it wasn’t until a little before dawn she awoke and realized she was sandwiched between the two men.
She nudged Thomas, who muttered in his sleep. “Get up,” she whispered.
He tried to roll over, like he would in their huge bed at home. Unfortunately the full-size mattress was much smaller than their king-sized bed, and he landed on the floor with a thud.
Startled, Tyler sat up. “What was that?”
Thomas groaned from the floor. “Me.”
Nevvie looked over the edge. “You okay?”
“Yeah. I’ll live.” He climbed to his feet. “I guess I’m awake.”
“You guys need to go back to your room before Mom wakes up!” she hissed.
Thomas rubbed the back of his head, yawning. “What time is it?”
“Almost five-thirty.”
“She’s already up, sugar. She’s usually up by five. She’ll be waking us up for breakfast soon.” He climbed back into bed. “Besides, she didn’t say she didn’t want us sleeping together, she asked for discretion. That means she doesn’t want to hear anything. She said if we tried sleeping three in a bed one of us would fall out.”
Tyler pulled Nevvie tightly against him to give Thomas more room. “She was right. Go back to sleep for a little while, sweetheart. We don’t need to get up yet. We’ll behave, we promise.”
Nevvie managed to grab a little more sleep. Around six-thirty they heard a soft knock on the door. “Nevvie, sugar, I’ve got coffee and fresh sweet rolls in the kitchen.”
She froze. “Thank you, Mom. I’ll be right out.”
There was a pause. “You too, boys. I’m assuming you’re in there?”
Thomas laughed, then reached over and swatted Tyler, who snickered. “Thanks, Mom.”
“You’re welcome.”
Thomas kissed them and left the room. Nevvie snuggled with Tyler. “Promise me I’m going to survive this weekend.”