NATHAN STARES at the air mattress with his hands on his hips. “You can’t be serious.” His voice is grim. “I’m supposed to share that inflated piece of rubber with Hughes?”
I giggle. After the afternoon and evening of tensions I’ve had, I’m exhausted, relieved, and ready to collapse on the twin bed in my childhood bedroom and sink into sleep. “It’s not that big of a deal, is it?”
“Uh, yes, it is,” Nathan says, bending down to push on the mattress. “What’s the weight limit on this thing?”
Michael is already neatly folding his jacket and putting it on the chest of drawers that still houses the clothes I left behind when I went to college. I imagine it’s stuffed with skinny jeans and graphic T-shirts, my high school staples.
“I have no idea, but I’m sure it’s more than the two of you combined.” I reach behind my neck, and undo my necklace, and roll my neck to release the muscle strain.
It was a (mostly) successful evening considering how it started.
The guys were amazing. Michael, as usual, was a rock of stability and reason, making hot chocolate with my mother post-Chinese food and directing conversation all night with innocuous topics like food delivery services, my childhood love of books, and our family lake vacations, all designed to make everyone feel comfortable. He even answered a bunch of Mom’s medical questions about Dad’s high blood pressure with patience.
Michael starts unbuttoning his dress shirt, but he holds out his hand for my necklace to place it on the dresser. His fingertips brush mine, and he gives me a warm smile. “I love you,” he says.
I lean forward and give him a soft kiss. “Thank you for being you tonight.”
“I wouldn’t be anywhere else than here with you.”
“At least one of you feels that way,” I say, nodding my head in Nathan’s direction.
He’s now lying on the air mattress, fully clothed, turning left and right to test it.
“I wouldn’t be anywhere else either,” Nathan says. “Well, maybe a Four Seasons right at this moment after dinner with your parents, but only if you were there too.” He looks up at me. “I’m trying really hard. I didn’t say a word when your father called me a trust fund kid.”
I instantly feel sympathetic. He is trying hard, even if he’s being a bit of a grump right now. He’s earned the right. “I know, sweetheart,” I say, bending down and squeezing his arm. “I love you, and I appreciate how much you’re trying.”
Nathan isn’t used to family dynamics in general, let alone my parents side-eyeing him all night. He’s also used to being in control, and meeting all of our families makes him feel very out of control, which is why he walked in and gave a speech designed to ward off criticism. It was his way of trying to direct the situation.
He’s learning that it only really works in the bedroom.
It’s not easy for him, and it makes me love him even more.
“I will sleep on the air mattress for you,” he says. “Because I know it was a huge concession for your parents to allow us all to be here. I’ll take it as a compliment that they’re letting me be in the same room as you.” A smile plays over his face. “Unlike Crew.”
I’m sure my father is enjoying the idea of these two grown, big men trying to sleep on this mattress. There’s no way anyone expects them to get any rest. When my dad relegated Crew to the couch, he told Crew he was young, and his back could handle it. “I suspect he thinks Crew is impulsive and might try to fool around.”
Nathan reaches out and slides a palm down my calf. “Little does he know I’m planning to do dirty things to you the minute this house seems quiet.”
That makes me laugh. “Behave yourself. It’s pretty clear that my mother’s concerns and reservations about our relationship are because she’s worried about what other people will think, and she’s worried I won’t have a traditional wedding and family life. I think my father is just horrified that this forces him to admit that I have sex.”
Nathan sobers. “Your father loves you very much,” he says. “I respect that he’s concerned. They only want what’s best for you. But I was very clear that the three of us are what’s best for you.”
I look down at him, my heart swelling. “Really?”
“Really.”
“The three of you?”
The corner of his mouth tips up. “Yep. All three of us. I even called Crew intelligent.”
Michael snorts. “Wow. That was quite the talk.”
Nathan nods. “It was. One of the most important I’ve probably ever had. I’ve never talked to a father about how much I love his daughter. Or told him that he also needs to treat her right.”
I gasp. “You didn’t say that.”
Nathan frowns. “Of course, I did. I won’t have people making you feel the way you did today. Even if they are your parents.”
“Nathan…”
He props himself up on one elbow. “Danielle,” he says gently, but firmly. “One of my jobs is to protect you. Kevin and I came to an understanding.”
“Thank you, Nathan,” Michael says. He’s even frowning. “I’m glad you took care of that.”
I look back and forth between them. My father seemed fine when he’d come back in from the garage about fifteen minutes after Nathan had gone out to talk to him. In fact, he’d seemed great. And he’d kissed me on the top of the head and told me he loved me before I came upstairs to bed.
Wow. I don’t know what to do with these men.
Finally, I say to Nathan, “Okay. Now take your clothes off.”
Nathan’s eyebrows shoot up. “Hell, yeah. I didn’t expect you to agree.” He immediately starts unbuttoning his shirt.
“No, I mean, get comfortable so you can sleep. So we can all sleep.”
Michael is in his briefs. He sits on the air mattress.
Nathan rolls to the side from the shift in weight. “Damn, Hughes, how much did you eat this week? Too many holiday cookies.”
“The only cookie I ate was Dani.” He lays down with a sigh.
I slide my dress off, and Nathan gives a growl of approval. Then, before I can react, he’s off the air mattress, earning a curse from Michael, and he’s pushing me down on the twin bed in my bra and panties.
“Nathan, we can’t,” I protest, though it’s weak.
“I’m getting in bed with you. I can’t sleep if I’m not touching you.”
“Nathan, we won’t fit,” I protest, though I’m secretly delighted he needs me to sleep well.
He lays down next to me and nuzzles my neck. “You’re smiling. You want me to cuddle with you.”
Maybe I’m not-so-secretly delighted. He can see right through me. “I never said I don’t want you to cuddle with me. I said we won’t fit. Which we don’t.” He’s squished so close against me, I can barely breathe.
“Why are you wearing panties?” he asks, running a finger over the front of my lace underwear. “We have a no-panties rule, remember?”
I shiver, squeezing my thighs together at the instant flare of arousal. “We’re not at home.”
I turn on my side toward the wall to get more room. It feels like one or both of us is going to topple off the bed and onto the air mattress. I settle the curve of my butt into his crotch, which causes him to groan in frustration.
He shifts around, and I see the screen from his phone light up out of the corner of my eye.
Now Michael groans too, but for a whole different reason. “What are you doing? Put your phone away, damn it.”
“I’m buying us a house here in Franklin,” Nathan says. “I can’t do this every time we visit Kevin and Mary.”
I try to roll over, but I’m wedged against the wall. But I can see enough that a row of houses is sliding by as he scrolls down on his phone. “What? Nathan, that’s totally unnecessary.”
He takes my hand and puts it on his hard cock. “Babe, it is one hundred percent necessary. Look, I already found one. Three bedrooms, two and a half baths, for… wait, that can’t be right. It says it’s only two hundred thousand. I’m buying this thing right now. Let me call my guy. Unless we want acreage. Do we want acreage? This one is half a million, but it’s got a barn too.”
The phone disappears from his hand.
“What the fuck?” Nathan demands. “Give me my phone back, Hughes.”
Michael is standing next to the bed, Nathan’s phone in his hand. “You are not contacting anyone at eleven o’clock on Christmas Eve to buy a house. Or look at a house. Or even talk about a house.” He slaps the phone down on the dresser, picks up his folded pants, and shakes them out.
“He’ll answer,” Nathan says. “He’s fine.”
“I’m sure he will answer,” Michael tells him. “That’s not the point. Don’t be an asshole. Cookie, come on.”
“What? Where are we going?”
“To the RV so you can actually get some sleep.”
“If you’re going to the RV, I’m going too,” Nathan says.
“And why the hell would we need a barn?” Michael demands. “You’ve let the holidays get to you, man.”
The holidays might be getting to Michael, too, because he’s more irritated than I would expect. But he’s right. We definitely do not need a barn.
The whole situation makes me want to giggle. I realize I’ve been absentmindedly massaging Nathan’s cock, which is now even harder. “I wouldn’t mind going to the RV. But only if we wake up Crew and take him too. And we have to be quiet.”
I think we all need a stress reliever after today.
Crew deserves some attention from me as well. He definitely seemed to be a little dismissed by my parents, and I’m not sure why other than his age. But he took it on the chin, and I want him to know how much I appreciate it.
How much I appreciate all of them.
Nathan gets up and promptly stubs his toe on the edge of the bed. “Motherfucker. Ow.”
“You heard the woman,” Michael says, sounding amused now. “Be quiet.”
Nathan holds his hand out silently, glaring at Michael.
Michael passes him his phone back. He’s completely dressed again. “And Cookie, we need to have a conversation tomorrow about this bedroom and all your DIY framed photos, obviously printed off the internet. I had no idea you were such a Harry Styles fan.”
“One D for life,” I say.
Then I look at both of them and start laughing.
Michael gets it. He starts laughing, too. “Liar,” he tells me. “Three is your lucky number.”
Nathan doesn’t laugh. “I don’t get it.”
Which makes me laugh even harder. “You don’t know who Harry Styles is, do you?”
“No, because I’m not a teenage girl in 2018.”
