I scoffed, but he wasn’t wrong.
“Marshall has already seen you with your head between my legs so it feels like one of thoseimagine them nakedsort of situations. It can’t get much worse.”
Daniel grimaced, turning away from the mirror and sitting down with a huff on the edge of the bed. I stepped back into place and busied myself putting on earrings, two gold hoops I’d spent hours agonizing over to make sure they looked good with my outfit.
“He has three other brothers who haven’t seen me between your legs. And their boyfriends, well, two of them have boyfriends.”
“Fiancé,” Sophie corrected. “And from what I hear, none of them will care.”
Finn had given us the rundown on his brothers and their partners, including the extremely affectionate platonic relationship his brother Hunter’s boyfriend Lincoln had with the whole family. He’d assured us he’d never been intimate with Lincoln, no matter what his casual affection in person might indicate. It’s just the way he shows love, Finn had explained the week before when he’d asked us to come to dinner to meet the family.
In the end, he’d decided not to confront Marshall about promoting Silas from boyfriend to fiancé. He’d had his head on my lap, my fingers in his hair when he made the decision. He didn’t want to force any of them into admitting something they weren’t ready to share. It was a control Marshall had sometimes strongarmed Finn and his brothers with, and he didn’t want to be the same. Or he wanted to be the same, but better.
“We should get him a ring,” I said, flicking the hoops in my ears to make sure I’d gotten the backs situated properly. Daniel caught my stare in the reflection, one eyebrow raised toward his hairline. “You got me one, and I got you one. We should get him one. I mean…”
“I like it.”
I felt silly sometimes when I thought about putting a ring on Finn’s finger. Daniel and I had eight years of history between us. Finn and the two of us had eight weeks at best. But if our lives depended on the truth and someone asked, I knew from the first date I would marry Daniel, and I knew from the first time I saw Finn on my porch, a little too drunk to make good decisions, I would have married him too.
I couldn’t marry them both, but I could—and would—still commit to them in as many equal measures as I could. And Daniel would do the same. He loved Finn differently from how Iloved him. He’d seen parts of Finn that I never would, and there was a certain kind of connection born of those moments they’d shared before I moved to LA. I wasn’t jealous of that. I respected it.
I was grateful for it.
“Should we pick one together?” Daniel asked. “Or…I don’t know how.”
I sat beside him on the bed, patting the top of his thigh. He’d changed after work into a pair of navy chinos that were smooth to the touch, a worn-out crease barely visible above his knee.
“What do you think he would like?”
“He would just like being considered,” Daniel admitted, and it was the truth. “I wish he wanted more for himself.”
“He will.” I jerked my chin toward the closet. “Will you get my black heels, the ones with the silver detail on the heel."
Daniel was there and back in a flash, kneeling in front of me, ready to put my shoes on without my even asking.
“You’ll get him used to it, won’t you?” I murmured, brushing a strand of hair away from his forehead as he slipped my right foot into my favorite Jimmy Choo’s.
“Of course.”
He took my other foot in his hand, raising it up and kissing my arch before sliding it into the shoe.
“You got me used to it,” I reminded him.
Daniel nodded and leaned back, resting his hands on the tops of his thighs, fingers splayed in the same quiet kind of subservience I’d come to expect from him. It was delightful to see him with Finn, to see how he treated me when Finn was around. Daniel had found the smallest edge of dominance, and he used it well when the situation called for it.
An assertive knock on the door put a stop to whatever had started to bloom in the very small space between us. Daniel rocked back and stood up, helping me off the bed and givingme a quick onceover before pulling me out of the bedroom and down the hallway. I detoured to the kitchen for some water and Daniel went to the front door to let Finn in.
Finn was still dressed for work, or half dressed. He’d lost his tie somewhere and undone the first two buttons of his shirt. His sleeves were rolled up to the middle of his forearms, and he fidgeted with his fingers before shoving his hands into his pockets.
“You look stressed,” Daniel greeted Finn with a kiss. “Do you want a drink before we go?”
I twisted closed the cap on my water bottle and set it down on the counter, watching Finn stalk through the living room until he reached me. He snaked his arms around my waist, pulled our bodies flushed and kissed me hard on the mouth.
“You look like everything I’ve ever been through was worth it,” he whispered.
And then Daniel pressed against him from behind, and Finn angled his head away from my mouth so Daniel could kiss his neck.
“But yes,” he said, clearing his throat. “A quick drink would be good.”