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I laughed and went to Damon, doing some kissing of my own. With his big arms around me, and mine around him, I felt like I could take on the world. I’d always felt like that with him. His strength was my strength, and I siphoned it often, in my times of doubt. It never failed me.
I know some people thought that we needed an extra man for all the wrong reasons. We’d been told by monogamous gay couples that we should find in each other what we were looking for in another guy. Well, they didn’t get us at all. I couldn’t love anyone more than Damon and didn’t. Joel was in my heart, right up there with him, but Damon and I were good from the start. The reasons we wanted a boy had nothing to do with anything lacking in each other.
His lips on mine, his breath on my lips, which was life to me. I love the man like he is a part of me, and he loves me the same way. But, back to that day. The kiss that rocked me nearly out was ending, and I smiled as Damon pulled his head back from mine. “Damn, you can sure kiss to, Burke.”
“Thanks! Nothing compared to you, of course.”
“I am the master.”
I pushed him playfully and Joel came over to us, smiling like he’d just seen us fucking instead of a kiss. “Damn, y’all, that was purty.”
“Was it?” I asked.
“Yessir. Sure was.”
It never occurred to me, but I asked him then, “Joel, do you ever…I don’t know, get jealous when Damon and I, you know, share moments without you?”
“Why would I?”
That was a good answer. Damon took his hand and yanked him over to the horses. “Stop making out with me and get on brushing Patch.”
“Yessir,” Joel laughed.
When Xen came that afternoon, with Memphis driving him, we all waited near the porch for them to exit the truck. They walked hand in hand to us, and Memphis set down the suitcase he carried to take off his hat, greeting us warmly before he begged, “Anythin’ he needs…anythin’ and call me?”
“We will, Memphis,” I assured him. “We’ll take good care of him. Joel and he are going to camp out in the attic. We dragged a couple mattresses up, and we put a TV there. If that’s okay with you.”
“Surely. I trust ‘im.” He turned to Xen and brought him into a crushing hug. “Be good, ya little fucker.”
Xen nodded as he cried a little, and the entire scene tore at my heart. Xen looked into his husband’s eyes, brushing away a tear that had escaped Memphis’s eye. “Be good too,” he said, then laughed silently.
“Oh, you know I’ll be workin’. I’ll give your damn spoiled horse sugar cubes in the mornin’, since that’s expected now.”
Xen let his shoulder bag slip from his arm and fall to the ground as he nodded and reached up to kiss his husband. When Memphis was heading back down the driveway, Xen waved at the truck, picked up his shoulder bag then took Joel’s hand and led him to the barn without a word.
“That boy is the sweetest thing,” Damon observed quietly.
“He sure is. I can’t understand how his mother could leave him like that.”
“Bitch.”
After getting Xen’s suitcase in the house, we strode casually to the barn, although, at least for myself, I wanted to run there and watch them. They were strange together, but it was a beautiful friendship and one we encouraged, but it didn’t mean we understood it.
They were excitedly staring at the wall while Xen was showing him his sketchpad. “Well, I’ll be! That’s what yer gonna paint there?”
Xen nodded furiously and pointed to the pad then the wall. Damon walked farther into the barn and asked, “Can we see?”
Xen closed the book and shook his head, pointing to the wall, then he turned to Joel beside him, and with his eyes, he pled for Joel to explain, which he did. “Y’all, he wants it to be a surprise for ya.”
Nodding again, Xen smiled sweetly then placed the book on the ground and brought his hands in front of his chest, pressed palm to palm, as if praying.
“No problem, Xen. We’ll wait,” Damon said with a laugh.
I was even more curious but agreed with Damon. “Did Joel tell you that you guys are hanging upstairs in the attic while you’re here?”
Xen nodded once, then came to us and first he kissed my cheek, then he kissed Damon’s.
I don’t know why, but it felt as if we’d been granted a great gift with that small show of affection. Joel was beaming. “He likes y’all. Not like…ya know, like he wants ta fuck ya.”
