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“What do you think his family will say if we all move in together? If they can’t deal with him having a boyfriend, how do you think they’ll feel about me and the kids being added to the mix?”
I chuckled at the visual of Adan’s family hearing that information. “I think they’ll lose their minds.”
“See?” Charlie yelled.
“See what? That his parents’ll be pissed? Who gives a damn, Charlie? You’re not moving in with them. You’re moving in with Adan and me.”
“I bet Adan doesn’t see it that way,” he mumbled.
I flipped him around, looked straight at him, and said, “You’ll lose that bet. Adan loves you.” Charlie’s eyes glistened. “He barely tolerates his parents, but he loves you.”
At first, I thought I’d gotten through to him—his lips had started curling up in a smile and his posture lightened—but then he dipped his chin and rubbed his toe back and forth in front of him.
“Charlie,” I sighed and tried to come up with the right words to reassure him about Adan’s feelings. “I know things were tough between the two of you, but he isn’t the same guy. You have to have seen how he looks at you. I never see his eyes that warm. And the way he talks to you? Not when he’s making his silly sex cracks; the rest of the time? With his voice so soft? How can you not see how he feels?”
“I see it,” he said quietly without looking up.
“Oh.” I furrowed my brow. “Then what’s the problem?” I paused. “Is it me? Are you still worried about how I feel? Because I thought you knew how much I lo—”
“It’s not that.” He put his hand on my chest and finally raised his gaze to meet mine. “I know you love me, Scotty. That’s one thing I never forgot. It’s just….”
“What?”
“Does it bother you?” he whispered.
I tried to understand what he was asking, but I was lost.
“Does what bother me?”
“You’re standing here telling me how much your boyfriend loves me.” He arched his eyebrows. “You gotta know how weird that is.”
I crooked my lips up. “Yeah, it’s a little outside the norm. I’ll give you that.”
“A little outside the norm?” he asked incredulously.
“Okay, fine, more than a little.” I chuckled. “But this isn’t a normal situation. If Adan thought I wanted another guy, he’d probably take a shot at him. And if he told me he had feelings for anybody else on earth, I’d lose my mind and key his car or hem all of his pants two inches higher or—”
“Wait.” Charlie waved his hand in front of me. “What?”
“You know how much he loves that stupid BMW.”
“Not that. I know he’s got a hard-on for his car. I mean the pants. Why would you hem his pants?”
“Because can you imagine how annoying that would be? He’d put them on and they’d be a little off but he wouldn’t know why and then he’d think they shrunk, so he’d try another pair, but they’d be too short too, but not like totally too short, just a little, and then—”
“You know what? Forget I asked. I get your point. You’re not only the jealous type, but also the vindictive type. Who knew? And yet here you are telling me to give him a chance, to move in with you, telling me how much he loves me and how he looks at me and talks to me and—”
“But that’s because it’s you, Charlie, and I love you as much as he does. Do you get that? It’s not him loving you or me loving you or you loving him or you loving me! We all love each other—all three of us. We have for years. Do you get how amazing that is? I mean, what are the odds? So it’s unusual and a little complicated. Fine. Whatever.” I took a deep, calming breath and lowered my voice. “We found a gift of tremendous happiness sitting on our doorstep. We can have everything we ever wanted, all of us. We’d be idiots to toss it away.”
For a long time, Charlie didn’t say anything, but he didn’t look away from me either. Then he sighed and glanced around the huge room. “More than everything,” he mumbled.
“What?”
He looked into my eyes. “You’re serious about us moving in together?”
“Of course we are.” I sighed in relief. “We want you and the kids with us all the time. We want to be a family.”
Charlie took my hand in his and traced the lines on my palm with one finger. “It feels like we already are,” he whispered.
CHARLIE said he wanted a little bit more time to think about moving in together, but we knew he loved the house and, more importantly, we knew he loved us, so we barreled ahead with inspections and financing and figured he’d commit by the time the moving company came to pack him up.
