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Lake snuggled deeper into Grady’s chest as they slowly shuffled their way down the line as it moved. He couldn’t remember ever feeling so content with another person before.
He wanted to keep Grady forever. The idea that Grady didn’t want that with him hurt. Lake gripped the part of Grady’s shirt covering his stomach, twisting it.
Grady looked down at him questioningly.
Lake smiled and tugged on his shirt. Grady took the hint and gave him a lingering kiss. Lake pushed away his doubts because they had no place there. Grady had asked him there, had held his hand, kissed him in public.
If that wasn’t a relationship, what was? Grady could see that… right?
Lakepattedthedirtaround the beetroot seeds he’d just buried in the pot. “Like that?” he asked Avery.
“You put it in the soil, right?”
“Yes,” Lake said slowly. Maybe he hadn’t ever really gardened before, but that part was pretty self-explanatory. It even said on the packet how far down. “Why? What did you do with yours?”
Avery’s expression said that Lake definitely didn’t want verbal confirmation of what he thought about that question. Lake shrugged and proudly moved the pot to the row of pots they’d bought from Bunnings earlier.
“Why are we planting them in pots and not in the garden?” Lake asked, realising that he should have asked that before they’d started potting. He looked over to where Ares was happily digging a hole near the garden shed—considering that neither Zach nor Felix were particularly green thumbed, he’d always wondered why they evenhada garden shed, but it was filled with a lot of weird shit and a lawn mower they didn’t use because they hired someone. Now it had an assortment of outside dog stuff. Maybe Ares knew it was in there and was trying to get it. “Ares could help us dig.”
“Don’t encourage him. I don’t know why we have to put them in pots. That’s just what the directions I found online said to do.”
“It’s like the blind leading the blind,” Lake muttered. He squinted at the sun and tried not to wonder about what Grady was doing. Even odds he was either at home plodding around and watching weird TV shows, or he’d gone to work like the workaholic he was.
“Zach is going to help me build a few raised garden beds next weekend,” Avery said. “We’re going to put them in the middle of the yard, so they get plenty of sun.”
Lake nodded. He had no idea whether that was right or not, but Felix had probably spent a lot of time Googling and researching after Avery had told them he wanted to try to grow a vegetable garden. It made sense to do it here since Avery lived in a studio apartment and didn’t have a backyard, and Zach and Felix had a substantial one.
“And,” Avery continued, “the instructions said to pot them first and then transplant them, so it all works out.”
Since Felix was away for the weekend for a training operation with his team, and Zach was doing overtime—fuck that bird to the nine hells—it made sense they weren’t doing anything until next weekend.
“Awfully domestic for a guy that doesn’t want to move in with his partners,” Lake drawled. At this point, Lake bet that Avery was here at Felix and Zach’s more than he was at his own studio apartment.
Avery rolled his eyes. “It’s been like… three months, Lake. I think moving in is a bit extreme.”
“You’ve known them since you were a baby,” Lake pointed out. Lake had met Felix and Zach in kindergarten, and they’d been inseparable ever since, even now, almost thirty years later. Avery had followed them around like a lost lamb for years until he’d moved into his teenage years, and then he’d tried to avoid Zach and Felix like the plague. If only they’d all realised their pining was mutual, they could have gotten their shit together years ago.
“That’s not the point at all,” Avery huffed. “We’ve only been in arelationshipfor a short period of time. I don’t think that those other years count.”
“All right.” Lake wasn’t going to push. He’d helped out when they’d all almost completely fucked it up in December—because he loved Felix and Zach, but sometimes their decisions madezerosense—and this bit was up to them. They’d work it out. Though he didn’t know why there were always so many rules about timelines. Every relationship was different. Who cared if the steps were quicker for some and slower for others?
“Why don’t we talk aboutyourdomestic bliss? I think you’re closer to moving in with your guy than I am. That happened quick.”
Lake shrugged. “So?” It had taken them a little bit to get to the physical stuff, but Lake had fallen for Grady, probably from the moment they’d met. He was fun, and kind, and looked at Lake like hemeantsomething, not like he was the comedic relief in someone else’s story.
They weren’t closer to moving in together, though, because Grady wouldn’t even acknowledge they wereina relationship.
Ares came over to them, his paws covered in dirt. He sniffed some of the pots and then Lake’s fingers before flopping in front of him on his back, his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth and his tail wagging vigorously. Lake gave him a belly scratch.
“Youarealready playing house, though.”
“I am not.”
“Where did you stay last night?”
“This line of questioning is unethical.”
Avery hummed as he dug a little hole in his next pot. Ares jumped up and sniffed it. He pawed the side and tried to jump in. Avery caught him mid jump and rubbed their noses together. Ares gave a little bark and licked Avery’s nose.
