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“You guys. Don’t encourage me. I don’t want to get too attached,” I mumble. I’m already too attached.
“Hate to break it to you,” Elina says, a wicked gleam in her eye. “But you two are married.”
“And living together,” Niko adds.
Elina’s eyes widen. “And living together. I don’t think it gets much more attached than that.”
“Argh,” I complain. “What am I going to do?”
Cassandra picks up young Calliope, who unintentionally smacks her in the face. “Be yourself. No holds barred. If this guy is worthy of what you have to offer, he won’t possibly want to let you go.”
My heart thumps painfully in my chest. “And what is it I have to offer?”
Cassandra, my honorary big sister, looks at me with fond exasperation. “Your love, Kipp. If he’s worth it, he’ll have your love.”
Shit.
“I think I need to sit down,” I realize.
Ioanna huffs a laugh, pulling out a chair that I unceremoniously plop into. There’s still onion residue on my hands, and my heart is running like it’s on a racetrack, but all I can think about is the man at home who I maybe, quite possibly have very strong feelings for. Could I love Teddy?
Could he love me?
Sofia sits down next to me. “You said he’s a lawyer in addition to working at the studio?” she asks. The whole Adamos clan is well aware Niko works in porn. None of them even batted an eye that Teddy does the same.
“Yeah,” I say, a smile creeping onto my face as I imagine Teddy dressed in a suit and tie. With spandex on underneath because, hey, it’s my fantasy. I pointedly do not think about Teddy’s brother. “He does pro bono work for LGBTQ+ youth.”
There’s a chorus of awws.
Yeah, I know exactly how they feel.
“He sounds nice,” Sofia says.
“Yeah,” I say. “I think it’s his superpower.”
“Paidiá,” Mamá Adamos says, calling her children back to action. She dumps the onions I diced into a pan, and a sizzle cuts through the air. “Someone still needs to roll out that pita.”
The kitchen returns to a flurry of activity, and Mamá Adamos gives me a wink. For a few minutes, I let myself breathe, surrounded by the familiar swell of a family I can call my own.
When our midday dinner is done and the kitchen has been cleaned and set back to rights, Niko motions for me to follow him. We head outside and take seats on the back deck, letting the sun warm us.
“Calliope will probably be down for another hour,” Niko says. “Do you mind waiting?”
We drove here with Cassandra since it takes about an hour to get to Niko’s mom’s from Vegas. I don’t mind waiting for Calliope to finish her nap before we head out.
“Nah, that’s fine,” I tell him. “Why didn’t Dixon come today?”
Niko kicks his feet up onto the table in front of us. “I thought it would be best for it to be just us. That way, you’d have a little less of an audience.”
“For my dressing down?” I mutter.
He huffs. “No, for talking about your feelings.”
I pick at the hem of my pants. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Kipp.” Niko’s serious tone has me looking his way. “There will always be room for the both of you here, you know that. But Dixon didn’t mind staying home today so you could have our undivided attention. He understands what you’re going through.”
I nod, throat tight. Dixon isn’t close to his family, either. They kicked him out when he was a teen because of his bisexuality. But once he and Niko started dating, the Adamoses swooped Dixon up like he was one of theirs. The same as they did with me.
