I didn’t think I’d felt a heavier silence in a cemetery.
“So,” Andy said, breaking the seal on the quiet, “do you still think it’s funny, Austin?”
“Shut the fuck up, Andrew,” I said, hurling the words in his direction. “Y’all at least have the benefit of having a head start on this information.”
“First of all, don’t talk to him like that,” Aaron said, his voice dangerously calm. “Secondly, that head start was fifteen minutes, so don’t start in with that whole ‘woe is me’ thing because I found out before you that our baby brothers have some polyamorous threesome with the girl I slept with.”
I turned to face Adam and Andy, my eyes feeling as wide as horseshoes. “What. The. Fuck. Guys.”
You could practically hear the period between each word.
“Don’t judge what you don’t understand,” Andy snapped.
“Of course, you would defend any way to get your needs met,” I said, my voice taking on an acid tone. “Still holding onto the past, aren’t we, Andy?”
“You’re one to talk.” Andy hurled the words back at me.
I ignored the nausea rising in me at the way that my brothers and I were speaking to each other, but I couldn’t stop. It was like I couldn’t hold the words back.
Strong hands pulled me around, and suddenly, I was facing Aaron, who was looking at me with a face like thunder. “Stop it, Austin.”
“And you of all people are going to lecture me on how I’m going to talk to them, after I just heard you screaming your head off from out there?” I said, another dry laugh coming out like a cough.
“Stop it.”
The firm voice came from Adam, of all people. He stepped forward, this time putting himself in the middle of the group.
“Stop it. All of you.” He looked around at us, his face stony. “None of us knew. Andy and I found out how we each felt by accident, and things happened from there. There was no reason for us to tell each other until it came up naturally. Lucy was the only one who knew what she was doing with all of us.”
He looked into each of our faces, a hint of more fiery anger piercing the icy facade that had dropped over him.
“There’s no reason for us to be pissed at each other. We should be pissed at Lucy.”
28
LUCY
My phone buzzed as I sat at my desk the next day, entering chart information into the clinic computer.
I didn’t hate paperwork as much as most vets. There were some days when I found it a little bit soothing. But on days like today, when my charts had backed up to an alarming degree because I’d been on so many house calls over the last week that I’d barely had a second to sit at my desk in my own office, the thought of my to-do list got me down.
Knowing how I felt about the mountain of work I had ahead of me, I decided not to check my text until I’d finished the chart I was currently working on.
When I finally finished the chart and uploaded it to the family drive, I turned my phone over and saw that the text banner on the front had Andy’s name on it. I smiled at the sight of his name, biting down on my lip slightly as I remembered everything that we’d done during that first night together.
Since then, our texts to each other had been filled with jokes and loving comments. The two of us had a thread with Adam where we giggled and laughed like kids, but I still maintained my private conversations with each one of them. They knew, and when we’d woken up after our first night together, we’d all eaten breakfast and chatted about some ground rules, stating that good communication was a must and that we had to be able to tell each other the truth about what we were thinking and feeling.
After, I felt wracked with guilt over not having told them about their older brothers, but I really had no clue how I was going to open up that can of worms right now. I knew how very ironic it was that we were making honesty a cornerstone of our relationship, and I couldn’t be honest about what I’d done.
I pressed my thumb to Andy’s text, feeling my heart flutter just a little and opened the chat.
Hey, there. Watcha up to tonight?
I smiled, thinking about how I might answer. As much fun as that first night with him and Adam had been, I was excited to have some time with them one on one, where I could focus all of my attention on each of them individually.
Well, originally, I was just going to binge Netflix and eat popcorn in bed, unless you have a better plan. ;)