Chapter Thirteen #2
I'm just glad that I've found myself forming strong romantic connections with two men who are also doing their best to raise stand-up gentlemen as well.
“Yes, I’d tell you both!” I reply, making sure to emphasize the both part so they know I appreciate their combined concern.
I hop up and unzip Caleb and Cameron’s tent, only to find Pepper curled up and fast asleep on Cam’s pillow. I crawl back out of the tent and zip it back up. Marcus bends so Caleb can hop off, both of them giving me quizzical looks.
“Is he not in there?” Caleb asks me.
“He’s had an exciting day so far,” I explain. “The poor babe is sound asleep.”
Marcus chuckles. “I did give him a run for his money earlier, chasing him around Double C Ranch.”
“Double C Ranch?” Caleb echoes with his hands.
“Your house. Caleb and Cameron. Double C Ranch.”
Caleb’s throat bobs with silent laughter. “Does that make your house Mayberry Mansion? It’s huge for just the three of you…”
Marcus snickers. “More of us are Antonuccis than Mayberrys, I’m afraid, since Lo and I have been financially better off unmarried on paper only. I have always kinda dubbed it the Ant Farm.”
“You’re ridiculous,” I hum, curling my arm around his waist. “I’ve never heard you call it that.”
“Maybe Cameron will let you borrow his hearing aids then?” Marcus teases.
“Doubtful,” Caleb replies. “He’s pretty attached to them. Cam is as low-conflict as it gets, but back when he attended public school, you can imagine the shock I got when I had to come pick him up from the principal’s office because he gave one of his classmates a shiner.”
“Someone tried to take his hearing aids?” Marcus asks.
“Yeah,” Caleb replies. “Stole them while he was showering after gym class. Socked the other kid good too. Didn’t know he had it in him, honestly.
We had to have a good long chat after that about not resorting to violence to settle issues.
But, and this doesn’t leave this conversation, internally I understood why he snapped like that.
The kid had been a bully to Cam for years—referring to him as deaf and dumb—and no amount of chatting with the school administration ever seemed to make it right. ”
I peer up at Marcus. “Don’t get any ideas about telling Brody that’s how to handle things with Ryker…”
“Hey, don’t look at me. I didn’t say a word.”
“You didn’t have to. I, for better or for worse, can read your mind.”
He narrows his eyes at me at the same time I feel his stomach rumble. “What am I thinking now then, Telepathy Tammy?” he asks.
I narrow my eyes right back at him. “You’re thinking about how you’re going to light a campfire so we can get those wieners roasting. You’re also patting yourself on the back for that nickname—which was cringey, by the way.”
He smirks, then turns to Caleb. “She’s goddamn good at that, I’ll tell you what. You better watch yourself.”
“Noted,” Caleb signs back at him, then addresses me. “Any idea what I’m thinking about right now?” he asks, waggling his eyebrows.
I squint at him. “I’m picking up some vibes that you’d like to take me for a walk, show me where the bathhouse is in this campground, and then when I least expect it, you pin me up against a tree and make out with your girlfriend.”
Caleb’s eyes widen, and Marcus cackles. “I tried to warn you, bud. She’s fuckin’ good. You two kids go on and have fun now. I’ll get a fire started. Have her home by dinnertime though.” Marcus winks at Caleb.
Caleb does not, in fact, have me back by dinnertime, but, believe it or not, the blame is all on me.
And no, it wasn’t all pinning me up against trees either, though, that did actually happen.
Come to find out, the bathhouse isn’t terribly far from our campsite, so we continued walking around the campground, just exploring our surroundings and chatting about how to approach the boys with the news tomorrow.
“So, I can call you my girlfriend now? Officially, I mean.” Caleb asks. “I’ve got to say, in my head, I’ve been doing it for a while…”
I giggle. “It doesn’t seem too middle school coded? To call each other boyfriend and girlfriend?”
He whirls on me, fixing me with another very passionate kiss. One that leaves my core, once again, heated and needy. When we break apart, my lips stinging from being kiss-swollen, he asks, “I don’t know. Did that kiss seem very middle school coded to you, girlfriend?”
I shake my head. “Definitely a few grades higher than that, at least.”
He gives me a droll look. “Babe, that had better be post-graduate or I’m not doing my job right. Do I need to try again?”
I smother a smirk. “I got the memo. Hell, my panties got the memo.”
He arches a brow at me. “Little damp, are they?”
I giggle again. “Love that you didn’t say the M-word. Even signing it? Gew.”
“What M-word? Moist? What’s so bad about the word moist? M-O-I-S-T.”
I fake gag. “Oh my god, stop,” I squabble, covering my eyes. “I can’t see you, la la la!”
He wraps me in a hug, and I can feel the laughter in his chest. He presses a kiss in my hair.
Suddenly, on my back, I can feel his hand morph into a sign that I wouldn’t have to be an interpreter to know the meaning of: his ring and middle fingers tucked in with his thumb, index, and pinky splayed out, pressing into my spine.
I pull back and blink at him, stunned. “Was that—Did you…?” I stammer, unable to form a coherent sentence.
“Too soon?” he asks, peering at me nervously. “It’s okay if you don’t feel the same, but—I don’t know, forget it, I guess…”
I shake my head, and he starts to back away, putting even more distance between us. “No, no! I’m not shaking my head at that,” I balk, as he starts to turn to walk away.
He gains a few steps ahead of me before I finally call out, “Please don’t go!”
He turns back, hands in his pockets, looking defeatedly back at me. Gosh, he looks so heartbroken right now. I hate that he totally misunderstood me in my state of shock.
“I—I think I love you too, Caleb. I was just stunned is all. I honestly never thought I’d feel the same way back so quickly.”
He pulls his hands back up. “You feel the same way? Then why—”
I cut him off, grasping his hands, pressing them between mine. “I shook my head because you said it was okay if I didn’t feel the same way. I do feel the same, but you didn’t let me tell you that before you started walking away.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh. You remember back when I accidentally kneed you in the balls? How that felt for you when I got spooked and took off, thinking I’d fucked up everything? We promised each other then that we’d hear each other out, always, right? That road goes both ways, Caleb.”
He nods. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m so sorry.
I just thought—well, I don’t know what I thought.
I just figured that I’d said it too soon.
Like, how can I know already, right? I don’t have an explanation for that—I truly don’t—other than that life is fleeting and when you love someone, you should tell them as much and as often as possible… ”
I wrap my arms around him, sinking into our embrace. “Oh, Caleb. Babe,” I murmur into his shoulder, “I couldn’t agree more. Say it whenever you’d like, once we tell the boys.”
He pulls away, signing to me, “We probably ought to get back. I imagine there won’t be much left if we stay out too much longer.”
I titter. “Probably not, but at least we know Cam’s potato peeling skills for that spud salad weren’t put to use for no reason.”
He smirks. “Spud salad? I swear, you and Marcus are two peas in a pod.”
That makes me smile, hearing us called that again. “With you in the mix, does that make us a three bean salad?”
He chuckles. “I guess, if that’s what the kids these days are calling T-H-R-O-U-P-L-E-S.”
“I may need to go back to school to find out if there is an actual sign for that,” I hum.
Caleb shrugs, holding up his hand and making the “I love you” sign again. He points to his thumb. “Marcus.” Then, we waggles his index finger. “You.” He points to his pinky next. “Me.” Finally, he crunches all his standing fingers a couple of times.
“That’s our new made-up sign for throuple?” I ask him.
He pops his shoulder. “I don’t know about all of them, but it fits for our triad, at least…”
I grin. “I low-key love that.”
He beams. “Good, because I low-key love what we could very well become.”