Chapter Fourteen
Lo and Caleb come strolling back right as I’m finishing off roasting my hot dog over the fire. Well, my third one really. Like the t-shirt I used to wear all the time in high school said: It’s all fun and games until someone loses a wiener. In my case, two have turned into Pepper treats.
I’m about to be this stink weasel’s new best friend. I gotta hand it to the little guy, he is quite comical to watch. Got to beefin’ with a chipmunk earlier and he did this cute little stompy thing where he pounces a couple of times and then scoots back, like he’s a tough guy.
“Well, well. Look who had her back after curfew,” I snark at Caleb as he sits down at the picnic table. “Gonna show me where the bathroom is next? Pin me up against a tree too?” I waggle my eyebrows.
He narrows his hazel eyes at me like he’s pissed, but I see a hint of a grin forming on the corners of his lips. “You have the proper equipment to pull up behind a tree and take a piss.”
“Ohh, you’ve been checking things out, I see. Well, could you at least hold it for me?”
He shakes his head, clearly exasperated with my bullshit, then looks around the campsite.
Lo rolls her eyes at me. “Where are the boys? Not here, I presume, if you’re out here blatantly asking for Caleb to hold your dick for you.”
I chuckle. “They took off for the arcade after supper. I don’t know about Cameron, but you can take Brody out to the woods all you want—he’s like a dog with a bone when it comes to video games. Kid practically needed suspenders to hold his britches up with all the quarters he had in his pockets.”
“Speaking of britches,” Lo chimes in, “Did you see what I packed for you?” She winks.
I snort. “No, but I can only assume it’s no less than a month’s worth of underwear…”
She huffs. “Your favorite nightdress.”
“Nightshirt, you mean,” I correct her.
“Marco, the thing goes down past your knees. It’s a dress.”
I frown. “You know I can’t wear that, the kids are here! People will see me!”
“Relax, it looks like a baseball t-shirt, only longer. Throw some flannel pants on underneath it, if you’re that hung up about it.”
When I glance over at Caleb, he’s clearly pretending he’s tuned us out, but his raised eyebrows are giving him away.
“Shall we get the tie-breaker to settle this debate?” I ask Lauren.
Caleb huffs. “Ah, so that’s all I’m here for, to be your tie-breaker,” he signs.
“At no point did I say that was all you were here for, C,” I remark. “It just so happens that it’s very handy to have a third party here to judge a playful disagreement. One of the benefits of a triad, I suppose. Besides, you guys both planned this trip. If anyone’s a third wheel here, it’s me.”
“And yet I’m the one sleeping alone in my tent tonight, by the looks of it. I take it Cameron decided he was going to bunk with Brody?”
“Yeah. Can’t say that I blame the kid, who wants to snuggle up with their dad at his age? Besides, Brody’s tent is twice as big as yours.”
“Well, I bet if we told the boys about Lauren and me tonight, I would be snuggling up with someone who thinks I’m pretty cool for my age,” he rebuts.
Lauren’s attention flits back and forth between the two of us while we bicker. There’s an amused expression on her face. “What’s that look for?” I ask her.
She snickers. “You always want to call us an old married couple, Marco. You two are certainly gunning for that title right now.”
I grin. “It’s all in good fun. I mean”—I give Caleb an apologetic look—“I hope you know I’m just kidding.”
He shrugs casually, taking a bite of potato salad.
“C, seriously? We always used to mess around like this, and you know I meant no harm by it back then.”
“I know.”
“There’s no competition here. There isn’t a hierarchy. No odd men out. You make Lo happy; that makes me happy. That’s what I’m all about here…”
Lauren leans over the back of my chair and gives me an upside-down kiss on the forehead. “He makes me very happy. He told me he loves me tonight. Just a little bit ago, actually.”
I beam. An earnest smile splits across my face hearing that news. I look up at Caleb to find the brightest shade of red tinging his cheeks. “That’s awesome,” I tell them both. “I’m seriously so ecstatic for you.”
“You don’t think it’s too soon?” he asks me.
I scoff. “You sound like you’re asking me for permission you don’t need.
As you told me before, you two have your thing going on and what I think or feel doesn’t factor into that equation.
What you two have is something just for the two of you, and you are the ones who get to decide how fast is too fast. If you feel it already, I think that’s wonderful. ”
Does that niggle of worry about Lauren and me still tickle my brain a little?
Sure, but I think that’s just human nature, right?
Monogamy has been the gold-standard for relationships for so long, it’s only natural to worry a little about going against what’s been hardwired in place.
One thing is for certain, however, it wasn’t an understatement when I said that if he makes Lo happy, then I’m content.
Suddenly, I hear Lauren’s stomach rumble behind me.
“Here, have my hot dog. I’ve already gorged on enough potato salad anyway.” I pass Lauren the paper plate. “C, you want a wiener too?”
“Sure. Thanks.”
“In your mouth or up my ass?”
He chuckles, the angry looking scar on his throat bobs as he does so quietly. “In a bun with some ketchup and a little relish, actually.”
“Yikes, the relish might sting a little, but you know me. I’ll give anything a try once. Twice, if I like it.” I wink at him.
He fixes me with an unamused expression. “Remind me again why we invited you to come along?”
“Because you can’t resist me,” I reply smugly with a saccharine sweet smile, batting my eyelashes at him. And when I get up to go grab a hot dog from the package for him, I press a sloppy kiss on his cheek just to drive the message home.
What I don’t expect in return is for him to grab my chin and tug me back for another kiss, this one not so playful.
No, this one tells me that he’s tried his damndest to forget all about me—us—and everything we shared, and that the pull to find our way back together again was too hard to resist. And fuck me, if I’m not right there, in that same boat with him.
“Okay,” Lauren sighs, dragging out the O. “Now that is pretty fuckin’ hot. Jesus Christ, find me a friggin’ fan or something…”
I smirk against his lips, and I feel him don a reciprocal grin. When I pull away, he signs, “No. For some fucked up reason, I can’t resist you.”
The boys come back after the sun has already gone down, the three of us adults having watched it descend below the horizon in an array of warm colors in a comfortable quiet.
Pepper has made himself a nest on my lap as I’m kicked back in my camp chair.
And yes, I’m rocking my nightshirt, which both my partners convinced me I looked fine enough in to wear out—even with no flannel pants, since it’s muggy out tonight.
Caleb has a hammock he brought, and he and Lauren were snuggled in it together—all adorable as hell, by the way—until they heard Brody and Cameron’s laughter nearing our site.
Lo scrambles up so quickly, it nearly dumps Caleb out the other side.
I run my fingers through Pepper’s fur and chuckle at the awkward scene of the two of them floundering around, trying not to be discovered.
I get why we shouldn’t confess everything to the kids tonight, I do, but this walking on eggshells is rather cumbersome. In fact, it feels downright wrong to have to hide ourselves from our loved ones. And that’s saying a lot, coming from me, Mr. Conspicuous-Queer.
“Can we have s’mores, Dad?” Brody asks me almost immediately, then his brows raise at the sight of me in my pajamas. “What are you wearing? Is that a dress?”
I roll my eyes. “It’s a nightshirt, Brode.”
“Guys can wear those?” he asks.
Cameron answers before I can. “Guys can wear whatever they want. Clothes don’t have gender assignments. Well, they shouldn't anyway. Even if what your father is wearing were a dress, which I don’t think that is, there’d still be nothing wrong with it.”
“Amen,” I chime in. “Worded that perfectly, Cameron, thank you.”
Brody studies me for a minute before asking, “Aren’t you worried wearing something like that makes you look gay?”
Cameron looks up at Caleb, who gives his son a quick nod, before choosing to answer for me again. Which, thank fuck he does, because there’s suddenly a knot in my throat that rivals the size of the state of Alaska right now.
“Would there be something wrong with that? My dad and Papa are both queer.”
My eyes flick back over to Caleb. Who the hell is Cameron’s papa? I know Caleb is omnisexual—he likes all the wine regardless of the labels; if you happen to be as big of a Schitt’s Creek fan as I am, then you know—so I just assumed he had a baby mama out there that I had no idea about before…
“No,” Brody replies, sounding hesitant. “I mean, like, I don’t have a problem with it.
” He bites his lip, his nervous tell. “I just—know how it looks to other people. When they think you’re gay, I mean.
My friends all think me and Harrison are boyfriends or whatever.
We’re not, but they make fun of us anyway. ”
I relinquish Pepper back to his real owner and pat the chair next to me, inviting Brody to take a seat. “Why didn’t you ever tell your mother and me about this?” I ask him.
“I didn’t want you guys to think I have a crush on him. I didn’t want you to think I was, you know, gay.”
“Son, do your mother and I seem like the type of parents who would make you feel ashamed of that if you did feel that way? Because, if so, I think there’s something I should really tell you…”
I glance up at Lauren to see if she’s on board with me giving our son a little nugget of truth about me, though it literally has my gut tied up in knots to do so. I can see a smile forming on her lips as moisture pools on the bottoms of her eyelids. She nods once.
“What, Dad?”