Chapter Fifty-Four
Zinn
Assa invited Zinn over to hang out, since Valentin had to close The Cracked Heart and Wes was working late at the university.
Zinn and Ryde ended up in the corner of the den that doubled as an art studio, staring at the easel.
Zinn had been helping Ryde experiment with mixed media. At first glance, the marker and watercolor piece looked like a simple farm scene, but the cartoonish faces of the animals, along with the neon color palette, made it pop.
“Do you think it’s done, Daddy Z?” Ryde asked.
“That’s one of the hardest questions for an artist to answer. Only you can say.”
“I think it’s done.”
“Alright. We’ll leave it overnight and then you can do the setting spray tomorrow.”
Ryde looked at Assa. “What do you think, Pop?”
Assa glanced up from the floor where he was cheering on Lachie, who was up on his hands and knees, rocking back and forth.
“Obviously, I’m biased, but I think it’s beautiful. Very intense,” Assa said definitively. He stood up to look closer. “What were you thinking about when you made it?”
Ryde started going into detail about the color and the linework as Assa listened.
Zinn sat down next to Lachie, who had abandoned his attempts to crawl and was resting on his belly. He would be asleep soon. Zinn picked him up and put him in the portable crib. With so many family members, the baby was a pro at falling asleep in rooms where other people were talking.
Zinn heard the front door open and shut. A moment later, Wes peeked into the den. For a split second, apprehension invaded his features. He moved past the doorway before Zinn could wave him into the room.
“I think it’s time for you to take a shower and get ready for bed,” Assa said to Ryde. “I’ll be up to read to you in fifteen minutes.”
“Did you see that Wes came home?” Zinn asked after Ryde left. “I think he’s in the kitchen.”
Assa collapsed onto the couch. “Probably decompressing, taking a few minutes now that he’s home. It’s been a bit of a dumpster fire in his department lately. These late-night emergency meetings are killing him.”
“That sucks.”
“It does.” Assa stretched his arm out and tugged Zinn down next to him. “Hey, tell me how Ked’s doing. Bruises go away yet?”
“Sort of. They’re in that gross yellow-green phase now. Meaning his face just looks super dirty.”
“That’s fun—”
“Shit!” Wes exclaimed from the kitchen.
Assa sat up straight. “I’ll go see what’s up.”
Zinn put a hand on his thigh. “No. You promised to read to Ryde. Let me.”
In the kitchen, Zinn found Wes running his palm under cool water in the sink.
“I spilled the kettle water on myself making tea,” he explained gruffly. He turned the sink off and dried his hand with a paper towel.
“Let me see.”
Before Wes could stop him, Zinn grabbed his palm and turned it up to inspect the damage. The skin was red and puffy, but there was no blood or blistering he could see. “It’s probably going to hurt tomorrow, but I think you’ll be okay.”
Wes snatched his hand back. “I’m fine.”
Zinn flinched.
“Sorry,” Wes said. “Rough day.”
“I gathered.” Zinn leaned against the counter. “I saw you when you came in earlier. You looked upset.”
“Nah. Just work stuff.”
“You could have come into the den with us.”
Reaching into the cabinet above the microwave, Wes pulled out a first-aid kit, rummaging around until he found a bandage. “I didn’t want to disturb you.”
“Disturb us?” Zinn raised an eyebrow. “In your own house?”
Wes began wrapping his hand. “No chance you’ll let this go?”
“Highly unlikely.”
Wes sighed. “I guess I just didn’t want to barge in on you and Assa. You and he have your thing, and I don’t want to interfere with that.”
Zinn pushed away from the counter and gently took Wes’s injured hand. “Let me do this.” Slowly, he unwound the too-loose bandage. Pinching the edge against Wes’s wrist, he looped it around his palm, asking softly, “What do you mean interfere?”
Wes’s pulse jumped beneath Zinn’s thumb. “You know,” he mumbled. “How you two are so close. Best friends.”
“You and I are friends too.”
“Yes. But it’s not the same.”
Zinn considered Wes’s words. His first instinct was to dismiss them, but he couldn’t.
Ever since the day he’d met Assa, they’d had a special connection.
Assa understood him on a level no one else could.
Added to that, Zinn was in love with Calder and deeply intertwined with Valentin.
He could see how Wes might feel like he and Zinn shared a lesser bond.
But that couldn’t stand. This was the man who fought for Ryde, who had been such an amazing professor to Asher that his brother decided he should raise Zeller’s son.
“Wes, I’ll concede that I’ve spent less time with you than I have with Assa, and of course our alphas.
” Wes’s head snapped up at the way he’d phrased it.
Our alphas. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t share your day with me.
Or that we’re less connected.” Raising Wes’s hand to his lips, Zinn kissed the bandaged palm. “We’re just getting started.”
Wes eyed him intently. “I had an interesting talk with Calder recently,” he said.
“Did you?”
“Mm-hmm. He had a lot of questions about Valentin coming into my relationship with Assa. About what it’s like to have two partners.”
“What did you tell him?”
“The truth. That once we met Valentin, I couldn’t imagine it any other way. Before him, we were two people who were poly but not committed to anyone long-term. That worked too, but it wasn’t as good as it is now.”
“I think you just answered the question you didn’t ask.”
“What question?”
“Whether my loving Assa means there’s less room for me to love you.” Zinn didn’t hesitate to use the L-word. Wes really needed to hear him.
“Doesn’t it? You guys have been so close from the first.”
“No. A fire that is slow to start can burn just as hot as one that lights up instantaneously.”
Zinn kept his hold on Wes’s palm, ensuring the other man couldn’t step away.
“You think Assa and I are close because we both had shit childhoods. But shared circumstances will only get you so far. What truly bonded us was that we had both reached a place where we could let our guards down. Timing matters, Wes. When I met Valentin, I was so sheltered. He was my entry point into the real world, into love. When I met Calder, he was the exact right person to be there for me. Because of his own past, he had the patience to wait for me to trust again. When I met Assa, he understood everything I’d been through, and he knew immediately that I wasn’t a threat to your family.
That instant acceptance meant everything.
Now, getting to know you better, being able to finally just relax and enjoy the process of slowly learning about someone—you—has been a gift. ”
Zinn loved Valentin and Calder. He had for a long time. And his love for Assa had been immediate. With Wes, Zinn loved him, but in many ways, they were still falling for each other. Unhurriedly and solidly. And he planned to enjoy every moment.
“What does this have to do with me telling Calder about being with Valentin?”
“Because you understand that being with the right person at the right time makes all the difference… Before you met Assa, did you know you were poly?”
“I’d suspected since I was a teenager, but it wasn’t until we’d been dating about a year that I brought it up with him.”
“That’s my point,” Zinn said. “You didn’t speak your truth until you met the person who made you feel safe. And I’m betting the reason you never added a permanent partner to your relationship before Valentin is because nothing felt right.”
“No. Not until him.”
“Exactly. Right person. Right time. He was the one who made you believe you could take that next step. And I understand. Valentin’s pretty irresistible,” Zinn teased.
Wes cracked a smile. “You’re pretty irresistible, too. Not many omegas would have this conversation with their former lover’s partner.”
Zinn scoffed. “We are all exactly where we are meant to be. We give each other something we need to move forward—together.” Dropping Wes’s hand, he reached out and touched his hair.
“Assa and I might be best friends, but you and I are something too. Something just the two of us. And if you’d come into the den earlier, we would have been something just the three of us. Understand?”
Wes sucked in his lips. “I think so.” He stepped closer.
Zinn held his ground, squaring his shoulders.
Wes inched forward until their chests touched. The refrigerator buzzed, steady and low, but Zinn barely heard it above the whooshing in his ears.
“So, you and I are that slow-to-start fire?” Wes rasped.
Zinn’s breath caught in his throat. He nodded tightly.
Wes nosed into Zinn’s neck, above his scent gland. “It’s sugar maple, you said?”
Blood thrummed in Zinn’s veins. Fuck! Wes’s voice was as husky as an alpha’s.
“Yes,” he whispered, his body vibrating.
Wes angled his head up to fix their gazes together. His pupils were blown. “I knew it would be something sweet.”
A rush of lust swept through Zinn, powerful enough to make his knees buckle. He squeezed his eyelids shut against the onslaught.
Opening his eyes, he was stunned to find himself staring at Assa, who had appeared in the kitchen.
“Zinn was just reminding me that his scent is sugar maple,” Wes said, continuing to crowd Zinn against the counter.
Assa’s tongue snaked out to wet his lower lip.
Wes nosed into Zinn’s neck again. A few seconds later, Assa did the same thing on the other side.
Having both betas nuzzling his skin, Zinn worried he might pass out. Wes’s bandaged hand rested on one side of his waist, Assa’s soft palm on the other. He felt the gentle press of Assa’s lips trailing toward his shoulder before Wes touched Assa’s arm.
They pulled back.
“Soon,” Wes said, his breath coming in pants. He tapped his forehead to Assa’s and then Zinn’s.
“Yes,” Assa murmured.
Zinn understood. He nodded. “It needs to be all of us, together.”