Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
I wasn’t so sure about that but contradicting Jude seemed rude. Bates seemed to be on the same page because he was coughing and looking down at his plate like the last few bites of his meal was suddenly very interesting.
I liked how he was letting Cash decide what he was comfortable with, but I was pretty sure we needed to work on Bates’s poker face a bit more.
“It’s fine.” Cash sat straighter and shot Bates a look that I thought meant he should stop fighting off the giggles and behave.
It didn’t help Bates’s giggles at all, but aside from rolling his eyes, Cash seemed to understand how hard it was. “I don’t need two boyfriends to be happy in general. I fell in love with Bates and he helped me realize that I’d already loved Gareth like a boyfriend. We just hadn’t seen each other that way, and I think we need Bates to balance us out.”
Oh, he’d done a good job of explaining how he was feeling without actually mentioning any of the interesting bits. Bates’s lips were pinched together making me think he’d noticed that too, but he managed not to laugh or sigh, unlike Jude.
He was such a tattletale.
“Wait.” Brady frowned, looking around the table again. “What am I missing?”
A lot.
“I don’t know but it felt like he said a lot of nothing.” Jude shrugged. “It’s probably just me being suspicious. Sorry.”
Well, that was kind of polite?
Cash must’ve been thinking something along the same lines because he sighed. “I’m really not used to talking about myself like this and it has nothing to do with family or not. I’m just…I’ve never come out about anything.”
He was right.
Most kids at school had assumed he was gay from pretty young, so he’d just never denied it. We might’ve technically come out when we’d told his parents we were gay but that’d been about it. The moms had only cared because they’d been planning on us marrying sisters so we could have some kind of joint wedding.
I’d never bothered to ask if they’d already picked out the girls, but looking back, that might’ve been kind of odd.
Brady frowned, staring right at Cash. “I’m not supposed to make anyone come out about anything they’re not ready to. That’s why I can’t ask questions.”
Was that a way to tell Cash he had to volunteer his interesting bits?
Brady was really smart sometimes…and really confusing other times.
“Is he manipulating us or being honest?” I figured I might as well ask since I couldn’t figure it out.
Bates started coughing again as Cash sighed. “Both.”
Oh, well that just made things more interesting.
“I’m a switch. I like dominating Gareth but I like submitting to Bates.” Cash waited for that to sink in and Brady’s eyes to light up. “I don’t need both kinds of relationships to be in love, but I like having both of them in my life. It makes me feel good to know that no matter how I’m feeling, one of my partners can really understand what I need.”
For some reason, Cash turned to me with a questioning look and just waited.
What the fuck was I supposed to be doing?
“Sir?” I decided to let Bates translate and now it was Cash’s turn to fight off the giggles.
“Cash wants to know if he can talk about his relationship with you as he’s describing his dominant side.” Bates quickly translated the expression, so it’d probably been obvious to everyone else, but I didn’t mind being confused.
“Okay, yeah, you can talk about me.” It was just Brady and Jude…and well, Brady was family and everyone Brady knew…okay, maybe I could see why Cash thought he should ask about it.
Brady might not ask questions but he wasn’t really good at keeping things to himself.
“Thank you.” Cash reached under the table and squeezed my leg.
“I’m learning to be Gareth’s Handler. For his pup side, I mean. We’re still figuring that part out, but I like taking care of him.” Cash seemed to think that was everything because he finally leaned back in his chair and waited.
“That makes sense.” Brady nodded like that cleared up everything before turning to me. “Does your pup want to play with me? Big or little. Either would be fine. I like dogs.”
“That sounds like fun.” Little Brady would be fun to play with. “I think I’d like to play with you when you’re little and I’ll make sure to wear shorts.”
Jude’s eyes went wide for some reason.
Brady shrugged. “My little side wouldn’t care about you being covered, but thank you for wearing clothes. I saw pups online and they like wagging their tails.”
“Yeah, tails are fun.” I thought I was just agreeing with something obvious but Jude’s mouth was hanging open. “Bates said we needed to talk about who could see my naked pup side, but I’m not sure your Daddy wants you to see my penis.”