Rhythm of Three (Rule of Three) (5 page)

He gave her a tight-lipped look. “Yeah, yeah,” he said. Then he smiled. “Thanks for reminding me of that.”

“Anyway. She also said it was hard to be my sister because I’m so perfect.”

“Sweetheart,” Chris said, “you’re not perfect either.”

Kassidy laughed. “I know that! But the whole conversation just showed me that what other people see isn’t necessarily the reality.
I
was jealous of
her
…for how much fun she always had, all the boyfriends she had, how easy it was for her to make friends. How she didn’t worry about being good or perfect.

“It made me wonder why we compare ourselves to others. We should be happy with what we’ve got. I always thought she was deriding our relationship, that she thought it was boring that we were so settled down with each other, that we both have steady, corporate jobs. But it turns out she was jealous of that. Then I felt bad that I never knew that, and maybe sometimes when I was defending us to her, I was really just rubbing her nose in it all. But she kind of did the same. I don’t know if she knew I was jealous of her, but sometimes it felt like she was showing off how bad she could be and making me feel like a loser good girl.”

“Wow,” Dag said. “Sibling rivalry lasts right into adulthood.”

“I guess it does,” Kassidy admitted. “I feel kind of ashamed of that. Jeez, we’re adults.”

“I get it though,” Dag said slowly. “Not the sibling rivalry, but I get how she felt. I lived like that too. Got into trouble, got a reputation, got pissed because nobody could see past that, so I spent my life living up to my own reputation.”

Kassidy lifted a hand and touched his whisker-stubbled cheek. “Yeah,” she said softly. “Like that. Anyway, it opened my eyes a bit. I’m going to talk to Hailey and maybe we can be better friends.”

“That’s great, sweetheart,” Chris said. “But what about her…um…porn career?”

Ugh. Kassidy’s stomach tightened. “Yeah. What about that? Well. I guess I should give her the same respect she gave me and not judge her for doing it. I don’t know all her reasons for doing it and maybe I never will understand it, but it’s her life.”

“Uh-huh.” Dag shifted closer. “That’s true.”

“I only worry about my parents,” Kassidy whispered. “I think it might really hurt them if they found out.”

“I get that,” Dag said. “But you can’t take that on yourself, right? If they find out—and it won’t be from you—that’ll be between them and Hailey.”

“True. But still…it would be awful.”

“Maybe they’d have the same attitude as you do,” Chris suggested. “And not judge her.”

Kassidy snorted. “Well, maybe. It took some thinking for me to get to this point though. You’re right, Dag. I’ll deal with that if it happens. In the meantime, I’m going to try to work on being a better friend and sister to Hailey.”

“We’re with you, babe. You know that,” Dag murmured.

“Yeah. And thank you. I called Hailey about the party and to let her know that things worked out for us. She’s working Friday night, but we’re going to have lunch on Saturday, she wants to hear about what happened and what’s going on with us.” She paused. “Okay, Chris, your turn.”

They had to prompt him and pull the details out of him, about what he’d alluded to earlier—why he’d never realized his feelings for Dag—and Kassidy was horrified to hear about his dad beating the crap out of him because he’d caught him fooling around with another boy in some kind of youthful exploration. She didn’t know his parents well, since they lived so far away and they’d only met a few times, but she lost a bunch of respect for Mr. Manness on hearing that.

“I don’t think I’m gay,” Chris finally concluded. “I know you thought I was homophobic, Kass, but I don’t think I’m that either.”

“I never thought that,” she protested, pushing his hair off his forehead.

“Yeah you did.”

“No I didn’t. Seriously! I just wondered why you weren’t completely comfortable around Steve and Ryan.” Her gay friend from high school and his partner.

“I was comfortable with them!”

“Uh…no. You weren’t.”

Chris frowned. “I was fine with them.”

“You didn’t even realize it,” she said. “It’s okay, Chris.”

He looked like he didn’t believe her, still frowning. “Huh. Anyway. I wasn’t attracted to other men. I love women.”

“Ahem.” Kassidy lifted her eyebrows.

Chris and Dag both laughed.

“Yeah, I mean in the past. Now just one woman. But there was always something between you and me, Dag…something I didn’t want to acknowledge or analyze. And, honestly, I had no idea how you felt. Some kind of deep denial bullshit, I guess.” He shook his head. “Don’t know how else to make sense of it.”

“Maybe you don’t have to make sense of it,” Dag suggested. “Maybe you just accept it and go with it.”

Kassidy looked at Dag and nodded, then looked at Chris, who nodded slowly too. “Yeah,” he said. “Okay.”

“Good advice for all of us,” she murmured. “If I think too much about this, I could start freaking out. And…we don’t need to label it, whatever you guys are. Gay. Bi. Whatever. Hailey said she knows people who are attracted to certain people and it doesn’t matter if they’re male or female, there’s just some kind of chemistry between them.”

“Yeah,” Dag said slowly. “That’s it. Totally.” He paused. “What else is on the agenda?”

Chris smiled and Kassidy giggled and gave him a little nudge with her head at Dag’s teasing question. “The party Friday night,” she said. “All our friends are coming over. Obviously we have to tell them Dag’s living here with us. Is that how we leave it?”

They all exchanged glances.

“You know I don’t give a shit what people think,” Dag said quietly. “But I’ll go with whatever you two want.”

Chris swallowed. “I’m not sure I’m ready to make a big announcement.”

“I get that, man. I do.”

Kassidy nodded. “Me too. If people suspect something between Dag and me, whatever.” She waved a hand. “I vote for letting things settle and develop between us before we go public.”

“Done,” Dag said immediately.

She let out a long breath. There were going to be many more moments like this. They all knew it. But at least they were all together in it, and with her two guys at her back, she felt like she could handle pretty much anything.

Thursday night, Dag and Kassidy took Chris out for dinner for his birthday, just the three of them, and then went home to give him his gifts. They just got home when Kassidy’s parents called to wish Chris a happy birthday, which was nice. Mom was all apologetic about not getting Chris’s gift to him, and he assured her that she had enough on her plate, recovering from the car accident. Her doctor’s appointment that week had been good news, and she was feeling better and better.

Then Chris’s parents called to wish him a happy birthday. Dag and Kassidy listened to him chat with them. They knew he wasn’t going to say anything to them about their living arrangement, obviously, and since they lived in Miami it was unlikely they’d be visiting any time soon to see for themselves.

Except they were wrong.

Chris got a funny look on his face. “Seriously?” he said. “When?”

He listened. Dag and Kassidy exchanged glances.

“No, that’s great, sure. Uh…with us?” His eyes went wide and now he looked at both of them with a somewhat panicked expression. “Uh…” Clearly he had no idea what to say.

Kassidy read into this that his parents wanted to come visit. Holy shit.

“A hotel might be nice too,” he said. “Somewhere nice…downtown… Mom likes to shop…” Then he closed his eyes. “Yeah. Okay. Great. Let me know when your flight gets in.”

He hung up and slumped back into the couch. “Jesus fucking Christ. They’re coming to visit.”

Dag’s eyes met Kassidy’s again. Uh…
yeah
. Jesus fucking Christ was right.

“They want to stay with us,” she guessed.

“Yep. Want to see the new condo. I told them we had three bedrooms so they think there’s lots of room.”

“There is,” Dag said quietly. He laid a hand on Chris’s shoulder. “I’ll leave.”

“Fuck no.”

“When are they coming?” Kassidy asked.

“Next weekend.”

“Okay.” She sucked in a breath and smiled. “We’ve got lots of time to figure it out. Now, here’s your present from me.” She had no idea what they were going to do about this, but they’d deal with it.

She hadn’t actually bought Chris his gift, but gave him a picture of it inside a birthday card—the office furniture he wanted from IKEA. They’d looked at it for the room that was going to be his office, but hadn’t gotten around to buying it.

He leaned over to kiss her, eyes warm. He cupped her jaw. “Thanks, sweetheart.”

“We can go pick it up this weekend,” she said. “And then you two men can spend the rest of the weekend building it.”

Chris grinned. He didn’t mind doing stuff like that.

“Build IKEA furniture?” Dag asked. He sat on the other side of Chris on their couch, holding a glass of expensive Shiraz he’d picked up that day. “How domesticated.”

“Deal with it, buddy,” Chris muttered. “You
are
becoming domesticated.”

Dag grinned.

Then Chris opened Dag’s present, a small wrapped box.

The gift brought tears to Kassidy’s eyes, and Dag and Chris almost too. It was a pendant—a short silver chain in a chunky interlocking style with a silver charm on it, round, with a swirling design. There was a little card about the designer which said the charm was called Trilogy, to signify the intertwining of the heart, mind and spirit.

“But I think it symbolizes the intertwining of
three
hearts, minds and spirits,” Dag explained, watching Chris stare at the gift.

Oh my God.
Oh my God.
Her heart squeezed so hard it hurt, stealing her breath. Chris kept his head bent, no doubt to hide the emotions on his face, and nodded. She laid a hand on his.

“Too soon?” Dag asked, not getting any response. “No worries if it is. And I know you don’t wear a lot of jewelry, so, you know, it’s cool if you don’t wear it.”

She looked at Dag and blinked hard at the moisture gathering in her eyes. He leaned back in the corner of the couch in a relaxed pose, holding his glass of red wine, but the faint tightness at the corners of his eyes and mouth revealed his tension.

She swallowed through a constricted throat. It was true, Chris didn’t wear a lot of jewelry. But this was sturdy and masculine and beautiful. And meaningful.

Chris cleared his throat and picked it up from the glossy black box it sat in. He unfastened it and lifted it around his neck. It took a few seconds to get the clasp done up again and Kassidy shifted behind him to help.

“There,” she whispered.

He laid his fingers flat over the charm and met Dag’s eyes. “It’s great,” he said, voice gruff. “Thanks.”

The skin around Dag’s eyes softened and the corners of his mouth lifted. “You’re welcome.”

And then Chris leaned over and kissed Dag, just as he’d kissed Kassidy in thanks for her gift.

She swallowed again, but now smiling. “Okay,” she said. “Enough smoochy stuff. Now we have something really important to discuss.”

The two guys looked at her.

“What?” Chris asked.

“Everything okay, babe?” Dag added.

“No, it is not. You all are not living in a frat house. If I see one more gob of toothpaste or beard whisker in the sink, I’m gonna lose my shit. Tomorrow, we’re going to do a tutorial on how to properly clean the sink.”

Dag grinned. “I’ll watch your tutorial,” he said, “if you promise to do it naked.”

Kassidy giggled, losing her stern attitude. “Sure, I’ll do it naked,” she agreed. “If it’ll help to do it naked, I’ll even show you how to change the toilet paper roll. It’s not difficult.” She patted Dag’s arm. “You can do it.”

The next night they had the party. Dag took care of almost everything. Kassidy had to do some cleaning though, because they’d already established that Chris and Dag’s standards when it came to cleanliness in the kitchen and bathrooms weren’t at quite the same level as hers.

Anyway, Dag had arranged an extremely cool cocktail party with hot and cold finger foods delivered, cases of booze arranged by the bartender, who brought his own portable bar, glasses and garnishes like lemon and lime slices and celery sticks. He was a smiley, charming guy who said he couldn’t make
every
drink someone might order, but pretty damn close. He was so friendly and everyone loved him so much it felt like he was one of their friends, and his tip bowl was overflowing by the end of the evening, which was as it should be.

Dag even arranged the music, his iPod hooked up to their speakers, playing some recognizable popular songs, and some less familiar but great indie songs. The only thing he didn’t do was decorate, but, really, who needed a bunch of cheesy
BIG 3-0
decorations?

Their friends provided enough of that with the cards and gifts they brought, like the one that said Chris wasn’t
30
he was
XXX
. Everyone laughed, but Chris and Dag and Kassidy exchanged insider glances of amusement at that one. Jeff and Sarah gave him some golf balls that said
New Balls for an Old Body
, and Cole and Tyra had wrapped up a big package of Depends for him. His buddy Matt gave him a bottle of what was supposed to be Viagra, which brought forth another round of hilarity.