admits. He forces a smile and then looks sidelong at me. “I’ve got to stay on top of screening new tenants, and I’ve gotta make sure the new landscaper and the maintenance guy are doing their jobs. The laundry room still needs to be painted. Oh, and there was that issue with the trash collectors skipping us last week...”
He keeps listing off more and more things, and I’m pretty sure the majority of them are things he’s just making up off the top of his head. The ones that are real will likely only take a single five-minute phone call each.
“What’s really bothering you?” I ask, interrupting his ever-growing list. “Because it’s none of the things you just listed.”
Candor looks at me in confusion and then back to Leon. “Whatever’s wrong, we can figure it out.”
Leon gently pulls his hands away from Candor and backs away. He shakes his head as he looks between the two of us. “I just...I’ve been thinking a lot lately.” He sighs as he leans against the edge of the dining room table. “The three of us...we’re not exactly a typical relationship.”
Candor and I exchange looks. The other alpha’s confusion is clearly growing by the second. He’s not the only one who’s confused. Up until a few minutes ago, I thought Leon was perfectly happy with our arrangement.
“People won’t understand if they find out, will they?” Leon says quietly. “Because of Lucius and me.” Leon chews his lip and looks away from us. “I don’t want to lose either of you. I don’t want what we have to go away. But if I’m pregnant and we have a baby, how do we handle that without everyone finding out?”
“We’ll just tell them Candor is the father,” I say with a shrug. “No one else has to know the truth if we don’t want them to.”
“Lucius...” Candor clutches the arm of his wheelchair with a white knuckled hand.
“I’m serious.” I look at both of them. “I don’t care if everyone thinks I’m just a doting older brother who’s married to my work. The rest of the world can think whatever they want about us. All that matters to me is that we’re together, and we raise our baby together.”
As I speak, my heart tightens. The words “our baby” fill me with an inexplicable sense of joy. I know I can endure anything as long as I can come home to Leon and Candor every night.
“In that case, I suppose we should probably make our arrangement a little more official...” Leon says, looking directly at me. “It’s kinda hard to have impromptu threesomes when one of us lives three units away.”
“He’s right.” I swing my gaze to meet Candor’s. “You’re living too far away right now.”
Candor grins but I can see the insecurity in his eyes. “I don’t know. I’m pretty sure you guys are gonna get tired of bumping into my chair or tripping over my things. I have a lot of stuff, after all.”
Leon laughs, his eyes shining. “You’ve turned spartan living into an art form,” he says as he ducks his head down and gives Candor a peck on the lips. “I’m sure you’re more likely to get tired of us. We’re always bickering.”
“I could never get tired of either of you. What I’m tired of is always waking up alone, in an empty apartment, with only my radio for company.” Candor’s face grows solemn.
“Starting tonight, you’ll never sleep in an empty bed again.” I bend down and rest my forehead against his.
Leon leans in gently to join us. We stay like that for a while, just enjoying the chance to bask in each other’s presence.
“Crap!” Leon gasps as the ear-splitting scream of the smoke alarm cuts through our peace. A distinctly burnt smell wafts out of the kitchen.
“Oops.” Candor chuckles when Leon darts away and disappears into the kitchen.
There’s a permanent smile etched on my face as I locate the smoke alarm and find the button to silence its cries. Nothing can ruin the way I feel right now.
“I’m such an idiot.” Leon’s voice drifts out of the kitchen. “A smart person would’ve remembered to turn off the wok, but noooooo...” He continues to grumble indistinctly, his words drowned out by the sound of metallic scraping.
Candor catches my eye and gestures to the kitchen, then shrugs as if asking what to do.
“Why don’t we order some takeout?” I suggest, loud enough for Leon to hear. “So we can celebrate Candor’s good news.”
Leon peeks his