“Hell yeah.”
We drink our beers, enjoying the hot June weather in our backyard. Since it’s summer, we get to enjoy ourselves a bit. I have my obligations for summer training and press meets for the Arctic Lions, but my schedule won’t get intense for a few more months. Mia enrolled in the local university to finish her undergraduate degree, already taking some summer classes. Ashton says he’s not doing shit until the fall, but he’s also enrolled, for his master’s. Drew easily got picked up as the head hockey coach at the high school one town over. Everything just fell into place when I got drafted. And, like they vowed, they each picked up their lives to come with me.
“She looks hot, yeah?” I say, setting my beer down.
“Very hot. What kind of boyfriends would we be if we didn’t cool her off?”
We share a mischievous look as we abandon our beers to sneak up on our girl. Her giant sunglasses take up half her face and she has a serene smile on her face. Not for long. Drew prowls up behind her while I head for her feet. Like we’ve practiced it a thousand times, he grabs her hands while I grab her feet.
“Ashton!” she shrieks. “Help!
Laughing, Drew and I pick her up from her lawn chair, carrying her out to the edge of the pool.
“Do not throw me in, assholes!” she bellows. “I just dried my hair like thirty minutes ago!”
“Looks like you’re gonna have to dry it again, MiMi,” Ashton says to her, cracking up. “Toss my girl here!”
“Don’t encourage them!” Her words are drowned out by a scream when we toss her into the pool. She sinks and then comes up thrashing, her dark hair plastered to her face. “Assholes!”
Drew dives in and I cannonball right next to her to splash her again. She tries to kick me under the water to no avail. I wrap my arms around her waist, popping out of the water to grin up at her.
“Love you, babe,” I say, flashing her my most innocent smile. “I was trying to cool you off.”
She rolls her eyes but threads her fingers in my hair to press a kiss to my lips. “Love you too.”
Her legs wrap around my waist as I carry her into the deep end where Drew is playfully grinding into Ashton from behind. They’re both laughing and then it ends with them trying to drown each other.
“Why does Drew even try when we’re in the water?” Mia asks. “It’s like a rubber duck trying to play chicken with a shark. Ashton can hold his breath longer than the three of us combined.”
Sure enough, it ends with Drew giving up, sputtering out water. Once they’re done horsing around, Mia swims over to Drew to baby him. I grab the front of Ashton’s swim trunks, hauling him to me for a kiss. We’re in a heated battle of tongues when a basketball lands in the water beside us with a splash.
Ashton pulls away from our kiss to grab the ball. “I already told you two,” he hollers at our neighbor Eric. “It’s a foursome, not a sixsome. Sixsomes don’t exist.”
Eric climbs over the fence, shaking his head. “Just because I’m gay doesn’t mean I’m trying to get my husband to join your orgy shit.”
Ashton laughs and throws the ball at him. “Tell Byron that. I see the way he checks out my boyfriend’s ass.” He shrugs. “Both of them, in fact.”
“You’re a dick. And here I thought the bigoted assholes who lived here before were a problem.”
“Where is Byron anyway?” Mia asks. “We bought enough steaks for you guys to come to dinner.”
“He’s still at the office, but he’ll be home soon.” Eric sits down on one of the loungers. “I pulled out some ground turkey for spaghetti, but Byron isn’t as sold on the diet as I am. He’ll probably race me over here for steak. I need to grab a shower. When are you cooking?”
“We’ll start the grill in about an hour. Seven?” I say, pulling Ashton to me and kissing the side of his neck. “You know we’re shit when it comes to cooking. Maybe bring a salad or something.”
Eric laughs. “I can do that.”
“Any more problems out of your other neighbor?” Drew asks, his tone growing serious.
“Nah, she’s outnumbered now.” He chuckles. “At least we were a normal gay couple ‘bringing down the value of the neighborhood.’ The four of you showed up a couple of weeks ago and really stirred shit up.”
“I told Ms. Greenwood if she has a problem with gays, she should move to… oh, that’s right. Everywhere she goes, there will be gay people.” Ashton shrugs. “She didn’t like that.”
“At least she’s leaving us alone,” Eric says. “The only bright side of your riff-raff assess moving in next door.”
“You love us,” Mia teases. “Your dog does at least.”
“Cinnamon loves anyone who feeds her scraps. Thanks to you, little girl, she shit all over Byron’s laptop bag.” He shakes his head, but he’s smiling. “You guys are all right, I guess. I just use you for a distraction to get Ms. Greenwood off my nutsack and Byron uses you for the steak. We’re hardly friends, definitely not love, and we’ll never be an addition to your fucked-up orgy situation.”
We all laugh. Eric is gruff, but he’s funny. And as much as he likes to give us shit, he’s a cool guy who really is thankful we moved in next door. The neighborhood we got our house in is full of older people who aren’t as welcoming to what they don’t consider traditional relationships. But, since we’re us, we moved right in, not hiding a damn thing. When Eric and Byron walked over, we were tense and ready for battle, but they seemed relieved to finally have potential friends in the neighborhood.
“We only put up with you because Byron is cool as hell,” Ashton taunts. “You’re just the eye candy.”
Eric flips him off before tossing his basketball back over the fence. “See you assholes at seven.”
Once he climbs over the fence, we go back to horsing around. Mia tries to escape, but we never let her. Living with three guys must be hard. She doesn’t complain too much.
“You’re tipsy,” I tease, smacking Mia’s ass as I carry her down the hall to our bedroom. “When you’re tipsy you always want anal. You just weren’t supposed to announce that over dinner.”
She cackles. “Shouldn’t have kept making me margaritas. It’s all your fault.”
I carry her into our bathroom that has a massive shower. Our needs for a house were different than most homebuyers. We needed a huge master bedroom and bath. The guest rooms could be small for our offices, but we all wanted to share a bedroom. Once I get the water started, I strip Mia down for a quick shower since she practically made out with Cinnamon all night. I was glad when they finally left and took that yapping dog home.
“You always offer to babysit drunk me to get out of cleaning the kitchen,” she tattles as I set her down under the hot spray of the water.
“And you always get drunk so you don’t have to do the dishes,” I tease back.
Her lips curl into a wicked grin that has me kissing her pretty mouth. We manage to get little washing done, but get hot and bothered. I turn off the water and towel us down before guiding her to our giant bed.