“I don’t need anyone to take care of me, Dad,” Winter protested. “I’m not like my sisters but you both compare me to them. How many times have you asked me when I’m going to get married and have a bunch of kids like them? I just couldn’t take another year of it so, when Chris offered to help me out, I took him up on it. But then—” she said, not sure she’d be able to get the words out.
“But then, we did start dating,” he said.
“Well, I don’t think I’d call it dating but we didn’t need to go through that part. We’ve known each other our whole lives and we didn’t need to go through the whole, ‘get to know you phase,’ of a relationship. And we—well, we fell in love,” Winter said.
“That’s wonderful,” her mother gushed, she looked over to Luke and back to Winter. “So, you’re dumping Luke to be with Chris?” her mother asked.
Winter rolled her eyes, “We’re together,” Chris said. “All three of us, Mrs. Snow. I’m with Luke and with Winter.” Her poor mother looked about ready to crawl under the coffee table.
“You like men and women?” Winter’s father asked and she couldn’t help her groan.
“Yes Dad,” Winter said. “Chris and Luke are both bisexual.” The gasp from the doorway that led back to the kitchen gave both of her sisters away. “Seriously,” Winter grumbled. “You two are worse now than you were in high school. You might as well come out because we know you’re there now.”
“Is it always like this,” Chris asked. “I don’t remember it being this hectic at your house when we were younger.”
“That’s because you’re an only child and never had to put up with nosey siblings,” Winter griped.
“Well, I’m the oldest of six, so this seems pretty normal to me, man,” Luke offered. “But, they all know I’m bi, so we won’t have to do all of this over there.”
“Do your parents know you’re with a man, Chris?” her mother asked as her two sisters walked into the family room not looking a bit ashamed of being caught spying on them.
“I’m with a man and a woman, Mrs. Snow and yes, they know that I’m bi. It took me a long time to come out to them but Winter helped me through. She told me that I should be who I am because that’s enough—I’m enough.” Cassey “awed” causing Chris to chuckle.
“Don’t you two have a half dozen kids to go take care of?” Winter asked.
“Are you happy, Winter?” her father asked.
Winter couldn’t remember a time when she was happier than she had been in the past twenty-four hours. “This is still so new,” she admitted. “But, I think I am, Dad,” she said.
“Well, that’s good enough for me,” he said. Her dad kissed her cheek and turned to leave the room.
“Where are you going?” her mother asked.
“To finish my dinner,” he said. “It’s getting cold.”
Winter turned to face her mother, “How about you mom?” she asked. “Will you be happy for me too?”
Her mother eyed each man standing on either side of her, “I’ll try, Winter. I won’t pretend to know how this thing between the three of you will work, but I’ll try to keep an open mind.”
Winter kissed her mom and pulled her in for a hug, “Thanks mom,” she whispered.
“Now, can we all eat dinner?” her mom asked. “We also have birthday cake.” Winter looked at Chris and he nodded.
“We can stay but not for too long,” he said. She could see all the heat from his unsaid promises about what he had planned for the three of them tonight and honestly, she couldn’t wait.
“Why are you so nervous about this party, Baby?” Chris asked. He was standing in the bedroom watching her pull on the third dress she brought with her as a “possibility” for the evening. Honestly, she was panicking that nothing looked right when she realized that Chris was right—she was nervous about their birthday party. She loved having joint parties with Chris because most of their guests were there to see him and that let her sit back and enjoy watching everyone having fun—including her hunky best friend.
“Zip me up?” she asked. Luke came out of the bathroom wearing just a towel and looked her up and down.
“I thought you were going with the sapphire blue one?” he questioned, cocking his eyebrow at her. He ran the zipper up her back, his warm hand caressing her skin as he went, causing her to shiver. “Not that I don’t like this one too.”
She looked down her body at the off the shoulder powder pink dress that puffed at the waist like a ball gown would but only hit just under her knees for length. She loved this dress—usually. But tonight, she had no clue what she wanted to wear. Winter dropped her arms to her sides, letting her hands slap at the dress’s material.
“I have nothing to wear,” she grumbled. Chris and Luke both laughed and that was not the reaction she was hoping for. “This isn’t funny guys,” she insisted.
“No,” Chris said, pulling her up against his body. “It’s not. What is bothering you, Baby?” he asked.
She shrugged, “I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe I’m nervous about the three of us going public,” she said. She knew for sure that was her problem—worrying about what everyone else thought about the three of them together. An hour after they left her parent’s place on Christmas, her oldest sister, Cassey, called to tell her that given her new relationship status, she and her husband wouldn’t be able to make her birthday party. She said that Tom wasn’t comfortable with Winter being with two men at once—it wasn’t how things were supposed to be. Winter wanted to call Cassey back and tell her sister that both she and Tom needed to get a fucking life and stay out of hers but Chris and Luke both talked her out of it. They said to give her sister some time to come around but she worried that Cassey never would.
“You know that there are going to be people like Cassey who won’t ever understand what we are doing together. They’ll say things about us—call us names and worse. We just need to decide if it’s worth the trouble,” Luke said. “I feel like you both are worth every ounce of shit we’ll get from people for being together.” Hearing Luke admit that made her heart melt some. He had been a little reserved since they got back to the hotel last night but then they talked everything out and when he and Chris admitted that they still had feelings for each other, they both seemed to relax some. Chris told Luke that he meant what he had said on the phone earlier—that he was the only man he had ever loved and that would never change. Luke told Chris that he felt the same way and all Winter’s sappy ass could seem to do was sit and cry as they admitted their feelings to each other. God, she was a mess when it came to the guys and all these new feelings and emotions she was experiencing. She was falling for Luke too but she had a feeling that had more to do with the boy she remembered and not the man who was standing in front of her now in a towel looking good enough to eat. It was nice that they all had a shared past and it gave them something to work with.