AllFreeNovel
Share Us
DESK OF A SMUTTY GENIUS
“This is love, you know.” Stacey, now my former boss and forever friend, stacks my books neatly on a shelf. “He’s giving you his desk, house, and cars.”
She just had her daughter last month but insisted on helping, saying she needed a change of scenery. So, two of her husbands, Ford and Mateo, joined her and their daughter for our caravan from Charleston to Atlanta. They turned it into their first family trip.
“I have my car,” I answer, though Beau gave me the keys to his white Mercedes G-Class SUV. “My Kia has four working wheels, too.”
The only time I’m comfortable with having a sugar daddy is when I’m in bed with my men. Those two are welcome to shred my ego with their dirty talk. When it comes to sex, I have no shame.
But when it comes to money, I have pride.
“I get it,” Stacey answers, moving books. “I’ve been there, believe me. You want your freedom, your money, and your dignity. But any man who owns a book by Virginia Wolfe is worth letting him care for you, too.”
“Besides,” Vale adds, “what are you gonna do now that they started training camp? Or when they’re at practice or away games? This is a big house to have all to yourself.”
“I’ll write.” I cut open another box. “They have jobs, and I have mine.”
“Is it something in the Charleston water?” Stacey almost laughs. “You, with your two men? Me, with my three husbands? Luca Mercier and his subs? Silas Van de May and that group of six? I guess birds of a group feather flock together.”
“And fuck together,” Vale jokes.
“Some of us do.” Stacey shrugs. “Some of us don’t, but we protect our network. It’s about more than sex. It’s about support. Do you know the looks I get with my husbands and now our daughter? Lucky for me, I have so much love and friends in my life, and I’m immune to hate.”
I sigh, neatly arranging my favorite books—the ones I’ve read—by trope and color. Don’t judge. I like a rainbow of romance.
“That’s why I need help,” I reveal. “I mean, other than insisting on helping me move and being a badass boss.”
“Ahem.” Vale clears her throat.
“And being the perfect twin,” I add for her sake. “Y’all, I need a beard for Colt.”
“A beard?” Vale scoffs. “That’s so antiquated and phobic.”
“In your world,” I answer. “You’re getting a PhD in Human Sexuality. You live in an ivory tower of progressive pussy and pricks and preferences. But down here, on the gridiron, that’s not reality. Millions are still phobic. Some shit hasn’t changed.”
“You’re right, you’re right.” Vale dusts off her overalls. “Sorry. I get it.”
“So, you need someone you can trust who’ll date Colt?” Stacey’s already stroking her chin, scheming plans. “But someone who’ll respect your triad and won’t get feelings for him?”
“Yeah,” I reply. “Not like tomorrow, but soon. I thought we’d have time, but Amber Kostas won’t shut up about me and Beau and my books. She just outed us as a couple last week, so it’s a matter of time before she drags Colt, too, especially when people find out we’re living together.”
“Ugh,” Vale declares, “women like her drag us back a century. She’s gotta put a woman down to lift herself up. I bet she doesn’t vote. I bet she calls other women ‘bossy’ and uses ‘pussy’ and ‘girl’ as an insult.”
“Probably,” I huff impatiently. “But I don’t have time for her ignorant politics; I need a plan. The clock is ticking.”
“I think I know someone.” Stacey plops down on a chaise, kicking her feet up. New moms are allowed to rest. “She’s a friend’s sister, and she’s been coming into the shop a lot lately. I trust her.”
“You trust her not to fall for Colt?”
But could I blame her?
Long ago, in college, I fell for Beau. Even though he changed all the notifications on my phone and laptop to sound like farts, I know he’s also the one who anonymously left a T-shirt on my dorm bed for my birthday.
“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read.”
He had it made with one of my favorite quotes from my favorite book, To Kill A Mockingbird.
That’s Beau.
