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That had been wonderfully obvious.
Subtle, he was not.
“You leaving had not been my plan either but there had been extenuating circumstances.” The drama queens had been afoot early and needed to be placated so I didn’t get accused of kidnapping. “How did your talk go with Brady?”
I already knew how it had gone but I wanted to hear it from their perspective.
Cashel sighed and seemed fine with letting Gareth do the talking. “They were so weird. Why should it be stressful when we have a date and stay over but it’s not when Brady meets an elf and basically moves in with him?”
Before I could come up with a delicate way to make sure Gareth didn’t still think Jude was an elf, he kept going. “And when does someone go from being a stranger to not a stranger? Is sex part of that? Is Jude living with us or is Brady living with him? And do you know if buying groceries is the threshold for that?”
I loved this building.
And my two cuties.
Leading them over to the table, I kissed Gareth and had him sit down before we dove into any of his fascinating questions. “I don’t think buying groceries is the threshold, but buying furniture might be.”
That seemed to be the most logical answer I could give him, so I went on to the next question. Concise answers would be important or we’d get bogged down before we could handle the whole list. “It sounds like they’re bouncing between both apartments so they don’t have to actually say they’re living together. That’s just semantics, though. They’re definitely living together because Brady has a playroom at Jude’s place.”
That said living together more than groceries.
As we got out the sandwiches, the perfect subs from the place down the street, I tried to make sure I got everything on his list. “Stranger to not a stranger isn’t sex, it’s either a conversation or food.”
That seemed to be a better explanation just in case we broke up and he met someone with fewer scruples than me.
“Dinner or coffee or bringing a neighbor food to introduce yourself. We had dinner and I made you breakfast so we’re well past strangers.” What else?
No, lunch before anything else.
“Let me get us some water.” Cashel seemed slightly lost, so I gave him a smile. “Would you grab the paper towels off the kitchen counter? These sandwiches are always so messy.”
“Sure.” Perking up and probably relieved to escape the discussion, we put it on pause while I got everyone water.
When we were sitting down and my favorite sub had magically appeared, I decided we needed to finish getting the conversation over with so Cashel didn’t stew on it forever. “I think Brady was stressed because with Jude, he knew how safe he felt and his connection with the grumpy elf was so strong that he didn’t question it. He can’t feel your connection with me.”
They got a slight reprieve chewing but they nodded slowly and I could see their brains whirling. Gareth’s logic was always a surprise but it was Cashel who actually spoke up next. “I can see that. Brady is very…well, he sees things his own way and I think this surprised him.”
Understatement of the year.
“Was it just me that surprised him or was it the mix of all three of us?” I hadn’t been able to read Jude well enough to guess, but judging by the confused looks they exchanged, it seemed like I wasn’t the only one who was confused on that point.
“Um…” Cashel finally shrugged. “We don’t know.”
Gareth seemed to think it was his turn because he jumped in again. “We think that part didn’t surprise him, but I’m not sure he’s thought about it yet? You’re distracting him from everything else.”
That probably shouldn’t have been a surprise.
“We’ll just take it one step at a time with him too.” I flashed Cashel a grin when he snickered. “Just conversationally.”
Gareth blinked a few times. “Oh, yeah, we’re not having sex with him.”
Adorable.
Even Cashel’s embarrassed groan was cute.
“Agreed.” Glancing between my boys, I gave them a wink. “I have my hands full with you two.”
“Not yet.” Gareth gave a dramatic pout. “We got cockblocked by a grumpy Daddy before that could happen.”
