A long breath flowed out while I considered. “I wouldn’t say I knew until that night we talked, after you told Avery you loved him.” My palm followed the angles and curves of the athletic body warm against my side, more precious to me now than ever. “But realistically, I’ve probably been falling for you since the first time you came over. Not because of the sex, but before that — the way you were with Avery. You were so intentional about identifying and respecting his boundaries, and creating an environment where he felt safe being as vulnerable as he actually wanted to be. That meant everything to me.”
report “I knew it,” Graham laughed. “I could never convince myself whether you had feelings for me back then, because you were so damned stubborn about hiding them. But sometimes I really thought they were there.”
Fond humor infused my tone in turn. “Yes, well, I had my reasons.” My hand passed over his bulging bicep, strength he never used for violence except to combat aggression. “I also had no idea it was possible for me to find a second partner, so I was slow in recognizing it.”
I felt him nod against my shoulder. “I had no idea this was possible either. And if you and I were going to get together, I never would have laid odds on it being in Louisiana. Still, there’s the strangest sense that this was always going to happen. Like the three of us were born to be together, even though none of us had any deliberate intention to build this triad.”
“I’ve felt that too, actually.” As if some karmic magnet would have attracted us regardless of our circumstances.
Eventually we gathered our clothes and hiked back to the fort. Vik had already gone home by the time we reached our quarters, so Graham shared the news that I’d accepted his proposal. Avery’s reaction was quieter than I expected — more of a luminous glow than anything else. A contentment so deep that neither words nor actions could enhance it. He pulled each of us into a tight embrace, whispering that he loved us.
Then Graham knelt beside the bed, took Avery’s hand, and asked for my husband to be his husband too. My first love’s expressive eyes shone with gratitude and glad tears, and when he said yes, I thought my heart might burst from happiness.
The next evening after dinner, Graham went back to base to take care of some patrol logistics and a late staffing meeting. He came through our door a couple hours later with a mysteriously expectant grin. I thought it was just his excitement over our betrothal, until he reached into his pocket and opened his palm to reveal a surprise: a set of three hammered copper bands. The textured metal loops were thin and squared at the edges, but a little too large in diameter to wear on a finger.
“I had these made a couple weeks ago,” he told us with a sweet self-conscious radiance. “I thought, if you’re willing, the two of you could add them to your necklaces around the pendants. And I’ll wear a leather cord like yours, with only the ring.”
Avery immediately took off his necklace so Graham could knot the cord around the red-gold circle, now half filled by the blue gem. The effect was striking, particularly the contrast of metal, stone, and hide.
“My marriage to you in no way replaces yours with each other,” our fiancé explained. “Your necklaces represent you as two halves of one whole, and I wouldn’t try to change that. We always agreed that my relationships with each of you would remain beneath that umbrella. I’m joining you without diminishing what you already have: encompassing both of you, like this ring.”
“I love it,” Avery said, stroking the rustic band with his fingertips. Then he looked at me. “Is this ok, Julian? These were your design originally.”
“Yes,” I murmured, unable to take my gaze from the elegant simplicity of the updated symbol for our partnership. Exactly the same, yet enhanced and strengthened by a new layer of care and support. “It’s perfect.”
I gave my necklace to the captain to add his ring, and when he fastened it back around my neck, an all-pervading sense of shimmering rightness filled my body. Like being encircled within his bond empowered every cell.
When the third ring was attached to Graham’s new necklace, Avery and I put on him together. The instant I took in the visible sign of commitment hanging at his throat, it seemed unbelievable that I’d ever worried about giving up exclusive rights to Avery. I wasn’t losing anything. I was gaining everything.
In another minute, our necklaces were all any of us was wearing.
Avery and I had made our vows alone, the same evening we decided to do it. The captain’s preferences were a little more traditional. He’d always wanted his friends and loved ones to witness any marriage he might enter, so although his family were on the other side of the continent, we agreed on a small event with our closest local acquaintances and associates. With the fourth anniversary of my marriage to Avery conveniently only three weeks away, Graham had the idea to hold our ceremony the day before. That way the dates could remain distinct, yet we could celebrate together. Since he’d been intimately included in our observance last year, it felt fitting that his anniversary with us should fall at the same time.
Despite the fact that we already lived together, Graham thought it would be romantic to spend the customary night apart on the eve of our nuptials, and I couldn’t deny it built a certain sense of anticipation to kiss him goodnight at our doorstep and know we wouldn’t see him again until we met at the altar.
I didn’t know how much sleep I’d be getting, but Avery and I arrayed ourselves under the sheet anyway, his curly head at my shoulder where it had belonged these past priceless years. The thought that this was the last time we would lie together as sole proprietors of this relationship stirred wistful, tender longing in my gut.
“Are you scared?” Avery whispered, listening to my faster-than-usual heartbeat.
“A little,” I confided, tracing gentle fingers along his arm. “I have no doubts about my decision. But the time we had together, just you and I, will always be very special to me. It feels like…I’ll miss it, sometimes.”
“I will too,” he told me quietly. “Kind of like I missed our old tent when we moved into this room. There was a lot of nostalgia about the place where I’d gotten to know you and learned to trust you, even though I really preferred having an actual ceiling and a floor and a door that can lock. And if we move from here, I would miss these quarters too. But not more than I’d appreciate having more space. And the main thing is, wherever I go, you’ll be there too.”
“That’s a very apt metaphor,” I replied, genuinely impressed. “If we’re not careful, you’ll be too wise and mature for Graham to keep calling you ‘little one.'”
Avery nestled tighter against me. “Never be more mature than you, or him,” he pronounced with an unreasonable amount of pride.
There was a hint of crispness in the air on the day of our wedding, heralding the coming equinox and the change in seasons. Graham wasn’t exactly religious, but he’d asked for our bond to be blessed in a house of worship, and Avery and I had no objections. We gathered in the small chapel shared by several faiths, including Vik’s, whose priest had graciously agreed to perform the ceremony. Rowan and her inevitable team of planners had brightened the place with late-blooming sunflowers along the center aisle and garlands of greenery above doors and windows.