Laid Bare - Lauren Dane [110]
“The main bedrooms are upstairs. A master and a room just off of that that can be a nursery someday, along with another bedroom.” The place was huge and he loved it. They’d all worked on the plans together, made their future together.
“Oh! You’ll like this, Mom.” He led them outside to the very large deck. “Erin had them build a modified greenhouse. The hot tub is in there, so the heat stays in, but the walls slide back for when the weather heats up too.”
“This is all very extensive and expensive. I guess when you’re a rockstar you can do that.” His mother smiled tightly.
“Cope, I need to talk to Mom.”
His brother’s eyes widened a moment. “Are you sure about this?”
“Yes.”
“Okay then.” Cope left them alone on the balcony, and he took his mother into the greenhouse, where it was still very warm.
“Spit it out, Mom.”
“Ben, this isn’t right for you. You’re hanging on to Todd and his wife as a way to keep from moving on. You’re hiding from your future. I know this breakup with Caroline was hard. You’ve been different in the year since she left. But you can’t think living here is going to solve that.”
“I appreciate that you love me and want me to be happy. I wasn’t happy when things ended with Caroline, but not so much because she left. I wasn’t really that happy when I was with her. I seem different because I’m happy now. Can you just trust me on that?”
“Are you gay? Because if you are, that’s okay. We love you just the same.”
He smiled. “No, I’m not gay. I do like men, but I like women too. More than I like men, but anyway, this is not a conversation I really want to have with you.”
“So you’re bisexual? Then you have lots more options!”
He laughed. “Mom, truly, I have never been happier than I am right now. Never.”
“I see the way you look at her,” she said quietly and he knew.
“Who?”
“Erin. She’s a lovely woman and I like her, but she’s not for you. No good can come of you living here. You can’t love your best friend’s wife. Todd has been like a brother to you. Don’t betray him like this. You don’t want to be that person.”
He exhaled long and slow. “I would never betray Todd. Or Erin, for that matter.” He moved to look out over the city. Typical November Seattle weather; the rain spattered on the glass as he gathered his thoughts. “I have to tell you something, but I need you to know before I do that Dad would never understand. If you tell him, or Lorie or anyone else . . . What I’m going to tell you, it could hurt people. I’m asking you to keep this secret, and I know that’s not fair. But I’m asking anyway.”
She sat on the chair near the hot tub. “You can tell me anything. You know that.”
“I am with someone right now. With two someones.”
She blinked at him. “What do you mean? You’re dating two people and they don’t know about each other? Is one of them a boy? I know your dad is old-fashioned, but I could work on him and we could get him to accept it in time. I know we could. He loves you no matter who you love.”
He’d lucked out in the mom department. “You’re amazing, Mom, but you may not be so happy to help when I tell you the rest. I’m with Erin and Todd. The three of us are in a relationship. A committed relationship. I love Erin very, very much, which is why you see me looking at her the way I do. And Todd, he’s been my best friend for as long as I can remember. I live here because this is our house. I wouldn’t live anywhere else.”
She got pale. “I don’t understand. They’re married. So they keep you like a pet? To service them when they get bored?”
“Mom! Do you think I’d ever allow that? Do you think Todd would ever do that to anyone? I know you don’t know Erin very well, but she would never do that either. Obviously we can’t all three be married, but I consider Erin my wife too.”
“What about children? How will you do that? Have you even thought of this?”
“You know her child was murdered four and a half years ago, right?”
She nodded.
“She never considered having children again until Todd, and then me. If and when they come, they’ll be mine and Todd’s both. Legally, they