Page 386 of Seasons of Love
“Oh. Is it part of your job? I mean, no one came here before, so I’ve been looking after them ever since we moved in.”
“Aunt Annie planted them years ago. She loved roses.”
Jake didn’t follow his statement with any kind of explanation for his presence in our front yard. He stood there staring at me. Was there longing in his gaze? Surely not.
Someone as gorgeous and young as Jake could have anyone he wanted. Even though he’d confessed that day that he’d never been with two guys before, he didn’t seem like the kind of guy who struggled to find a boyfriend or hookups.
Not that I knew anything about him to make that kind of judgment. And why the fuck was I thinking about that day now?
Even without having the talk with Mal, I already knew that morning months ago was not to be repeated, especially not with Jake.
“I should go. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come here,” he said, taking a step before I caught his arm.
“Wait. Stay,” I said.
“Why?”
I don’t know. Fuck.
“Have a coffee with me.”
He still looked unsure.
“Look, I had your dick in my mouth before. I promise my coffee can be just as good.”
He laughed, and a little bit of the same look I saw that morning came back.
“Okay, sure.”
Jake followed me inside and to the kitchen. He sat on one of the stools at the breakfast counter while I turned the coffeemaker on and started unpacking the groceries.
“Tell me about the roses,” I said.
“Nothing much to tell. A few months after my aunt died, I needed to deliver some paperwork to the resort manager. He was a bit of a workaholic and was never home, so I was going to put the papers in the mailbox. That’s when I saw the roses. They were growing all over the place, and the weeds were suffocating them. I started coming by to look after them. That’s all.”
I filled two cups of coffee and sat on a stool opposite Jake.
“Why me?” he asked. “Did you know who I was?”
“What? No, of course not.” I took a sip of my coffee, followed by a deep breath. “We didn’t plan anything if that’s what you’re asking. Since we came all the way to the west coast for the interview, we decided to take some time off. Mal had been a little stressed with some issues he’d had at work.”
Jake nodded.
“Do you do that often?”
I shook my head. “No. We’ve never brought a third person into our bed before. I swear.”
“Why then? Why me?”
“I’m polyamorous. Ever since I was young, my grandmother always told me I had too much love to give. I didn’t understand any of it until I was in my late teens. I had a couple of boyfriends who got jealous whenever I said I was also attracted to other people, even though I never cheated on anyone.”
“And Mal knows?”
I chuckled. “Of course. Our relationship relies on more than our love for each other. We promised to be truthful to each other and ourselves. Jake, you were the first person I’d been with since way before Mal came into my life and definitely the only one since. But I can tell you why we picked you.”
I reached out to Jake and put my hand on top of his. “The way Mal looked at you the day we checked in. I’ve only seen it once, and it was directed at me. I can’t speak for Mal, but I know how it feels to want more than one person at the same time. If my husband felt something when he saw you, I wasn’t going to stop him from acting on it. Especially when I felt exactly the same way.”
Jake took his hand back and ran it through his hair.
