Page 49 of The Princess

“I don’t have my car with me.” Taylor burrowed in closer. “It’s fine. We’ll see each other again soon.”

The three of them made out like teenagers until Taylor finally let out a displeased sigh and extracted himself from their little nest. He shoved his legs into his pants and Damon watched him wiggle his ass to get it into his pants.

“God, I love tight pants on you,” Nash said, tearing the words right out of Damon’s head.

“My thoughts exactly.” Damon stole a kiss from Nash and climbed out of bed. “I’ll take him home.” The implication that he’d be right back was there, but Nash was still shocked to see him upon his return.

Nash was at the coffee table with his laptop open. The TV was on in the background so Damon knew he wasn’t writing. Nash only wrote with music on. TV shows were too distracting.

“I brought dinner.” Damon set the bags on the counter. The avocado seed caught his attention and he smiled at it. He liked that there was now a little bit of Taylor here with them.

“Good, because I’m starving.” Nash abandoned his laptop and came to the kitchen to help Damon with the food. “What did you get?”

Damon had been in desperate need of comfort food when he’d made the stop for dinner. “Lasagna with garlic bread for myself. Short rib shepherd’s pie for you. Apple pie and vanilla ice cream for dessert.”

Nash brushed a kiss against Damon’s cheek. “Let’s sit at the table to eat this.”

Nash dug into the drawer for a couple of forks before taking his order over to his usual spot, facing the balcony. Damon took the opposite chair and they popped the cardboard lids off their dinners.

Damon could feel the weight of Nash’s questions, but he said nothing. He didn’t know how to say it. Nash was the one who was good with words. Damon had read some of his stuff, just to see what the fuss was about. And Nash was good. He was better than good. It wasn’t a wonder that his detective series had gone over so well.

“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong or do I have to pry it out of you? I’m not above tickle torture.” Nash shoved a forkful of food into his mouth, managing to look hot and alluring and like every dream Damon had ever had, all come true at once.

The words swelled up in him, clamoring to escape before Damon could think twice about saying them. He’d never said them to a man before. Never felt them about anyone before Nash. His family wasn’t close and declarations of affection weren’t things that were done. Were it not for knowing the Bennetts and the easy way they were together, the way they cared about each other and said as much, Damon might not have believed in any kind of love at all. Not romantic and certainly not familial.

But Nash had taught him about romantic love. Real love. Tangible and right there across the table from him. And Taylor was teaching him about new love. Love that came unexpectedly, but was given freely with a warmth that stole Damon’s breath if he thought about it too much.

“I love you,” Damon said. “I know we’ve already established that. But I love you. I have for a long time, probably. And what I guess I’m trying to say is that…yes, I do want to live with you. I want this life we’re building. And I want…” Damon stopped and wet his lips. Swallowed jagged nerves and took a breath. “I want it to involve Taylor. Whatever this next step with us looks like, I don’t want him left out. Or to feel like an afterthought. I know that we’ve not been involved for a long time, but he’s important to me.” Damon let out the rest of his breath. The tension dropped out of his shoulders and Nash reached across the table and took his hand.

“I love you too. Of course we’ll involve Taylor in the move. We’ll make a space for him when he’s ready to take it. And we can do something special for him, something to show him how much we care about him.” Nash’s gaze softened. “Is that what you were so worried about telling me? That you want Taylor to be in our lives in a permanent way?”

Damon nodded. “I wouldn’t be mad if he just moved in with us, you know.”

“I wouldn’t be mad either. I was even thinking of moving closer to the diner. There’s a nice building over there and it’s about the same distance to your work as this place is. Plus, the views are better and the building is newer. I was looking at the listing my realtor sent when you came in.”

“I want to help pay for it.”

Nash shook his head. “That’s sweet, and I know you want to contribute, but let me do this and you can contribute in other ways. We’ll need a bigger bed. Probably a new, stain-resistant couch too.”

Damon shook his head and laughed. “You win. You take care of the roof over our heads and I’ll help furnish it.”

“Take Taylor with you. He has better taste.”

“I still want to do something special for him. I don’t want him to feel like we purposely left him out of all the planning.”

Nash’s smile widened. “I think I have an idea.”

CHAPTER 22

TAYLOR

Everything was going great, so Taylor should have expected it to all fall apart. But he didn’t. He’d trusted the wave of recent good fortune and had ridden it like a lovestruck idiot and then it all came smashing into him at once.

He still hadn’t told his family about his relationship with Nash and Damon. But they still hadn’t told his family about their relationship. It was going to make for an interesting conversation, whenever they decided to have it. Taylor wasn’t overly concerned about that. Sure, in a few hours everyone would be there for fire night and he’d have to pretend to not be hopelessly head over heels for them. But he could pull it off. No big deal.

The thing Taylor was most concerned about was Mickey. He’d tried to find him a few times and came up empty. He’d started leaving notes in the meals he left for him, hoping that Mickey would show up and at least let Taylor know he was okay. Often, when he was cooking, his mind wandered and he wondered what had happened to him. Taylor had asked Colby, but he’d graduated before Mickey and had no idea what happened either.

With no one to ask, Taylor conjured up all kinds of scenarios about why Mickey had disappeared and none of them were happy. Clearly. Because he was obviously unhoused and hungry, and too proud to accept much help from Taylor. It irked him that Mickey was avoiding him like that, so when his shift ended, Taylor didn’t bother going home to shower or change. He set the meal where he usually put it and then drove away.

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