Page 80 of Cohesion

“Not sure. I don’t know if I remember how it tastes,” Peyton said tartly. He tilted his head, giving Will more room to gatherall of his hair. “You keep handing it out to everyone else without leaving me any.”

“Would you like some lasagne as well, dear?” Theresa asked, one hand on her cocked hip.

“… yes, please.”

Will twined the tie around Peyton’s hair three times, securing it properly. A ponytail; he wasn’t great at buns. No matter how many times he practiced on Peyton, he just couldn’t get it to sit properly without falling out. He blamed the thinner hair. Would it work better on Jericho’s hair?

“Kellan, honey, you can just come stop by the house on your way home, and I’ll have some fresh for you.”

“Thought we were past the youngest stealing my food.”

“You love me,” Peyton said cheekily.

“I’d love you more if you learned how to wash your bike,” Kellan retorted.

“Idid!”

“If by clean you mean, ‘Lucas cleaning his room as a teenager,’ then sure.” Kellan held up a set of keys. “I cleaned her and changed her oil. She doesn’t need new tyres yet, but come back in a couple of weeks, and I’ll get her fitted.”

Peyton went for the keys, and Kellan lifted them out of his reach. “That’stwoweeks, Peyton. Not two months.”

“Is she mine or yours?” Peyton grumbled.

“We have joint custody.”

Peyton snatched the keys and poked his tongue out. “I’m going to take her out into the mud just so I can paint your name on it with my finger and then hand her over.”

“You’d never get her back,” Kellan promised.

“I’d like to see you try,” Peyton said, making a face at him. Kellan returned the look.

“Boys,” Theresa chastised. They both suddenly looked completely innocent. Will snickered. Theresa sighed. “Let me goget those leftovers for you, and I’ll get out of your hair. Oh. Don’t forget we’re having dinner next month for Danny’s birthday, out at that Italian place he likes. Are you going to bring along your men?”

Peyton choked on nothing, and Will blinked at her.

“You told her?”

“Not… directly,” Peyton said. “No, Mum, it’s way too early to subject them to—” He cut off at her look. “We’ll be there,” he finished weakly. Will massaged the nape of his neck with his thumb soothingly. Theresa was a hard woman to say no to. Impossible, really.

“How many is that?” She tilted her head, looking at the ceiling like she was recalling the memory. When had Peyton told her about Sebastian, Quinn, and Jericho? When had he told her aboutthem? “Three, you said?”

“Uh… yeah.” She was halfway to the door that led to the staff-only area when Peyton said, “No. Four,” amending himself. He sighed. “There’s four.”

Will wouldn’t have blamed him if he hadn’t been ready to include Jericho in that. They were all new, but he was… a different kind of new. One that they were still figuring out. Telling parents about any of it was a big step, and doing it in stages wasn’t unreasonable.

“Four?” Kellan asked, both eyebrows raised. “Are you trying to get a bingo?”

“If you include Peyton, thatisa bingo,” Will pointed out. Human bingo. Bet that was more fun than regular bingo.

As soon as Theresa was out of earshot, Will said, “You could have warned me that you’d told her.”

“I didn’t know she was going to pounce like that!” Peyton sputtered. “Someone could have warnedme.”

“You both have enough warning labels,” Kellan said. He leaned back against the bench lining the garage, covered withtools and other things that Will couldn’t even begin to guess the names of.

“I didn’t give her anyone’s name, okay? Lucas guessed you were one, but the rest was… it was…” Peyton sighed dramatically and leaned back into Will’s arms. Will slid an arm around his waist and kissed his forehead. “I just needed her advice on some stuff.”

He and Peyton had maintained that they were just friends for so long, it was a little strange to think that it was more than that now, and that everyone knewthat it was more than that. Well. It hadalwaysbeen more than that, but they’d never labelled it or anything or acknowledged that it was more than just casual sex between friends. They hadn’t taken that step until Sebastian had come into their lives in the club, and everything had changed.

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