Page 12 of Third Wheel

Zach

Getting Amy out of that house was a relief. Zach was grateful for how her friends had come together to help so that it didn’t take long. It had been a hard day for Amy, though she was doing her best to pretend like everything was fine. He’d seen how tense she’d been when they’d been in the house, surrounded by her and Jeremy’s combined lives, then the way all that tension had drained from her when they’d left.

Now, she was just exhausted and limp, picking at the pizza Kincaid had ordered, long after everyone else had finished. Thepizza and beer after a day of moving made him feel like he was in college again.

Couple by couple, her friends said goodbye and headed out until it was just them and her parents left. They were worried about her, he could see it, but they were also looking at Kincaid like he was their hero. Which Zach could understand. He knew he was looking at Kincaid in the same way.

The Dom had done a good job of organizing everyone and assigning jobs to get everything in place for today and then a masterful job of ensuring Amy didn’t fall apart during the process. It had been close a few times before Kincaid had finally made her sit down and give directions rather than trying to do everything for the people who were trying to help her.

She wasn’t used to sitting back and letting others help her, which had been more obvious today than ever before.

Now, her parents were sitting beside her on the couch, talking softly to her while he and Kincaid cleaned up in the kitchen. Zach had already taken care of the sheets on the guest bed so Amy could retreat to her room whenever she wanted. Part of him didn’t like that she’d be so separate from them…

What if she needed them?

It was going to be her first night alone.

They hadn’t told her because she’d already been embarrassed enough, but she’d begged not to be left alone last night. Even before she’d thrown up on the guest bed, they’d already been moving toward letting her sleep in theirs. That had just clinched it.

“She’s going to be okay.” Kincaid put his hand on Zach’s shoulder, murmuring in his ear.

The view from the kitchen into the living room where Amy and her parents were wasn’t completely open, but it was obvious what Zach was looking at.

He sighed and leaned against his boyfriend, feeling Kincaid’s strength at his back. Kincaid’s arms went around his shoulders, and Zach reached up to rest his hands on Kincaid’s wrists, hugging him back in the only way he could in their current position.

“I’m just worried. It was a rough day for her.”

“It was. She seems like she’s doing okay, though.”

“I think she’s faking it for everyone.” Yes, she’d gotten better and better throughout the day, but Zach was pretty sure she’d just worked harder at covering her true emotions.

“What do you want to do?”

That was the question, wasn’t it?

Amy needed to cry. She hadn’t cried since yesterday in the dressing room when he was holding her. She hadn’t cried once today while they packed up her life and moved it from the house she thought she was going to live in with her husband. She’d gone from what she’d thought was a permanent living situation to a friend’s guestroom and hadn’t shed a single tear.

He wasn’t sure she even realized how upset she was, but he could see it. In the past, the worse off she was when she came into the club, the more okay she’d seemed until he’d gotten her into the scene. Sometimes, he thought she felt like it was okay to be a little upset, but not a lot, and so the more upset she was, the more compelled she felt to hide it.

The fact that he could now hear her laughing at whatever her dad had just said had him far more worried than if she was crying on his shoulder.

Zach knew what he needed to do to make her cry; he just wasn’t sure she could handle it.

He wasn’t sure Kincaid could handle it.

Yes, he and Amy had platonically scened in the past, but that was when they’d both been in committed relationships, when she hadn’t been so vulnerable. When she hadn’t been dependenton him, which she was now that she was taking over their guest bedroom. Whether Kincaid would be okay with continuing to scene together with her new lack of relationship… well, that was part of why Zach had wanted her to move in here with them, but he’d realized today that he hadn’t talked to Kincaid at all about it.

He sighed.

Now was apparently the time for that.

“I think she needs a scene, if she’ll accept one,” he admitted. “She’s bottled everything up so hard, I’m afraid she’s going to explode.”

Behind him, Kincaid didn’t tense, his muscles remaining in place, which was a good sign. He wasn’t upset at what Zach was saying, which relieved Zach’s biggest worry. As concerned as he was about Amy, he had to put Kincaid first. Their relationship wasn’t exactly on shaky grounds anymore, but they hadn’t been back together very long, so it wasn’t as strong as it had been when they’d negotiated him scening with others in the first place.

“Did you want to do it tonight?” Kincaid asked quietly. “Or wait ‘til she’ll go to the club?”

“Tonight, if she’s agreeable. I’m worried about what will happen if I let her keep everything bottled up.” Although he and Amy had never agreed that he was her Dom, he’d topped her enough to feel responsible. And he knew he wasn’t the only one. Now that she was under their roof, Kincaid was going to feel responsible for her wellbeing, too. Hell, he already did, or he wouldn’t have agreed to let her take over their guestroom for an indeterminate amount of time.

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