Page 116 of Sharing Shane

“I thought it would, but no.” Veronica toyed absently with the handle of her coffee cup. “The boundaries are pretty well established.”

“Good boundaries are a poly must,” Lucy agreed.

“It does help,” Veronica admitted. “The first time we all got together after the threesome was...”

“Awkward?” Lucy guessed when Veronica trailed off.

“God, so awkward. We were meeting for dinner at this upscale restaurant downtown, and I came right from work so they were already at the table when I got there. I’m walking across this crowded restaurant, and they’re all looking at me, and I almost had a panic attack.”

“You thought sex was going to be the main topic of conversation.”

“Yes!” Relieved Lucy understood, she blew out a breath. “I wasn’t worried about Shane, because he’s all about those boundaries. But Wyatt’s default is sexual innuendo, so I was sure it would come up. But he just kissed me on the cheek and asked how work was going, and that was it.”

“Sounds like things are clicking along, then.”

“Yeah.” Veronica frowned. “Except...”

“Except what?”

“Well, I don’t know what Shane wants. Long term, I mean.”

“You haven’t talked about that?”

“Not really. Don’t get me wrong, we talk about a lot. But he’s never had a girlfriend for more than six months, and I don’t even know if he wants a long-term relationship with someone other than Wyatt.”

Lucy reached for her milkshake again. “You haven’t asked him?”

Veronica winced. “I’m afraid of the answer.”

“Veronica.”

“I know, I know.”

“You have to ask him, honey.” Lucy’s brown eyes were soft with reproach. “Wouldn’t you rather know?”

“In theory? Yes.”

Lucy shook her head sharply. “No. Don’t do that. Don’t do the ‘well, if I don’t ask then it’s not real’ thing. It will bite you in the ass, I promise.”

“Easy for you to say,” Veronica muttered. “Sitting there all preggo with your husband and your girlfriend waiting for you to come home so they can pamper you.”

Lucy snorted. “You think we started out that way? There were plenty of bumps, believe me.”

Veronica set her chin in her hands, curiosity getting the better of her. “What was your biggest hiccup?”

“When I wanted Glory to move in with Jack and me,” she replied promptly.

“Jack wasn’t ready for it?”

“He had no clue I was even thinking about it.” Lucy rolled her eyes. “When we first opened up our relationship, back when we were dating, I said something like, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be great if we both fell in love with the same person and then we could all live together?’ and he said, ‘That would be amazing’. Then six years later we met Glory, and we both fell in love with her, and I thought, well, we’ve already had the conversation so she’ll obviously be moving in at some point.”

Lucy’s gaze turned sardonic. “Except Jack didn’t even remember having that talk. So, when Glory’s lease was coming up for renewal and I asked her to move in without even talking to Jack about it first, the shit hit the fan.”

Veronica winced in sympathy. “What happened?”

“We had such a big fight.” Lucy sighed. “He ended up going to his mom’s for the weekend, and I drowned my sorrows in about four bottles of wine.”

“What did Glory do?”

---