Page 60 of Learning to Run

“I think you don’t always have an accurate view of healthyboundaries.” Bates paused but I wasn’t sure what to say, so I just shrugged andhe kept going. “Playing amateur psychologist here, I think your relationshipwith your parents, and probably watching Gareth’s, made you question if youshould be involved in our apartment discussion.”

Gareth leaned forward like he had a spring on his back.“Because they never remembered to include us in that kind of stuff and so we’dinternalize it and bring it over into other important stuff?”

All it took was for Bates to nod for Gareth to keep going.“Do we do it to each other or are we so used to it just being us we don’t do itlike that? Have I done it? Do you think it would spill out into stuff like sex?Is that why we haven’t had penetrative sex yet? Well, penetrative making love?”

Now I was the one trying not to laugh.

I didn’t do a great job but it popped the last of my stressand I could feel myself snuggling closer to them without thinking about it.“It’s going to kill him to wait much longer.”

“You’re right.” Bates gave us both kisses. “I think I wantedyou both to make sure I wasn’t rushing you into that part of our relationshipbecause I kind of was…well, a tad bit pushy in the beginning.”

Gareth snorted. “We needed pushy or we’d have never gotten anywhere.I’d have still thought that loving Cashel like a boyfriend would be goingbackward. Don’t feel guilty about that.”

Just don’t make him wait any longer.

Bates’s chest jerked for a moment like he could read my mindbefore he nodded. “Alright, message received loud and clear, but we’re tablingthe sex conversation until after we finish the first one.”

My groan just made his laughter finally escape and he kissedmy head again. “Now, first, I’m going to say that I want all of us involved inimportant decisions like where we live and things that would affect our lifetogether. Like if Gareth was going to be looking into master’s programs on theother side of the country, that’s something we’d all talk about together andfigure out what worked best for him and us.”

Gareth couldn’t hold back about that, wiggling and throwingthe answer out even though there hadn’t really been a question. “There’s aprogram here that’s my first choice, but if I don’t get in that one, there’s acollege about an hour from here that would work. I don’t do well in onlineclasses, so it has to be in person.”

“That’s all good to know.” Bates leaned over and gave Garetha quick kiss. “It’s been something I wanted to ask about but other things keptcoming up.”

Gareth waggled his eyebrows. “Like spankings and pup time.”

Bates laughed and couldn’t seem to resist teasing him a bit.“And what’s for dinner and how your day went.”

Okay, there’d been a variety of distractions in our life.

“No, we’re going to stay focused.” Shaking his head asGareth giggled, Bates relaxed back in the bed again. “Alright, second, I wouldlike us to discuss the merits of finding a therapist for family counseling.”

That hadn’t been what I thought he would say.

Before I could do more than blink in surprise, Bates kepttalking through his idea. “I’m not sure exactly how to describe what I’mpicturing, but I think we need to make sure we’re talking about things inhealthy ways and that we’re getting an outside check to show Cashel whathealthy boundaries look like.”

I started rolling the idea around in my head, wanting toreally think about it since it was obviously important to Bates, but Garethstarted shaking his head. “I’m not going to let anyone tell Cash that there’ssomething wrong with us.”

Oh, not good.

“No, baby.” Bates leaned over and kissed Gareth’s cheekbefore pulling him in closer. “Not someone outside the community who wouldn’tunderstand us. There’s a therapist in town whose whole practice deals withpeople who are more interesting than average. He’d have no problem with ourrelationship or you being a pup or Cashel being a switch. The guy’s a littleand gay. He’s totally out in the community.”

Gareth’s panic immediately receded, but his frown didn’tfade. “Little like Brady?”

Bates didn’t manage to hold back his snicker that time. “No.No one is like Brady.”

“Okay, we can talk about it, I guess?” Snuggling closer,Gareth rested his head on Bates’s shoulder. “As long as it’s not stressful forCash.”

Or Gareth.

Having us both end up nuts every time we went to therapywould be torture on poor Bates.

“Not stressful at all.” Bates shifted us around so he couldwrap his arm completely around Gareth. “He’s the type of guy who wouldn’t evenblink at meeting your pup side and he’d even throw the ball for you.”

“Hmm.” Gareth seemed to like hearing that because hissnuggles got happier and less stressed. “How do you know him?”

Bates chuckled. “Some of the professors and people in theBDSM community around town have dinner once a month. I got invited to one ofthose by a professor early last semester. It was interesting and I liked thepeople I met.”

Everyone kinky came to this university, so it didn’tsurprise me.

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