Page 24 of Fires Creek

I stormed out of the house, straight down to the shed, and shouted over the noise of the engine roaring. “Theodore James and Jonas Carter, move your asses or we’re going to be late!” The beat-up Ford they were under had definitely seen better days.

Bang!

“Ah! Fuck me!” came the oh-so-familiar, husky voice that spilled from Jonas’s lips.

Teddy slid out from underneath the vehicle on his spinney… roller… mechanic man thing – you know the one I mean. A wicked smile danced over his face and enveloped his eyes as he winked at me and chuckled.

“What have you done, Theodore?” I asked, pretending to be huffy.

Jonas slid out on his own fancy thingamajig, rubbing his head as he flashed me an equally evil smile. They wiggled their eyebrows and both shouted in unison, “Surprise!” Fucking hell.

“I told you both already: birthdays absolutely suck, and I do not want a party!” I grumbled.

“Oh, come on, Red! Don’t be like that, your cheeks are about to match your hair,” Jonas bellowed, both he and Teddy hysterically laughing. Idiots. My idiots.

“Yeah, Peach,” Teddy grinned, slapping my ass as he strutted cockily out of the shed and made his way towards the house.

“Yoohoo, River, my dear!” came the shrill voice of none other than our closest neighbour, Brenda.

“You invited fucking Brenda ,” I hissed at Jonas quietly, punching him in the arm before extending my own to our neighbour.

“Hi, Mrs Huntford.”

“I am here to collect you for your surprise party!” she cooed gleefully, taking my hand and whisking me away to the house. I wagged my other arm angrily towards Jonas as I let the old woman drag me inside. Surprise my ass. The boys hadn’t stopped talking about it for days.

A few hours later, I was hauled over to The Jensen’s place down the road, along with the whole of Fires Creek and their dogs. Literally. This is the country folks. My men cheerfully greeted everyone, working in tandem to command the crowd.

Jonas had really come out of his shell. Since being with us, he just seemed so…

content . I watched him twirl someone’s Nana around the dance floor before Teddy cut in and they guided each other across the room.

I loved watching them; they were so different together.

Teddy’s usual devilish behaviour was much more subdued these days, but he never held back on Jonas.

He was always riding his ass, sometimes literally.

Over the past few months, we’d been exploring our relationships and ourselves.

We never really came out; we just continued with our lives.

Only now, we did it together. We all made time to be alone, and to be together as individual couples.

But every night, we always ended up with the three of us together.

I couldn’t really explain how, when, or why we worked, we just did.

Where one of us lacked, the other exceeded. We were a team, a unit. We were us.

“Daydreaming again, Peach?” Teddy breathed into my neck as he slid around me and pulled me onto the dancefloor.

Jonas’s arm stretched out to meet ours. We twirled and laughed like absolute fools.

The sun set over the rolling mountains behind us as we danced and drank with our neighbours and friends.

In the 18-months since I in Fires Creek for a year, it had become more like home than anywhere else I had ever been. The town banded together like a single entity, always looking out for each other. Nobody even seemed surprised by Jonas and Teddy, considering it was such a small country town.

The boys never hid their feelings towards each other, often walking hand in hand through the town square. They were so unapologetically in love, it made me thankful to be part of them. So, while people always asked about me, they never looked differently at the men they’d known their whole lives.

We had all been through our fair share of hard times. I think we all needed to work through some shit, but we had all the time in the world for that. The past year had been a whirlwind of new experiences and opportunities I never thought I would have.

In such a short time, I had gone from a miserable, overpaid designer, living in a fancy apartment with a cheating leach.

To the owner of a working farm, living in a manor, with two wonderful men who treated me like royalty.

And I own a fucking horse! I still couldn’t believe life had turned out the way it did, but I couldn’t be happier.

“I love you,” I said.

“We know,” they said back as they swept me through the barn doors, and we made the slow walk back home.