Page 335 of Incisive

“Shh.” I wish I could order him not to feel that way but I know from personal experience it isn’t that easy. “Both of you stop it,” I say. “Do you know how much stress all of us just lost? Better it comes out. Now we don’t have to hide things.” I nuzzle Jordan’s temple. “And you finally get to be a kept man. Just wait until my—”

“Our families!” Leo and Jordan both yell.

They break apart, leaving me standing there as they race for their phones and frantically make calls.

I sigh. “Okay, thanks. Good chat, gentlemen.” I drain my glass and refill not just mine, but Leo’s, too, and top off Jordan’s.

They’re both still on their phones when Casey-Marie comes upstairs ten minutes later. “Did you watch?” she asks me.

“Yup.”

“Don’t get too drunk. The official photographer is coming up in thirty to snap some ‘candid’ pics of the three of you.”

“Why?” I grumble.

“Because this means the other pictures become a non-issue,” she says. “Now we canfinallymake some legislative headway. I mean,seriously. We know several current and former members of Congress who are poly in various permutations. This isn’t as tidy a reveal as we’d planned but—”

“Wait, what?”

She stares at me for a moment, realizing she admitted something she hadn’t meant to. “Um, yeeeeah.Heh. Might as well tell you now. Ciro planned to have the three of you get up and dance together at the first inaugural ball, and we were going to drop all the deets at once. Let the news of the reveals get lost in the frenzy of the first hundred days.”

I blink, stunned. “What?”

“Surprise!” She shrugs, smiling. “Ciro’s brother and brother-in-law are poly,” she says. “He didn’t want to exclude anyone from family pics. Now, no one will say anything about that.”

“Exactly how long has this been planned? And why wasn’t I notified about this?”

She shrugs, a sly smile on her face. “Kev always had it as a backup plan in case shit went sideways with any of us before we could stage the reveal. We modified the plan over the years to maneuver according to current circumstances but there’s always been a version of it ready to go when you left office. When we talked to Ciro and told him about it, he was all-in. And it was supposed to happen so that it looked like Shae and Susa and all of them dropped their bombs first, and you and Ciro’s brother took advantage of the cover.”

“Why am I just now finding out about this?”

“Because you, my boss, are a fucking nervous Nellie. You already stress out too much over shit you shouldn’t be stressing over. Do you honestly think we would be telling you this?”

She’s not wrong. “Did Ily know?”

“Nope, and I suspect the president-elect will likely go to sleep tonight with his ass striped like a candy cane. And no, your guys didn’t know this was the plan, either.” She waves her hand in their direction. “Kev was going to tell them that morning, because he, Shae, and Chris were going to all three be on the dais at the inauguration and exchange a kiss there to start everything. Then Owen, Susa, and Carter were going to drop their announcement, although it wasn’t originally going to have the extortion angle in it. That was just to help deflect things since it popped early. That way, you all dancing together would look like you’re taking advantage of everyone else’s announcements.”

“And Ciro’s brother and partners wouldn’t even really rank a sentence in the last paragraph of the story by that point.”

“Exactly.”

I scrub my face with my hands. “Any other bombs dropping?”

“Liam, Ward, and Daniel might release a statement, too,” she says, and I know exactly who she means. “Those are the last that I’m aware of who were included in the plan, unless others decide to jump on board and come out. And this timing is fine because there are still a few Congressmen who were re-elected and who also have skeletons in their closets they absolutely donotwant rattled, much less exposed to the open air. You’ll hear some indignant posturing for a few days, maybe a week, and then they’ll settle down and the general consensus will be that the private lives of consenting adults are no one else’s business.” She shrugs. “Easy button.” She mimes slapping a button. “Done.”

Jordan ends his call first. “Mom asked if this means she can finally start calling me her son without worrying about who hears her.”

“And Dad?”

Jordan smiles. “He said life’s short and he loves all of us, and to makesureI told you he’s proud of you.”

I blink back tears. “Really?”

“Yeah. I told them you’d call them back later.”

I nod. “Okay. Yeah, thanks.”

Leo ends his call and groans. “Mom and Dad are irritated they didn’t get a warning call but they’re fine. Kayley’s irritated she can’t use Jordan as a beard anymore but she’s glad we’ve finally made him an honest man.”