Page 13 of Their Little House Tristan (Five Little Roommates #2)

Tristan

Tonight was my first solo date with James, and I was excited—but also nervous. It was one thing for him to like spending time with the two of us together, but would he still like me, just me, on my own? And if I messed it up, well, not messed up exactly, but if it just didn’t click, what would that mean for the three of us? For him and Bellamy? This was meant to be a low-key night of getting to know each other, but it felt like so much more than that.

It was safe to say I was putting too much pressure on myself. But I couldn’t help it. I wanted it to work so badly. I’d never thought of myself as poly in any sense. I’d always dreamed of meeting a nice man, settling down, and growing old together. Of course, as I discovered my little side, I added that man being my daddy to the equation, but it had always been one plus one equals couple .

But now that I had Bell in my life and a daddy who wanted us both, that dream had changed. I waited for jealousy to rear its ugly head when it came to the two men who were worming their way into my heart. It hadn’t and I suspected it never would. If anything, I liked the idea of them being together a bit too much and woke up hard after dreams of the two of them having naked fun. I wasn’t sure I would call myself poly because I suspected my desire for them both had more to do with the two of them than my actual longings in general, but I’d never been huge into labels, anyway.

“What do you think?” I stood in Bellamy’s doorway wearing what Bell called my “good-ass jeans” and a button-down shirt. It wasn’t fancy, but it didn’t look like I was dashing out on a dump run or heading to the hardware store.

“I…I don’t know.” He tilted his head. “I think you need to turn around slowly. I need all of the information before I decide.”

He looked at me like he already had his answer and it was a positive one. Still, I stepped inside and did as he asked, making sure to add an extra little wiggle when my ass was in his direction.

“Yeah, I think that’ll do.” He crossed over to me, grabbed me by my belt loops, and pulled me close. “Are you gonna think of me when you’re out?” He nipped my bottom lip.

“How could I not?” I kissed him back, the kiss getting pretty intense pretty fast, only breaking apart when we were both out of breath.

He brought his lips to my ear. “Be sure to tell Daddy all about this kiss during your date and how hard you made me.”

“You’re killing me, Bell.”

“But what a way to go.” He rubbed his cheek against mine then stepped back enough to turn me around and smack my ass. “Now go. Go have fun with Daddy. And if there’s any good stuff, maybe you could tell me about it when you get home.”

“Ugh. You’re a menace.”

“Live with it. Now go be a good boy for Daddy.”

After adjusting myself, I headed downstairs to wait for James. My timing was pretty good. He showed up a few minutes later, and we were off on our first official solo date.

I wasn’t sure where we were going, and honestly, I didn’t care. If he’d said he wanted to walk around a big-box store and look for clearance socks, I would’ve been excited about it—because it was with him. But of course, he had a better idea.

He took me to an old drive-in-theater-themed restaurant I’d never been to before. It was adorable. All the chairs were made from old car seats, each table complete with its own little TV where you could pick what old movie you wanted to watch. And by old, I didn’t mean from the early 2000s—these were oldie oldies. Only one of the movie choices was even in color.

“What do you think?” He set his menu down. “Do you know what you’re having?”

I looked at the menu again, the one I’d been holding for ten minutes, and realized not a single item had stuck in my brain. I was just too excited—about where we were, about who I was with—to focus.

“Maybe I’ll just ask the server to pick.”

He reached across the table and placed his hand over mine. “How about I pick for you?”

I like the sound of that. A lot. “Please.”

He rewarded me with a huge smile. If that was what I got for being good, he was never going to see brat behavior from me…ever.

When the server came, James ordered for both of us. I wasn’t even sure what I was getting—each menu item had the same name as one of the old movies playing. But it didn’t matter. He knew me well enough by now to avoid my major dislikes, and that was good enough for me.

We were starting to talk about which movie to watch when someone stopped by the table. I turned and was shocked to see one of my dad’s friends from church.

“Mr. Riley.” I’d always called him that. I was sure he had a real name, but that wasn’t how things worked in my family. “Nice to see you.”

It was the opposite of nice, but pleasantries it was.

“Nice to see you. Are your dates coming soon?”

Of course, he assumed we were on a double date. It was outside his grasp of reality that two men could be out for any other reason. At least not in a place like this.

“No, Mr. Riley. It’s just us.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. This was not a conversation I wanted to be having. Not because I was embarrassed by James—I wasn’t. Or that I was embarrassed by who I was—I definitely wasn’t. But because this would inevitably lead to judginess and mentions of the interaction to my father.

James didn’t need to deal with any of that.

“This is my first time here,” James said, sounding far more chipper than I was at the moment. “I heard the food is delicious. Did you want to join the two of us?”

Mr. Riley looked like he’d been drop-kicked. “Oh, no, no. I was just leaving. It was nice to see you both. I’ll be sure to tell your father I saw you.”

“That sounds…swell, Mr. Riley.” I was not sad to see him race away, but I wished he hadn’t added the bit about telling my father. Ever since I moved out, my parents had been cordial but distant. I wanted to keep it that way.

“Guessing there’s a story there,” James said.

“Yeah. My family…they’re a little involved in their church, which doesn’t quite align with, well, me. And who I am.”

“Then I made the right call.” He gave a mischievous grin.

“What do you mean?”

“Inviting him to join us,” James said, “then punctuating it with a wink.”

“Oh my gods. You did not wink at Mr. Riley.” I’d been so focused on my father’s friend that I missed that. No wonder his jaw nearly went into the basement.

He nodded, grinning. “Got him out of here quick, didn’t it?”

“You are my hero.”

“I wasn’t going for hero status,” he said, leaning closer. “I have another title in mind.”

Daddy.

“You’re ridiculous.” And also, he already had that title, at least in my mind. “But also, thanks for that.”

I wasn’t really sure what to say other than that. I didn’t want to talk about my homophobic parents on our first date—but I didn’t want to hide things from him either. Letting this conversation lie here felt like the perfect way to go.

“I didn’t make things worse for you, did I?”

“Nah. I think that ship sailed when I got a job at Chained.” Before that, really, but that was what cut the anchor free.

The rest of the night was just the two of us getting to know each other, eating delicious burgers, and watching what used to be a horror movie—but was now mostly just funny. Campy. The monster moved slower than slow, knocking down fake trees one at a time.

The date was perfect.

Except…I missed Bellamy. And that left me with two choices: keep it to myself so as not to hurt James’ feelings, or be honest. If this relationship had any hope, honesty had to come first leaving only one real option.

“Is it weird that I miss Bell?”

“No,” James said. “It’d be weirder if you didn’t.”

“I think that’s good…because I do.”

“Thank you for telling me,” he said. “Means a lot to me that you already trust me with something that big.”

I hadn’t thought of it as a trust thing. But he was right. It was, and I did.

“Does that mean I was a good boy and get dessert?”

“Of course. Do you want something here, or should we go for ice cream?”

I slid right out of my seat, ready to go, not wasting time with actual words.

Daddy chuckled. “Ice cream it is, Tristan. Ice cream it is.”