Page 45 of United
“How are you doing?” Laura inquired when they halted to turn.
“Great.” Kate stroked her wet hair from her face. “We get along very well and have established a nice routine in and out of the bedroom.”
Laura smiled and didn’t make any effort to swim. “I was always wondering how a relationship would work out for you, with you being bisexual, but it looks like you found the perfect solution.”
“Well, Chris did, but yes, this arrangement works great for all of us. Being with Yvonne gives Chris the opportunity to dominate, too – something he would never get with me.”
Laura gave Kate a pensive look. “I believe you once said you didn’t like submitting.”
Kate shuddered. “I hate not to be in control, and I greatly admire the strength and courage you subs have.”
With that statement she pushed off the end of the pool and completed another lap with Laura in tow.
Julie called from the side, “Let’s hit the showers and have lunch. I’m starving.” The bouncy Asian woman leaped out of the pool before anyone answered, and Kate’s rumbling stomach reminded her some time had passed since breakfast. Kate looked over at Laura, who nodded, and they swam to the ladder.
Dressed in bathrobes, their wet hair covered by towels, they enjoyed a light lunch of soup with a vegetarian salad. They shared a portion of sumptuous tiramisu for dessert,because as Laura quipped, “We might lose some weight by sweating today, but we don’t want to overeat.”
Kate agreed and enjoyed the time with her friends. The spa’s motto,A relaxed person is a powerful person,was apt. She’d never felt this good and she was ready to meet Chris’s parents the following week.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
As they waited in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport on Thanksgiving morning for their connecting flight to Tucson, Kate wondered about their visit. Chris seemed positive his parents would welcome their threesome enthusiastically. She wasn’t sure, although he swore he’d told them he was bringing two women.
“Relax, Kate. My mother has wanted grandchildren since I left home. She’s going to be thrilled to have us there.” Chris turned his head so that he could gaze into her eyes.
“You seem awfully sure about our reception. I never came out to my parents as bisexual. I didn’t think they’d handle it well and just let them think what they wanted about my single state,” Kate responded.
“I know my parents. They’re kind of conservative, but they’re okay with gay marriage. Why not us?” Chris raised a brow.
Kate watched Yvonne slip her tablet into her bag, calm as ever, while Chris adjusted the strap of his carry-on for the third time. He didn’t look nervous, just… keyed up. Almost eager. That part baffled her. Meeting a partner’sparents was one thing. Meeting them as a triad was something else entirely.
“Your mother really won’t freak out?” Kate kept her voice low, aware of the couple beside them listening for their own boarding group.
Chris huffed a soft laugh. “She might fuss. She always fusses. Last time I came home alone she tried to set me up with the neighbor’s niece before I’d even put my duffel bag down.”
Kate tilted her head. “That sounds like a woman who wants a daughter-in-law, not two.”
He shrugged, thoughtful. “She wants me happy. That’s the part that matters. She’ll have questions, sure, but she won’t bite.” A beat passed, then his mouth curved in a rueful grin. “Dad might stare for a bit. He stares when he’s thinking.”
She tried to imagine a staring father and a matchmaking mother and didn’t know whether to laugh or brace. “And you told them. Everything.”
“Everything important,” he said. “They just want me to bring the people I care about home once in a while.”
Her stomach tightened. The people he cared about. He said it like it was the simplest thing in the world, but she felt the weight of it settle in her chest. Yvonne slipped a hand lightly against Kate’s back in a silent, grounding touch.
The loudspeaker crackled, and the gate agent called their group.
Chris straightened. “That’s us.”
Kate exhaled, gathered her bag, and stepped forward with the other two, hoping the knot low in her belly would loosen somewhere between Dallas and Tucson.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Chris’s step faltered as they reached the front door. He had Kate and Yvonne firmly tucked to his sides. His father and mother stood in the doorway, and they didn’t seem pleased—his mother anxious, his father disapproving.
Chris closed his eyes and sighed. He should have called his mother back and explained it.
“Chris,” his mother greeted without the usual warmth. “Introduce us to your friends.”
