“Because he wasn’t here,” Eric stated softly.
My jaw might have hit the floor as I watched the two of them. We hadn’t talked about what happened while we weren’t all around, but I couldn’t believe they hadn’t done anything during the days when I wasn’t able to make it out to Eric’s house. “You mean to tell me—”
“That I’ve been sleeping in my own bed with blue balls every fucking night?” Drew finished, a bit less eloquently than I would have posed the question. “Yeah, that’s exactly what he’s saying. We weren’t sure and since no one’s talked about it, we didn’t want to upset you.”
I moved beside Drew and wrapped an arm around his waist. “Is that why you keep your distance from me when you’re here?”
“Why I what?” Drew seemed truly oblivious to the fact that he gave me a wide berth whenever he came to the center to tutor Cody. At first I’d assumed it was to keep things professional, but now I wondered if he was worried about going too far without Eric’s consent.
“You barely acknowledge me when you’re in the lounge, and when you have to come in here, you stay as close to the door as possible,” I observed.
“Huh, I didn’t realize that.” Drew seemed to be scrolling through his memory to validate what I’d said. “Yeah, maybe.”
“Well, unless it’d upset one of you, I think it’s ridiculous at this point to expect the others to act like monks if only two of us are present.”
“Fine by me,” Eric agreed quickly. Drew’s only response was the slightly boyish smile he flashed when he was truly happy.
“Yeah, me too.”
“Good, then now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s go shopping,” I suggested. “I promised Eric I’d thank him properly tonight at his house.”
Eric backed away and worried his bottom lip. “About that…if you get the transfer you’re working on, what would you say to moving out to my place. It only seems right that it could be our place since you’re there most of the time as it is.”
“Are you sure you’re ready for that?” I asked. This was a huge deal for all of us. If he just meant somewhere to crash temporarily, then I’d graciously decline his offer. If and when the time came that the three of us and all of our belongings were under the same roof, that’d mean this was the real deal. Not necessarily a lifelong commitment, but a hell of a lot more than the casual fucking around we’d all agreed upon the first night we got together.
“We talked about it earlier, and I think we’d both like that,” Drew responded. “It sucks when you’re not around, and I’m not just saying so because that means we’re all sleeping alone. I don’t know about Eric, but things are just…better when we’re all together.”
Well hell, this was turning into some monumental moment I hadn’t expected. I held both of them, burying my face between their chests so they couldn’t see what it meant to me to know they both wanted to take the next massive step in our relationship. “Nothing would make me happier.”
“Uh, guys…” We looked up and saw Cody standing at the door with his winter coat on, gaping at the three of us sharing a moment.
I looked at Drew, who winced. “Surprise! We’re having company tonight.”
A happy Drew was something to savor, so I couldn’t get upset with him, even though it would have been nice to know ahead of time. There was no way Eric and I could disagree with him offering Cody a night away from the center, because then Cody would think we didn’t want him around.
“We are?” Eric asked, sounding dumbfounded.
Drew turned to him and lowered his voice so he wouldn’t be overheard. “Yes, we are. I was going to tell you guys, but you distracted me.”
“That’s not hard to do,” I scoffed. “I’m assuming you’ll go into details later?”
“Of course,” Drew agreed as he reached for his coat. “So, who’s ready to go shopping?”
By the groans filling the room, it seemed Drew was the only one looking forward to today’s excursion. I considered telling him to take the rest of us home and he could go on his own, but he’d been adamant that this needed to be a group trip. Each Maverick who’d agreed to sponsor the center’s Christmas extravaganza had been given the lists for three young men. Being the organizer, Drew had taken it upon himself to place Cody on his own list. I had the feeling our biggest problem was going to be convincing Drew that he shouldn’t go overboard buying gifts.
Drew and Cody sat in the back of Eric’s car for the drive to the outskirts of Chicago. They talked about Cody’s upcoming exams and the basketball tournament scheduled for the following weekend. I tried to listen without making it obvious, because Cody had said more to Drew during the first thirty minutes of the drive than he did to anyone else, myself included.
When we got to the outlet mall, Drew handed Eric one of the lists and told Cody to go with him while I helped Drew. He claimed we were going to divide and conquer so we could get home sooner, but I had a feeling it had more to do with giving us a bit of time alone.
Once Eric and Cody took off down the corridor, Drew pulled me toward a small coffee shop. We each got ourselves a drink and something small to eat and found a table near the entrance.
“I’m assuming you got him to open up?” I asked once we were both settled.
“Yeah. It wasn’t easy, but with the right motivation, he couldn’t resist my charming personality.” I nearly choked on my coffee at Drew’s statement. As much as I was growing closer to falling in love with him, charming wasn’t a word I’d use to describe him. I motioned for Drew to continue as I tried to catch my breath. “He’s going stir crazy in there. I’d be willing to bet he spent most of his time holed up in his bedroom before he got the boot from his asshole parents, and then he was on his own for the months before he came to you guys.”
“Makes sense, I suppose.” But it didn’t explain why someone as cool and collected as Cody would lose his mind. Jacob ran in as soon as he heard them shouting and swore he thought Cody was about ready to pound Maxwell into the ground by the time he got into the lounge. Luckily, it happened early in the day, when most of the guys were in school or out looking for work, otherwise the situation could have easily gotten out of hand. Boys were boys, whether gay or straight, and a lot of the ones who lived at Pot of Gold carried around huge chips on their shoulders. “But why did he lose his temper?”
“I think it was a combination of being exhausted, frustration over not having any privacy, and what the other guy said that he didn’t like,” Drew told me. I knew there was more to the story than he was sharing, but figured he was trying to walk a fine line between being open with me and not breaching Cody’s confidence. If he wasn’t going to be leaving in a few months for spring training, it’d be worth talking to Drew about going through the mandatory training to become one of the on-site counselors.
“So you wanted to remove him from the situation and give him some time to calm down.” It wasn’t a question. And as long as Drew didn’t make this a habit with whichever resident was having trouble, I thought it was a good idea. Cody trusted Drew and had obviously turned to him when he wasn’t willing to talk to anyone else. “How long did you tell him he’s staying at the house?”
Drew snorted. “I’m not that stupid. I wasn’t about to invite him to spend the night without talking to you and Eric. But I was thinking since it’s Thursday and his school is out until Monday because of in-service or whatever, maybe he could stay with us for the weekend.”
That didn’t sound like my idea of a good time, only because I had other plans for the weekend. Plans which involved no clothes and only leaving the bedroom when we needed to get something to eat or pass out from lack of energy. Then again, it’d be selfish of me to put my own needs before Cody’s when Drew was trying to do the right thing here. “I’d be fine with it, as long as Eric doesn’t disagree.”