Just Friends (14 page)

Chapter Twelve

“Do you mean to tell me that you
gave birth to my grandson while the police were escorting out a burglar?”

Leah smiled at her mother as she
handed Marvin over to her. Mitch and Chase were in the back garden with the
rest of their family enjoying a beer. “It wasn’t that bad.”

“No? It sounds like it. Look at
him. He’s already a good looking boy,” her mother said.

“He takes after his dads.” Leah
stroked her son’s cheek before going to look out of the window.

“You can go and join them, Leah.
I’ve got this guy covered.” She smiled at her mother and moved out to the garden.
Chase’s father wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in for a hug.

She laughed, cuddling him back.

“You’ve made my son happy. Thank
you.”

“He’s made me happy,” she said,
pulling away.

Mitch opened his arms for her, and
she went to him willingly. Chase moved toward her. He kissed her head then ran
his fingers down her arm.

“You all look adorable,” one of
their old friends said. The party had been thrown at her parents’ house to
celebrate the birth of their son. It had been a week since Marvin had entered
their lives. Sex was not on the menu at the moment. Chase and Mitch showed her
there were other passions to experiment in.

She shivered as Mitch ran a finger
down her back and tucked it into the denim of her jeans. “You look stunning,”
he said.

Chase stroked her arm as he kissed
her head. She noticed a few of their family friends looking at them oddly. Leah
knew it would have been
a miracle to have everyone accept
them instantly. She didn’t care. With her friends and the men she loved at her
side, she knew she could do anything.

“Mom is watching Marvin for us,”
she said.

“Come on.” Chase took her hand
leading her out of the backyard. Leah looked back, and no one was following
them. They walked out onto her old street, and together they moved down to the
park they use to play in.

“You’ve brought me to the park,”
she said.

Chase stood behind the swings.
“Jump on.”

She hesitated for a few seconds and
then felt silly over her lack of trust. When they were kids, Chase and Mitch had
used to take turns catching her swing, which made her jump. Leah sat onto the
swing and let Chase pull her back and let go. Putting her feet out in front of
her, she built up speed. Mitch stood in front of her watching.

This reminded her of so many times
when they’d been together doing silly things. They were no longer children but
had a child of their own.

After twenty minutes, Chase slowed
down the swing, wrapping her in his arms. Mitch came to her front, and she
stared into his eyes.

“I love you, baby,” Chase said.

She closed her eyes as they each
kissed her temple.

“Will you guys marry me?” she
asked.

“We can’t marry you, baby. It is
not legal.”

“We don’t need a church.” Leah
opened her eyes and stood. She reached into the pocket of her jeans pulling out
three gold banded rings. “No ceremony. We can be married in our hearts.”

She showed them the rings by
opening her palm.

Mitch took one ring as Chase took
the other. “I wish we could get married for real,” Mitch said.

“We can, or at least you two can.”

She pressed her hand over Chase’s
mouth. “I’m not marrying one of you. To me, I’m already married in here,” she
said, putting her hand over her heart.

They were silent as they stared at
the rings in their hands. “We put these rings on, and we’re married to each
other in our hearts?” Chase asked.

“What’s the matter, mate? Feeling
trapped?” Mitch asked.

Leah chuckled.

“Yeah, little bit. This is a huge
responsibility. If it was anyone else I’d be freaking out.” Chase slid the ring
onto his finger and smiled. “I’ve been your guy ever since you fell into my
arms at this very park. This just guarantees you’ll never be able to get rid of
me.”

She slid her ring onto her finger,
smiling at both men. Mitch did the same with his finger.

“I’ve always been married to you,
Leah.” Mitch kissed her head. Together they walked back to her parents’ house.
She showed her mother the ring and told what it meant.

She’d come up with the idea while staring
at Marvin in his crib. There was no way she’d pick between her two best friends.
She knew she could marry one while the other lived with them, but that arrangement
didn’t feel right to her. No one could stop them being happy. They were not
breaking any laws by being in love.

Taking Marvin off her mother, she
joined the rest of the guests in the garden.
 

****

Mitch ate the burger in his hands
watching his woman with their son in her arms. Chase stood next to him drinking
a beer. “She looks stunning,” he said.

His friend smiled. Mitch looked at
Chase, wondering what he was thinking.

“You could have taken her then and
there,” Chase said. “In the park, you could have told her the truth.”

Mitch rubbed the back of his neck.
“I’ve never been an underhand player, Chase. We agreed to this.”

“But you know who Marvin’s father
is.” Chase swallowed more beer.

Mitch knew that his son was in
Leah’s arms. That Friday night all those months ago played in his mind all the
time. When they’d found out about Leah being pregnant Chase had told Mitch he
was unable to have children. The baby Leah was carrying had to be his.

Years ago Chase had gotten mumps
when he was a child, and he’d been bed-bound for weeks. Mitch hadn’t known that
the illness had taken Chase’s ability to father children.

The fight they’d had over their
love for Leah when they were teenagers came to him. Chase had always been in
love with Leah.

“You’re right. I could have taken
Leah. I knew I was the father of Marvin, but my son is going to be the luckiest
boy in the world because he’s going to have two fathers who love him.” Mitch
pulled his friend close and hugged him. “I don’t care about all that shit,
Chase. We agreed to share her, and Leah is so happy. How could we deny her
everything she ever wanted?”

Chase rubbed his eyes, wiping the
tears from them. “I can’t believe you’d do this for me.”

“You’ll get to be a father to
children, Chase. They may come from me, but they’ll be ours.” When Mitch found
out about Chase’s inability to father children, he’d demanded he get tested to
make sure. The results had taken a few weeks to come, but the evidence was in
black and white. At least it had been until Mitch burnt the papers. “Leah never
needs to know. She loves us both, Chase. I won’t tell her, and neither will
you.”

“Tell me what?” Leah asked. Marvin
was asleep in her arms, looking absolutely perfect.

“You’ve got baby sick on your
shoulder,” Chase said.

“Shoot. Here, have your son while I
go and change.” Leah handed Marvin to Chase then disappeared into the house.

“Remember, we’re in this together.
You can never abandon us,” Mitch said.

****

Chase looked at the boy in his
arms. Tears welled in his eyes at the love he felt for this little man. When
she’d given birth a part of him had thought Mitch would tell Leah to claim her
as his own. His own insecurity had been getting to him in the heat of the
moment. He looked at Mitch seeing his best friend smile.

“We’re just friends, but we’re a
family.”

Nodding his head, Chase rocked
Marvin in his arms. The boy was asleep, but Chase liked the action. It soothed
him.

Mitch ate his burger, and then Leah
took the baby. Chase watched his two friends and the people he loved. They’d
given him far more than friendship. They’d given him a chance to have a family.

He left to go to the bathroom. His
father followed him. They stared at each other before his father patted him on
the back.

“I know that grandbaby isn’t mine,
Chase.”

“I don’t care what you think, Dad.
That baby is mine, and if you want to treat him any differently then I’ll cut
you out of his life. I can’t help what happened to me. Either accept him, or
back off.”

“Mitch knows, doesn’t he?” his
father asked.

“He knows and is more than happy
with it. We’re a family, and I’ll never have you tell me otherwise.”

He walked into the bathroom and
stared at his reflection. Chase stared down at the ring on his finger, and the
love her felt for both people wearing the exact same rings hit him in the
chest.

Finally, he was getting everything
he ever wanted.

Chase smiled as he made his way
down the stairs. The love he felt showed on his face and in the way he walked
over to his family.

Epilogue

Five
years later

 
Leah hung the washing on the line
as Marvin and
Tracy
ran around her feet. The breeze was a welcoming relief from the heat the summer
months had provided. It had been a long year, and she was thankful for her time
spent hanging out the washing. The last five years had been surreal, even more
surreal than the revelation of loving two men.

Mitch and Chase had finally begun
to turn their business into a more stable endeavour. They made it home every
night for dinner and had weekends off. In the early days after Marvin’s birth
they had almost lost their business and everything they owned with the economic
downturn. They had refused to admit defeat and continued on until they were a
success.

She patted her stomach. That
morning she’d been to the doctor and gotten the news she was expecting baby
number three. Leah smiled as she watched Marvin climb the small slide. His
laughter always delighted her.

“Baby, food’s ready.”

Leah walked up the garden to the
patio where the barbeque was currently grilling their food. Once their business
had turned around, they’d bought her this house out of the city with a garden
and plenty of rooms to keep her occupied. She’d even started taking contract work
where she worked at home. Marvin was in school, and she’d never been a kept
woman.

Mitch sat at the table reading the
paper. She chuckled as he pulled her into his lap.

“I’ve missed you today,” he said.

“
Ew
,
mommy and daddy are kissing.” Mitch laughed as Marvin’s voice disappeared down
the slide.

“You went to the doctor today.”

“I did.”

Chase stood next to her at the
table. “What’s the matter, baby? You’ve not been very well these past few days.
I don’t want you working and getting yourself ill,” Chase said.

She took their hands giving them
both a squeeze. “I imagine I’m going to continue being sick for a little while.
I may lose my appetite and become grouchy. Oh, and I’ll balloon to the size of
a mini elephant.”

“Again?
Seriously?”
Chase took her face in his hands and
kissed her deeply. Mitch chuckled, running his fingers through his hair. “I
love you,” he said, breaking away from the kiss.

She smiled, stroking his cheek.
“You better feed me. I’m starving.”

Mitch turned her to face him. “How
are you feeling?”

“I’m tired but happy. Another baby
will be perfect.” She looked at the men she loved feeling overwhelming
happiness.

“Do you want me to tell our folks,
or do you want to do it?” Chase asked.

“My mom already knows. She was the
one who told me to go to the doctor. I think she has a sixth sense for this
kind of thing.”

Chase passed her a plate of food.
Marvin ran to the table followed by
Tracy
.
They sat around the table eating their food. Leah listened to Chase and Mitch
talk about work. When they were done, she took their children into bed.

It was a Friday night, and they
were waiting for her downstairs. She quickly changed into some baggy pants and
shirt and joined them in the middle of the sofa. Chase was putting in the movie
as Mitch pulled her into his lap. “This takes the decision out of your hands.”

“What decision?” she asked.

“Mitch picked a horror movie to
start off with. I think he’s hoping to get off on you. I, however, would never
do that,” Chase said.

“You wouldn’t do that?” she asked.
“Is that why your jeans have thickened near your groin?”

“What can I say? The thought of
seeing my two best friends fuck is a turn-on to me.”

Leah smiled, settling down on
Mitch’s lap as Chase took her feet.

She loved this, when the children
were in bed and they were alone. They were no longer friends but lovers. Chase
handed her the pillow, and she stared behind waiting for the horror to grip
her. Being in Mitch’s lap meant she had plenty of manly flesh to keep her mind
occupied. Mitch rubbed her back, his touch setting off a fire like it had many
times before. She couldn’t wait for the movie to end, and none of them liked
horrors to begin with.