Kaya and Angelina listened to Trevor coming upstairs with their coffee. Cuddling with him was a sweet, distracting ritual. On Sunday mornings, Trevor was their man. Their darling man-child. No arguments about Everett Clay. The brief, dreamy indulgence lasted all day.
They loved being Trevor’s Two Mommies. This Sunday, though, a flickering worry interfered with Kaya’s maternal tenderness. She had learned that Polly had run off without a word to her sister or anyone else. Perhaps that’s why she had rashly said: Of course take off your clothes, Trevor. “We want to see you.” Kaya said the words and panicked—afraid of how he’d affect her.
[Click here to read the first episode, or here to read the previous one.]
“Gotta to tell you something you might not wanna hear,” he was saying. “Lay ourselves bare and we’ll agree with grace. That’s my hope.”
Naked now, Trevor lifted his arms and turned. Kaya pulled the cover up to her eyes, which burned wide in her head. Trevor’s single, lively gesture mesmerized her. His long strong body cast silvery trails in the air. Attenuated but perfectly proportioned, he resembled a sinuous god. His youthful muscles gleamed like marble.
Without hesitating, he slid under the covers the way he always did, his eyes full of hide-and-seek mischief. Kaya inched away from him and steeled herself even as Trevor raised his arms, clasping his hands behind his head. Trevor’s smooth chest under the duvet exerted a pull from which she escaped long enough to float like flower petals in a warm pond. She closed her eyes but that didn’t distract her much from the finger-like muscles clasping his ribs. Angelina probably suffered none of this.
Kaya lasted two seconds before her glance resumed darting all over. Trevor’s eyes rolled up as he explained that Angelina must limit her friendship with Everett Clay. Lifelong friends, he said, could easily wander too far into each other’s hearts and minds. That’s why Everett’s wife had left, but she was willing to come back and try again.
“Without her,” Trevor said, “da big bad Chief’s alone. He takes walks with you and goes home to an empty house.”
Still caught in an attraction as pronounced as gravity—never had Kaya known a man or woman to enthrall her so—she struggled to register what Trevor and Angelina were saying.
Trevor was attempting to resolve his mommies’ main argument. By championing Chief Babylon—that was new.
Any second now Angelina would literally kick the beautiful rude boy out of their bed.
Except—Kaya prayed she was hearing this right: “Trevor, are you saying I’ve been selfish?”
“Nuh selfish, Angelina. Heart and mind boundaries are not easy. Invisible and always changing. Yah see?”
“Darling,” Angelina said, kissing Trevor without looking at Kaya. Or so Kaya suspected in her transported state. Half here and half lost to lust and fascination and newfound wonder. Their angel Trevor had upset everyone by acting like a prophet before Christmas. And now Kaya, looking away, out the window, lay struck by his godliness. Which was idiocy. If only Trevor would get dressed!
“Thank you, sweetheart,” Angelina said. You were brave to risk telling me how to live—it’s almost never right—but in this case, yes. I agree.”
He kissed Angelina’s cheek, and turning to Kaya withheld the kiss, instinctively holding his palm millimeters above her head. “I’m gone.”
He slipped from under their duvet and dressed quickly, this time without ceremony, and closed their door.
Angelina held Kaya’s hand. “I’m so sorry about this, honey. I didn’t realize how selfish I was being. You were right.”
Kaya mumbled: Don’t worry. And hurried into the shower. Or whatever else it might take.
(Click here to read the next episode)
