Stealing the Show (PolyAm Fam #3)

Chapter 1

one

raine

I didn’t realize a surprise was on the menu when I planned to have lunch with my former roommate, Danielle. I hadn’t seen much of her since she moved in with her boyfriends, Aris and Noah. Yes, boyfriends. Plural.

They were a polyamorous throuple, and I was here for it. They were adorable together, and I was so thrilled to see them all admit they were meant for each other.

Our favorite café was practically dead. Summer in Bloomington was always a little slower—there weren’t nearly as many students on campus for summer classes, and a lot of families took vacations while school was out. I watched Danielle walk through the restaurant, her face absolutely radiating love and happiness.

“Raine!” She threw her arms around me so exuberantly, she nearly knocked me on my ass. Danielle was a beautiful statuesque woman, and, though I was equally curvy, I was barely five feet tall on a good day. She’d been blessed with height.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to bowl you over. I’m just so excited to see you. Tell me everything!” She plopped down on one side of the booth, and I took the other.

The server came by, and Danielle grinned. “We’re catching up. It might take us a few minutes to get to the menu.”

The server, a waify, androgynous human with purple and green hair, smiled knowingly. “I’ll be back in a few.”

“Well, tell me!” she gushed, lacing her fingers together on top of the menu. “What’s happened since my party? Are you ready for graduation? Have you found a job?”

I sighed. “There’s not much to tell. My last class ends only a couple of weeks from now, and I still haven’t found The Job yet. However, I did get a job working at the Brown County theater this summer as the costume director, but it’s only a seasonal position. I hope to get my thesis turned in by the end of August.”

“Right…” Danielle’s beautiful features twisted into a frown. “Well, I’m sure you have tons of applications out.”

I clasped my hands together to simmer down my excitement. “Yes, I’m starting to send them out—Chicago, New York, LA. Maybe I’ll end up in Hollywood!”

“That would be a lot different than stage work, wouldn’t it?” She reached out and grasped my hand. “I’m so glad you’re gonna be able to graduate on time and not have to stay another semester like me. I’m supposed to have my sinus surgery later this summer, but?—”

Sinus issues and a broken leg had sidelined Danielle from completing her master of fine arts with a performance concentration in musical theater. “But what?” It didn’t look like her statement was going to turn into a true “but” by the glow on her face.

“Well, I have some news.” She sucked in a breath, looking nervous and excited all at once.

“Don’t hold me in suspense!” Naturally, the server came back right then to ask if we’d made any decisions. The menus remained untouched in front of us.

“Let’s just order really quick, and then I’ll fill you in,” she suggested, opening her menu. “Besides, I’m famished.”

We both placed orders, and the server skedaddled away. “Now, spill it, girl.”

She giggled and toyed with her napkin. “So…the big news is…”

I leaned forward. Leave it to an actress to draw this out and have me on the edge of my seat.

“I’m pregnant!” she nearly shouted.

“Whoa, what?!” I was sure I looked like one of those cartoon characters whose eyes comically bug out from their faces as their jaws hit the floor in shock. “Oh my god, Dani, that’s great! Not at all what I was expecting to hear, but wow! So what does this mean for…”

I trailed off because I didn’t even know how to verbalize all the changes she’d already been through in only a few short months’ time.

“I guess we weren’t as careful as we should have been,” she admitted with a sheepish smile. “No, I don’t know if it’s Aris’s or Noah’s. I don’t want to know. I’m still going to teach the theater camp this summer, but we’re going to put my surgery off. And after that? I don’t know. I’m due in December. I guess I’ll figure things out after that.”

Now her glow made perfect sense. “You seem really happy.”

She grinned. “I am. Raine, I—I never knew this was what I wanted in life, to be with two amazing men, to be expecting their child. I would have never imagined in a million years this was the right path for me, but here I am.”

“And Aris and Noah are happy?” I imagined Aris was—he was a happy-go-lucky guy and a true optimist, like me. But I didn’t know Noah as well. They both worked in the medical field. Aris was an orthopedic nurse, and Noah was an ear-nose-throat specialist.

“They are thrilled! The whole polycule is thrilled, to be honest. This baby is going to be so loved. I’m only eight weeks along, but everyone’s so excited and making plans and buying stuff already. It’s so crazy. Noah is talking about buying a house.”

“Wow. That’s awesome, Dani. I’m going to be an aunt!”

She squeezed my hand. “That’s right! Aunt Raine has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

* * *

My friend Bonnie, one of my fellow MFA students at Indiana University, moved in with me after Danielle moved out to live with Aris and Noah. She was belting out a Broadway tune in the shower when I got home from my lunch date. By the time I put the tea kettle on, she was walking down the hall, still singing “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” from Evita .

“Hey, you!” I greeted her. She was wearing a blue terrycloth robe and had her long hair twisted into a thin pink and green striped towel. “Want some tea?”

“That would be lovely!” Her face was shiny, like it had just been scrubbed. “I’m going out tonight. You wanna come?”

I groaned. “I peopled today for lunch. I don’t know about two social events in a day.” As an introvert, it had taken me a while to learn how to deal with bigger crowds and meeting new people. I was usually convinced no one liked me or enjoyed my company, but I was getting better. Being around Danielle, Bonnie, and their friends had helped, but I still had a ways to go.

“C’mon,” she exerted maximum peer pressure, “I know you need to blow off some steam. You’ve been working on your thesis project too hard, girl.”

She was right. My thesis was on the evolution of costume design from early twentieth-century to the twenty-first century, and I had to also design three costumes from period-appropriate shows for each era. It had been consuming nearly every waking moment—but it was in the final stages now. It was due by the end of the summer.

“Where are you going?” One night out wouldn’t put me that far behind, right?

She grinned and rocked back and forth on her bare feet. Her toes were painted with sparkly lavender polish. “Aris and his crew are meeting me at The Barn tonight for a drag show and karaoke.”

“Oh!” My nose wrinkled in confusion. “I had lunch with Danielle today, and she didn’t mention it.”

“I’m not sure if she’s coming, but Noah and Aris definitely are. A couple other people you met at my last party will be there too.”

Bonnie was a social butterfly and was great at connecting people. I met her in one of my first grad school classes, and she was responsible for hooking me up with almost all the great people in my life, except for Danielle, whom I’d known since we were undergrads. Danielle and I met Aris through her, which obviously worked out well for Dani.

“Don’t you ever get FOMO, girl?” she pleaded. “I think this will be good for you. Besides, watching a drag show should give you plenty of inspiration for your costume designs.”

I rolled my eyes. Well, she did have a point. “Fine, fine. Peopling at a gay bar is easier than peopling with the general public.”

She snapped her fingers. “Facts!”

maggie

I stared at the doctor, blinking. Leo put his hand on my knee, but I couldn’t look at him. Not now.

This was not the news I was expecting. It was not the news I had prepared myself for.

The doctor went over some options with us, but I didn’t hear any of them. I slung my purse over my shoulder and rose from the plastic chair like a zombie, my husband’s arm feeling like a chain as it wrapped around my waist and guided me out of the room. He handled the checkout and then ushered me to the car.

“Do you want to talk about it?” his voice was stiff, like he was trying to be strong for me, but he was barely holding on.

I shook my head.

“Let’s go out tonight. Let’s do something to get your mind off things,” he offered.

“It’s a Wednesday,” I shot him down.

He drove home silently, pulling our car into the garage and hurrying around to my side to open the door for me. Always a gentleman. Always watching out for me. Always putting my needs above his.

Is it any wonder I want to give him a baby?

As we made our way inside the house, my phone buzzed. Leo bent down to pet our hyper Cavapoo, Blue, who thought the sun rose and set with his daddy. Maybe Blue was the only baby we were meant to have. Just fur babies for us.

Noah: Aris and I are heading to The Barn tonight for the drag show and karaoke. Is Leo working? If you’re bored, maybe you’d want to come hang out with us?

The Barn was the local LGBTQ bar, and ever since I admitted to Noah and Aris that I was bisexual, they’d been inviting me. When Aris and Noah started dating Danielle, I’d also let it slip that my husband and I are also polyamorous. It was clear they thought I needed a girlfriend.

“Leo works such weird hours,” Aris had said. “You’re alone so much. That has to get old sometimes, doesn’t it?”

It was true. Leo was a police officer, and he did have a crazy schedule. Sometimes he was on day shift. Sometimes he was on night shift. He was always on call for the crisis management team. He sometimes got called out again as soon as he got home.

Noah had started as my client, but we had become friends. He dealt with a PR nightmare and a bogus malpractice suit a few months ago, and I’d counseled him through it. I was pretty sure he thought he still owed me because he was pretty adamant about buying me drinks every time he convinced me to get out of the house.

“Can I get you anything?” Leo asked as he stood in front of the refrigerator like he was willing the perfect snack to just magically appear.

“I don’t really feel much like eating.” I looked down at my phone, fingers hovering over the keyboard so I could gently decline Noah’s invitation.

Before I could type anything, Leo shut the fridge doors and slid behind me, using his strong hands to massage my tense shoulders. He was also clearly looking at my phone.

“Oh, Noah invited you out tonight?”

“Nosy much?” I looked over my shoulder at him.

“They’re still trying to hook you up, I guess?” His tone dripped with hope.

He wanted me to have a girlfriend as badly as they did.

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t know if I’m in the mood tonight, you know?”

He took my hand and guided me over to the table. “Sit,” he commanded in his cop voice that always garnered compliance from me, whether I liked it or not. It was like my body obeyed even if my mind wanted to come back with some bratty, snarky response.

After pulling out the chair next to me, he sat and took my hands into his. “Maggie, I know what we heard today sucked. It was bad news for sure. You’re upset by it. I’m upset.”

I nodded. Every word he said was painfully true.

“We’re both still processing our options, and we won’t be able to change the situation right now, tonight. So, I think a distraction is in order. I know I’d feel better if I got out and had a few drinks and some laughs with friends. What could be more distracting than a drag show and terrible karaoke?”

I tried not to crack a smile, but it was difficult when he was being so adorable.

My husband was a tall, beefy guy with impossibly broad shoulders, weathered olive skin, short dark hair with a hint of silver at his temples, and deep brown eyes. They could be as sharp and piercing as a German shepherd’s or as gentle and playful as a puppy’s. Right now, they were the latter.

I set my phone on the table and texted Noah back. Then I turned to Leo and cocked my head. “Fine, you win. We’ll go to The Barn, and I’ll flirt with all the pretty girls. You’re right. That will take my mind off things.”

“You don’t have to flirt with the pretty girls,” he said with a wink, “unless you really want to.” He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his strong embrace. “No matter what happens, just know I love you.”

I bit back the sob that was trying to well up in my throat. “I love you too.”