The Bisexual Man Next Door

by Elephant List

We lived in Cedar Park, a quiet suburb northwest of Austin, Texas, where the houses were close enough for neighbors to know one another but private enough for almost anything to happen behind a backyard fence.

Tessa had bought the house two years before I moved in. It was a comfortable two-story place with pale limestone walls, a narrow backyard, and a covered patio that became our favorite room whenever the Texas heat allowed it. We had a grill, an outdoor table, and a string of warm lights Tessa had hung beneath the roof. Most Friday nights ended there with music playing softly and condensation running down the sides of our glasses.

By then, Tessa and I had been together for almost four years.

She knew I was bisexual before our first date.

I had told her over drinks because I had learned that waiting only made the conversation harder. Some women had reacted with curiosity, others with suspicion, and one had treated it as proof that I would eventually leave her for a man.

Tessa had taken a sip of her margarita and asked, “Does that mean we can compare notes when the waiter comes back?”

The waiter had been handsome.

That was when I knew I wanted a second date.

Our relationship was monogamous, but my sexuality was never hidden or treated as something dangerous. Tessa occasionally caught me noticing a man and would lean close enough to whisper her opinion. Sometimes we agreed. Sometimes we did not. It had become one of the small intimacies between us, like sharing food from each other’s plates or knowing exactly how the other took coffee.

Neither of us had ever seriously discussed inviting someone else into our relationship.

Not until Reid moved in next door.

The house had been empty for nearly three months after the previous owners relocated to Dallas. One Saturday morning in early June, a moving truck appeared in the driveway, followed by a dark gray pickup.

Tessa noticed him first.

I was making coffee when she stopped beside the kitchen window.

“Well,” she said.

I looked up. “What?”

“Our new neighbor.”

Her tone made me cross the kitchen.

A man stood beside the moving truck wearing faded jeans and a charcoal T-shirt. He was lifting one end of a bookcase with the help of a mover, and the fabric stretched tightly across his shoulders as he raised it.

He looked somewhere in his early forties, perhaps seven or eight years older than us. Tall, broad, and lean through the waist. His dark hair was cut short and touched with gray near the temples. Even from across the yard, he had the composed, self-contained appearance of someone accustomed to handling things on his own.

Tessa folded her arms.

“He seems useful.”

“Is that what you noticed?”

“Among other things.”

The man turned, giving us a clearer view of his face. Strong jaw, straight nose, a few lines around his eyes that suggested he smiled more than his serious expression initially revealed.

“Yes,” I said. “He does.”

Tessa glanced at me.

“I thought you might agree.”

We met him that afternoon.

I was trimming a rosemary bush beside the driveway when he walked over carrying a flattened cardboard box.

“Sorry about the truck blocking part of your driveway earlier,” he said. “They were supposed to be done by noon.”

His voice was low and easy.

“No problem. We weren’t going anywhere.”

He held out his hand. “Reid.”

“Nolan.”

His grip was firm without becoming a demonstration. Up close, I noticed that his eyes were hazel, more green than brown in the sunlight.

Tessa came through the front door before I had a chance to call her.

“I’m Tessa,” she said, smiling as she joined us.

Reid shook her hand, and something shifted almost immediately. It was subtle, but obvious enough that I saw it—the extra second of eye contact, the slight change in his expression, the warmth in hers.

He was attracted to her.

I could hardly blame him.

Tessa had thick auburn hair that fell just below her shoulders, expressive brown eyes, and the kind of easy confidence that drew attention without appearing to ask for it. She was wearing denim shorts and a sleeveless white blouse, simple clothes that looked anything but simple on her.

“You picked the hottest weekend of the year to move,” she said.

“I’m beginning to understand that.”

“Do you have food yet?”

“A protein bar and half a case of beer.”

“That isn’t food.”

“It has calories.”

Tessa laughed. “Come over for dinner. We’re grilling.”

Reid hesitated. “I don’t want to intrude.”

“You won’t.”

He looked at me, perhaps expecting the invitation to require my approval.

“Come over around seven,” I said.

His gaze remained on mine for a moment.

“Thanks. I will.”

Tessa made enough food for six people.

She claimed it was because she did not know how hungry Reid would be after moving all day, but I knew her better. She liked preparing for guests, especially attractive ones.

Reid arrived carrying a bottle of bourbon and another of wine.

“I wasn’t sure what you drank,” he said.

“An excellent start,” Tessa replied.

We ate beneath the patio lights while cicadas buzzed beyond the fence. Reid told us he had moved from Houston after his divorce and accepted a position overseeing construction projects for a commercial development company in Austin. He had been married for eleven years. No children.

He mentioned the divorce without bitterness, but something in the careful way he spoke suggested it was still recent enough to ache.

“What brought you to Cedar Park?” I asked.

“I wanted somewhere quiet that was still close to the city.” He took a drink. “And I wanted a house that didn’t remind me of my old one.”

Tessa’s expression softened.

“Fresh start?”

“That’s the idea.”

By the end of the evening, he seemed less like a stranger and more like someone we had known longer than a few hours. He was dryly funny, attentive without trying too hard, and comfortable with silence. When he laughed, the serious lines in his face disappeared.

Tessa touched his forearm twice during dinner.

I noticed both times.

I also noticed the way he watched her walk into the kitchen.

What surprised me was not that I felt jealous.

It was that I watched him watching her and felt something warmer and more complicated.

When he left, Tessa closed the back door and leaned against it.

“He’s definitely interested.”

“In you.”

She tilted her head. “You sound disappointed.”

“I’m making an observation.”

“Were you watching him?”

“A little.”

“I was watching you watch him.”

I picked up the empty glasses. “That sounds exhausting.”

She followed me into the kitchen.

“He’s handsome.”

“Yes.”

“Your type?”

“I don’t have a type.”

Tessa gave me a look.

“Fine,” I said. “He might be one of them.”

She smiled but did not push the conversation any further.

Reid became part of our routine faster than either of us expected.

At first, it was practical. He borrowed a ladder. I helped him move a heavy workbench into his garage. Tessa gave him the name of a plumber when the kitchen sink began leaking.

Then he started joining us for dinner.

Some evenings he brought steaks. Others, he appeared with bourbon and sat beneath our patio lights until midnight. On Sundays, he and I occasionally watched baseball in his living room while Tessa read beside us or wandered between the two houses.

The attraction between Reid and Tessa developed in the open.

He complimented her cooking. She teased him about his inability to choose furniture. He began wearing a particular smile around her, one that was half amused and half cautious.

He never crossed a line.

Neither did she.

But the line was becoming increasingly visible.

What Reid did not seem to notice was that I had begun anticipating his visits as much as Tessa did.

I noticed his hands when he worked on the grill. I noticed the muscles in his forearms when he rolled up his sleeves. I noticed the faint scent of cedar and soap when he stood close to me.

Once, while we were repairing a loose gate hinge between our properties, he leaned across my shoulder to hold the wood steady.

His chest pressed briefly against my back.

It was incidental. Necessary.

Still, I remained aware of it long after he stepped away.

Tessa noticed that too.

That evening, while we were getting ready for bed, she stood behind me in the bathroom mirror.

“You like him.”

It was not a question.

“I like having him around.”

“That isn’t what I meant.”

I met her eyes in the reflection.

She placed her hands on my waist.

“Does that bother you?” I asked.

“No.”

Her answer came quickly enough that I believed her.

“What does it do, then?”

She smiled slowly.

“I haven’t decided.”

A week later, Reid invited us to his house for dinner.

By then, his place no longer looked recently abandoned. He had chosen dark furniture, framed black-and-white photographs, and a leather sofa that made the living room feel more like him—restrained, masculine, quietly expensive.

He cooked instead of grilling, serving pasta with shrimp and a sauce he claimed was his only impressive recipe.

Tessa wore a dark green dress that left her shoulders bare.

Reid noticed.

I wore a fitted black shirt that Tessa had selected for me.

Reid noticed that too, though perhaps not in the same way.

After dinner, we moved to his back patio. Unlike ours, his yard had a large wooden deck and a hot tub beneath a pergola.

Tessa looked at it.

“You’ve been hiding this.”

“It came with the house.”

“And you never mentioned it?”

“I assumed everyone had seen a hot tub before.”

“Not everyone has one twenty feet from my back door.”

Reid smiled. “You’re welcome to use it.”

“Dangerous offer.”

His eyes moved over her face.

“I trust you.”

He said it lightly, but the air between them changed.

Tessa glanced at me.

I took a slow drink of bourbon.

“Do you?” she asked.

Reid seemed to realize the question had acquired another meaning.

He leaned back in his chair. “Shouldn’t I?”

“That depends.”

“On what?”

“On whether you’ve figured us out yet.”

His expression became cautious.

“I didn’t know there was anything to figure out.”

“There usually is.”

“Tessa,” I said, though I was not asking her to stop.

She crossed one leg over the other.

Reid looked between us. “Am I missing something?”

“Probably,” she said.

He laughed softly, uncertain whether she was joking.

The conversation shifted after that, but the tension remained.

Two nights later, Tessa invited him over again.

She did not mention the hot tub or the conversation on his deck. She made dinner, opened wine, and behaved as though nothing had changed.

After we ate, the three of us sat beneath the patio lights while warm wind moved through the yard.

Reid was telling us about a disastrous blind date when Tessa looked at her phone.

“I forgot I promised Claire I would bring her the dress she’s borrowing.”

“At ten o’clock?” I asked.

“She needs it tomorrow morning.”

Her eyes held mine.

It was not true.

Or at least, it had not been planned until that moment.

“I’ll be back soon,” she said.

She stood, kissed me lightly, then rested one hand on Reid’s shoulder as she passed behind him.

“Don’t let Nolan drink all the bourbon.”

Reid watched her cross the house.

A moment later, the front door closed.

Silence settled over the patio.

Reid looked toward the kitchen, then at me.

“She does that often?”

“Leaves me alone with attractive men?”

His eyebrows lifted.

The words hung between us.

I could have laughed them away.

I did not.

Reid’s expression changed slowly as he began to reconsider every evening we had spent together, every glance he had misunderstood, and every assumption he had made about me.

“Nolan,” he said carefully, “is there something you haven’t told me?”

I set my glass on the table.

“Yes.”

For the first time since he moved next door, Reid looked at me the way he had always looked at Tessa.

His eyes moved slowly over my face, as though he were searching for evidence that he had misunderstood me.

“You’re serious,” he said.

“Yes.”

Reid leaned back in his chair. The distance between us had not changed, but the patio suddenly felt smaller.

“I thought you and Tessa were—”

“We are.”

“Then what exactly are you telling me?”

“That I’m bisexual.”

He went still.

The word seemed to answer several questions at once. His gaze dropped briefly toward my chest before returning to my eyes.

“And Tessa knows?”

“She’s always known.”

A quiet laugh escaped him, more surprise than amusement.

“I’ve been living next door for almost two months.”

“You never asked.”

“I didn’t know I was supposed to.”

“You weren’t.”

Reid picked up his glass but did not drink. His thumb moved along the rim while he studied me.

“Is that why she left?”

“I think she wanted us to talk.”

“About you being bisexual?”

“About the fact that I’m attracted to you.”

That stripped the last trace of uncertainty from his expression.

The cicadas buzzed beyond the fence. Somewhere farther down the street, a car door closed. Everything outside our patio continued as though I had not just said the words I had avoided for weeks.

Reid looked toward the house again.

“And she’s all right with that?”

“She’s more than all right with it.”

His jaw tightened slightly.

“She’s attracted to me.”

“Yes.”

“And you are too.”

“Yes.”

He looked down at his hands.

“This is not how I expected tonight to go.”

“How did you expect it to go?”

“I expected another drink, another conversation, and another hour trying not to look too often at your girlfriend.”

I smiled.

“You weren’t doing a very good job.”

“I suspected that.”

His answering smile was brief, but it changed his face in the way I had come to anticipate.

Then it disappeared.

“I’ve never done anything with a man,” he said.

The admission was quiet.

I had wondered. There had been moments when I convinced myself he had looked at me with interest, but there had been just as many when he seemed completely unaware of the possibility.

“I didn’t assume you had.”

“Have you?”

“Yes.”

Reid nodded once, absorbing it.

“And Tessa is comfortable with that part of you?”

“She likes that part of me.”

His eyes settled on mine again.

There was more curiosity in them now than alarm.

“What does that mean?”

“It means she doesn’t merely tolerate it.”

He took a slow drink.

I could see him trying to decide whether the conversation had already gone too far or whether he wanted it to go further.

I gave him room.

“You don’t have to do anything,” I said. “Neither of us invited you here expecting something to happen.”

“But she deliberately left us alone.”

“Yes.”

“That sounds like an expectation.”

“It was an opportunity.”

“For what?”

“To find out whether you’ve ever thought about me the way you think about her.”

Reid exhaled through his nose.

“You’re very direct.”

“I’m trying to be.”

“And if I say no?”

“Then we finish the bourbon, Tessa comes home, and tomorrow you’re still our neighbor.”

He watched me for a long moment.

“What if I don’t know?”

“That’s also an answer.”

He turned the glass between his palms.

“I noticed you,” he finally said.

The words sent a low current through me.

“When?”

“The first day we met.”

I had not expected that.

“You hid it well.”

“I didn’t understand what I was noticing.”

He looked almost irritated with himself.

“You were standing in the driveway with dirt on your hands, wearing that gray shirt you run in. I remember thinking you were in very good shape. Then Tessa came outside, and that made more sense to me.”

“So you concentrated on her.”

“She was easier to understand.”

I laughed softly.

“That sounds familiar.”

Reid’s gaze lingered on my mouth.

The movement was unmistakable now.

I leaned forward, resting my forearms on my knees.

“What are you thinking?”

“That Tessa may have known something about me before I did.”

“She’s perceptive.”

“She’s dangerous.”

“That too.”

He smiled again, but neither of us looked away.

There were only a few feet between our chairs.

I could have crossed them.

Instead, I waited.

Reid’s fingers tightened around his glass before he placed it on the table. He leaned forward, mirroring my position.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” he said.

“You don’t need to.”

His knee touched mine.

It might have been accidental if he had moved away.

He did not.

The contact was slight, no more than denim against denim, but it altered the rhythm of my breathing.

Reid noticed.

His eyes lowered toward our legs.

Then, carefully, he pressed his knee more firmly against mine.

“Is this what she wanted?” he asked.

“I think she wanted you to stop pretending you hadn’t noticed me.”

“And what do you want?”

I looked directly at him.

“I want to kiss you.”

His breath caught.

For several seconds, neither of us moved.

Then Reid stood.

For one uncertain moment, I thought he intended to leave. Instead, he stepped around the table and stopped in front of me.

I rose slowly.

He was taller than I was by a few inches. Standing this close, I could smell the bourbon on his breath and the clean scent of his skin beneath it.

His eyes searched mine.

“You’ll tell me if I’m doing this wrong?”

“There isn’t a wrong way to kiss me.”

“That sounds optimistic.”

“It’s been true so far.”

He laughed under his breath, and the tension broke just enough for him to lift one hand.

His palm settled against the side of my neck.

The touch was cautious, almost formal, but his fingers tightened when I leaned into it.

I placed a hand against his waist.

The muscles beneath his shirt stiffened.

“You all right?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Sure?”

“No,” he admitted. “But don’t stop.”

I moved closer.

Our mouths met carefully at first.

Reid held himself rigid for the first few seconds, as though he expected the kiss to feel unnatural. Then I felt the moment his uncertainty gave way. His hand slid behind my neck, pulling me closer, and his mouth opened beneath mine.

The kiss deepened.

A quiet sound escaped him when my other hand settled against his side. His body was hard and warm beneath the thin cotton of his shirt, more solid than I had imagined during all those evenings watching him across the patio.

His stubble scraped pleasantly against my jaw.

When we separated, Reid remained close enough that our foreheads nearly touched.

“Well?” I whispered.

He was breathing harder.

“That was not what I expected.”

“Bad?”

His grip tightened at the back of my neck.

“No.”

He kissed me again before I could say anything else.

There was less hesitation this time.

He pushed me back a step until my hips met the edge of the outdoor table. His hands moved over my shoulders, my arms, and finally my waist, learning the shape of another man’s body through clothing.

I let him explore.

His mouth became more confident with every passing second. When my fingers slipped beneath the hem of his shirt and touched the warm skin of his lower back, he shuddered.

Then the patio door opened.

Reid pulled away so quickly that he nearly struck the table.

Tessa stood in the doorway holding her purse, her gaze moving from Reid’s flushed face to my hand, which was still resting against his waist.

For a moment, she said nothing.

Then she smiled.

“I see you found something to talk about.”

Reid released a nervous laugh and stepped back, though not far.

“You planned this.”

“I created an opportunity.”

“That’s what Nolan said.”

Tessa placed her purse on the counter inside and walked onto the patio.

She stopped in front of Reid.

He looked suddenly uncertain again.

“Are you angry?” he asked.

“With which one of you?”

“Either.”

Tessa reached up and rested her hand against his chest.

“No.”

The relief in his expression was immediate.

Her fingers moved slowly down the front of his shirt.

“Did you enjoy kissing my boyfriend?”

Reid glanced at me.

“Yes.”

Tessa smiled.

“Good.”

She rose onto her toes and kissed him.

Reid froze for only a fraction of a second before his hand settled against her waist. Their kiss was familiar in a way ours had not been, man and woman falling into an instinctive rhythm, but watching them no longer made me feel like an outsider.

Tessa opened her eyes while her mouth was still against his.

She looked directly at me.

Then she reached out and curled her fingers into the front of my shirt, drawing me toward them.

Reid broke the kiss and looked between us.

Tessa stood in the narrow space separating our bodies, one hand against his chest and the other holding me close.

“No more misunderstandings,” she said.

Reid’s eyes darkened.

“What happens now?”

Tessa looked at me.

I looked at him.

Then she smiled.

“Now we find out what all three of us have been thinking about.”

Tessa kissed Reid again, but this time she pulled me closer until my chest pressed against her back. Reid’s eyes opened when he felt me there.

For a moment, the three of us remained connected by nothing more than Tessa’s body between ours.

Then she stepped aside.

Reid and I faced each other again.

The nervousness had not completely left his expression, but desire had overtaken it. Tessa rested one hand against his back and gently pushed him toward me.

“Don’t start hesitating now,” she said.

Reid caught my waist and kissed me again.

There was nothing cautious about it this time.

His mouth opened against mine while his hands moved over my back. I gripped his shoulders, feeling the strength beneath his shirt as Tessa pressed herself against his side and kissed along his neck.

Reid broke away, breathing hard.

“I still can’t believe this is happening.”

Tessa reached for the hem of his shirt.

“Then stop thinking about it.”

She pulled it over his head.

I had imagined his body often enough, but the reality was better. His shoulders were broad, his chest covered with a light layer of dark hair, and his stomach firm without looking sculpted for display.

Tessa ran both hands over him.

Reid watched my face while she touched him.

“You approve?” he asked.

“Yes.”

Tessa smiled. “He definitely approves.”

She unbuttoned my shirt and pushed it from my shoulders. Reid’s gaze moved openly over me now, no longer pretending that his interest was only curiosity.

His hand settled against my chest.

The simple contact affected me more than I expected.

He traced his palm downward, testing the shape of my body, while Tessa moved behind him and opened his jeans.

Reid inhaled sharply.

“You two planned more than a conversation.”

“No,” Tessa said. “I only hoped the conversation would go well.”

She kissed between his shoulder blades as she pushed his jeans lower.

I stepped closer and kissed him again.

Our remaining clothes came off quickly after that.

There was no graceful transition, no carefully discussed sequence. There were only hands, mouths, and the urgency created by weeks of watching one another without admitting why.

Tessa moved between us as naturally as though she had imagined the exact position. She kissed Reid while reaching back for me, then turned and kissed me while his hands explored her body.

Watching him touch her excited me.

Watching him glance at me while he did it excited me more.

We moved inside before the patio lights and open yard made us careless. Tessa led us toward the bedroom, laughing softly when Reid hesitated at the doorway.

“You’ve already kissed my boyfriend,” she said. “The difficult part is over.”

“I’m not sure that was the difficult part.”

She pulled him inside.

The three of us fell onto the bed in a tangle of warm skin.

Reid seemed more comfortable with Tessa at first. He knew how to hold her, how to kiss her, and how to read the movements of her body. But she kept drawing me into everything they did.

When Reid kissed her, she reached for me.

When I touched her, she guided Reid’s hand over mine.

Before long, the distinction between familiar and unfamiliar disappeared.

Reid kissed me again while Tessa watched from beside us.

This time, his hand moved lower without hesitation.

I felt the surprise in his body when he touched me intimately for the first time, followed quickly by fascination.

Tessa leaned close to his ear.

“You wanted to know what it would feel like.”

Reid did not deny it.

Neither did I.

Tessa shifted onto her back and looked between us.

“I want to watch you together.”

Reid’s eyes met mine. The uncertainty was still there, but it no longer held him back.

I leaned toward him, and our mouths met again.

His kiss was hungry now. Tessa pressed herself against my back, her hands moving over both of us while her lips brushed my shoulder.

We lowered her onto the bed between us.

Reid settled between her thighs, kissing his way down her stomach. When his mouth reached her, Tessa arched beneath him and released a long, trembling breath.

I stayed beside her, stroking her hair as Reid explored her with his tongue.

Her eyes found mine.

She reached for me, wrapping her fingers around my cock and drawing me closer. Her mouth opened, and I groaned as her lips closed around me.

For several moments, Reid and I pleasured her together—his mouth between her legs, mine moving slowly between her lips.

But my attention kept returning to him.

I watched the muscles in his shoulders shift as he worked. I watched his hands grip Tessa’s thighs. More than anything, I wanted to know how he would react when I touched him without clothing between us.

Tessa seemed to sense it.

She released me and reached down, curling her fingers into Reid’s hair.

“Come here,” she whispered.

Reid lifted his head. His mouth glistened with her arousal as he moved up her body.

I kissed him before he could speak.

The taste of Tessa was still on his tongue.

He made a low sound into my mouth when my hand closed around his cock. He was hard and hot against my palm, and the surprise that crossed his face quickly became pleasure.

Tessa watched us with her lower lip caught between her teeth.

Her hand covered mine, guiding the movement.

Then she looked at me.

“Suck him.”

Reid’s breathing changed.

I held his gaze as I moved lower, kissing my way down his chest and stomach. When my lips closed around the head of his cock, his entire body tightened.

“Jesus,” he breathed.

His hand settled uncertainly on my head. A moment later, his fingers threaded into my hair.

I took him deeper.

Tessa lay beside us, touching herself as she watched my mouth move along him. Reid’s eyes alternated between her face and mine, as though he could not decide which sight affected him more.

When I finally released him, he caught my shoulders and pulled me upward.

He kissed me hard.

Tessa moved between us, her hands gliding over our bodies.

“I need both of you,” she said.

Reid looked at me, then back at her.

There was no confusion left in his expression.

He positioned himself between her thighs while I knelt beside her head. Tessa reached for me, guiding my cock back toward her mouth as Reid pressed slowly inside her.

Her moan vibrated around me.

We began carefully, finding a rhythm that belonged to all three of us. Reid moved between her legs while I thrust gently into her mouth. Tessa gripped our thighs, her body caught between two different kinds of pleasure.

I reached down and placed my hand on Reid’s shoulder.

He looked up at me.

The hunger in his eyes was no longer disguised as curiosity.

His hand covered mine for a moment before he returned his attention to Tessa, driving deeper into her as she arched beneath us.

Her moans grew louder and more urgent.

Reid’s breathing became rough. My control began to slip each time Tessa’s tongue moved over me.

She came first.

Her body tightened around Reid as a tremor passed through her. One hand gripped his hip while the other held me firmly in place.

The sight of her climaxing between us pushed me over the edge.

I came in her mouth, shuddering as she swallowed around me.

Reid followed moments later. His body tensed, and he buried himself deep inside her with a low, broken groan.

For several seconds, none of us moved.

Then Reid lowered himself beside her, and I collapsed on her other side.

Tessa lay between us, flushed and breathless.

She turned toward me and kissed me.

Then she turned toward Reid and did the same.

“That,” she whispered, “was exactly what I wanted.”

Reid looked across her at me.

“I didn’t know it could feel like that.”

Tessa smiled and rested a hand on each of us.

“Neither did I.”

The night became less about which of us belonged with whom and more about discovering how easily the three of us fit together. Tessa enjoyed being between two men, but she seemed equally aroused whenever Reid and I turned toward one another.

She encouraged every kiss.

Every touch.

Every moment when his remaining uncertainty gave way to appetite.

By the time we finally slowed, the bedroom was hot and disordered, our drinks forgotten outside.

Tessa lay between us with her head against Reid’s chest and one leg draped over mine.

For several minutes, nobody spoke.

Reid stared at the ceiling.

“Well,” he finally said.

Tessa smiled without opening her eyes.

“Still think I’m the only one you’re interested in?”

He looked across her at me.

“No.”

The answer came without hesitation.

I reached over Tessa and rested my hand against his stomach.

Reid covered it with his own.

“What happens tomorrow?” he asked.

Tessa opened her eyes.

“Tomorrow, you wake up next door.”

“That isn’t what I meant.”

“I know.”

She lifted her head and looked between us.

“We don’t have to decide everything tonight.”

Reid nodded, though his hand remained over mine.

A few minutes later, Tessa fell asleep between us.

Reid and I stayed awake longer.

Neither of us moved our hands.

Somewhere between his house and mine, we had both found something we hadn’t known was missing.

The End.