Light My Fire

“I absolutely love it, sweetie,” my mother says as we step back into the house after the tour of the new area we’ve just finished for the dogs behind the house.

My parents are seeing the house for the first time, but they have previously met my dogs, including the puppy that my mother has been carrying around since she arrived, dropped down onto the floor cross-legged with the puppies, and Tank crawled into her lap.

It’s very possible that Angel will be living with Luke and Tank will be living with my parents rather than turning into search and rescue dogs.

We settle into seats in the living room and my mom asks, “Do you have a plan for this huge house?”

Most of our conversation has revolved around the plan for the dog training program, including adopting more dogs and bringing on staff.

Of course, the subject of the house is a sore one. It’s been a week since Brooke and the guys stood in my kitchen, and all acted as if the idea of moving in together was the stupidest thing anyone had ever said.

I miss them all like hell.

I haven’t seen any of them and have only exchanged a few texts with Wyatt. I’ve been leaving Brooke alone as requested, even though she is constantly on my mind.

“Actually, I had offered to let Brooke, Wyatt, and Luke move in.”

My parents look up at me at the same time. They seem confused.

Before either of them can ask any questions, I dive in. “All three of us are dating Brooke. Together. We kind of are thinking about trying, maybe, to have a relationship all together.”

I take a breath. I hadn’t intended to dump all of this out there, but I need to talk about it and my two best friends are part of the problem so it looks like mom and dad get to be the sounding boards today. “Not that I think that matters to you,” I feel the need to add. “I just thought you should know. We all fell in love with Brooke and she likes all of us. At least she did. Then we all got to be kind of too much for her and she’s asked to take a break. But we were all dating her. Sometimes one on one, sometimes we would all go out together. Anyway, I thought it was working. I was really happy with it. So I bought this house and thought it made sense for us to all live here together.”

My mom is watching me, clearly just waiting for me to finish talking. When she realizes I’m done, she says, “This is really far from the city for all of them.”

That’s all. She doesn’t ask more questions about how the three of us are all dating the same woman. She doesn’t delve further into this break we’re taking. She doesn’t even seem overly shocked by any of it. Her comment is more of a common sense statement.

“It just felt like it would be easier if we were all living together,” I tell them. “The three of us guys are best friends. I love being with them. We get along great. If we’re dating the same woman, it seems like it would be easier on all of us if we were in the same place, a lot of the time.”

My mom nods. “It does make sense. The part I think is a little odd is that you would expect two firefighters and a veterinarian—all of whom need to be close to work and able to get there with very little notice at times—to drive to and from this house.” She looks around. “It’s gorgeous. But it’s not very practical.”

“So your relationship advice to me is to be practical?” I ask her. I am smiling though.

I love my parents. They are such down to earth, laid-back, normal people. They were not overly impressed or shocked by my windfall of money. They told me they always expected I would be successful, but my mother’s first question to me was if I enjoyed my work and if I was proud of what I was doing. That was more important to her than how much I had in the bank.

I realize now that’s what has been niggling in the back of my mind. I’m not ashamed of the money I’ve made, but I wouldn’t say I’m particularly proud or that I feel I’ve made the world a better place with my app. These two people have led a great life, and I value their opinion very highly.

“My advice,” my mother says, “is to be yourself. I know that Wyatt and Luke love you for who you are. I want Brooke to love you for who you are, too. Not because of your money or a big house.”

“She does,” I say. Then I frown. Actually, Brooke hasn’t said I love you. We haven’t done a big declaration of emotion or talked about our feelings. But I know she likes me. I know she has feelings for me and I do feel like she knows me. I know for sure she’s not with me because of my money.

“You don’t need to try so hard, Jackson.” My mom is still rubbing the puppy’s head, and he’s falling asleep on her chest. “It comes from a good place. It comes from wanting the people that you love to know you love them. It comes from wanting to take care of all of us. But you need to realize that you’re enough. You can take care of us just by being yourself. You don’t have to buy us houses or vacations or things. We want you to love us. Your ability to make anything fun, your ability to roll with the punches life throws, your ability to see the bright side of almost any situation is your gift. Not your money.”

I look around the house. “You think I bought this to impress them?”

It’s my dad who answers. “You did it to take care of them. You bought this as a way to contribute to your relationship. But you don’t need to do it this way. You don’t need to buy the house. You just need to be a part of the relationship. You have a lot more to contribute than money and the things money can buy.”

He’s right.

That’s exactly how this felt. I was trying to contribute something meaningful. Something that would show Brooke, Wyatt, and Luke that I was serious. That they could depend on me to make our relationship a major priority.

That realization hits me right in the chest.

“I just wanted to give them something they needed that only I could provide. I want to take care of them.”

“But this isn’t actually what they need,” my mom says. “In fact, it’s out of the way and too far for them and their work.”

“But the dogs need this place,” I say.

“Do they?” mom asks. “If Luke takes one and we take one and your sister takes one, and Wyatt takes one, that only leaves you with Henley and Nugget. You could easily keep them at your condo.”

I widen my eyes. “What about the training program? I want to be a trainer.”

“So be a trainer,” my dad says. “You’ll be great at that. Build a training center, house the dogs, hire staff. But you don’t have to live there too. It doesn’t have to be this place.”

My dad is a really smart guy. “I guess maybe I could try that,” I say with a smile.

“And if you buy a reasonable house your money will last longer,” he says with a grin.

I laugh. “Are you afraid I’m going to run out of money and have to come live in your basement or something?”

Dad chuckles and shakes his head. “Not at all. You have a serious girlfriend who has two other boyfriends. I think those three are going to take very good care of you now.”

My heart squeezes in my chest.

Fuck. I hope that’s true.

I need to call my friends and we need to figure out how to convince our girl that we understand her boundaries and we promise not to be too overwhelming.

Or convince her that she likes us even when we’re overwhelming.

Or convince her that she can handle us even though we’re overwhelming.

Or something.

Whatever it is, I know the four of us can figure it out. Together.