He could feel the lens of the camera on them, hear the quiet click click as Mateo tried to capture the beauty he always seemed in search of, and wondering if he found it, wanting to be a part of it the way they were part of Josiah’s dream.

“We need pictures of you.” Tristan rested his chin on Josiah’s shoulder as he spoke.

“Nah, I’m way more comfortable on this side.” He snapped another, and another. Tristan’s first instinct was to turn away, but he fought it. Fought it as Mateo moved closer to them, taking shots from different angles. He stopped when he stood right in front of them, looked down, making both Josiah and Tristan do the same. He aimed the camera at their hands, which were locked together, at Tristan’s suited arms around Josiah’s mid-section, the sweatshirt and suit one of the contrasts between him and this man.

And Mateo took a picture, then another, of their hands, their arms.

This strange sort of embarrassment came over him, something he hadn’t felt in so long. Not shameful; almost insecure. “That’s enough.” He tried to pull back, but Josiah held him and didn’t let him.

“It’s not.”

The area was quiet this early, no one but the three of them, the sky, the birds, and an eternity of water.

“Everything’s going to be fine,” Josiah whispered. Mateo’s forehead wrinkled as he looked at Josiah. Tristan held him tighter.

“Whatever happened yesterday... stuff is always going to happen, but we’ll be okay. I believe that. After everything we’ve been through, I have to believe that, so I’ve decided we’re going to be perfectly happy. Everything’s going to work out from here on out, and I need you both to believe it.”

Balance. There was their tricky balance again. But he wanted to even those scales. Show Josiah he wasn’t only on the pendulum.

“You decided we’re going to be happy so you’ve deemed it so?” This time, Josiah let him pull away, but Tristan didn’t go far. Just grabbed Mateo by the belt loop and pulled him closer to them, a circle of three bodies.

“Yes,” Josiah said.

“Okay,” Mateo agreed.

Tristan wanted that as well. He tilted Josiah’s head up with a finger under his chin. “I guess it’s a good thing you always get what you want.” They continued to stand there, the three of them, their unbreakable circle.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Mateo

Mateo stepped outside of the restaurant after another long day. He worked with Josiah on the coffeehouse until three in the afternoon, like he had almost every day for the past couple weeks. He’d gone home, showered, and then went straight to the restaurant. It was a constant pattern of busy, and that didn’t count that he often spent his mornings with Rhonda.

As tired as his body was, as heavy as the ache in his muscles got day-by-day, he wouldn’t have it any other way. He still had this excited energy fueling him, something he’d never felt before. He was working hard for all of them. For himself, and for Jay and Tristan. He wasn’t selling drugs or beating the shit out of people for money, and damned if that didn’t feel good.

Since the morning on the Wharf a few weeks before, he’d tried to concentrate on those things. He wanted every morning to be like that one, wanted the future Josiah saw for them, and for once, he wondered if maybe it could happen. That shit at Tristan’s work set him back, but then their night had made up for it. He had things he’d never had before, and he wanted to be the kind of man who focused on that. The kind of man Josiah was.

He had a feeling he and Tristan were both working toward that.

As soon as he stepped outside the restaurant, the rain started coming down. He stood under the awning when he saw the black BMW idling on the street. His heart sped up. This right here, this was the kind of shit he was talking about. He was so fucking lucky, and even though he hated his piece of shit job and hated the PO he had to check in with, he fought to focus on that car in front of him. No one had done shit like this for him before Jay and Tris.

Mateo ran to the car, opened the door and jumped in. In just the eight second jog, he was soaking wet by the time he slammed the door behind him.

“You need a car,” Tristan said simply.

His body tensed up slightly. “You’re not buying me a car.”

Tristan pulled away from the curb. “How did I know you’d say that? Josiah said we’re alike, but the two of you are as well. Both of you act like it’s the end of the fucking world if I want to spend money on you.”

Mateo chuckled because there wasn’t anger in Tristan’s voice. “Yeah, cuz you’re the kind of guy who accepts shit so easily.”