Lost Bird (30 page)

Then again, if her mom were there, Sachi knew she might never have moved to Florida. Or met Oscar and John.

It wasn’t a fair trade-off by any stretch of the imagination.

And that was why she knew she couldn’t allow herself to entertain those thoughts.

“Just thinking?” Oscar asked.

“Yeah.”

“Happy thoughts?” John asked.

She stared out the window at the darkness. They were almost back to Brooksville, with more street lights and less pasture land. “Just thoughts.” She closed her eyes.

Thank you, Mom. Thank you, Julie. And thank you, Goddess. Namaste.

Mandaline was Sachi’s first choice for their handfasting. Not just because she was Sachi’s best friend, but because Sachi couldn’t imagine anyone else doing it. Sort of the circle completed, a nice bit of symmetry since she’d conducted Mandaline’s handfasting to Ellis and Brad.

The three of them had discussed Sachi maybe marrying one of them, but she wasn’t in a rush to make that decision, if ever. She didn’t need a piece of paper to tell her these men were hers and she was theirs. The rings the three of them would wear on their hands were far more important to her.

Well, John would wear his when he wasn’t working. Sachi didn’t want him losing it down a sewer pipe or hurting his hand if he got the ring caught on something.

They held the ceremony outside, at sundown, by Julie’s memorial tree. Sachi had requested a far smaller gathering than they’d had for Mandaline, preferring only immediate family and friends be invited. They were holding a reception party at the store, which would be the official celebration for everyone.

Sachi wanted as few people as necessary to see her cry.

At least John’s mother had finally come to terms with their unusual relationship. His dad, on the other hand, had been easy to convince.

Sachi had given Mandaline free rein with the ceremony, with her only stipulations being to please keep it as short and snarky as possible.

Mandaline stood before them, a serene smile on her face as their friends and family gathered close. “I think Julie is probably laughing and dancing and happy for us right now,” she started. “She loved to play matchmaker. She couldn’t have come up with a better pair of guys for our Snark Queen if she’d gotten them from a mail-order husband catalog.”

Sachi breathed a sigh of relief, smiling as she stood between John and Oscar, their right hands clasping her right hand. Mandaline
was
going for snark.

Oh, thank the Goddess!

“I also think Julie would approve of the way we’ve all been healing. And I would hope it’s with her blessings that today we recognize this handfasting between three people whose hearts have joined to become a family.”

Uh, where’s the snark?

Brad, who stood next to Ellis behind Mandaline with a small basket in his hands, handed her a braid of three ribbons, white, red, and green. Mandaline loosely looped the braid around their hands, tying it so the knot wouldn’t come undone, but they could still free themselves from it at the end of the ceremony. “Three and three and three again. I call upon the Goddess, here and when, before us now these three do stand.” A smile crossed her face. “And boy, howdy, ain’t love grand.”

Ahh, there it is!

Mandaline continued. “Green for prosperity and for health. Red for love and passion, may you feel its wealth. White from which all colors grow, and as above, so below. All these things and more we do you bless, all happiness to you, and all success. And since you asked for short and sweet, as I spake it”—she pointed to those gathered, who she’d obviously already coached and who joined in with her—“so mote it be.”

Sachi was trying really hard not to laugh and cry at the same time, somehow managing to hold it back.

Mandaline reached back to Ellis, who handed her the ring box. She opened it plucked out Oscar’s ring, handing it to Sachi and settling the order herself, something Sachi had been unsure how to handle despite the men telling her they’d be just as happy flipping a coin.

Sachi slipped it on his left ring finger. This was the part she’d agonized over. She did want to exchange vows with them, but she’d struggled and rewritten several times what she wanted to say to each of them, finally giving up and hoping the Goddess would give her inspiration.

“I love you, and I love us,” she said. “Thank you for wanting me and for showing me how good it’s supposed to be. May the Goddess give us many years of happiness together.”

He smiled, his blue eyes as bright as his aura. “I love you, sweetheart. I promise, no matter what, I’ll walk this life with you, the three of us together.” Mandaline handed him the ring he was to put on Sachi’s finger. Her ring was actually two halves, interlocking rings that looked like a Celtic knot when placed together. Each man would put one of the halves on her finger.

Mandaline handed John’s ring to Sachi. She slipped it on his hand, enjoying the way his smile seemed to core right through her soul, gutting her in a good way, the best way ever. “I love you, and I love us. Thank you for trusting me, for trusting in us, in what this is. May the Goddess bless our years together and give us plenty of them.”

Mandaline handed John the other ring, which he slipped on Sachi’s finger, carefully interlocking it with the first half. “I love you, and I know life won’t always be perfect, but I know it’s perfect for us with the three of us together.”

Brad held out a small silver, heart-shaped box that Sachi realized had belonged to Julie. On the lid was etched a pentagram. He opened the lid and Mandaline carefully removed the ribbon braid from their hands and tucked it inside the red velvet-lined interior, closing it again.

“Something old, something new,” Mandaline said. “Past and present, faith renew. May the Goddess smile on you. And as below, so up above, I wish you three all luck and love. Thus this ends now what I must say. In parting I add blessings, and namaste.”

Everyone else repeated, “Namaste.”

That did it. Sachi laughed, the tears rolling down her cheeks as John, then Oscar kissed her while everyone clapped. Mandaline handed her the box and then engulfed her in a hug.

“Thank you,” she whispered in Mandaline’s ear. “It was perfect.”

“Thank Ellis. He’s the one who told me I was being too sappy during the first draft I wrote.”

Sachi and her men were surrounded, hugs and well wishes being offered. When it was Lisa Evans’ turn to hug her, Sachi wasn’t sure how that would go, but the woman opened her arms and embraced her.

“I hope you all have a good life together. I really do.” She smiled, relieving Sachi.

Her father tapped her on the shoulder, pointing.

In Julie’s tree, a sapling oak that they’d planted as a memorial not long after her death, sat a bright red male cardinal.

Tears rolled down her cheeks as she blew a kiss up to the sky.

Thanks, Mom. Love you, too.

* * * *

Lorie had apparently spent a small fortune on food and the cake, which was a gorgeous three-tiered chocolate and vanilla marble cake decorated with three ceramic cardinals at the top, two males and a female.

“Your idea, Dad?” she asked.

He smiled as he nodded.

She loved it.

All of them partied until late into the night, eventually leaving just the immediate Many Blessings staff, and Sachi and her guys.

Mandaline gave her a hug. “Go home and enjoy. We’ll clean this up.” She smiled. “Your dad told me he was spending the night at Lorie’s.”

“Thanks.”

This was one time she wouldn’t argue. They arrived home a few minutes later. First John, then Oscar, took turns carrying her in through the front door with a lot of laughter that she felt to the bottoms of her feet.

Happy.
This
was what happy felt like.

Sachi wasn’t sure what her men had planned for the night, but she suspected they had a little something special in store.

She wasn’t wrong, either. After the three of them were in bed, naked, and the men already doing those sweet, delicious things to her body with their hands and mouths that made her brain fall right out of her noggin, John opened the bedside table drawer and produced their surprise.

“Tonight, baby,” he said, “we’re going to do that last thing we said we would.”

She tried to focus on it in the dim light. “Is that a butt plug?”

“You better believe it is,” Oscar said as he nibbled on her earlobe. “We’re going to spend all night loosening that sweet ass of yours, and then we’re going to fuck your brains out.”

Well, her brains already felt like they were out, so that’d be a short trip to start with.

John grabbed a towel from the bathroom and a bottle of lube and they got her situated where they wanted her, on her back with her legs spread wide and John kneeling between them.

“Oh, where’s the insurance?” Oscar asked.

“Dang it.”

“What?” she asked.

John got out of bed and returned with a small vibrator. “See? Not Dildous.”

She started to shoot back a snarky retort, but then John turned the vibrator on and pressed it to her clit, and dammit, there went her brains again.

Oscar reached over and took charge of the vibrator, smiling at her as he did. “Just lay there and enjoy it. We got this.”

John squirted lube on his index finger and gently started massaging it on her rim.

What little tension she’d had fled as she realized he was going to take his time and go really slow. And, combined with the vibrator, it felt really good.

Except that Oscar was being mean and not letting her come. He seemed to take great pleasure in keeping her right on the edge, sensing when to pull back, when to alternate slowly fucking her now dripping cunt with the vibrator before playing it over her clit again. At some point, John had worked his entire finger into her ass, the pleasure Oscar was giving her more than counteracting the sensations. Or maybe intensifying them.

She didn’t know and didn’t care, as long as they didn’t stop what they were doing.

John took his time, carefully adding a second finger, slowing down and letting Oscar build her tension up without giving her release before carefully working his fingers deeper inside her tight ring. She was close to begging when John said, “Okay, let her come.”

Oscar held the vibrator against her clit and she exploded, the feeling of her body clenching against the fingers in her ass only intensifying the sensation. John started finger-fucking her ass, drawing out her orgasm.

“You’re ours, baby,” Oscar said as he stared down at her with a smile. “We love making you lose control like this, and we plan on a lifetime together of doing it to you.”

John’s fingers disappeared from her ass, quickly replaced by something cool and smooth. “I’ll go slow, don’t worry,” he assured her.

But with the help of the vibrator, it felt like everything had mixed into one long, never-ending orgasm. He slowly fucked the butt plug inside her a little at a time, in and out, stretching her rim, pausing when she thought she wasn’t sure she could take it and her moans had turned into whines.

Oscar slid the vibrator into her pussy and leaned down, sucking on her clit.

That did it. She exploded again, harder than ever, and John chuckled as he slid the butt plug all the way in. “There you go, baby. See how easy that was?”

Now her ass felt full as she struggled to get used to the sensation, the intensity of the vibrator inside her and pressing on her G-spot while Oscar flicked her clit with his tongue making her cry out.

John pressed on the base of the butt plug. “That’s it, sweetheart. Just get used to it for a few minutes. Once you do, we’ll be able to fuck you.”

Oscar alternated fucking her with the vibrator with embedding it deep inside her, his tongue doing deliciously evil things to her clit all the while. John stretched out on her other side and kissed her, slow and deep, fucking her mouth with his tongue.

Daaammmnnn…

She was well and truly screwed. Not that she was complaining, but she knew she was powerless against these two men.

And she loved it.

John laced fingers with her, kissing her hand.

She squeezed and raised her hand over her head, against the pillow, his on top of hers, pulling it down.

He looked a little worried. “Sweetheart?”

“Green!” she gasped.

Her heart twisted in the good way when he took the hint. He squeezed, pressing her hand down into the pillow. She closed her eyes and reveled in the feeling of letting go, letting them have her, all of her, the good and the bad, everything.

Completely.

After a while, Oscar sat up. “I’m about to explode, and I’d rather last more than a few seconds on my wedding night, thank you very much.”

John got up and grabbed a condom out of the drawer. They didn’t usually use them anymore now that she was on the pill, but she suspected it was more because of where he was planning on putting his cock.