Braided Lives by AR Moler Page B

she had done with her life over the past decade had been a direct and intentional defiance against them. But, in retrospect, she liked what she did, all of it. The teaching, the forensics, her stabs at original artwork. She hadn't lied when she told her mother that she helped people. Division P
    would make her better at that, and give her some nice federal backing, too.
    Glancing at the clock, Jennifer decided maybe she'd go grab a soda from the cafeteria before the dreaded session at telepathic word retrieval.

    ***
"See you next week," said Peter as Mason Flynn left.
    He watched the tall surgeon walk out the door. For a doctor with precious little formal psi training, Flynn was impressive. Raw Talent that strong rivaled Peter's own.
    The guy might even eventually surpass him.
    Peter swiveled his chair back to face his desk, trying to make up his mind what to do with his evening. With his arm back to near normal by way of Peter's care, Danny had gone to Chicago for a few days to check on the progress of one of the newer agents. There were no other pressing crises at the moment and Peter was at loose ends. He found himself thinking of Jennifer. It had been a couple of weeks since the three of them had messed around the night Danny got home. That had been a delightfully memorable experience. Although they had all had dinner together several times since then, the interaction had mostly been confined to flirting, kissing and a little groping. Danny and Peter had agreed that they wouldn't push too hard, while they gave Jen some time to decide how she felt about something more intense.
    Tonight might be a good opportunity to take her out to eat, away from the complex, and find out how much thought she'd given to the idea.

    ***
She-crab soup, salad, and prime rib… Jennifer struggled to decide if she dared do dessert. On the table, where her hand lay, Peter played with her fingers. It was sexy and comfortable. She could feel just a hint of his mind brushing against hers; neither of them was unshielded in such a public place.
    "When Danny gets back from Chicago, I think all three of us should make a night of it," Peter said.
    "Mmm, dinner and dancing?" she replied, deliberating avoiding the implication.
    "I was thinking naked in bed."

    Jennifer smiled. The thought was alluring. Peter rubbed his thumb along the center of her palm. Except for a kiss, it was about as intimate a gesture as he could make here.
    "I know you keep holding back. The offer is not intended to be a one time wild night never do it again thing. With Danny and me, it started out physical and became a lot more. You're the one who pushed us into realizing it was more. It feels right to me to make you part of my life, in the same way Danny's part of it, too,"
    he finished.
    She sat looking at his hand holding hers, for a long moment. "Can three people make it work? Sometimes even two have issues."
    "I won't promise there won't be times when we drive each other round the bend, or that we won't ever fight, but inventing problems before they show up is awfully fatalistic. You come from a big family right?"
    "Yeah, you could say that. I have four brothers. The long standing joke is that my parents kept having kids until they finally got a girl."
    "I'm an only. My dad died when I was a teenager. My mother died four years ago. I suppose you could define me as someone who wants people to love. Being bisexual used to seem like a mixed blessing; these days I think maybe I'm not supposed to choose, that I need both. I want that to be you and Danny."
    "And if we really screw this all up?"
    "That's life."

    ***
Back in his quarters, Jennifer and Peter drank a bottle of wine and cuddled on the sofa with the TV playing softly in the background. Snuggling led to kisses and wandering hands. Sprawled on the couch beneath Peter, Jennifer remembered a similar event. But that particular time they had shared a few heated kisses and little more.
    Peter was apparently thinking back on