Breaking the rules box s.., p.16
Breaking the Rules: Box Set, page 16
I just looked at him for a second, then I looked down at Emma who was still pulling on my hand, trying to get me to come on. I sighed. “I guess take Emma,” I said reaching for his bag.
“Wait. Here, look.” He set his bag on the floor and pulled the handle up. Then he stacked mine on his using some built-in strap on his bag. Then he put Emma’s backpack on top, sliding the straps over the handle and handed it to me. “Now Emma, up you go.”
“Piggy back!” she exclaimed, crawling up Justin like a monkey.
He got her situated, and then he turned and looked at me. “Mark Montgomery, I love you. Whatever it is in your head that has you out of sorts, stop it.” He leaned forward and gave me a quick kiss.
“Me too, me too!” Emma said. He turned kinda sideways and leaned her over so she could reach me and give me a kiss on my cheek.
“Now let’s go catch a plane.”
Thank goodness the flight was less than three hours. Emma had her own seat, but the second the seatbelt sign was off, she was up and in Justin’s lap with her backpack and a stack of books. Once the books were done, she was back and forth between us like a ping-pong ball. We had put her in the seat between us but I convinced her to swap for the seat by the window so I could talk with Justin. I got her all set up with a lap desk, paper, and crayons. She loved to draw, and I hoped it would buy me enough time to make sure he wasn’t too nervous about this weekend. We had been talking for about twenty minutes when Emma pulled on my arm. When I looked over at her, she motioned for me to lean down so she could whisper in my ear.
“How do you spell family?”
I sat back up and smiled at her. Suzie had been working with her on her letters all spring, getting her ready to start preschool in the Fall, and she was always writing something. “F,” I said, and she quickly reached her hand up and covered my mouth.
“Shhh. It’s a secret. That’s why I whispered! When I whisper to you, you have to whisper back,” she said, shooting me a classic Suzie look like I was the one who was four and didn’t know how the world worked. Which I guess I didn’t since I just got shhh-ed by said 4-year-old.
“Okay.” I leaned over and whispered each letter in her ear while she carefully drew them.
She looked around me, checking to make sure Justin couldn’t see what she was doing. Making a point to scold him once, telling him there would be no peeking.
She looked at it for a minute, cocking her head sideways and trying to decide if it was right. She grabbed another crayon and went back to work for a minute and then nodded her head in approval. God, I loved this little girl.
Then she took the picture, scrambling out of her seat and over to Justin’s lap. She handed him her artwork. “This is for you. You can put this on your ‘frigerater. Like Daddy does at our house. So you won’t forget us when you aren’t with us.”
Justin
I sat there for a minute looking at the picture she’d handed me. It was pretty much like the one that had been hanging in Mark’s kitchen. On the top, it said, “My Family” and it had two houses with a man, a woman, and a little girl holding hands. But on the other side of the little girl instead of one man she had put two. She had added me to the picture.
“Oh, princess, I could never forget you. Never,” I said shakily, hugging her tight.
“Never?”
“No, baby, never. You know why? Because it’s a rule. Did you know that?” She shook her head. “Your mommy told me about it. She said that in this family it is rule number one because it is the most important rule. Want to know what it is?” She nodded.
I looked over her head at Mark, and our eyes met, and as I held his gaze, I shared the one rule I knew truly was unbreakable.
“The rule is that family is forever.”
“Forever,” she said firmly. “But you can only keep it at your house for a little while, not forever.”
“Oh, really and why is that?”
“Because you have to bring it with you when you come and live with us. That is my rule. I just made it right now. It can be rule number two.” She sat up straight, like she was about to make an important announcement. “Rule number two—Family lives together.”
“Oh really,” I said, “Well, I tell you what, princess, how about I remind you of that rule in about fourteen years when you decide to move away to college?”
“Oh no. I’m never moving away. I’m going to live with you and Daddy and Mommy and Bampás forever. It’s a rule, remember I just made it.”
“Spoken like a 4-year-old who knows everything,” Mark said laughing.
“Well, you know it isn’t actually a half bad rule,” I said, tossing what I had been thinking out there.
“No,” he agreed. “No, it’s not.”
When we arrived at the airport, my dad came to get us. I’d planned to take a Lyft, but he insisted it would be easier for him to come get us so we wouldn’t have to worry about a car seat. I was nervous to see him after all these years but having Emma around kept us too busy to think about it, and we had been talking or texting pretty much daily, so it didn’t seem like we were strangers.
In the end, we changed our plans about me showing up for the graduation party out of the blue. I told him I thought the party should be about Jake, and I didn’t want to take that away from him. Today was the last day of classes, and Jake would be at school all day. Of course, if it was anything like when I graduated, it would be more about everyone seeing their friends for the last time since grades were already in and graduation was tomorrow. The plan was to be at the house before he got home and surprise him there.
The reunion at the airport was emotional but went great. There were hugs and introductions and when he called me son, it was like I had stepped back in time ten years in a good way. We explained to Emma that he was my dad like Pop was Mark’s dad and that was good enough for her. We headed out to the car, and he was holding her, and she was telling him all about her cat and how she hoped her mom didn’t forget to feed him.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Mark
The house was just a short drive from the airport. We were going to get a hotel room, but Ron wasn’t hearing any of it. We finally gave in one day when he said there was no way his son was staying at a hotel. The look on Justin’s face when he said that convinced me it was the right thing to do. We got to the house, and he showed us to the spare room. You could tell he had gone to a lot of trouble to make us welcome. He had put a twin air mattress in there and made it up like a bed complete with a princess spread and a pink crown shaped pillow. I was touched that he was trying so hard to make it clear to Justin that he had a place here.
We had just enough time for a cup of coffee when we heard the front door open and Jake yelled out, “Hey Dad! I thought of some other things we needed for the party.” We heard a bag hit the floor, and the door slammed closed. It appeared a quiet entry was not something in Jake’s nature.
Justin said quietly to Ron, “Still enters the house like a tornado, I see,” and they both chuckled. Justin was sitting at the table just out of sight of the door, and Ron gestured for him to stay quiet.
“Back here,” Ron shouted.
A tall, gangly younger version of Ron came barreling into the kitchen. “Can you either run me down to the store or give me some money to get some stuff for the party?”
Justin spoke then, standing up. “Well, Dad can take you, or if you want, I can run you down there.”
Jake stopped in his tracks and turned to see where the voice came from and he froze. He just stood there for a minute, looking at Justin like he was trying to decide if he was really seeing who he thought he was. Then a huge smile broke across his face. “Justin! Oh my god! What are you doing here?” And then he launched himself at Justin, hugging him like…well like his long-lost brother.
They hugged for a minute and then Justin said, “I couldn’t miss my little brother’s graduation.”
“But how?” Jake asked.
“How about I run with you to the store to get your supplies, and I’ll tell you all about it? But first, let me introduce you to some people who are very important to me. This is Mark, my boyfriend, and his daughter, Emma.”
I watched Jake carefully to see how he reacted to that. His eyes widened slightly in surprise, but I didn’t see anything else there. He stepped forward to shake my hand and then he smiled at Emma. His reaction was the thing Justin was most concerned about, but it looked like he didn’t have anything to worry about.
Justin
I couldn’t have been more thrilled with Jake’s reaction to seeing me. When he launched himself at me, it was more than I could have hoped for. I watched him closely when I introduced him to Mark to see if I saw anything there that indicated he had a problem with me being gay. I saw a moment of surprise but nothing else.
We took Jake’s car and headed to town. We drove in silence for a minute and I could tell Jake was getting his thoughts together.
“I just, wow, man, I just can’t believe you’re here. I was just saying a couple months ago when we were sending out graduation invitations that I wish you were going to be there. I looked for you on Facebook to try to contact you, but I couldn’t find you.”
“Yeah, I deleted my Facebook a couple of years ago. I got tired of people I didn’t want knowing where I was finding me.” I said before I realized how that sounded. “I don’t mean you or Dad.” I hurried on. “I mean like guys I’d dated and stuff.”
“Guys you ‘dated’ huh?” Jake said with a knowing grin.
“We are not going there.” The last thing I wanted to do was start out by telling my brother what a slut I had been. “But that is how we found your dad. On Facebook, I mean.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Mark found him for me. I told him it was only a couple weeks before your graduation and that I wished I could be here, and just like that, he found a way. He is pretty amazing like that.”
“You guys are serious then?”
“Yeah, we are. Is that a problem for you? My being gay, I mean.” I figured we might as well get it out there and deal with it from the start.
“No, It’s cool. I have a couple of friends who are gay, and one who is, I don’t know, bi I guess, but she just says she doesn’t like labels, and she likes who she likes.” He shrugged like my sexuality was no big deal.
“Okay, good, because Mark is important to me.”
“Are you going to tell me what happened and why you just disappeared? It broke Dad’s heart, you know. The way y’all were just gone like that.”
I launched into the whole story and told him what I knew. I didn’t hold anything back. He was basically a grown man at that point, so I didn’t see any reason to sugarcoat it. I told him about my mom and her selfishness. How she made me leave and did everything she could to make sure I had no idea our Dad wanted me there with them.
“I know she is your mom, but I hate her for what she did.”
“I know. To be honest with you, I kinda do too. I missed y’all so much. To think that your dad asked her to leave me and she said no just to take me with her and ignore me for the next three years makes me angry. But we can’t go back and undo what she did. All we can do is move forward together as a family.”
“I am just glad you hunted us down. This is like the best surprise ever!”
Mark
The rest of the weekend was great. We ate, laughed, and ate some more. We went to the graduation party where Jake proudly introduced Justin to everyone as his brother. Saturday, after the graduation was over, we went sightseeing in Flagstaff, and Justin showed us all the places he used to hang out.
Before we left on Sunday morning, Justin and Jake went out to get donuts and they took Emma with them. That gave me the perfect opportunity to talk to Ron. I told him what I was planning, and he promised he and Jake would be there.
Okay, that was one family down, one to go.
Thankfully, the trip home was easier. After spending the weekend with Justin’s family, all Emma could talk about was Jake. She was pretty taken with Justin’s brother and couldn’t wait to see him again.
Our rings arrived on Wednesday from Circles of Love. They were just as perfect as I thought they’d be. They were masculine and a little rustic, but elegant at the same time. I shot off an email to James Eldridge to let him know that they’d arrived and that they were just what I wanted. The timing was perfect since we already had plans to go out tonight, and I didn’t want to wait any longer.
The next call I made was one I had been dreading. My parents hadn’t been horrible when I came out, but they sure didn’t head out and join the local PFLAG group. I think my mom still thought I would wake up one day and decide I wanted to be with another woman. I had explained to her that if I were going to make a marriage work with a woman, it would have worked with Suzie because she was perfect for me. Well, aside from the fact that I liked dick as much as she did. Of course, I didn’t say that to my mother. I had no idea how they were going to react to me getting married to a man, but I had put it off as long as I could so I picked up the phone and dialed. It rang, and my mom answered.
“Mark, honey is everything all right?” she asked as a way of greeting.
“Well hello to you too, Mom.” I chuckled.
“Don’t you laugh at me,” she said indignantly “You never call me during the week, so it is perfectly reasonable for me to assume something is wrong.”
“I’m usually at work during the day, Mom. That is why I only call on the weekend, but you’re right. I guess it is a bit unusual for me to call on a weekday morning, but nothing is wrong. I actually have something good to tell you. I mean at least I think it is good.”
“As long as whatever it is doesn’t mean you are skipping the family 4th then let me hear it.”
I rolled my eyes and laughed. My mother and the 4th of July. She was as serious about her Independence Day celebration as most people were about Christmas.
“I wouldn’t dare, Mom, honest.”
“Okay then let me hear your good news.”
I took a deep breath and then just blurted it out. “Mom, I’m getting married.”
She was silent for a minute and then she said, “How can you be getting married? You haven’t even brought a young man home to meet us yet, and I’d like to think that if you were serious enough to get married, you would have taken the time to drive the three hours to let us meet him.”
I smiled. I guess I was wrong. My mom had obviously taken my coming out more seriously than I thought. “Well, it happened kinda fast. Sort of. Let me tell you what happened.” And I told her all about Justin. Us casually dating and about his hesitancy where Emma was concerned. Then I really quickly told her about his family and about him making so many changes. When I got to the part about trading in his sports car for a truck so Em would be safe, my mom sighed wistfully.
“Oh my gosh, that is like a scene from one of those Hallmark movies I love. Except of course you are both men and they never have gay movies on the Hallmark channel,” she said, sounding disgruntled. “Well maybe someday. So anyway, when do we get to meet this romantic young man of yours?”
Justin was seriously going to get years of use out of that gesture if he played it right, I thought to myself. “Well, that’s the thing. See, I’m going to ask him tonight, and I thought maybe we could do it on the 4th at your house.”
“On the 4th! That is less than a month away, Marcus. That is not enough time to plan a wedding.”
“I just want something small. And by small, I mean small. Suzie and Tom will already be in town. Nathan got ordained online as a lark so he can perform the ceremony. Justin’s dad and brother already said they’d fly in. So other than inviting a couple of friends who may or may not be willing to spend the 4th in BFE, we are set. All you have to do is say yes. Well, and he has to say yes.”
“Okay. You know I love Independence Day. I’ll take care of the cake and decorations; you take care of the proposing. Let’s do this.”
I hung up still amazed by the reaction I’d gotten. My mom and dad had always been awesome and obviously I hadn’t given them enough credit.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Justin
I sat in my kitchen, drinking a cup of coffee and eating breakfast. I had been on an emotional high ever since we got back. I had been alone for so long. Ever since my mom died when I was twenty. Although, truthfully, it had been longer than that. Basically, ever since that day we got in the car and left Arizona. Now, not only did I have my dad and brother back, but I had a family of my own. I looked over at the refrigerator where Emma’s picture was. Mark and I were going out with our friends tonight, and I had decided that it was time for us to discuss Emma’s rule number two, because having them halfway across town every night just wasn’t working for me.
When we got there, everyone else was already there. We stopped by the bar and grabbed a couple of beers and ordered some food. We let the waitress know we would be sitting with our friends and then headed over to the table. Matt was there with Casey and Preston and they were sitting at a large u-shaped table with Nathan and Linc. Nathan insisted on sitting by Mark so everyone shifted that direction. Nathan had really gone all out tonight. He was beautiful as always, but I had noticed that he always really glammed it up if he had had a rough day at work. The fact that he cared so much is what made him such an excellent nurse, but it took a toll on him. I was glad we’d decided to come out tonight. Mark and I had been so wrapped up in what was going on with us, we hadn’t done a good job of keeping in touch with our friends.
