Ethan woke up first that Sunday morning. He looked over at Jack’s sleeping body, laid on his stomach, arms wrapped around the same pillow he was laying on. Jack used to run every day, but Sunday is the only day Jack does not get up to run his 5k in the early morning hours, so it was nice to wake up beside him.
He reached over and gently brushed his hair out of his face. He stared at Jack’s long black eyelashes and thin eyebrows, but those were his only feminine features. He took in Jack’s small but pointy nose and his thin, oval shaped pink lips, his bottom one slightly fuller than the top one.
He reached out again and lightly traced his strong jaw that had a light stubble on it. Jack sighed his sleep but otherwise did not wake up.
Ethan felt his loins stirring. It made him think of the conversation he had with Jack a few weeks ago, about the passion in their relationship. Ethan absolutely still desired Jack, without question. His body responds to the touch of him, the scent of him. Right now he smelled of day old deodorant and his natural scent. The taste, the touch, the smell of him was all he needed to get going. He moved closer to his sleeping husband.
Ethan ran his hand through Jack’s hair with more intention, and caressed his jaw again. Jack’s breathing changed and he knew he was waking up. He leaned over and started kissing on his back. He kissed his bare shoulder blades and then lifted up his tank top. Ethan continued to leave kisses all over Jack’s back down the lower part of his spine.
“What time is it?” Jack mumbled.
“I don’t know,” Ethan said as he continued downward, pulling his pajama bottoms down and off his legs, taking his boxers with him. He straddled his thighs.
“EJ will be up soon,” Jack mumbled again.
“We’ll I’m up right now,” Ethan said amusingly and licked the crack of Jack’s bottom.
Jack smiled, eyes still closed. “I make the sexual jokes around here, not you.”
Ethan bit one of Jack’s cheeks making him yelp. He bit the other cheek, making sure to leave a mark, and Jack yelped again. Then he spread his cheeks apart and licked his pink center.
Jack moaned his name, “Eeeeethan.”
The sound of Jack calling his name softly like that went straight to Ethan’s dick. It hardened immediately, and Ethan reached down to squeeze himself to calm it down before leaning over proceeding to tongue kiss Jack’s hole. Jack moaned again, and without opening his eyes he moved his legs from underneath his lover to pull his knees in, his head still on the pillow, giving him more access.
Ethan took it, kissing and licking Jack’s bottom, sticking his tongue as deep as it would go. When Jack couldn’t take it anymore, his own cock rock hard and leaking underneath him, he reached over on the nightstand, grabbed the lube and reached behind him to hand it over.
Ethan got the hint. He massaged Jack’s taint and hole first with the lubricant, then poured in his hands and began to stroke himself. He used his other hand to massage Jack’s hole with thumb, driving Jack mad with need for him. Ethan could feel him squirming in his hands. He asked him playfully, “You want me?”
“Fuuuck. Yes.”
“Tell me how bad you want it,” he said seductively. He slipped his thumb inside and moved it around in a circular motion.
“Hmmm… bad. I need you so bad right now.”
“You need me to do what?” Ethan switched to two fingers.
“Fuck…. Me….”
“You want my cock in you?” Ethan added a third finger.
“hhhooooo! Yeeeeesssss….”
Ethan’s dick was aching to be inside him so he decided to stop torturing himself. He lined himself with Jack’s pucker and slowly pressed through his ring. Jack instinctively pushed back and Ethan slid easily inside. They both moaned out a sigh.
He reached over and held onto Jack’s shoulders as he fit the rest of his seven inch, very thick cock inside Jack’s tight hole. He moved slowly, intentionally, filling him up completely, pulling back, then filling him up again. Jack, who was still holding onto the pillow, held on for dear life as Ethan thrusted into him repeatedly, keeping the pressure on his internal nub.
They stayed this way for minutes, hours, days, centuries it felt like until the build up became too much for both of them. Jack said, “I need to cum.”
Ethan agreed with him. “Cum with me. Together.”
“Ok,” Jack said breathlessly.
He leaned up and held onto his penis, stroking himself as Ethan moved faster. Jack felt the surge from his balls and moaned as he came all over the bed. Almost immediately Ethan cock erupted inside of him, spurt after spurt continuing to coat Jack’s insides. Jack fell back down, taking Ethan with him. Ethan kissed the back of Jack’s neck and stayed inside of him as they caught their breaths.
Jack spoke first, a simple, “Wow.”
Ethan smiled. “Yea. Wow.”
He pulled out and leaned over as Jack turned his head and they kissed with their morning breaths, tongues licking each other. Ethan concentrated on his lips, pulling his bottom one and trapping it within his teeth before letting go, opening his mouth again and grabbing the top one. He pulled away first, kissing his cheek and jaw, shoulder and neck all the way around to his back again.
He reached underneath him and wrapped his arms around his lover, kissed the nape of his neck again. Jack turned so that they were both laying on their sides, Ethan’s soft groin against his leaking bottom, and held onto Ethan’s arms around him. They laid quietly together on one pillow and drifted off to sleep again for another 30 minutes until their son woke up and knocked on their door demanding breakfast.
* * * * *
Jack was surprised to see Connor at Mass. During the gathering after church he went right up to him and gave him a hug. “Hey stranger! I’m pretty sure Ethan sees you more than I do.”
“Yea,” Connor said. “I’ve been helping him set up The Residence with Jamel and Tyrell for the last two months. I also got him a deal with Xfinity, internet and cable, did he tell you?”
“No, but that’s so cool. What are you doing here, though? You pretty much stay out of these neck of the woods if you truly don’t need to be here.”
“They’re having a dinner for Mary Kate’s promotion tonight so I’ve been summoned home.” Mary Kate was his little sister. He rolled his eyes, but then his eyes got wide with an idea. “Hey! Come tonight! Please?”
Jack groaned. “C’mon man.”
“No really, you can’t leave me there with them. Afia will be there too. Bring Ethan!”
“I don’t know, man. Your dad pretty much doesn’t like me and your brother is a…” Jack reminded himself he was in a church.
“Yea I know, that’s why I need you there! The last time he said some disrespectful stuff to Afia when we came for dinner, asked her if she was selling pills on the side of her job as a pharmacy tech. He asked my girl if she was a fucking -oops!- effin drug dealer.”
Jack’s eyes narrowed. “He really needs his ass beat.”
Connor nodded in agreement. “So can you come?”
Jack sighed. “I’ll ask Ethan. What time?”
“6pm sharp we start. I plan to be done by 7:15pm the latest, on my way home.”
“Speaking of home…” Jack lowered his voice and pulled Connor to the corner. “How is home?”
“Good. Great really. We’re great. It’s… pretty great.” He smiled and Jack smiled too.
“Ok, man. I just wanted to check on you, make sure you’re still…great.” He smiled. “I know it can’t be easy for you, for both of you to feel like you can’t just be you. You know I want that for you. And like I promised, when you’re ready, I’ll be right there with you.”
Connor stopped smiling abruptly and looked at him intently. “Has he said something to you?”
“No. Jamel and I don’t have luncheons and braid each other’s hair, you know,” Jack said jokingly.
He was thoughtful. “So he said something to Ethan.” Jack didn’t respond, just looked at him. Connor turned around and walked out of the church basement without another word. Jack sighed and followed him, giving Ethan a look on his way out.
Connor was walking fast and Jack had to jog a bit to catch up with him. “Wait up Con!” He didn’t and Jack could tell he was really upset. When Jack caught up he said, “I didn’t get the sense from Ethan that he was upset or anything, just that he wanted to talk to someone who gets it, you know?”
“Then he should talk to me about it,” said Connor frustrated.
“C’mon man you know it’s not that simple. You need an outlet other than your partner to talk to. And you know, you can always talk to me.”
Connor shook his head and kept walking. Jack walked with him in silence. They walked all the way to Wincheck Pond before Connor slowed down. He got as close to the edge as possible and looked out at the partially frozen water. Jack stood next to him and waited for him to talk first, his breath visible with every word.
“Nobody gets it. Nobody. Nobody understands how hard this is for me. Everybody wants me to just come out with it, that it’s the new times where exposing your shit shouldn’t affect you anymore because everyone is fucking gender fluid or sexually ambiguous or whatever, so it’s no big deal. But it is a big deal. It’s a big fucking deal to my family.
“You know what my mom said to me the other day? She started telling me about some girl that’s the daughter of one of her Women’s Empowerment Alliance club members, that she wants to set me up with. So I say, Mom, I’m seeing someone. And she says, ‘You are not still seriously seeing Afia. That can’t go anywhere you know this right?’ So I pressed her a bit, because at least she’s never made any fucked up comments about her, so I thought she was cool about it. She says, ‘Afia will never fit into this family. It’s time to let it go.’
“So I press her some more, because I just wanted her to fucking say it. She lets my dad and Matty’s fucked up ass say shit but she just keeps quiet about it. I said, ‘Why not mom? She’s beautiful, she’s smart, she comes from a great family, her mother is a fucking doctor, she’s loyal, she should be everything you’d ever want for your son.’ She brushes me off, says, ‘Well she’s not Catholic.’ I tell her, ‘Afia will convert for me. Afia will do anything for me because that’s how much she loves me.’
“She finally hits me with it, and says, ‘You can’t have kids with her. Brown skin kids will never be accepted in our family.’ My own fucking mother said this to me about the perfect girl she THINKS I’ve been seeing for over five years now. My so-called high school sweetheart. What do you think she’s going to say to me when she finds out that I am in a serious interracial relationship and I’m not having kids at all?
“Oh and by the way I’M FUCKING GAY!” Connor yelled out loud, his voice echoing across the pond. Jack didn’t say anything as Connor got quiet again.
Connor said after a while, “They live in world where races don’t mix and gay people are an abomination. Sure, let me bring home a black gay dude, let’s see how that goes over. I’d be lucky if my ol’ man doesn’t beat me within an inch of my life.”
“He’s not going to beat you Connor, you aren’t a kid and you’re a fucking Marine,” Jack said quietly.
“Yea but I’m his kid. And trust me, he knows I’m a Marine. The one thing he’s so proud of me for is serving my country and shit. He tells everyone about his Marine son. That’s who I am to him, his son who served. Not Connor. He doesn’t know Connor.”
He was quiet for a long moment again. “We got into a huge argument last week. Well, you know Jamel doesn’t argue, so I don’t even know if it was an argument, more like a fucking scolding. Mom called to tell me about spending the day here so I told Mel I was going and he said ok but I could tell that he was upset. Later on he said that at some point I am going to have to make a choice. This family of two we have going on or my other family. That this double life I’m living has him living a double life as well.
“How he’s afraid to tell people who he is because if word somehow got to my family it would cause problems for me, and he didn’t want to be the reason my family cuts me off. I told him it’s because of him that I would come out, after all this time. And he says to me, don’t do it for him, do it for myself. If I do it for him, I would be coming out because of the circumstance and not for me. Honestly what the fuck is the difference? The outcome would be the same.”
“Sounds like he just doesn’t want to be the cause of more hardship on you,” Jack deduced. “He wants you to find yourself in all this, live your truth like you keep saying to me that you want to do. And he definitely doesn’t want you to end up resenting him in the end.”
“I won’t ever resent him,” Connor said. “This is my fucked up issues with my fucked up family, not his issues.”
“Doesn’t work that way, Con. If you’re together, your issues become his. Trust me, I know. And you not being straight has been eating at you since you were 16, I know this for a fact. And now he knows it too. He just wants what’s best for you.”
“And how the fuck is coming out and getting cut off from my entire family what’s best for me?” Connor asked. “Yea, they’re all assholes, except for Angie my baby sis, but they are still my flesh and blood.” Connor was quiet for a moment, then said in a quivering voice, “I love him, Jack. I love him so much it hurts to even think about him leaving me over this. He’s my family. He’s my whole life.”
Jack let him sit in his thoughts for a moment, then said, “I just have one simple question, and it’s not for you to answer now, it’s for you to think about: 60 years from now you’re old and gray, going to dinner someplace and they are celebrating you, the real you. Who’s at your table?”
Connor said, “I can answer now, Jamel.”
“Who else?”
“Oh I thought that was the trick, about me putting him first.” He laughed.
Jack smiled. “I’m getting to that. But first, humor me. Who else is at your table?”
“You and Ethan because y’all are a package deal.”
Jack laughed. “Ok. Who else?”
“Afia. Mina. Winter. Sam. Liam and June. My vet buddies. Mel’s family, his mom and dad and his brothers. My parents won’t be here because they don’t know the real me, right? That’s what you’re getting at,” Connor deduced.
“No,” Jack said. “Neither your parents nor his will be there because you would be close to 90 years old and they’ll all be long gone. That’s what I’m getting at. You can’t live for them. You have to live for you. And the thing is, you are already living for you. You have a great life, a decent job, a house in your own name with a mortgage, your Vet Buddy organization is taking off, and you’re in love with a great guy. You’re so happy with him, I can see it every time I get a chance to see you. So live your life and be happy.
“Honestly I’m not even telling you to come out to them. Nobody said you have to make some big announcement. Just… don’t hide it anymore. If people find out then they find out. If word gets back to your parents, then deal with it. Because yes, Mel needs to know he is just as important to you as you are to him. At some point, you are going to have to decide to put him first, if you want your relationship to keep being great.”
Connor was thoughtful. “Ok. I can do that. It makes me nervous, though. My balls are literally sweating right now.” They both laughed. Connor asked again. “Come tonight, ok? Please?”
“Yea. I’ll be there.” They hugged and started walking back to the church as Jack called Ethan to tell him the change of plans today.
* * * * *
When Jack, Ethan and EJ showed up at 5:45pm with a bottle of wine for dinner, Afia was sitting in her Subaru absentmindedly rubbing her belly. Jack tapped on her window and she jumped.
“Jack! You scared the shit out of me!” she yelled at him.
“You planning on having dinner in there?” he said amusingly.
She smiled at him as he opened her door to get out. “Well if I did, I bet it’ll be more fun than going in there.” She hugged Ethan hello.
Jack took her hand. “Don’t worry, you got reinforcements this time.” They walked onto the porch together and Jack rang the bell. “How’s Ty?” he asked.
Afia smiled. “He’s wonderful.”
She was about to say more when Matty, Connor’s older brother, answered the door. He looked at the three adults and smirked. “Connor, your peeps are here. Is that how you say it, Afeeeeeya? Peeps? Posse? Homies? Crew? Gang?” He laughed at his own joke.
Ethan’s eyes narrowed, as he has never had an encounter with Matty before, not even at Mass, and Afia started scowling. Jack took over. “Just get the fuck out of the way, asshole,” he said forcefully. Still holding Afia’s hand, he pushed passed Matty, who laughed. Ethan holding EJ’s hand followed.
Connor met them in the entryway, greeting Afia first with a “Hey, Lovie,” his nickname for her, and a long hug, then said something in her ear that made her giggle. Then he hugged Jack and Ethan. “Thanks for coming.”
He said to the boy, “EJ, Freddie is in the living room with Maddy and Deann eating dinner and watching cartoons. Go hang with them.” EJ took off to find his classmate Freddie and his siblings. Connor took Afia’s hand and led them to the dining room where the food was just coming out on the table.
Angie, Connor’s youngest sister, greeted Afia sincerely and happily with a big hug. “Hi! It’s been so long since we’ve seen you around, we were beginning to think Connor fucked it up.”
Afia laughed. “No, we’re still…” She and Connor looked at each other and she didn’t finish her sentence. It had been a long time since they gave into the lie of their relationship.
Afia gave a polite hug to his mother Katherine and sister Mary Kate, congratulating her on her promotion, and Jack and Ethan did the same. Then all said polite hellos to his father Owen when he came up from the den. Owen, a retired Army Staff Sergeant, and Ethan know of each other from church and the small business council in Rockville, and he has known Jack for as long as he and Connor have been friends so neither of them are strangers to him, but they have also never been in his house for dinner and do not know each other intimately.
They all sat down for dinner and Owen said grace. It started out fine, as Mary Kate explained her new senior duties as a Sales Manager. “So I will be running back and forth between Providence and Boston a lot. Maybe I will get to see my big brother more often now that I will be in his city.”
“Yea, maybe,” Connor said casually.
Matty spoke up, “Then you’ll find out Connor’s secret.”
Connor’s heart stopped beating as he looked at his smirking brother, along with his friends. Afia decided to answer for him and said calmly, “What secret is that, Matthew?”
“Awww, you haven’t figured it out yet?” he chided her. “Because it concerns you greatly.”
“What the fuck are you talking about, Matty?” Connor said, annoyed.
Katherine said, “No foul language at the table.”
Her sons both ignored her. “Oh don’t let me blow up your game in front of everyone, Connor,” said Matty. “Not in front of all your friends who think you’re so perfect. Especially not in front of your girlfriend. They are always the last to know.” He smiled smugly again.
“Afia knows everything there is to know about me,” Connor said.
“I’m sure she doesn’t know this.”
“I’m positive she does.”
“Oh, she knows you had a girl in your house that morning when I came by?” Matty asked triumphantly.
Everyone was quiet, then Jack snorted a laugh, making everyone look at him. “Sorry, sorry,” he mumbled and took a sip of water.
Afia looked at Connor amused but he was staring at his brother. He said, “What makes you think I had a girl at my house?”
Matty leaned back in confidence. “C’mon baby bro, I know you. That’s why you wouldn’t let me in. Just like last year when I went by your apartment before you moved into that house. The way you were fidgeting, wouldn’t let me past the living room area. And I heard footsteps. I asked if your roommate was there and you said no. It was 7am and it looked to me like you were having a sleepover. And I know Afia is at work at the pharmacy by 7am. So who was she?”
Ethan and Jack exchange looks and Ethan wanted to laugh too, but he knew it would be inappropriate. Afia however, started giggling this girlish laughter. Connor looked at her in a stoic manner and she touched his face.
“C’mon,” she practically cooed. “It’s funny. It’s a little funny. It’s a lot funny.” She blinked at him a few times and he started to smile.
She leaned over and kissed Connor on the lips, then faced the table. “Thank you for telling me, Matthew. Once again you have proven how truly…. unbelievable you are.” She smiled and took another bite of her chicken.
“I don’t get it. Are you guys in some kind of open relationship?” Angie asked.
Afia smiled at her. “Something like that.” Connor’s mother looked directly at him with surprise.
“Yea, I wonder whose idea was that?” Matty said.
“Why does that matter?” she asked, still amused.
“Because people who get in open relationships do it because one of them obviously wants to get around.”
Afia shrugged. “Or maybe two people make the decision to be in healthy committed relationships and what they do in those relationships are none of your business.”
Mary Kate said, “Can we talk about something else” at the same time Matty said, “Or maybe you’re a whore.”
Jack and Ethan glared at him. Jack is just as close to Afia as he is to Connor. Afia leaned back and squeezed Connor’s leg under the table to get him to let it go, but to no avail.
Connor’s head snapped up but said calmly, “What the fuck did you just say?”
Katharine warned again, “Language.”
Connor exploded at her, “What language, Mom!? The fact that I said FUCK or the fact that Matty just called my girl a WHORE!?”
“Both,” she said.
But Matty ignored her and said casually, “I said maybe. I didn’t say she was a whore.”
Jack spoke up. “And maybe you should watch your mouth before I put my fist down it.” Ethan put his hand on Jack’s leg as well and patted it to calm him down. The last thing he needed was Red Jackie to come out.
“Oh yea, I know guys like you like fisting, don’t you? I don’t go that way, sport. Save it for your boyfriend over there.”
“Husband,” he corrected him, glaring at Matty.
Matty laughed, did an O.K. sign with his fingers. “Sure, sure,” he said mockingly.
“You know what, fuck you, Matty!” Connor said heatedly. “You don’t know shit so whatever you think you saw, you got it wrong. I can one hundred percent guarantee that.”
“Ok, save face for everyone here. But it’s all going to come out one day. And I’m going to be here to gloat when your world comes falling apart. The perfect Marine isn’t so perfect is he?”
“Connor isn’t perfect!” Afia said, also getting upset. “But he is an amazing person with an amazing heart and it just sucks that none of you can see that! None of you know who he really is.”
“Apparently you don’t either if he’s fucking someone else,” Matty said condescendingly.
“Of course he’s fucking someone else, you dumb ass, Connor is-”
She stopped herself as Connor looked at her with wide eyes, fearful. She took a deep breath. “Connor is my very best friend in the entire world. I let him be who he wants to be and love who he wants to love. Which is more than anyone else in his family has ever let him be.”
The table got quiet again. Connor’s dad Owen watched the whole exchange with mild interest. He said, “Connor, if you are cheating on Afia, then it’s time you both let this go. You’re unequally yoked. You’re too different from each other. You need to be in a stable, committed relationship with someone else.”
Connor let a moment pass, then looking down at his plate said, “I am in a stable, committed relationship with someone else. Sir.”
Everyone looked at him. Afia lifted his chin and said, “Hold your head up, Connor. You have nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed of.” He nodded at her and they hugged for a long time as everyone watched them.
Suddenly Afia stood up. “This will be the last McIntyre family gathering that I will be at. I’m getting married in May. And not to Connor.”
All of Connor’s family members had their mouths open. He just smiled at her. Afia had been in a relationship with Jamel’s brother Tyrell for the last three years and they were getting married on May 1st.
Afia continued, “Angie, I love you, girl. Come see me any time. Good luck to the rest of you.” She turned back to Connor. “You know where I will be. I’ll see you there in a few?”
He stood up and said, “Let me walk you out.” And they left holding hands, leaving Connor’s family shocked at the news.
Katherine spoke first. “Well, I for one am glad that is over. Now they can go on to have normal relationships.”
Jack couldn’t help himself. “What was abnormal about their relationship, Mrs. McIntyre?”
Owen answered instead of his wife. “It’s not right that they were together. Now she’s a lovely girl. But they need to be with their own kind.”
Ethan’s was stunned. “Was… that a joke?”
Jack said to Ethan, “No, he wasn’t joking.” He turned back to Owen. “With all due respect Mr. McIntyre, their own kind is human, and they seemed to be doing alright with that.”
Owen said, “Listen, son. You have your views on the world and I have my biblical truths. Nothing good has ever come from being with a colored. Even in the Bible the Israelites were told not to mix with the foreigners. It diluted their heritage and bloodline and led them astray to worship idols.”
Ethan, whose mouth dropped open, said to no one, “Holy shit, he’s not joking.”
“But that was about being led away to false gods, not about skin color,” Jack told Owen.
“It’s the same thing, being led astray from your family and the way you were raised. We raised Connor to be a good Catholic boy and he’s going to marry a good and pure Catholic girl.”
“Not in this lifetime,” Ethan mumbled.
“Hey! You two don’t get to come into my house and tell me about my son and how we’re raising him,” Owen said testily.
“But he’s a 27-year-old grown man.” Now Ethan couldn’t help himself. “You’re not raising him anymore. You don’t get to make decisions for him, you have to let him make decisions for himself, decisions that are going to make him happy.”
“Ethan…” Jack said his name quietly. He could feel how upset he was getting.
Owen kept talking. “Not if it goes against what we stand for. We are an unflinchingly Godly home, no matter who it offends.”
“Nothing that you are saying is Godly, sir. I’m sorry, but it’s just not,” Ethan said hotly.
Own said to him, “And what do you know about Godly? You two are living your sexually immoral and sinful life for the world to see. I’m surprised O’Donnell didn’t put the both of you out of the church.”
They both looked at him stunned. Jack did not think he was going to go there. But Ethan smiled and said calmly, “I’m imperfect and I’m a sinner, yes, but there is nothing immorally sinful about my life.” Jack looked at him and shook his head. Ethan ignored his husband and continued.
“I’m legally married, I got an amazing husband who I am faithful to and honor every day, and got a kind and respectful kid making honor roll in kindergarten. I pay my taxes, I go to church, tithe, and confession every two weeks. I love God, my country and my neighbor, no matter who they are, who they love or what they look like. And I know God loves me just the way I am.
“Now hate, prejudice and racism? That’s sinful. And there just seems to be a whole lot of that going on here. I don’t think Jesus would approve.”
Owen snapped at him. “You New York liberals think everything is hateful and racist when it’s just truth. Men should not lie with men, it’s an abomination. You are an abomination.”
“Yea? I guess Jackie and I never got the memo,” he scoffed, thinking about the “laying” they did just that morning.
“Ethan stop,” Jack murmured. Ethan ignored him again.
“Obviously because you’re living in a cesspool of homosexual filth and raising EJ in it too!” Owen said, raising his voice. “I’m already praying that good and pure boy doesn’t end up like you.”
Jack snapped his head toward Owen, now fully wanting to let Ethan unleash on him. Ethan stood up, gave him an icy glare and said dangerously, “You keep my son’s name out your goddamn mouth.”
“And you get the fuck out of my house!” Owen started yelling. “Who the fuck do you think you are, telling me about my own son, how to raise him, and who he should be with? You disgust me.”
But Ethan had already grabbed his coat and called, “EJ, let’s go now!” He turned to Owen and said, “You’re a hateful, fucked up old man, and you’ve raised hateful children and one day you’re going to have to answer to the God you serve over that.”
“And you’ll never meet Him,” Owen said nastily. “God has turned his back on you. Your businesses will fail. Your child will fail in life, and so will you, all because you have chosen to live a sinful, degradable, disgusting life in the face of God.”
“Yea? Well I seem to be doing alright so far, so fuck you, you racist, homophobic sonofabitch!” Ethan took a step toward him with his fist clenched as Owen stood up slowly.
EJ came running over asking, “Why? What’s wrong?”
Jack stood up too as Connor came back into the dining room. He looked around and said, “What happened?”
Matty said gleefully from his chair, “Dad told the truth and your friends couldn’t handle it.”
Ethan turned to Connor and said, “Thanks for inviting me, but I’m with Afia, I’m never stepping foot in this shit hole again.” He poked Connor in his chest. “You shouldn’t either.” He grabbed EJ’s hand and said, turning back to the table. “Oh, and my son is neeeeeever playing with your grandkids again. There is no way I’m letting your bullshit values tarnish my son’s good Christian ones.”
Matty chuckled as Owen said, “You’re not a Christian, you’re a tool of the devil himself to lead men astray.”
Ethan said, “And you’re a dickwad.” He turned to Jack and said, “You, stay. You were right. I get it now. Connor needs you.”
“Ethan…” Jack started.
But Ethan walked out with his whining son saying loudly in his New York accent, “It’s like the gat dam Aryan Nation in this bitch!” He slammed the front door hard.
Owen sat down fuming after Ethan left and Jack stood there with Connor trying to figure out what to do next. They stared at each other. “Fucking fag,” Matty murmured and Jack and Connor both turned around to him, anger burning in their chests.
Jack had had enough of him. “Say it again, Matty,” Jack said calmly and dangerously. “Say it again and loudly so I can hear you and beat the shit out of you, right in front of your ol’ man.”
Matty said, still seated, “You come over here and try it. Nobody is afraid of you, Jack. Spent your whole life fighting just so people wouldn’t know how much of a sissy you really are.”
“Ok, everybody stop!” Mary Kate yelled. “Just cool off, everyone! This was supposed to be a nice family dinner, but you all are ruining it.”
“I’m sorry, Mary Kate,” Connor said. “The last thing I wanted to do was ruin your dinner.”
“Yea, is that why you brought all your friends over that you know Dad and Matty were going to say something about? It’s like you wanted the drama. Why can’t you just have normal friends like the rest of us?” she asked him.
Angie spoke angrily, “You mean nice, white, straight friends? What is wrong with all of you?”
“I didn’t want the drama,” Connor said. “I just wanted to be around people that know me and like me. This is why I stay away.”
“We do know you Connor, at least I do,” Angie said. “I love you. Don’t stay away from me.”
“You don’t know me, Ang. None of you do, not the real me. Afia is right. I should have just left with her.” He sighed, said to Jack, “Let’s go. I’m going home to my family.” Jack nodded and smiled.
“Sit down, Connor,” Owen ordered. “This is your home and we are your family, whether you like it or not.”
Connor looked at him and said, “No. Are you going to make me?” They glared at each other in a long moment of silence.
Jack, realizing it was the first time Connor had ever stood up to his father, broke the silence and said, “Let’s go, Connor.” He grabbed his arm and pulled his friend from the house to catch up to Ethan and EJ.
* * * * *
“JAAAAAAAACK!”
Claire’s blood curdling scream met Jack’s ears all the way in the kitchen he was cleaning up that Monday evening, the day after her due date. He ran through the dining room and vestibule to find her in the middle of the hallway in front of her room, doubled over in pain. Two guests had come out of their rooms to help.
She reached for his hand. “I changed my mind, I don’t want to do this.”
“C’mon, Claire Bear.” He reached around her waist and led her downstairs to the bench in the front area.
“Call me Claire Bear again and I will punch you, and I have the strength to do it nowoooooohhh!” She leaned over as another contraction hit her. Liam at the front desk was frozen in fear.
“Ok. Depending on how far apart they are I can call an ambulance or I can just drive,” Jack said.
“Call an ambulance, stupid!” she screamed at him. “Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that!”
Jack laughed. “It’s ok, you are forgiven for anything you say for the next 24 hours. Liam, call 911.”
Liam, who was as white as a sheet, slowly did as Jack told him. Jack picked up his phone and called Ethan. “Hey, are you on your way back?”
“Yea, I’m already in the car, what’s up?” But before Jack could answer Claire’s scream in the background told him all he needed to know. “Um…yeah ok, be there in about five minutes,” he said calmly.
“I’m leaving EJ with Liam until you get here. I’m going to ride with her in the ambulance,” Jack told him and hung up.
“Where’s your hospital bag?” he asked Claire. Claire looked at him sheepishly. “You didn’t pack a hospital bag, Claire?” he asked her incredulously.
“I don’t know I don’t know, I just didn’t think this was going to happen,” she cried helplessly.
He looked at her with his eyebrows raised. “Claire. This is happening. You are having a baby. Right now in fact. In just a few hours you will have a whole person that you have to take responsibility for, make decisions for-”
She cut off his lecture. “Jack. I…I think I need my mom.”
Jack was surprised and said to her, “I think you do too. Do you want me to call her?” He had been trying to get her to call her mother for the last few weeks she had been at the Inn.
“No. Maybe, I don’t knoooooooow….” she doubled over in pain again.
“Ok how about we get you to the hospital and settled in, then you can decide.”
“Ok,” she whimpered.
Jack ran to her room and picked up her huge main bag, dropped her cell phone and the gummy worms she had been chewing non stop since she got to the Inn in there. He stopped and said a quick prayer for her, and by the time he came back to the vestibule the ambulance was there.
Ethan met Jack at the hospital in the hallway outside Claire’s room an hour later. “Is she doing ok?” he asked.
“Yes,” Jack said. “Well…as well as to be expected when a baby is trying to get out, so not really. She is only 1 centimeter dilated and it’s going to be a long night.”
Ethan looked at Jack’s worry lines across his forehead, making him look older than his soon to be 27 years. He took his hand. “You’re trembling a little.”
“Am I?” he said shakily. “I think I’m just nervous for her. I need to get her to call her mom. Or at least give me her cell phone number so I can call her.”
“Ok. Let me talk to her about that. I think I can convince her.”
“Ok,” Jack said. He looked at Ethan, frozen in place.
Ethan smiled at him. “It is going to be a long night. You ready?”
Jack smiled nervously. “I never asked you, did you do this with Trish?”
“Yup. All 18 hours and 23 minutes,” Ethan told him. “EJ’s due date was Dec 30th, but she didn’t start having contractions until after the ball dropped and 2006 was underway. And they wouldn’t give her pain meds because of her addiction history so that was a real treat. We were in the hospital all day, then he decided to make an appearance at 7:39am the next day.”
He squeezed Jack’s hand. “Your only job is to be there for her. Put your own feelings and fears aside, because she has more than enough for the two of you. Encourage her. Support her. Keep her as calm as you can. Bring her ice, water, whatever she wants. Be there for her.”
Jack nodded. “I can do that.” Ethan nodded too. “You’re staying, right?” Jack asked, worried.
“Of course. I dropped EJ off with your parents. I want to be there for you and her.”
Jack pulled him into a tight hug and Ethan hugged him back tightly. He let a few tears that were threatening to come out finally drop, then rubbed them on Ethan’s shoulder. He swallowed, then stepped back. “I’m ok,” Jack said. “I’m ready.”
Ethan nodded, then touched his cheek. Love you, he mouthed. Jack nodded back and leaned in for a quick peck kiss. Then he turned around and walked into the room to hold Claire’s hand.
* * * * *
Five hours later Claire was in tears and throwing up. Jack was rubbing her back and feeding her ice chips. “I’m dying,” she lamented. “This baby is trying to kill me.”
“Look at it this way, you get to tell her in a few years what hell she put you though,” Jack said.
She glared at him and he laughed making her smile a bit. Dr. Mavis came in to check her and said, “You are only four centimeters dilated. We are going to start the pitocin now.”
“Wait!” she cried. “I read about that. Doesn’t that mean it will make me contract faster?”
“Yes,” she said. “And that will help to open up your cervix.”
“Will you give me the epidural then so I won’t feel it?”
“Yes, but we want to see you pushed to at least five centimeters before we administer it.”
“So I’m just going to feel all of it!?” She looked terrified.
“We can give you pain meds to take the edge off. But I don’t want to put you or the baby through any more distress. I want to help you move this along,” the doctor told her.
Jack held her hand. “It’s your decision. You can labor it out a bit more to see if you will open up on your own or get the pitocin and force your body to move faster. You can say yes or no. Your decision.”
She looked at him and said, “I….I need this to be done. Don’t leave me, ok?”
“Not even a pee break,” he said and smiled at her which made her laugh.
She turned back to Dr. Mavis. “Ok. Let’s do it.” The doctor nodded and left the room. She turned to Jack again. “I’m really scared.”
“Claire. I’m going to be here for you. But. If you want me to call someone, now is the time. You said you wanted your mom earlier, then you changed your mind when Ethan asked. What are you thinking now?” Jack asked her.
She looked at him with sad eyes. Then she reached for her purse that was on the table next to her. She pulled out her phone, put the pin in and gave it to Jack. “Call her please. Tell her. I can’t do it.”
“Ok. I’m going to have Ethan come in and sit with you until I get back.”
“Ok,” she said.
Jack left the room and Ethan was sitting in the next door waiting room drinking coffee. He told him what he was doing and Ethan immediately went to Claire’s side. Jack dialed the number under “Mom.” A woman answered drowsily, it was a couple of minutes after midnight. “Hello?”
“Hello. Is this Ann Byers?”
“Yes. Who is this?”
“My name is Jack Frazier. Your daughter Claire is here with me in Providence, Rhode Island. She needs you to come here, as soon as you can.”
“You have my daughter?” the woman said sharply. “What do you want, money? Is this a ransom?”
Jack was shocked. “Oh no! Nothing like that at all, ma’am. Claire…Claire is having a baby. Right now in fact, she is in labor. And she is asking for her mother. I tried to get her to call you weeks ago but she refused. But she is asking for you now. She needs you. Can you come?”
She was quiet for a moment. Then said coldly, “You must be mistaken. My daughter is not pregnant. She is not having a baby.”
“She never got the abortion,” he told her. “She sat in the room and ordered them not to tell you. Then she hid it from you as long as she could. That’s why she ran away, because she was starting to show.”
He gave her a minute to digest what he just said, then said, “Claire Byers is very much pregnant and is having a baby right now at Providence Medical Center. Your granddaughter. Claire needs you. Will you come?”
Mrs. Byers was still quiet. Jack said, “Mrs. Byers? Ann? ANN!?”
“I heard you!” she yelled at him. Then composed herself. “I…I need to…my husband is not home he’s on a business trip-”
Jack cut her off. “She didn’t ask for him. And you know why. She asked for you. Are you coming or not?” He was getting upset.
She was stunned into silence again. Then whispered, “I don’t know if I-”
“You don’t know if you WHAT!? You don’t know if you can be there for your own daughter?” Jack yelled at her.
Ann Byers let a moment pass, then said. “Ok. I’m… I’m coming.”
Jack gave her the address of the hospital and the room number. Then he said, “I’m not going to tell her you’re on your way. The last thing she needs is for you to disappoint her again. So if you are coming, come, and quickly. Do whatever it is you rich people do when you need to get someplace fast. But if you aren’t coming, make sure you stay out of her life forever.” Jack hung up.
When he went back in the room, Claire was having another contraction and Ethan was holding her hand and rubbing her back. Jack went to her other side to hold her other hand. She looked up with tears in her eyes. “Is she coming?”
“I don’t know. But she got the message. If she gets here, she does. Either way, we’re here.”
She squeezed both of their hands. “This baby is going to have great parents.”
Jack’s eyes went wide but Ethan laughed. “One step at a time, Claire.” He kissed the top of her hair.
* * * * *
Three and a half hours later, Ethan walked into the room with two cups of coffee to Claire smiling and bouncing in her bed and Jack dancing around her, listening to some non-English speaking pop music. She was feeling much better since getting her epidural.
“What is going on here?” he asked, handing Jack another cup of coffee.
“K-Pop!” Claire said excitedly. “Jack had never listened to it before. This one is called Love Ya by SS501.”
“It’s actually pretty good,” Jack said. He danced in front of Ethan who stood still and smiled. Jack turned around and moved his waist against Ethan’s groin seductively making Claire squeal. Ethan laughed.
“You guys are so cute together!” she exclaimed.
Ethan refused to dance with him at first. Feeling himself growing he said in Jack’s ear, “Jack fucking Frazier, you better stop before you start something you can’t finish right now.”
Jack turned around still dancing against him, his green eyes flashing with amusement giving his husband that sideways smile he does. He wrapped his free arm around Ethan playing with the nape of his neck and continued to dance against him. He stuck his tongue out and licked Ethan’s lips. Ethan laughed and sat his cup of coffee down. He lifted his hands inside of Jack’s shirt and held him from the back pulling him closer. They danced and grinded against each other as Jack licked Ethan’s lips again. Ethan kissed his nose.
“Hello?” They heard a female voice and all three looked toward the door. A mature woman stood there with her dark red hair in a tight bun.
Claire gasped, “Mom!” She put her hands over her mouth.
Jack backed up from Ethan as Ann Byers stared at her daughter. “What have you done, Claire?” she said coldly.
Jack moved protectively towards Claire’s bed. “Claire hasn’t done anything. Claire had this done to her and is making the best of a terrible situation,” Jack said testily.
“Jack…” Ethan warned quietly.
“Oh, you must be the young man who hung up on me,” she deduced.
Jack nodded. “I am,” he said proudly. “Glad you could make it to be here for your daughter for once in your life.” Ann looked aghast.
“Jack.” Ethan called his name again, but he ignored him.
“I wouldn’t tell her that you were coming because I wasn’t sure if you would,” Jack said.
“Well, I’m here. And I’m going to take my daughter home. You can go now,” she snapped at Jack.
“Are you crazy, she’s not going back there!” Jack said angrily.
Claire yelled, “No Jack stays! Jack stays here with me!”
“Why? Is he the father, Claire?” she asked. Claire’s eyes were wide with tears.
“Are you fucking serious right now?” Jack yelled at her mother.
“Jack!” Ethan yelled his name.
He ignored Ethan again. “You know who the father is, Ann!”
She looked at him, shocked. “What do you think you know? You don’t know anything.”
He started walking toward her and Ethan grabbed his arm firmly. “Stop,” he muttered.
“I know everything, Ann,” said Jack, angrily. “And I know that you failed your daughter in every way possible. And I won’t let you fail her again today.” They glared at each other.
“Please stop,” Claire said in a small voice, crying from the bed, hands covering her face. They all turned to look at her.
The door opened again and Dr. Mavis looked around. “There are too many people in here. Claire you get two supports, not three. Someone has to leave.”
Jack and Ann went back to glaring at each other. Ethan said, “I’m going to step out and sit in the waiting room. Jack, can you come here for a second? I think Claire and her mother have some things to talk about.”
Jack glared at him but he kept his grip on Jack’s forearm and pulled him from the room. When they got into the waiting area Jack started pacing. Ethan watched him for a moment, then stood in front of him stopping him in his tracks.
“Hey, Red Jackie, calm the fuck down, ok? Remember the goal here is to be here for Claire. And you can’t do that if you attack her mother. Claire wants her here, and it’s what Claire needs right now. So if you don’t think you can do it, be in the same room with that woman and still be there for Claire, sit your ass down and wait here until the baby is born and I’ll go in there. But considering she calls you Jack while she calls me Mr. Ethan, I think it’s safe to say you’re much closer to her than I am.
“So can you do this, yes or no? In or out? Which one?”
Jack stared at him for a moment. “I’m cool,” he said calmly.
Ethan crossed his arms and said, “Yea? The last time you said ‘I’m cool’ in that same tone of voice to me, you broke Carlos’s nose.”
Despite how he was feeling Jack started laughing and Ethan did too. He pulled Jack into a hug which he allowed. After a moment Jack said, “I’m ok, really. You’re right. I need to be there for Claire. And I will be, no matter what. I’ll keep it together.”
Ethan nodded. “I’ll be right here if you need me.” Jack kissed him on the lips and left the room.
* * * * *
Claire had her girl baby with Jack on one side and her mother Ann on the other at 8:12am, two days after her due date on the 12th, after exactly 12 hours of labor. Jack had the honor of cutting the cord. At first she refused to hold the baby saying to her mother, “She looks like Uncle David. Now do you believe me?”
So Dr. Mavis put the baby in Jack’s arms instead. Jack stayed with them at the hospital taking care of the newborn while Claire and her mother talked for the next 24 hours until Claire felt ok enough to hold her. Ann apologized to Jack for her behavior and thanked him and Ethan for taking care of her daughter.
She told him, “We had a long talk. We’re not going back to Massachusetts, we’re going to my sister’s house in Pennsylvania and I have already sent the car to pick up my other daughter. I’m going to separate from my husband, and take care of my daughters and granddaughter. I just want to protect them.”
Jack came home two days later after Claire was discharged to her mother and they headed south with the baby girl who Claire had not named yet. When he opened the door he was surprised to see Ethan there. “Hey! You’re home? Not at The Residence today, being so close to Move-In Day?”
“No. Jamel said he was fine overseeing the final county inspection today,” Ethan said as he made Jack a sandwich for lunch. “Plus I knew you were coming home and I wanted to be here for you.”
Jack smiled and moved closer to him. He kissed his bare shoulder and leaned on it, as he was only wearing a tank top and his khakis he wears around the house, and wrapped an arm around his belly. “I appreciate you so much.”
They were quiet for a while, then Ethan asked him, “Are you disappointed that she wanted to give it a try?”
Jack shook his head. “Not at all. I just wanted what was best for her. I’m glad that she made the decision and I just want her to be safe and happy.”
Ethan nodded. “Well. I should tell you that all of this has given me a bit of longing for another little one. So let’s say we start looking into some adoption stuff by this summer?”
Jack was shocked. He stopped Ethan’s hands from cutting his sandwich in half and turned him around to face him. “Seriously!?”
“Yea. Let’s talk to EJ about it tonight, see what he thinks,” Ethan said.
They stare at each other. Then without warning Jack attacked Ethan with his lips and started pawing at his clothes. “Wait wait!” Ethan laughed. “I thought you were hungry?”
“I am,” Jack said seriously. “Can’t you tell?”
Ethan pulled his face closer and kissed him fervently. “Fuck it.”
He grabbed the olive oil from the counter and pushed Jack out of the kitchen without breaking their lips apart, bumping into the couch on the way to the bedroom. Ethan then changed his mind and pushed Jack into the back of the couch. He pulled off his shirt first, turned him around and kissed the space between his shoulder blades.
Jack laughed and said, “You don’t want to take this all the way inside?”
“No,” said Ethan, leaving wet kisses all along Jack’s well defined back. “I want you right now. How is that for desire?”
He pulled Jack’s sweatpants down and put his face in Jack’s ass, making him moan. Jack’s musky smell was driving him crazy with desire. He pulled back slightly to kiss Jack’s round bottom all over, then spread his cheeks wide again and used his tongue to show his desire for him.
Then he smeared oil all over his ass and oiled inside him with two fingers, making Jack moan louder. He added more oil to both hands, stood up and fingered him while rubbing his hands along back first, then his abs, squeezing his nipples between his two fingers when they went up, playing with his pubic hair when they went down.
Ethan continued to nibble his neck and shoulder blades until Jack began to squirm in his hands. He nibbled his earlobe and whispered, “bend over.”
Jack did, leaning over and holding onto the pillows on the other side of the couch. Ethan pulled his hard cock out from the top part of his pants and oiled himself. He entered Jack very slowly, resuming running his hands all over Jack’s abs and nipples, his hands slick with sweet smelling oil. When he finally bottomed out, he reached down and stroked Jack while pinching his nipples.
Jack tried to move but Ethan held him firm between himself and the couch. He flexed his cock a few times inside of him but otherwise did not thrust or pull out, just completely filled him up, his pubes against his bottom. Instead he stroked Jack quickly and pinched his nipples hard until Jack cried out and came all over the pillows. Then he began to move.
Ethan pumped into Jack hard but steady. He continued to run his hands along Jack’s body and left little bites along the back of Jack’s neck. He slowed down every time he felt his orgasm rise and changed up his stroke, then resumed thrusting into Jack.
Jack closed his eyes and moaned, allowed himself to be thoroughly fucked by Ethan from behind. He could feel Ethan’s sweat drip onto his back, his mouth on his neck, feel his thighs tightened as they slammed into his over and over again. He knew Ethan’s goal was to make him cum again before he came.
“I’m so close,” Jack moaned.
Ethan moved his hand back down to Jack’s penis and held it firmly. “Cum with me,” he told him as he nibbled Jack’s neck again. “Together.”
Together they moved into climax. Ethan bit his neck and squeezed Jack’s nipple, and Jack came, released ropes of cum all over the couch again. Ethan felt the surge of his cum and pushed into Jack’s rectum holding himself tightly against him as his dick spasmed and shot cum over and over again into him.
“Fuck,” an exhausted Ethan exclaimed as he slid down to the floor, laying flat on his back. Jack turned around and realized Ethan never took off his clothes, and laughed at his tank top drenched in sweat. He laid down on the floor next to him, found his hand and held it.
Ethan eventually said, “You’re stripping the couch cushions and doing laundry. That’s your jizz, not mine.”
Jack laughed out loud. He turned over and curled his naked body next to Ethan’s clothed one for body warmth. Ethan held him, palming his round bottom as he loves to do. Both of their minds wandered back to Claire after a while.
Ethan spoke first. “I wonder if we’ll ever hear from her again.”
“I honestly don’t know,” Jack said sadly. “I hope so. She has my number and told her if she ever needed anything to call me. Either way I plan on calling her once in a while to check on her.”
“It’s just so crazy how she came into our lives before we got together and then came back into our lives now that we’re married. And both times you had an impact on her,” Ethan said.
“Both times she had an impact on me,” Jack said. “I love her like she was my own kid, and she was only with us a short period of times, both times.”
“Yea. I’m going to miss her presence around here. She was definitely our practice run with teenagers this time around. And, not that I didn’t think you wouldn’t be because you’ve always had a way with kids, but you were really great with her. Just like you’ve always been with EJ. I don’t have doubts about our readiness to be parents.”
“I appreciate you saying that. Some people come in and out of your life for a reason. I guess having Claire here was the universe’s way of showing us both that we’re ready. We didn’t need to adopt her baby, we just needed to help her. And I am more than ok with that,” Jack said.
“And helped to put her on the path of healing,” said Ethan. “It doesn’t matter if we never hear from her again. I just hope she lives a happy life, both of them.”
* * * * *
But two weeks later Jack received a call from Ann Byers while they were sitting on the couch watching TV together with EJ between them.
“Mr. Frazier I wanted to let you know, Claire has been adamant about putting the baby up for adoption. She’s refused to name her and when she holds her she just cries profusely. I have been trying to convince her otherwise, but I’m realizing that raising the baby due to the circumstances of her… conception is starting to affect Claire’s mental health.
“I’ve spoken to my lawyer who is currently reaching out to other adoption attorneys to find suitable adoptive parents. But… while I personally think my daughter’s harebrained idea of you and your… husband adopting the baby was… inappropriate at best, I did see you care for the baby those first few days and bond with her and… I did want to give you the opportunity to decide if… if it is something you and your… husband would seriously consider. Because we would consider you first.”
Jack’s mouth was open and his eyes wide, listening to her talk. He looked over at Ethan who heard everything since the phone was on speaker. They stared at each other for a moment, then Ethan nodded once.
“Yes,” Jack said. “We’ll adopt her. And her name is Jacqueline.”