Belonging (21 page)

“I can’t imagine why,” he said as he
swung out of bed. He seemed a bit off, but maybe that was because
he was still waking up. “I need to use the facilities. Do you have
a spare toothbrush?”

“Everything you need is on the counter
next to the sink,” I told him, and he went into the adjoining
bathroom and shut the door behind him.

When he emerged a few minutes later,
he crossed the room to me, sat on the edge of the bed, and grabbed
me in an embrace. “You’re incredibly thoughtful, Gianni. Thank
you.”

“No big deal,” I said as I hugged him.
I’d asked Yosh to go to the store for me and forwarded him Zan’s
shopping lists. My friend had dropped everything off last night, so
all of Zan’s favorite brands of toiletries had been on the bathroom
counter waiting for him. “I figured a little familiarity would be
welcome in the midst of all this change.”

“It
is
a big deal. I almost burst into
tears when I saw what you’d done for me, which just goes to show
I’m kind of a wreck this morning.”

“Be patient with yourself,” I said
gently as I rubbed his back and held him. “You’ve gone through so
much in the last day. It’s going to take a while to
acclimate.”

He nodded and released his grip a bit,
leaning back to look at me. I gave him a smile and got a little
grin in return. “Are you hungry?” I asked. When he nodded I pivoted
around and slid my feet into my sneakers, then picked up his hand.
“Come on. Yosh bought you your favorite foods, too, when he went to
the store for me. Let’s go downstairs and get you some
breakfast.”

He kept holding my hand as we went
downstairs. The house was pretty empty except for my cousin Nico,
who was studying at the kitchen table. After I introduced him and
Zan, I asked where everyone was. “Out front,” Nico told me.
“There’s a painting party going on. I was granted an exemption from
participating since I have an exam to study for.”

“Do I even want to ask what they’re
painting?” I said as I went around the kitchen island and turned on
the burner under the tea kettle, then put a couple slices of
wholegrain bread in the toaster.

“You really don’t,” Nico told
me.

Zan followed me around while I
prepared his breakfast and said, “You don’t have to do this for me.
I’m capable of making tea and toast.”

“You don’t know where anything is in
this kitchen, though.”

“And yet I’d probably figure out that
that kettle-shaped thing was, in fact, a kettle.” He grinned a
little.

“Fine, I won’t baby you. The plates
and cups are in that cupboard over there,” I pointed across the
kitchen, “and the honey you’re about to look for is over there,
along with your other nonperishables.” I pointed to a different
cabinet.

When I crossed the kitchen and took a
mug from the first cupboard I’d indicated, he said, “Well, that was
short-lived.”

“Shhh. I’m getting myself a mug,” I
told him. “I have newfound confidence in your tea-and-toast-making
abilities."

“Did you just shush me?”

“I did! Did you enjoy it?”

“Oddly enough, yes. It was very
hot-librarian of you. Made me want to pull you behind the card
catalog and nibble on you a bit,” Zan said with a playful smile. I
was glad to see he was perking up a bit.

“There are no such things as card
catalogs anymore, but other than that, I support that idea one
hundred percent,” I told him.

When he’d finished putting his meal
together and sat down at the breakfast bar, I came up behind him,
kissed his shoulder, and then reached around and deposited
something beside his plate. “Bloody hell!” he exclaimed, snatching
up the little kumquat. “Do you not recall what happened last time
you exposed us to these mutant squirrel testicles? It was so sour
that you went instant fish-face!”

“This one’s better, I tried a couple
from this batch,” I told him. “Chances of fish-face are
slim.”

“Wow, you two are absolutely bizarre
together,” Nico said with a smile, getting up and stretching before
picking up his thick textbook. “I’m going to go study upstairs so
you can enjoy your squirrel testicles in peace.”

“Sorry Cuz,” I told him. “We didn’t
mean to chase you out.”

“It’s fine,” he said as he left the
kitchen.

“They’re probably not really mutant
squirrel balls, just FYI,” Zan called after him.

Jessie came into the kitchen just as
Nico was leaving. “I knew I liked you, Zan,” he said. “Any man that
sits around yelling about squirrel balls is more than welcome in
this family.” He was wearing a blue baseball cap, formerly white
shorts and a t-shirt that said ‘I think he’s gay’, with an arrow
pointing at his crotch. The shirt was barely legible, given the
huge amount of red paint that he’d managed to spill, smear,
splatter, or otherwise apply to himself.

“What exactly are you painting?” I
asked him as he poured himself a glass of water.

“You know that big flag we hung up?
Well, it was gone this morning, and Nana had a conniption fit. She
marched over to the new neighbor’s house and accused him of foul
play. If you ask me, I think the flag blew away, because I didn’t
fasten it down very well,” Jessie said. “But Nana was convinced
some nefarious homophobe snuck around under the cover of darkness
and absconded with it.”

“
So now she’s painting a
permanent rainbow flag on the front of the house?”

“Actually, she’s painting the whole
house into one huge rainbow. Christopher Robin Andrews is here, do
you know him? He’s a brilliant artist, and I guess he and Nana are
good friends. Anyway, he came up with the design and then showed us
how to fill it in, kind of like a ginormous color-by-numbers. We’re
doing this thing called stippling. I’m not very good at it, but
it’s fun.”

“I do know Christopher, he went to art
school with Christian.” I directed that at Zan, then said to
Jessie, “Please tell me Nana isn’t up on a ladder with a paint
bucket.”

“Nah. She wanted to be, but
Christopher convinced her that painting at ground level was a lot
more critical and needed her expert touch, since more people would
notice it.” Jessie finished his water, then filled a big pitcher
and grabbed a stack of plastic cups from one of the cabinets. “I’d
better get back to it. You guys should join in after you eat. It’s
a hell of a big canvas, and the more people that lend a hand, the
faster it’ll go.” He took the cups and pitcher with him as he went
back to work.

“How are you and Jessie related?” Zan
asked, once the blond had gone.

“We’re not. Well, not by blood,
anyway. Now I guess we’re related by Nana. She has a habit of
collecting gay men who don’t have families and making them a part
of ours.”

“That’s kind of wonderful,
actually.”

“It is. Nana comes up with some crazy
ideas, no doubt about it, including what she’s doing outside right
now. But underneath it all, she has a heart of gold. I’m so lucky
she’s my grandmother.” Zan grinned at me, and I smiled at him and
asked, “What?”

“It’s just really sweet. I can tell
how much she means to you.”

I ventured, looking down at my tea,
“If you felt like staying here a while, she’d be happy to have you.
The moment you kissed me, you became part of the family as far as
Nana’s concerned.” I glanced up and asked, “Do you want to try for
another night here and see how it goes?”

“As long as you’re with me, I believe
I could do that easily. You make me feel like I could do anything,”
he said. Then he grinned embarrassedly and added, “That was
incredibly sappy. Apologies.”

“I liked it,” I told him, and he
leaned in and brushed his lips to mine.

Once again, the kisses quickly became
hot and heavy. Zan pulled me onto his lap and I straddled his
thighs as he slid both hands up under my hoodie, caressing my back.
My cock swelled, and I could feel his doing the same thing beneath
me. “I want a chance to reciprocate with what you did for me
yesterday,” he whispered, his voice rough. “I want to taste every
part of you, Gianni.”

I smiled and said, “I have absolutely
no problem with that,” then wound my fingers into his thick hair as
I parted my lips for him. His tongue explored my mouth as lust shot
through me. Without any conscious thought, I began to grind on his
lap, rubbing myself against his cock.

“Oh, shit!”

I launched myself off Zan’s lap at the
sound of the startled voice by the door, quickly tugging my hoodie
down to cover my erection, which was way too obvious in the sweat
pants I was wearing. Christian was spinning around awkwardly in the
doorway, grappling with the controls of his wheelchair while his
fiancé dove out of the way. “I’m so sorry,” Christian was saying.
“I totally didn’t mean to invade your privacy like
that.”

“It’s my fault for getting caught up
in the moment. Sorry to, you know, scar you for life or whatever,”
I stammered as my cheeks heated with an intense blush.

“We’ll be out front with the painting
party,” Shea said. Christian had gotten the chair pointed in the
right direction and had taken off at a good clip. “Come join us
when, um, things have died down a bit.” He grinned embarrassedly
and chased after his fiancé.

“God, I’m so sorry,” I told Zan as I
sank back onto my stool. “This kitchen is always like Grand Central
Station and I should have known better. Also, I forgot to tell you
your son was coming over. So basically, I’m totally doing great
today.”

“Well, the good news is, my son’s gay
so he won’t be the least bit phased at the sight of two men
kissing.” Zan looked remarkably unconcerned as he took a sip of
tea.

“We weren’t just kissing. I was
grinding on you while you were tongue-fucking my mouth. Nobody
should ever have to see their dad with an erection.”

“My back was to him, so no worries
there. Also, you and I were both fully clothed, though I will say,
your exercise pants leave little to the imagination. I like them.”
He smiled cheerfully.

“Oh God.” I dropped my head onto the
breakfast bar. “I’m completely mortified.”

“Don’t be. Christian’s an adult,
presumably someone other than me gave him the whole birds-and-bees
talk at some point, so he knows how this works.” Zan took a drink
from his teacup and added, “Besides, he, along with the rest of the
world apparently, already saw us kissing at the airport, so he
knows what you and I are to each other. I don’t see why this has to
be a big deal.”

“It’s nice that you can be so calm
about this. But then, you weren’t the one waving your boner around
the kitchen for all to see.”

He smiled and said, “I can’t begin to
tell you how glad I am that I have that effect on you.”

I sat up and took one of his hands in
both of mine. “But geez, Christian, of all people. And Shea, too!
He just seemed to find it funny, though. I need to go find your son
and apologize to him. Do you want to come out front with me?” When
he hesitated, I added, “You don’t have to. I can ask Christian to
come back inside so you two can talk.”

“I’m not up for another scene like the
one at the airport. I’m not saying that would happen automatically
if I set foot outside, but if I was recognized, things could
potentially get out of control.”

“You’re right. If you want to, you and
he can talk in the family room. It’s the last room on the right,
down the main hallway.”

“Sounds good.”

I got up and started to clear his
dishes, but he stood too and took them from my hands. “You don’t
have to clean up after me, Gianni, but thank you.”

“Okay. I’ll be right back.”

Over half a dozen people were painting
when I went out front. Nana wasn’t shy about calling in favors.
After scratching the puppy behind the ears, I said hello to my
brother Dante, his husband, and a few friends. Most of them teased
me mercilessly for my very public display of affection at the
airport, and I grinned at that as I walked out to the sidewalk and
took in the transformation.

The house was a huge, white,
three-story Queen Anne Victorian with a lot of gorgeous period
details. Over the course of the morning, it had begun to come to
life with a giant rainbow that so far extended almost a quarter of
the way down from the eves, and about five feet up from ground
level. The trim had been left white, so the effect was surprisingly
pretty as opposed to gaudy, in part because the colors were
translucent and almost shimmering.

“What do you think?” Christopher Robin
asked as he came to stand beside me and assessed the progress of
the paint job. His curly blond hair was covered by a red bandana,
and he wore a paint-spattered t-shirt and jeans, which hung from
his thin frame. “Nana wanted rainbow stripes in primary colors
across the whole thing, but I talked her down a bit. I think it has
the same message without being garish.”

“It’s a good thing she called you,” I
told him. “This is going to be pretty. I was afraid to see what was
happening out here.”

“Thanks, I’m glad you like it. This is
your home too, after all, so I wanted to give you something you
could live with.”