Flare (23 page)

Together, Brooke and Finn had worked on a photo album for Rowan. It was filled with many of Brooke’s candid shots of the family, and they had both written some private messages for her. Kevin smiled when he saw the gift, thinking how much of an Erin-like gift it was.

The adults had agreed to not exchange gifts, but as often happens, no one listened. They gave small items of little consequence to most people but that were meaningful for them. Cookies. A favorite type of cheese. An album. Hugo handed Rowan a card he and Kevin had spent a lot of time writing on, trying to get down their thoughts and appreciation for her and all her help. Her presence in the kids’ lives was all the gift they ever wanted, and they needed her to know how important she was beyond a paycheck, because she was so much more than that.

The kids said their good-byes to her before school on a Tuesday, and then Kevin and Hugo both drove her to the airport after the kids were safely on the bus. There were promises of Skype conversations and e-mails.

At the drop-off in front of the airport, Kevin tipped the skycap after he’d loaded Rowan’s luggage onto a cart. She’d insisted Hugo and Kevin not come inside with her, but that they say their good-byes in a place where they couldn’t linger too long. She kissed both of them on the cheek and said, “Here. Brooke might appreciate this.” She handed her phone to Kevin. “Her phone is shite, and she’s a responsible kid. We’ll talk soon. Cheers.”

Rowan slipped out of their lives as unobtrusively as she’d slipped in.

Kevin reached for Hugo’s hand as he drove away from the airport. He was hopeful, sure that he and Hugo could take on the challenges of being dads. It had to be better than when Erin had first died and everyone was still reeling in grief. It simply had to be.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Lines

K
EVIN
OPENED
the drapes in the living room and looked out toward the tree line in the backyard. It was a gloomy, cold day. The trees were bare, and Kevin could see how windy it was because the empty branches swayed. It was a good day to spend indoors.

It had yet to snow in Minnesota, but the meteorologists were predicting the state to get dumped on in January and February, probably even March and April. So despite not needing a break from shoveling and bitter-cold temperatures, Hugo, Kevin, and the kids were heading to Los Angeles a little over a week before Christmas for the opening of Hugo’s movie. They’d be there long enough to allow Hugo to do the whole publicity tour that had been scheduled.

When he got his itinerary, Hugo had assumed he’d spend the entire time alone and hopefully make it home for Christmas Day. Kevin had insisted they be together for the whole thing. “Come on. We’ll make it a family vacation,” he said with encouragement when he saw the itinerary.

“In LA?”

“In LA. Why not? There’s a lot to do there.”

“I know there is. It just doesn’t say Merry Christmas to me.”

“Family,” Kevin had said, “says Christmas, no matter where we are.”

“I’ll need some lefse,” Hugo said with such seriousness in his voice Kevin couldn’t help but laugh. Of course that meant spending time at Hugo’s sister’s house with Ruby helping again with boiling and ricing potatoes to make into dough one day and rolling the dough thin and grilling it the next. Brooke got in on all the fun this year, recalling how her mom had spent most of the time on the couch watching the year before. As they made lefse, everyone remembered the good times they’d had with Erin. Unsurprisingly, that led to tears before bed, Kevin and Hugo each taking a turn with the kids, holding them close and letting them know how much they were loved.

T
HE
RED
carpet was a strange affair. It was like a different world. Hugo said he’d never been treated quite like that for any of his previous productions, being shuffled about by a handler and escorted from place to place in luxury. The wall of flashes from the photographers was unbelievable. Kevin asked the kids if they were okay with being in the photos ahead of time, and they both thought it would be cool.

Hugo had even gone shopping with both kids and a stylist to help them pick out clothes, putting Brooke in a periwinkle-blue dress that was shorter than Kevin was entirely comfortable with. Her legs looked a mile long, and she looked closer to fifteen when her makeup was done and her hair was fixed, but Kevin had to admit the color of the dress brought out the beauty of her eyes. Hugo, Finn, and Kevin all wore a variation of a black suit. Hugo’s bow tie matched Brooke’s dress, and Finn wore a purple long tie while Kevin was happy going in traditional black and blending into the background as much as he could.

As Hugo answered one inane interview question after the other, Kevin and the kids stood back, taking it all in, noticing how excited some of the crowd was while others looked utterly bored with the affair. The big moment was when the female lead in the movie arrived with sleek hair and excessive makeup that helped add to her starlet persona. She was the heroine, the one people were really paying at the box office to see, Hugo said, but Kevin disagreed. Hugo was always modest.

Soon, Hugo, Kevin, and the kids were seated in the theater, being coddled by a bevy of people passing out popcorn, candy, and the like. It was surreal, and quicker than expected, the film started.

Hugo, as Kevin anticipated, was amazing in the film. It was strange to see the animated face connected with his lover’s voice because it looked nothing like Hugo, but some of the facial expressions were very Hugo-like. Even stranger was the knowledge that kids were going to grow up thinking of Hugo’s voice connected to this character, much as his own kids recognized Mike Meyers’ voice as that of Shrek or Tom Hanks as the Conductor from
Polar Express
.

Finn was a bit starstruck after they left the theater, and Brooke was too, though she was succeeding at playing it a bit cooler. Despite the different time zone, the late night helped the kids fall deep asleep in their beds within minutes of getting back to the hotel.

The studio had paid for a huge suite with a hot tub out on a walkout rooftop veranda. “Couldn’t do this in Minnesota in December,” Kevin said as he slipped into the hot water the next morning. They were going to soak while waiting for room service to bring them breakfast.

“Certainly could, though it would be chilly above water. Don’t tell me you’ve never been in a hot tub in the middle of a Minnesota winter.”

“I haven’t,” Kevin admitted.

“Someday. Someday.” Hugo walked to the hot tub with two rolled towels in hand and set them near the pool ledge before taking a quick sip from his water bottle.

“God, this feels good.”

Hugo finally joined him in the water. He’d been reorganizing the suitcase that morning, which didn’t make much sense to Kevin. Fully unpacking and putting things in drawers and on hangers might have been understandable, considering they were staying there for several more nights. It had looked to Kevin as if Hugo was working out some nervous energy, so he hadn’t said a thing and had just left him be.

“It is nice,” Hugo said, pressing himself from shoulder to hip to knee against Kevin. Kevin sighed and reached for his towel and adjusted it so he could rest his head on it.

“What’s on the fancy agenda today?” Kevin wondered.

“Some local radio thing. I’m not sure, but we have the morning to ourselves.”

“I suppose everyone else went out after the premiere to party and have hangovers to get through.”

“The advantage of having kids to look after,” Hugo said with a chuckle. They’d made an appearance but left as soon as possible.

Leaning in to kiss Hugo’s full lips, Kevin said, “I love you, you know?”

“I do.” There was no mistaking Hugo’s confidence when Kevin saw that smile. “You know,” Hugo said, suddenly seeming quite nervous as he turned his head to Kevin. “Maybe I’m foolish, but I’m foolishly in love with you, and I like that. I like that I can be all of me with you, even ridiculously stupid and silly. No man has ever allowed me to do that before, at least not one that I loved as much as I love you. And I do love you, more than I’m able to ever get past my stupid mouth.” Hugo turned and put his arm on the ledge of the pool and faced Kevin more directly.

“I think you do just fine.” Kevin smiled, leaning in to kiss Hugo again.

“Kevin,” Hugo’s voice wavered but he kept speaking. “Will you marry me?” Hugo pulled out a black leather box from inside the rolled-up towel. He cracked the cover open, revealing a brushed silver ring with two polished lines weaving in and out of each other around the ring.

“Oh my…. Yes! Yes, I’ll marry you.” Despite the heat in the hot tub, chills spread over Kevin’s body and tears filled his eyes. Never in a million years did he expect this. They’d talked of marriage as an abstract concept before Erin’s cancer was diagnosed, but not since. “Oh my God.” Kevin wrapped Hugo in his arms, crushing him to his chest so Hugo was struggling to breathe. “Sorry. I’m sorry. I probably shouldn’t crush you.”

“Probably not,” Hugo said with the warmest smile on his face, filling his voice with emotion. “Here.” He pulled the ring out of the box and put it on Kevin’s left hand. “I hope it fits.”

It fit perfectly and looked good on his hand. He studied it, feeling the weight of the metal and noticing the wavy lines that seemed to cross at random. When he looked closer, he saw two more lines running parallel to each edge of the ring.

“That’s us,” Kevin said, sliding his thumbnail in one of the grooves. “And that’s Brooke and Finn, isn’t it?” he asked.

Hugo nodded, smiling wide. “You got it. I had it made special. I know I’m not just marrying you. I’m marrying the whole family, and I want to be one of those stable people to help with the kids as they grow and change while they figure out who they want to become.”

Tears slipped past Kevin’s lashes and he choked out a sob. “I love you so much,” he managed to get out before clumsily kissing Hugo’s mouth.

O
F
COURSE
they spent the morning calling people, even logging into Facebook in turns to change their status from
in a relationship
to
engaged
and naming each other. They even took a horrible photo to commemorate the moment, both of them in crisp white shirts and sitting outside on the veranda overlooking LA. They both made it their profile photos, fully recognizing that they were being cheesy stereotypes. Hugo even tweeted it.

Summer nearly robbed Hugo of his hearing as she squealed on the phone and then summarily ripped him up one side and down the other for not telling her about his plans. Kevin watched as Hugo silently laughed, loving how upset he’d gotten Summer by leaving her out of the loop. “How many real surprises does life give you that are genuinely good?” Hugo asked her. She calmed soon after that.

By the time breakfast arrived at the appointed time, the kids were awake, dressed, and raring to go. They all sat at the round dining table, and Kevin gave them time to take a few bites. He didn’t want to hold this back from his kids—no more secrets—so he just blurted it out. “Hugo and I are going to get married.”

“That’s so cool!” Brooke said as she stood and hugged both Kevin and Hugo.

“So I get to have two dads?” Finn asked with obvious excitement. “Hugo will really be my papa, not just for pretend?”

“Well,” Kevin hedged, knowing technically that wouldn’t be true unless Hugo adopted them. “There are some things we’d need to do to get all that set up, but for now, you can call him Papa, if you want to. He’ll be my husband.”

“When?” Brooke asked.

Kevin and Hugo looked at each other, having no clue as to the timing of the wedding. “We haven’t really talked about that yet. He just asked me,” Kevin said, showing the kids his ring. They studied it for a few seconds, and when he told them the significance of the various lines, they both pulled on Kevin’s fingers, trying to get his hand closer but practically breaking his fingers in the meantime. “Careful. I like my hand in one piece.”

Unsurprisingly, the kids argued over which line represented them. It was funny to watch, and a slow smile spread over his face about how readily his kids accepted this. Hugo’s hand on top of his was just the icing on the cake.

D
URING
H
UGO
’
S
first television interview, the guy who interviewed him pulled up a photo of Hugo with Kevin and the kids on the red carpet, asking who joined him that night. Kevin watched as Hugo smiled at the man and said, “That’s my fiancé and his kids.” By the fifth interview, the media had gotten things misquoted, saying Brooke was Hugo’s daughter and Finn was Kevin’s son.

“It’s not surprising,” Kevin said when he saw Hugo after the most recent interview where Hugo found out about the mix-up and then tried to set the record straight. “You and Brooke look a lot alike, and the matching dress and tie probably helped the media along.”

“I feel bad,” Hugo said.

“Why?”

“Because it’s not the truth, and I’m worried that it’ll be in print. She doesn’t need those bitchy girls at her school saying shit.”

“If kids are going to say shit, it’s probably not going to be about you being her dad. It’s more likely they’ll be bugging her ’cause her dad is gay.”

“Bisexual,” Hugo corrected.

Kevin shook his head and smiled. “Gay. That’s what they’ll see, just like you told me a year ago.”

“Fuck,” Hugo said, the word violently slipping past his lips as he buried his head in his hands. “What have I done?”

“Nothing we weren’t already prepared for, love.” Kevin tried to calm Hugo with his fingers in his hair, tugging him closer, but it didn’t seem to be working. “People know already, Hugh. Our friends know, the kids’ close friends know, including most of their parents. Teachers. Neighbors. People on the periphery of our lives. They all know. What’s the big deal? I don’t get it,” Kevin confessed.