Salvation (25 page)

“You were living in that house, weren’t
you, Brian?” I asked, and he nodded. “Where are you living now?”

“With Hunter.”

“We’re living in my apartment for the
time being,” Hunter said, “but we decided to put it on the market and find a
new apartment together, someplace that’s both of ours.” There was so much love
in the look he gave his boyfriend, and it made me really miss Vincent.

“That’s a nice idea,” I said.

“So, how are you presenting the house to
them?” Gianni asked before taking a sip of his drink.

Hunter grinned and said, “We debated how
to do that. Finally we just got a gift box, filled it with the signed deed and
some photos of the newly refurbished house, and wrapped it. We’re going to put
it with the rest of their wedding presents and just let them discover it.”

I grinned too. “They’re going to be
blown away.”

“I just hope they’re not going to feel
like they’re obligated to live there or anything,” Brian said. “If Kier wants
to sell it and buy someplace that they both pick out, that’s fine. The house is
his free and clear now and he can do whatever he wants with it. It actually
felt good for me to let go of the past, so maybe he’ll want to do the same.”

“It couldn’t have been easy, though,”
Gianni said, “giving up your home like that.”

Brian shrugged his broad shoulders. “No,
but it’s the right thing.”

I excused myself after a while and
called Vincent. He answered on the second ring by saying, “I was just thinking
about you, Trevor.”

“You should be here,” I told him, lying
down on the bed we’d shared. “Your brother Gianni got home shortly after you
left. We’ve been bonding over cocktails.”

“Johnnie’s there? Damn, I haven’t seen
him in months. Why’d he cut his cruise short?”

“He broke up with his travel companion.”

“Please tell him I said hello.”

“I will.” I rolled onto my side, pulling
a pillow against me, and said, “I miss you.”

“I miss you, too.”

“What are you doing?” I asked idly, just
to keep him talking.

“I’m still in the car on the way back to
the city.”

“Oh! It feels like you’ve been gone a
long time.”

“It does.”

“Maybe it’s weird that I told you I miss
you, if it’s only been a couple hours,” I said.

“It’s not weird.”

“Hey Vincent?”

“Yes, Trevor?”

“Will you go out with me?”

He chuckled softly and said, “Of
course.”

“Okay good. How about Sunday night, when
I get back to the city?”

“Sure.”

“What do you want to do?” I asked.

“I want to fuck you for about three
hours straight.”

That made me grin. “Absolutely. What do
you want to do afterwards?”

“How about dinner and a movie? Something
nice and conventional, to make you think I’m not a complete sex fiend.”

I smiled at that. “Sounds great.”

“I can hear the smile in your voice,” he
said, a bit wistfully.

I closed my eyes, breathing in his
pleasant scent on the pillow I was holding. “You shouldn’t have run off.”

“You’re right. I’m regretting it. I
especially regret not being able to sneak a dance with you at the wedding
reception.”

“So turn the car around.”

“I can’t,” he said. “I made a couple
calls when I left there, and now I have a business meeting this evening that I
really can’t back out of without repercussions.”

“Oh. Well, I’ll see you Sunday then.”

“Looking forward to it.”

“Me too.”

When we hung up, I rolled onto my back
and stared at the ceiling for a while. How could I miss someone so much after
just a couple hours, and after spending just a few days with him? I thought
about the last time Vincent and I had sex, just that morning in the shower,
which now felt like a long time ago. I remembered the way he’d picked me up, holding
me securely, and pushed inside me with a kind of urgency, thrusting into me as
if it might be his last chance ever, his body shaking when he came in me. He
made me feel like I was as vital to him as air or water. I loved that, I loved
feeling like he needed me.

After a while, I sat up with a sigh and
set the pillow aside. Lying around thinking about him was only going to make me
miss Vincent more. It was best not to let the loneliness that was always
waiting in the wings take hold of me. I went to rejoin the couples by the pool.

Chapter
Thirteen

“So, why’d you bring the cat?”

It was Friday morning, and River had
just arrived at the beach house. My catering partner was holding three shopping
bags in one hand and a pet carrier in the other. An unearthly shriek was coming
from the carrier, enough to make my arm hairs stand on end. “I didn’t want to,”
he told me as he swung the bags onto the counter, “but my friend that was
supposed to cover for me on my petsitting gig totally flaked. I couldn’t leave Puffy
unsupervised, because he’d get mad and completely destroy his owner’s
apartment.”

“So you brought him here to destroy a
mansion?”

“I didn’t know what to do. I was hoping
there’d be a garage or something that we could keep Puffy in, someplace where I
could check on him a lot and try to keep him calm.”

“My brother brought another unexpected
guest along, too,” a voice from the doorway said. Skye was balancing a huge
stack of produce boxes, and I rushed over to give him a hand.

“Hey, you convinced River to let you
come!” I said as I took the top two boxes off the stack and set them on the
counter.

“I did! I wore him down with my constant
begging and puppy dog eyes.” He set the boxes down and gave me a hug. He then
held me at arm’s length and said, “Wow, look at you, all tan and gorgeous! New
clothes, too.”

“Nana decided I needed a wardrobe
makeover.”

“Or just a wardrobe. You always wore the
same two things.”

“I only
had
the same two things.”

“This is really cute on you,” he said. I
was wearing an aqua polo shirt and dark blue shorts. “I highly approve of this
color palette.”

Gianni entered the kitchen just then. “I
came to see if someone had met with a horrific food processor accident, given that
ungodly wailing.”

I made the introductions. “River and
Skye, this is Gianni, Nana’s grandson and owner of this house. Gianni, this is
the rest of my catering team, plus an obnoxious cat.”

“Well hello there,” Skye said
flirtatiously. “Just so you know, I had nothing to do with the cat.”

“I apologize for bringing it,” River
said. “I’m watching it for a friend and couldn’t leave it behind.”

“No worries,” Gianni said, leaning down
and peering at the cage. “I like cats.” He put a fingertip up to the carrier,
and the whole thing rocked and shook as the cat went crazy and tried to attack
him, hissing and snarling. Gianni pulled back abruptly. “Um, but maybe this one
would be most comfortable in the garage. It’s a nice garage, three-car. It even
has windows. So, it wouldn’t be inhumane or anything.”

“Good idea,” River said, and followed
Gianni out of the kitchen.

As soon as they were out of earshot,
Skye exclaimed, “Damn, Gianni is a hottie! Is he single? And gay?”

“He’s bi, and yes. But I don’t think
you’re his type.”

“Why not?”

“He generally goes for a somewhat older
demographic.”

Skye sighed and said, “That’s too bad.
He could have saved me from the horrors of internet dating.”

“Are you really doing that now?”

“Yeah, but I only agreed to give it a
shot in a show of solidarity with my very single friend Zandra. We signed up
for the same site, and I wouldn’t say it’s going well. She keeps getting
messages from men two to three times her age. All I’m getting are offers to
screw. I put on there that I’m looking for a boyfriend, though apparently guys
read that as ‘a boyfriend for twenty minutes at a time.’ But whatever.”

“It’s nice of you to support your
friend, but you really don’t need internet dating. A guy as cute as you must
get plenty of offers.”

He smiled at me. “Says the guy who shot
me down.”

I grinned and said, “Only because I was
already interested in someone else. Otherwise, I’d have been all over you.”

“Speaking of which, how’s Mr.
So-Sexy-it-Hurts?”

My grin got a lot wider. “He’s good. We
spent the first part of this week together.”

“Wow, will you look at that lovesick
smile! You, my friend, are smitten.” He beamed at me and jumped up on the
counter, then ate a grape from one of the produce boxes.

“Smitten? I don’t know.”

“Oh, but I do. You’re one smitten
kitten! It’s all over your face.” A few more grapes went into his mouth. He
looked at me closely, and his smile ratcheted up another thousand watts. “You
had sex with him!”

“Oh my God! How could you possibly tell
that just by looking at me?”

His wiggled his fingers in the air
around me. “You have that glow about you.” He grabbed another grape, tossed it
in the air and caught it in his mouth.

“I do not. And is River going to kill
you for eating those?”

“Probably, and don’t change the subject!
Was it amazing? Tell me it was amazing.” I couldn’t help but blush and smile at
that, and Skye clapped his hands together. “That right there is a yes. Man, I
am
so sick
of being a virgin. Not to make it all about me or anything.
I’m just saying.”

“That actually surprises me,” I said.
“That you’ve never slept with anyone, I mean. You’re the most social person
I’ve ever met, so you must have dated a lot over the years.”

“Yeah, but still. In my late teens,
which is when a lot of people have sex for the first time, I was a total mess.
I guess I figured that sex was a complication I really didn’t need at that
point, or for quite a while after. Since then, I guess I kept waiting for the
perfect guy and the perfect set of circumstances, and I’m beginning to think
that doesn’t actually exist.” He ate a couple more grapes and said, “Sometimes
I think I should just take one of those internet guys up on their offer and let
them fuck me, just to get it over with. That way, my virginity would no longer
be an issue.”

“You really shouldn’t do that, Skye. I
think you’d regret it.”

“Maybe, which is why I haven’t gone
through with it yet.”

“Gone through with what?” River asked,
returning to the kitchen with Gianni.

Skye dodged the question by asking,
“How’s the cat situation?”

“Well, Gianni moved his car out of the
garage and there’s nothing else in there for Puffy to destroy, so maybe it’ll
be okay. We unlatched the cage and just ran for it,” River said before bringing
the conversation back around to, “What were you guys talking about?”

“You’re very nosy,” Skye told his
brother. “You should work on that.” He plucked a big handful of grapes and
shoved them in his mouth, which immediately sent River off on a rant about
eating all the food they’d brought for the wedding. I had to grin at how completely
successful Skye was at creating diversions.

Just then, the front door slammed open
and Nana yelled, “I’m here, and I’ve brought reinforcements! Let’s throw the
best goddamn gay homosexual wedding Big Sur has ever seen!”

She marched into the kitchen with a huge
entourage. I recognized three of her little Nana-clone girlfriends, who were
followed by so many gay men that it could have been mistaken for a pride
parade. She screamed when she spotted her grandson, and practically tackled
Gianni in a hug. She then hit him with her purse and said, “Six months is too
damn long to stay away from your family, Johnnie!”

“I know Nana. But I was out of the
country, and—”

Nana interrupted by exclaiming, “I don’t
want excuses, I want visits! Even if you’re off in Timbuktu, you can still hop
on a plane every couple months and come see your Nana!”

 “Yes ma’am,” he said sheepishly.

She pulled him down to her height and
kissed both his cheeks. “You’re a good boy though for letting us use your house
for the wedding. Just wait until you see what I got planned! It’s gonna be a
real hum dinger!”

“Who are all these people, Nana?” he
asked, eyeing the crowd that had gathered in his kitchen.

“That’s the crew! Let’s see.” She began
pointing to people. “We got the florists, the equipment rental boys, the
lighting designers, the sound engineers, the pyrotechnical consultants, the—”

Now it was Gianni’s turn to interrupt.
“Wait. The what?”

Nana blinked at him. “Which part?”

“The part having to do with explosives.”

“It’s a Fourth of July wedding, Johnnie!
We gotta have fireworks!”

“But...is that legal?”

“Sure! Cities get to put on big
fireworks displays, why can’t I?”

“Don’t you need special permits,
though?”

“Bah! Useless paperwork!” She turned to
the assembled masses and said, “Come on, I’ll show you where the wedding’s
being held. We got lots to do!” She led the procession out the French doors
like a mother hen with a huge flock of chicks.

Gianni stared after her, then shot me a
look. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to go make sure my premiums are paid up on
my homeowners’ insurance.” He took off in the direction of the home office.

“Alright,” River said, pulling a stack
of notebook paper out of a canvas shopping bag. “We’ve got a hundred and eleven
people to feed and it needs to be spectacular. The good news is, we have about
thirty-three hours until the wedding, so there’s no need to panic. Yet.” He
handed sheets of paper to his brother and me and said, “I’ve broken down each
of our tasks, they’re summarized here.”

I glanced at the highly detailed list of
prep work that needed to be done and said, “This is really organized. Good job,
River.”

Skye rolled his eyes. “All my paper says
is
stay out of trouble and don’t eat all the food
.”

“Yeah, and you’re going to have your
hands full with that,” his brother told him. “Now let’s get to work!”

*****

By that evening, we were totally on
track with all of our tasks. So when Christopher and Kieran came and got us
shortly after sunset, insisting we join them for their ‘bachelor party
barbeque,’ we felt okay about calling it a day in the kitchen.

It wasn’t a bachelor party in most
senses, but it
was
a heck of a lot of fun. Dance music cranked from
hidden speakers. Dozens of flaming tiki torches dotted the landscaping around
the pool, which was filled with colorful beach balls. Dmitri was working a
makeshift bar, having donned one of his husband’s loud Hawaiian shirts. Brian
was manning a large barbeque, roasting corn, salmon, and skewers of shrimp and
veggies. Hunter bounded up to us and said with a smile, “Hey guys. You all look
like you need to get lei’d.” He then proceeded to drape necklaces of fragrant
flowers around our necks.

“Oh man, this is awesome,” Skye said,
his blue eyes sparkling. “Last one in the pool is a rotten egg!” He took off at
a run, then cannonballed into the water fully clothed as his brother sighed.
Skye bobbed to the surface a moment later, the lei floating away, and waved to
us.

“That’s the spirit,” Hunter said with a
smile. He picked up my hand and led me toward the bar. “You’ve been working way
too hard all day. Come and have a drink, or six.”

Once I’d been provided with an alarmingly
colorful Blue Hawaiian in a tall hurricane glass, I found a spot on a lounge
chair and watched the festivities. Nana’s petite girlfriends had doubled in
number to half a dozen. Along with their tiny white-haired leader, they’d all
put on grass shirts and stacks of leis over their demure summer dresses, and
were receiving a hula lesson from Jamie. The grooms, after having retrieved
River, Skye and me from the kitchen, had jumped in the pool, where they now
shared one of the floating loungers, making out as if they had the place to
themselves. I grinned at that. Vincent and I had shared that same chair and
done exactly that earlier this week. Except that then, we really did have the
place to ourselves.

“You’re a million miles away,” River
said, settling in beside me with a florescent blue drink of his own.

“I was just thinking about Vincent,” I
admitted.

“Ah yeah, I heard that y’all had a
romantic little rendezvous earlier this week. Anything you can talk about, or
was it all NC-17?”

“You heard about that?”

“Yup. Nana told me she sent you both
ahead under false pretenses. She’s very proud of herself.”

I grinned at that. “I wish he was here
right now.”

“Why’d he take off?”

“Lots of reasons. For one thing, there’s
bad blood between Dmitri and him, but I also think he felt like he was
intruding once the wedding party arrived.”

“He was probably trying to avoid Dante,
too.” Gianni had just walked up to us, a drink in each hand. “Sorry, totally
eavesdropping. But apparently Vincent’s been steering clear of the family
lately, except for Nana. From what I hear, everyone besides her keeps grilling
him about his clandestine business pursuits, especially big brother D.” Gianni
finished the drink in his left hand and set it on the table, then held that
hand out to me. “Come dance with me, Trevor.”