by Austin Bates
“Thank you,” Issac said. He poured enough creamer into his coffee to make it almost white. He shrugged as Madeline looked at his cup with questions in her eyes. “I’ve never been good at drinking ‘grown up’ coffee. I always get mochas and macchiatos so that it doesn’t taste like coffee.”
“Mm hm, you’ll certainly have to get used to drinking boring, cheap coffee from now on though. You’ll wish you hadn’t blown all of your money on mochas when Wyatt blows through his diapers in a month,” Madeline said.
A shudder ran throughout Issac’s body. I can’t imagine having something around that poops three times more than I do.
Noah came into the kitchen dressed in a short sleeved t-shirt and jeans. “Okay, I’m ready to go look at the house now.” There was a hint of grumpiness to his words and Issac rose to his feet and kissed his boyfriend on the lips.
“Relax,” he commanded, and he turned around and nodded at Madeline. “Thank you so much for babysitting.”
“Let’s get going, hot stuff,” Noah said.
********************************************
A half hour later, Noah’s arms were folded across his chest as Issac drove through the entrance to the subdivision.
“I could have been working this whole car ride,” Noah said.
Issac rolled his eyes as he pulled into the driveway of a two-story ranch home. He pointed out of his window. “Look, this could be our new home.”
Noah climbed out of the car and took in the sizable house in front of him. It had ivory-colored siding with forest green shutters. There were two wide windows in what could have only been the living room. Two, tall bright green bushes framed both ends of the front of the house. There was an attached two-car garage and detached work shed on the other side of the property.
Noah turned to Issac. “You found this place?”
Issac threw his head back and cackled as he swept Noah into his arms. He kissed him and said, “Yes, I found this place for us. Okay, I found it with the help of a real estate agent. She should be here soon to let us in.”
Noah blinked and walked across the grass, kneeling to inspect the way that the shrubbery had grown in a way that was perfect for the look of the house. Nothing felt tacky or overcrowded. The home felt just right.
A bright red sedan pulled up in front of the house. The classical music that had been blaring through the speakers ceased as the driver’s side door swung open. A woman with long, jet black hair emerged from the car. Her eyes were comically large and she had an orangish spray tan.
Her smile was enormous and bright as she hurried onto the grass to greet them. “Hello! It’s so nice to see you again, Issac!” She turned to Noah. “It’s so nice to meet you, Noah. I’ve heard so many great things about you.” She extended her hand for him to shake and Noah sent a curious glance over to Issac, as if to say, You’ve been talking to her about me?
“My name is Kendra,” she announced and bounced to the front doorstep of the house. “So, you’re going to love this place. It’s perfect for two young fathers in love, ample space for the kids that you already have and any more children that you might have.”
“Don’t say that,” Noah said. “My stitches aren’t even healed from delivering our son.”
Kendra giggled as she opened the door and unveiled the empty home. Ample space is right, Noah thought, as he took in the high ceilings and open floor plan of the lower level. “Wow.”
“Wow is right!” Kendra agreed. “So, you know, this space gives you tons of room to implement any design ideas that you might have, while still leaving space for things like play areas. There’s a fully functioning fireplace over here,” she said, picking up the tail on her long skirt as she hustled over to the fireplace.
“It’s both extravagant and cozy. I’d say that it has plenty of personality,” Kendra said.
I’d say that you’re working hard for the commission that you would make off of selling us a home this nice, Noah thought as he followed Kendra upstairs. The upper level of the home was just as impressive as the lower level. There were three bedrooms and one study.
“You’ll want to take a look at the master suite,” Kendra said, and Issac nodded next to her. Noah opened the door to the master suite and took in the spacious bedroom with one big window that looked out onto the front lawn. Noah peeled his eyes away from the perfectly manicured grass and stepped into the master bathroom. The shower was detached from the bathtub; a glass box at one end of the room. A grand vanity was on the opposite end of the room, with two sinks and two small, round mirrors above each sink. The sunlight streaming in from the window above the bathtub bounced off of the mirrors and lit up the room.
Issac followed behind Noah while wearing a shit-eating grin as Noah’s jaw dropped at the lavish, oval-shaped soaking tub with a raised border around it to set candles and incense on. He turned to Issac and said, “Were you planning on selling Wyatt and Jade in order to pay for this place?”
Kendra stepped between them and said, “That’s the best part! This home is in your price range because it’s just sat on the market for six months. The owner is desperate to sell at this point because he’s already moved overseas with his wife. It was originally on the market for $365,000—”
Noah winced.
“—however, now it’s going for $145,000. What do you think?” Kendra asked, sharing a glance with Issac as Noah looked around the bathroom one more time.
“Issac, we should talk about this. Right?”
Issac shrugged. “Should we? You didn’t see the look on your face when you saw this house. Why not put an offer in? We can afford it, you love it, and we’re going to need our own place fast now that Wyatt has arrived a little early.”
Kendra nodded in agreement and said, “You delivered your son early?” She clapped her hands together. “Well, that should settle it! You need a place to put your son’s crib!” she exclaimed. “What do you say, guys? Am I writing an offer today?”
Issac looked at Noah as if to say Come on, you know that you want this house.
Noah wore his own shit-eating grin as he said, “Okay. We’ll take this house. Let’s get an offer written!”
Kendra and Issac burst into cheers as Kendra said, “Wonderful! I’ll head back to my office and write the contract up for you, and we will celebrate with a little vino at the Italian place two blocks from here. By the way, you’re a fifteen-minute drive from some of the hottest restaurants in Baltimore now!”
“Are you ready for a little celebratory vino?” Issac asked as he slung his arm over Noah’s shoulders and nuzzled his neck. Noah relaxed into him and replied, “Yeah, I’m ready.”
Chapter 35
Issac gingerly plucked Wyatt out of his Denver Dragon car seat and squinted his eyes against the spring sunlight as he turned around to face his father. Gordon stood on the front doorstep, his hands in the pockets of his stark white slacks. Gordon broke into a smile so big that Issac hadn’t seen it since Tristan’s birth and when Issac graduated high school.
He walked up the steps with Wyatt in his arms and his father already had his hands out, ready to receive his first grandson. As they moved inside of the house, Gordon cradled Wyatt in the crook of his right arm.
Issac followed his father into the living room and Gordon took a seat on the opposite end of the couch.
“There he is,” Issac said, “your grandson.”
Gordon ran his thumb over the soft skin on Wyatt’s face, and his fingers played with the new wisps of reddish brown hair that had been growing from his soft scalp. “Oh my, what a beautiful baby, son. I thought that graduating law school was the best thing that you had ever done before you quit working for Hugh Walsh, but I think that Wyatt here,” he tickled his grandson’s nose and giggled upon seeing his bright green eyes open up to assess the situation, “is the best damn thing that you’ve ever done. Oh, look at those eyes,” he cooed.
Issac grinned and said, “Yeah, he’s pretty breathtaking. I didn’t know that Noah�
��s family was Irish. Those green eyes couldn’t have ever come from our side of the family.”
Gordon nodded. “Yes, and it looks like his hair may have some red to it as well. He’s striking—a wonderful addition to the Fitzgerald men.” Gordon turned to Issac and beamed. “So, what’s your plan?”
“My plan?” Issac repeated.
Gordon clarified, “Yes, is Noah going to support your family while you two live together and you finish school? Are you thinking of private preschools that you could join the waitlist for?”
Issac forced back the anxious feelings that had begun rising to the surface. “Dad, no, none of that yeah, he’s not even a month old. I assure you that everything is fine, though. With me being in school in the evenings when Noah comes home, we won’t have to hire help. We’ll have enough expenses from keeping Jade to paying the mortgage on our new house.”
Gordon’s eyes widened in disbelief. “You two are buying a house?”
“Yeah, it’s a ranch with three bedrooms, open-floor layout. You’ll have to come by once we close, but the owner accepted our offer for five grand under asking because he wanted to get it off of his hands,” Issac replied. “That brings me to something that I wanted to talk to you about.”
Gordon relaxed into the sofa as Wyatt drifted off into sleep. “What’s that?”
Issac ran over all of the words in his brain’s storage as he said to Gordon, “I think that… Tristan should come and live with me and Noah.” Issac braced himself for the outrage, for the diatribe of where do you get off and you think because you have one reckless fuck and father a son that you can tell me how to raise my child.
Gordon’s expression was indecipherable. “You want... Tristan to come and live with you? My Tristan? Your brother?”
Issac nodded and held up his hands before Gordon could respond. “Look, I’m not trying to tell you what to do with him but—”
“Are you sure about that?” Gordon spat.
“I just want to be his guardian. I see a lot of myself in him and I want to know that he’s happy. I won’t have as much time to come by. I have a baby, and a job with you on the weekends, and a… Noah,” Issac said, and Gordon’s expression softened.
“I want to try this for him because he’s not happy right now, Dad. He doesn’t feel like you or Mom understand him.”
“Issac,” Gordon said, through gritted teeth. “Every teenager doesn’t think that their parents understand what they’re going through. You were the same way!”
“I know, I was fifteen, and scared and gay, and scared of disappointing you. Who knows more than anyone what it’s like to be fifteen, lonely, and realizing the truth about who you are?” Issac jerked a thumb towards his own chest. “It’s worth thinking about.”
Gordon sighed and said, “I’m sorry that you felt like your mother and I were never there for you. Frankly, Charlene has always been one to be there for a bottle of chardonnay, not so much for her boys.”
“Exactly. You’ve been busier than ever since Barrett got re-elected. Dad, Tristan needs something you can’t be right now. I could have Noah draft up the papers, we could try it for six months after I find out whether or not Tristan is interested, and that will give you plenty of time to sort out your work life to make time for him, and also enough time for Mom to quit drinking.”
Gordon cackled. “If you think Charlene is going to put down the bottle any time soon you’re out of your damn mind.”
Issac shook his head as he held his arms out for the baby. Gordon handed Wyatt over to him and Issac tickled his feet as he spoke to Gordon. “She could at least stand to cut back.”
Gordon snorted. “You’re preaching to the choir, son.”
There was a silence between them for a moment before Issac cleared his throat and said, “I think that she would drink less if you guys worked on your marriage.”
“That’s a little too much for one day.”
Issac and Gordon both began to chuckle until their snickers had erupted into full blown laughter. As they calmed down, Issac stood up and said, “I’m going to go and talk to Tristan. I’ll see what he thinks.”
As Issac moved down the hallway to look for Tristan, Gordon called out, “I didn’t say yes, you know!”
Issac moved through the darkened hallway until he spotted Tristan’s door. The door was cracked slightly, but it spilled a little bit of sunlight from the windows onto the floor just outside of the door.
He knocked twice, and Tristan pulled the door open. He looked a little rougher today. His curly, auburn and blonde hair was all over the place, and Issac ran his eyes down his younger brother’s face once more. I didn’t know that he was shaving now. A light stubble decorated Tristan’s cheeks and upper lips.
“Can I come in, Tristan?” Issac asked.
Tristan nodded and blinked as he pulled the door open. His usually tidy younger brother had let his room fall into complete disarray. His comforter slid off of the bed and articles of clothing littered the whole floor. His computer desk in the corner was the only space free of clutter, but if you looked closely enough you could spot about three or four old energy drink cans.
“Tristan, what the hell is going on here?” Issac asked, as he stepped into the center of the bedroom. He wrinkled his nose. “Tristan, have you left this room recently?”
“Of course I have!” Tristan snapped. He walked through his trash and sat on the edge of the bed. His blue eyes, which had always been darker than Issac’s, burned a hole into Issac’s eyes as he moved over to the bed to sit next to him.
Issac winced at the sweaty smell that emanated from Tristan’s bed. “Tristan, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Tristan mumbled.
“Talk to me,” Issac ordered, this time taking Tristan’s chin and directing his attention back to Issac. “What’s going on here?”
“I just… don’t want to be around anyone.”
“Why?” Issac asked.
Tristan shrugged. “Because no one cares what I have to say anyway.” He fell back onto his bed, obviously unfazed by the smell of his own funk. “I tried to talk to Mom the other day and she just poured herself a glass of wine and pretended to listen.”
“Well, I want to listen,” Issac said.
Tristan gave him a dubious glance. “Did… did they ask you to come in here? Did they send you?”
“Did they send me?” Issac asked. “No, no they didn’t send me. I came in here on my own. Why? Is there something going on?”
“I feel really… weird lately.”
“Weird how? Puberty weird?” Issac suggested.
That elicited a laugh from Tristan and he clarified, “No, like I can’t think straight. Like my brain feels all foggy, and I can’t sleep.”
“Ah, that’s why you drank all of those energy drinks. I’m surprised that you were able to get those past Mom,” Issac said.
Tristan made a face as if to you and me both. Tristan sat with his hands between his thighs and stared down into his lap. Issac frowned and said, “Let me ask you this, do you feel like you’re not yourself anymore? Do you feel like… you just want the world to slow down?”
A small light shone through Tristan’s eyes as he nodded his head just slightly. “Yeah. It’s like I can’t get out of my own head anymore.”
Issac nodded and told him, “You know what I recommend for that?”
“What?” Tristan asked.
“Really want to know?” Issac asked and waited until Tristan replied, “I really want to know!”
Issac said, “I think you need a chill weekend, away from Mom, and away from Dad always being away. I think that if you like how this weekend goes, that you should consider coming to live with me.”
Tristan’s mouth fell open and he said, “Seriously?”
“Seriously. How about I come back in a couple of hours to get you for the weekend. I have to go run and do some buying-a-house stuff with Noah,” Issac said as he rose to his feet. He grimaced at the smell of Tristan’s room.
“Maybe clean up a little before you leave for the weekend, too.”
Tristan stood up and peered around his room for the things that he wanted to take with him. He looked over to Issac and said, “I’ll be ready.”
Chapter 36
Issac took a deep breath and handed Wyatt over to Madeline. Madeline giggled as Issac wiggled one of Wyatt’s feet, and the baby smiled slightly in his sleep. Madeline cradled Wyatt in her arms as she said, “You’re sure about this?”
“Absolutely. I think that we’re ready.”
“Well, tell me how he reacts. I’m so excited to hear about how this goes,” Madeline said, as she walked into Noah’s bedroom and set Wyatt down gently in his bassinet. “Are you nervous?” she pressed.
