by Sean Michael
"You don't want her to have a zebra room? Or an elephant room?"
Robin's eyes went wide. "Daddy... Daddy, can I have a zoo room?"
Jeff shrugged casually. "Ask your Daddy Don."
Man, if he got any more happy and full of love, he was going to explode. Donny nodded. "Robin, you can any kind of room you want."
"Oh... a zoo room." Robin bounced on his lap. "With helephants and zebras and cows and sharks!"
"Planning zoo rooms is hungry work, though. I think we need to make Daddy make good on his promise of pancakes."
Jeff chuckled. "I think Daddy Don is hungry, son."
"Me too!"
"Okay. Okay, let me get some socks on and we'll go mess up Gran's kitchen."
Grinning, Donny grabbed Kimberley out of Jeff's arms. "We'll meet you downstairs." He held out his hand for Robin.
Robin went to him easily. "We're going to make a zoo room with bugs and snakes and lions. Rawr."
"Yeah, it's going to be awesome. You think we can find a zoo big boy bed?"
"Uh-huh. And a monkey."
"Oh, I think we already have a monkey for the room." He reached down and tickled Robin's ribs.
"Ooo-ooo-ooo!"
That sound made him happy. Almost as happy as the sound of Jeff's soft whistling as he slipped on some socks. They were a family, a real family. And he belonged.
He was still grinning like a fool as he got to the kitchen with the kids. With his kids.
Mike and Samantha were sitting there at the table, drinking coffee. "Good morning, Donny."
"Good morning."
Robin went bounding over to Samantha. "I'm gonna have a zoo room!"
"A zoo room? What on earth is that?"
"The design for his bedroom. Why don't you sit and tell Gran and Pop all about it?"
Robin plopped down and started jabbering and Jeff appeared seconds later, kissing Samantha's cheek and nodding to Mike. Donny started setting the table as Jeff began to gather the ingredients for the pancakes. Just like they were at home. He made Kimberley's bottle, and got her started on that so he could make her some cereal. He hummed happily, brushing by Jeff, just barely resisting palming Jeff's ass.
The pancakes started coming out, one after another. A plate for Robin, for Samantha, Mike, him.
He put out the maple syrup and the butter. "Do you need help cutting your pancakes, Robin?"
"I do it!"
Mike moaned over a mouthful. "God, you should open a breakfast place, Jeff."
"I intend to."
"Yeah?" Donny took his own first bite. God, it was good.
"Yeah." Jeff looked serious. "I can be up early, be home with the kids in the afternoons and evenings. By the time Robin's in school, it should be rocking and I can go to Little League games and Girl Scout things with everyone else."
"It would be nice to have you around in the evenings."
Jeff nodded, made more pancakes. "It's a good idea for us."
"It is. What else have you thought about?"
Mike and Samantha steadfastly busied themselves with feeding Kimberley, helping Robin.
"I think we should go house-hunting. Somewhere out here. There's enough people to keep a breakfast/lunch place going."
Donny thought about it, nodded. "If you open a dinner restaurant, we'll never see you."
"That doesn't sound healthy." Samantha added. "For anyone."
"Will breakfast and lunch be enough, though? Or are you going to feel like you've had to cut back on your dreams?" He didn't want Jeff to feel for one second like he had to give up on his dreams.
Mike snorted, and he looked over, surprised. "Jeff's always wanted to do that. Hell, he did it all while Beth was in college and loved it."
"Really?" He looked over at Jeff.
Jeff shrugged. "It's where I started."
"And it's what you really want?"
Jeff met his eyes. "I love the idea of a little place, my place. Somewhere the kids could come. Where you could come."
"Like that bed and breakfast where we stayed."
He saw a moment of pure, unadulterated want in Jeff's eyes. "Yeah. Yeah."
"Cool..." He nodded, his mind busy turning over a new thought. The guys that ran the place were getting older... Jeff had fallen in love with it. Completely, totally. The kids could grow up there, the community was used to having a gay couple there.
He didn't say anything; he didn't want to get Jeff's hopes up. He was going to call them, though, feel out their situation.
Jeff looked at the clock. "I have a couple of hours before I have to head back. Two weeks left of the job."
"Maybe when we're finished eating we can go to the park."
"I'd love that." Jeff poured another cup of coffee. "Is it okay for them to stay two more weeks, Mom?"
"I think we can manage that."
"I'm sorry. I just..." Jeff shrugged. "I want to make this as easy as possible."
"The kids and I could look for a house around here while you're at work..." Donny suggested.
"We're not in a hurry to kick you out." Mike refilled Robin's cup of milk.
"Thank you, Mike. If you want to Don, sure."
"We can see what's out there anyway." He smiled at Jeff; he couldn't seem to stop smiling today.
Jeff grinned back, winked. "Okay. Park, before I have to go."
"I'll do the dishes when we get home," Donny promised.
"I don't mind, boys. You go. Play. Enjoy the nice weather."
"Thanks, Samantha." He grabbed his and Robin's dishes and stacked them next to the kitchen sink. "You gonna help me get Kimberley ready for a walk, Robin?"
"Yep-yep!" Robin bounced out of the kitchen, excited, ready.
Mike grinned. "There are going to be tears when you leave, Jeff."
"Yeah, I know."
"We have a date when you're coming home for good, though now. And we will make a couple of treks into the city between your weekends to spend mornings with you." Donny wasn't letting any of his family miss each other for too long.
Jeff nodded. "We'll manage."
He caught Jeff's gaze. "Yeah, we will. Because we have each other."
"Romantic."
"Tell me I'm not right -- you've smiled more in the last twelve hours than you did all week." Jeff was letting go of that anger and sadness, embracing the joy of his kids, of their love.
"Yeah, yeah." Jeff squeezed his fingers. "Let's go."
"Hurry up! I'm ready!" Robin called from the front hall, and Donny laughed.
Chapter Twenty
"Last ticket." Fuck, he was tired.
The last two weeks had been brutal, training the new chef, trying to think, dealing with the fire inspector and the police. He knew Mitch had set the fire. Knew it, but there wasn't any solid evidence, and Mitch was fucking gone. Gone. Like disappeared.
The police were talking about searches and shit, but Jeff knew Mitch. He'd had his say. That would be the last of it.
Jeff helped Brianna get the last salmon out, then sighed.
Over. It was over. He could feel it in his soul. Mitch wouldn't be back.
"You've got a visitor," Martin told him, coming in, Don trailing behind him.
"Something about coming to take you home."
"Well..." He looked, beamed over. "Don. Guys, this is my partner."
He loved the way Don's face lit up when he said things like that.
Don waved. "Hey."
They all waved, Ben coming up to shake Don's hand. "I'm glad to see you. Sorry to see Jeff go."
"I'm sure you are -- he's an amazing chef." Don grinned at Ben, shook his hand.
"He is."
Jeff grinned. "Shut up." They'd already had his going away party; it was time to go.
"It's the truth." Don beamed at him. "Come on. I'm not sure I'm legally parked."
He nodded, looked around the restaurant. He'd thought he was going to have this forever. Forever.
"You okay?" Donny asked him softly.
"Yeah. How are the kids? Did you drive down?"
"The kids are great. And I did. I want to take you somewhere." Don was parked in the alley behind the restaurant. "Although you can do the actual driving if you want."
"That's cool. Go ahead."
He'd left the car with Don last weekend so he and the kids could drive around looking at houses, and Jilly had been dropping him at work, then he'd taxied back to her place every night.
Don got them on the road and headed out of the city. "So, how does it feel?"
"Odd, but okay." He probably wouldn't process all of it 'til later. "Let me text Jillian and let her know you came in."
"She knows." Don gave him a grin. "I've got your bag in the trunk."
"Yeah? Wow. Okay. Are the kids in there, too?" he teased. Sometimes Don's efficiency scared him.
Don laughed. "No. They're safe with Mike and Samantha."
They spent most of the drive in silence, a comfortable, companionable silence, but when they got to the turn off, Don didn't take it.
"Don? Love, you missed the turn."
He got another grin. "I did if we were going to Mike and Samantha's."
"Where are we going?"
"To that bed and breakfast we stayed at. I thought it would be nice to have a night to ourselves and we need to talk."
"Oh." How dear. He leaned over, kissed Don's cheek. "Maybe this time will be less traumatic." He loved that place, even with the bad memory of that phone call.
"God, yes." Don looked so happy as he turned off the highway. They'd be there soon -- it wasn't that far off the beaten track and yet still felt private.
"Did you and the kids see any good houses?"
"Yeah, we saw a few. There's this one place, though..." Don shrugged. "It's one of the things we need to talk about."
They rounded a corner and there the place was. It looked as good as he remembered.
"Good deal." Jeff couldn't help his smile. "Still a beautiful damn place."
"And actually pretty close to everything, isn't it?" Don pulled up into a parking spot on the big round drive, turned off the engine.
"Yeah. Are they expecting us? I hate to wake them up."
"Yeah. But I wanted to talk to you first. I talked to Ken for a while when I called him up. I know you like this place a lot, especially the living and dining room downstairs. They'd convert into a manageable and lovely room for breakfast and lunch. And there'd be income from the rooms as well. So I called and asked if they'd be interested in selling and they said they were, they wanted to retire, but they wanted the place to stay with family, too, so they hadn't just put it on the market or anything--" Don drew a breath.
"I... Really? They... Really?"
"Yeah. I hope you don't mind, but every time it got mentioned, you got this look on your face and I didn't want to suggest it if it wasn't a possibility, so I called them to feel them out."
"But... do we have enough? I mean to get it and everything and try to make it work? Do you even want a bed and breakfast?" Oh, God. Oh, God.
"It's a gorgeous place and it would be a source of income, even after the kids are older. We'll have to talk price and stuff with Ken and Timmy but if your check won't cover it, I bet you can get a loan for the rest. And I've been putting my salary in the bank, so we'd have something to live on while we're waiting for the place to start making money." Don smiled warmly. "Just think -- we'd be all together."
"We have a... a lot. The house was well-insured." Could they do it? He had the insurance from the house and there was money from Beth's insurance, so the kids would never want, no matter what else happened.
"So if you want to do it, we need to go talk to Ken and Timmy about it."
He turned, looked at Don. "Do you want to? It's a ton of work, for both of us, with the gardens, the kitchen, the rooms." There were even barns for animals.
"It's a lot of work, but we'd be working for ourselves, right? Making something good for our family." Don touched his cheek. "I'll support your decision -- back you a hundred percent."
"I love it here. Fell in love at first sight."
"Then let's go make your dream come true."
"Yeah?"
Don nodded. "Yeah."
Jeff took Don's hand. "Okay."
***
Donny's cheeks were hurting, he was smiling so much. He and Jeff and Ken and Timmy had come to an agreement on price and on when they'd take possession of the rambling house that was their new home and business. Oh, nothing had been signed yet, but that was just a formality. Jeff had cried a bit, hugged Timmy, and Don and Ken had sat and beamed.
Ken handed Jeff a bottle of champagne to open as Timmy passed around four flutes. Jeff got the champagne open with a pop, and they hardly lost any of the fizzy wine. Laughing, Donny held his champagne out, waiting for Jeff to make their toast.
Jeff grinned. "To the future."
Timmy nodded. "To retirement in Hawaii!"
"To both!" Donny clinked glasses with his lover and the two older men, then drank down his drink. It was a new beginning for all of them. A new dream they could share.
There were the public areas, the big kitchen, the private parts of the house and they'd still have three lovely rooms to let.
They were going to have to put in more tables, but he had some ideas about that, about making the dining room a collection of tables they found in antique shops and garage sales, restored, made beautiful.
He looked over at Jeff, met his lover's -- his partner's -- eyes.
Jeff was looking at the space, excited, focused. This was it, Jeff's dream. Fortunately he had his dream, too. A family. People to love and support and live with who loved and supported and wanted to be with him.
"Do you mind if I steal my man away for a private celebration?"
Ken laughed. "I was just about to ask the same thing."
Timmy giggled happily, pushed into Ken's arms. "Take the room you had before. Tomorrow we'll talk to the lawyers and have papers drawn up."
"Sounds perfect." Donny smiled and waved, then grabbed Jeff's hand, tugged him toward the stairs.
Jeff followed him, quiet, wide-eyed, and Donny could see Robin in that beloved face, see where the wonder and joy came from. He would spend the rest of his life helping both of them, and Kimberley, too, keep that look on their faces.
"So you're happy."
"I'm stunned. I hadn't even considered that this could be ours."
"I could tell you wanted it to be, though." He'd seen the look on Jeff's face, had wanted to do this for his man.
"This place is amazing, Don. Everything I want in one place."
"Like it was made for us, isn't it?" He was totally in love with that look on Jeff's face.
"Yes. A safe, homey place for the kids, a breakfast place, a hotel for you to put your mark on."
"Yeah, I do have a few ideas." He squeezed Jeff's hand. "So, will you hit me if I point out that this wonderful thing would never have happened if it wasn't for that fire?"
"Probably, so I wouldn't."
He chuckled, but didn't push it. This was why he'd been able to look past the fire, though; maybe not always, and maybe not obviously, but he really believed that you could turn things around, make something good out of the bad stuff. He didn't need Jeff to acknowledge that to make it true.
Besides, they were at their room and he could think of better things to do than talk, or get thumped. He let them in and wrapped his arms around Jeff's neck. Oh damn, he'd missed this. Missed it so much.
"Hey." Jeff smiled for him. "We're going to buy a bed and breakfast."
"Yeah. We're going to live together and work together and raise a beautiful family together." He walked Jeff back toward the big bed.
"And we're going to make amazing pastries and quiches and lunches and eat supper in the garden together."
"It sounds like a dream." It did, too; he wasn't being facetious. It sounded like a wonderful, amazing dream.
Jeff stopped, then nodded. "It does. It sounds l
ike our dream, Don."
"Yeah." He swallowed and nodded. How had he gotten so lucky?
He pushed Jeff down onto the bed and crawled up after him. Jeff's hands wrapped around his waist, that happy smile waiting for him. He pressed kisses on Jeff's lips, on his cheeks and his eyes, wanting to let Jeff know how good he felt, how happy.
This was it. His life.
He was going to hold onto it, forever.
Epilogue
"Christina! Here's the bacon quiche and that egg salad. The BLT is coming next."
She waved at him. "Got it, boss. There's a three top coming up."
Jeff looked up from the hot station. "Yeah?"
"Two orders of daddy pancakes and o'meal with sugar and no raisins."
Jeff laughed happily. "Coming right up."
Five pancakes for Don, five tiny ones for Robin -- Robbie now, thank you very much -- and a bowl of not-too-hot, sweet, raisinless oatmeal with cream for his Kimmie. When those plates were done, he took them out himself.
His family was sitting in their usual spot -- in the nook, looking out over the garden. Don was listening attentively to Robbie, Kimmie laughing in her high chair.
He delivered breakfast and kisses. "Good morning, my loves."
"Daddy!" Kimmie banged her spoon on the table.
"I tied my shoes today," Robin announced proudly.
Don just smiled at him, looking relaxed and happy in his skin.
"Good for you, son!" He gave Kimmie her breakfast. "Here you go, baby."
It was amazing, how much a year changed things.
"O’meal!" It was her favorite; she'd eat it for every meal if they'd let her.
"Can you sit with us for a bit?"
"For a couple, yes." He sat, brushing the hair out of his eyes. "We have a new couple coming this afternoon, love?"
"Yeah, from New York. They're got their six-year-old son with them."
"Oh, how fun! Twenty bucks says they go out to Ritchie's for supper."
Don had made up sheets with different suggestions depending on the type of customer they had. They'd decided early on that they wouldn't provide any dinner services. That time was for family.
