Seeking Enrique
Page 17
“Anything.”
“You have got to stop trying to fix me, and you have to stop trying to fix us unilaterally.”
“Deal,” Jules said, laughing. “I’ll just fix me, then, and we’ll figure the rest out as we go. How does that sound?”
“Ideal,” Rick grinned. “You fix you, I’ll fix me, and maybe… just maybe… if we do it right, the baby will grow up and not need any fixing at all.”
“We can hope,” Jules said, touching the baby softly. “What do you want to name him?”
Rick giggled, and Jules glanced curiously up at him.
“Luther,” he said. “Because without Luther, there wouldn’t be a baby to name.”
Jules grinned, opened his mouth to say something, then changed his mind.
“No, go ahead,” Rick told him.
“I… I love the sentiment,” Jules said. “But if we’re being honest? I hate the name Luther.”
“You do?”
“Always have.”
“And yet…”
“Well, you know, the readers don’t seem to mind. I grew up on Superman comics. Kind of ruined Luther for me.”
“Hm, that’s fair. What would you name him?”
Jules tilted his head to see the baby better. He had a little upturned nose and oversized ears. A shock of pure white hair sprung from his tiny little head like a troll doll, and a fine fur covered his body down to his perfect little fingers.
“Link,” he said finally.
Rick laughed.
“Have you been hiding your inner geek from me all this time?”
“Maybe,” Jules grinned. “But it’s also similar to your reasoning behind Luther. Without the baby, there would be no us.”
“True,” Rick said thoughtfully. “That’s an awful lot of pressure to put on such a tiny human, though.”
“You think so? I don’t see it that way. His name is a testament to what already is, it doesn’t bear any responsibility. The link the three of us have is a biological one, regardless of what happens between you and me in the future.”
“Hm. Link,” Rick said thoughtfully. “You know, the more I hear it, the more I like it.”
“You’ve got the final say,” Jules said. “You’ve been living with him a lot longer than I have, I expect you know him better.”
Rick laughed.
“You know, it’s actually kind of weird that you say that. A couple months ago, just after the last time I saw you, I started getting an impression of his personality. I think the trauma of birth sort of shut it down, but let me tell you… when he gets caught up with himself, he’s going to be a spitfire.”
“Is he likely to smash pots and chase chickens?”
“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Rick giggled.
“Well there you go,” Jules grinned.
So the child was named Link Enrique Dominguez-Golias, a name which was longer than he was when it was written out. The three of them survived their three-day stay at the hospital with good humor, though Jules left several times to situate the house. Rick knew he had something up his sleeve, but Jules refused to tell him what he was up to. He would find out soon enough.
Once Link was released from the hospital with a clean bill of health, Jules took his little family home. He virtually vibrated with excitement; he’d thought long and hard about the perfect way to set up the house to serve both of their needs, and he just knew that Rick would love it. At least, he hoped he would. Anxiety tinted his excitement as he pulled into the driveway.
“You look like you’re going to be sick,” Rick commented as Jules pulled the baby out of the car.
“You look like you already were,” Jules shot back playfully.
Rick stuck out his tongue and headed to the house.
“Now will you tell me what you’ve been up to all week?” he asked.
“Better! I will show you what I’ve been up to all week.”
He stopped outside the front door, holding his keys.
“Now, before I show you, I have a question.”
“Okay?”
“What have been our two biggest problems throughout our entire relationship, both personally and professionally?”
Rick eyed him sideways.
“Is this a surprise or an intervention?” he asked.
“Just answer the question.”
“Okay… I’m going to say… boundaries and communication.”
“Good, we’re on the same page. Come on in!”
Jules pushed the door open, and they walked inside. The first thing Rick noticed was that the massive dining room had been split into two distinct spaces: an eating area and a writing area. An antique desk sat in one corner. A small yellow square caught his attention, and he burst into tears.
“You remembered my sticky notes,” he whispered.
“That’s just the beginning,” Jules told him. “There’s a desk for you in every room, even the kitchen and the nursery. I took the den, I’ll be doing my business from home from now on. Can you handle the stairs, do you think? I want to show you the bedrooms.”
“Yeah, of course,” Rick said, wiping his eyes.
Jules cradled their son as he led Rick up the stairs.
“My bedroom,” he said, pushing the door open.
“Not our bedroom?”
“Not unless we choose to use it that way. Because….” He pushed the door open on the opposite side of the hall.
“Your bedroom.”
Rick took a moment to absorb the information. He turned to Jules, beaming with joy.
“No expectations?” he asked.
“None at all. Every single time will be a conscious and enthusiastic choice. You don’t even have to sleep over afterwards if you don’t want to, or you could sleep over without sex. It will never not be a choice.”
Rick wrapped an arm around Jules’ waist and squeezed, dropping a kiss on the baby’s forehead.
“I saw a bassinette in both bedrooms,” he said. “Where’s the nursery?”
“Over here, next to my room. I turned the last bedroom into a full-blown office for you.”
“Writing spaces all over the house and my own office?”
“Yep! Plus a library in the attic. I figure the basement can be the rec room area.”
They walked into the nursery, and Rick sighed with delight. It was decorated lavishly with storybook characters, and there was already a thick stack of children’s stories sitting on the built-in bookcase.
“How did you get this put together so quickly?” he asked.
“I didn’t,” Jules admitted. “I started putting all this together the day after I signed the papers. Joe let me get started on the place before we finished jumping through hoops. He’s a really nice guy, I hope his vacation is everything he wanted it to be.”
“So you… you were already expecting me to move in with you?” Rick asked in mild distress.
“No, no, not expecting. I want to get that crystal clear. I have absolutely no expectations. But I wanted to be ready for you if you decided that this was where you wanted to be.”
Rick pondered the subtleties for a moment.
“I can accept and appreciate that,” he said finally.
Little Link began to fuss, and Rick took him. He settled into the comfortable rocking chair in the nursery, soothing the baby to sleep.
“How do you think this is going to turn out?” he asked Jules.
“I don’t know,” Jules admitted. “But I think if we want it to, it’ll work out.”
“We’ve got a good start. You thought of everything.”
“Occasionally I’m smart enough to know when I’m being stupid,” Jules grinned.
“I’m still working on that,” Rick laughed. “But… I think I’d like to figure it out together.”
“Me too,” Jules said, squeezing Rick’s hand. “Me too.”
Every relationship has its challenges, and some are more challenging than others. Two personalities as wildly different as Jules and Rick had m
ore obstacles to face than most, but when it came down to it, all they really needed was to make the choice. The choice to take a stand, the choice to make an effort, the choice to grow. Though they clashed often and passionately, Rick and Jules continued to make that choice; sometimes they made it for Link’s sake, sometimes they made it for themselves, and sometimes—when they didn’t have a clear reason—they made it out of habit.
They grew together, personally and professionally, for years. The Luther books exploded exponentially after Rick stopped confining himself to a formula, and Jules became the most sought-after agent in the business. Their material and emotional treasures grew in that old house, and, as they say, the three of them lived happily ever after.
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Seeking Enrique
Austin Bates
© 2017
Disclaimer
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and events are all fictitious for the reader’s pleasure. Any similarities to real people, places, events, living or dead are all coincidental.
This book contains sexually explicit content that is intended for ADULTS ONLY (+18).