Page 6 of A New Chapter
He took a deep breath and let it out again before speaking. “We’re going to get our attorney to draw up papers,” Colton gently said. “To give me and Rom custody of you. As soon as we have that, we’ll get you enrolled in school, and we’re going to move forward as a family. Okay?”
Tears welled up in the boy’s eyes again as he nodded.
Colton held him. “You’re going to be angry,” he said. “That’s okay. You’re going to be angry, and sad, and grieving. You’re going to wonder if you should have done something different, or if you did anything wrong. You’ll even wonder if something’s wrong with you.
“But there’s not adamnthing wrong with you, buddy. There’s something wrong withthem, something’s broken inside them. Because the only people in my life who thought there was something wrong with me wasthem. You’ve got me, and Rom. Aunt Roberta, and you haven’t even met Uncle Mike yet. Chad and Ina, and a whole bunch of adopted aunts and uncles who are going to love meeting you and telling you stories about Grammy.”
“I shouldn’t have told them,” he hoarsely said. “But we were at church earlier. The sermon was about God being perfect and humans not being perfect, and loving what God created. So I thought maybe if I admitted it then that they’d accept me. I mean, I’m their son.”
“I’m so sorry I wasn’t around to help you out.” He sat back so he could look down at his little brother. “But hey, think of it this way—they made not one, but two gay sons. And from what I’ve been told, I’m pretty damn fabulous.” He smiled. “I have a feeling you’re pretty damn fabulous, too.”
* * * *
Rom and Chad dug out the mattress from where it was—ofcourse—buried against the back wall. Hell, they hadn’t thought they’d need it, so they’d wrapped it in a zippered plastic case and stashed it upright against the wall, where it’d take up less space and not be in the way.
Wrrrooooonnng.
As they were shifting stuff around to get to it, Chad chuckled.
“What’s so funny?” Rom asked.
“First, would you like some unsolicited advice?”
“Hit me.”
Chad reached out a hand to touch Rom’s shoulder and waited until Rom looked at him. “You’ve just started a new chapter in your life. Both of you have. Doubly so for Colton, since Clayton’s his little brother and sort of his son now. You’re going to feel scared shitless at times. You’ve got the benefit of Clayton being older than you were when I became your dad.”
Chad shook his head. “I mean, I gotta be honest with you, once the initial shock wore off and I started to process I was now your parent, it frickingterrifiedme. Be gentle on yourself. You’re not perfect, you won’t be perfect, and accept that now. It’s okay to fuck up. Just own it when you do, and be honest withhimabout it.”
As that advice slammed into Rom’s brain, he really studied his brother’s face for a moment. “Wow,” he softly said. “Yeah, you did. I never thought about that before.”
“Yeah, I did. When I met Ina, I told her from the start that she couldn’t be a dictator with you. I mean, yeah, setting boundaries and stuff, enforcing rules, that’s one thing. But if she messed up, shehadto admit it to you. Because your school counsellor sat down with me and talked to me. She said that you would have serious enough trust issues without me adding ego to the mix. And I took that to heart.”
Rom leaned against his sofa, which was covered with a plastic tarp and had boxes stacked on it. “How do we get him through this? I knew Mom and Dad were dead. How do we help him process that his parents threw him out?”
“I think Colton will be the expert there.” Chad sadly smiled. “When we meet those jerks, can I rub it in their faces that obviously if they gave birth totwogay sons, who weren’t raised together and didn’t even know each other,obviouslyit’s genetic?”
“Afterthey sign over custody, sure.” Rom stood and they resumed the shuffling of furniture and boxes to make room for them to get the mattress out of the storeroom. “I don’t want them to fight us on that.”
“Theythrewhim out,” Chad said. “You’d think they’d be happy to sign over custody of him. And, hey, if they don’t, threaten to call the law on them.”
“I want to do that already.”
“They probably will sign him over. They signed Colton over to his grandmother.”
“I won’t count on it until it’s a done deal.” He took a deep breath and surveyed the storeroom. “I think I’m still in shock.”
“Probably.” Chad grinned. “Welcome to parenthood.”
They finally excavated the mattress from its resting place and carried it upstairs. In Rom’s mind, he was already thinking about what they’d have to do to get the room changed over from a home office to a bedroom, where to move Colton’s office stuff to in the living room and make him a corner desk area.
Good-bye, nakey nights.
For only a second—okay, maybetwo—he reconsidered Chad’s offer to let Clayton live with them. They had two sons, Jeff fourteen and Allen twelve, so the perfect ages to raise Clayton with. That Chad and Ina were fit parents wasn’t in doubt to Rom, because,hellooo, he’d been raised by them.
And itwouldallow them to continue nakey nights.
No, that’s selfish and wrong.
