IWAS RIDICULOUSLY NERVOUSabout seeing Howard and Dorey again after so many years. Sure, I had sent them gifts for holidays and vacations, but it wasn’t the same as taking the time to see them in person like Mark had. There was no doubt which meant more to them – the gifts or visits. Like I learned with my father, it wasn’t too late to start over again.
Dorey whipped open her front door and clapped her hands excitedly when she saw us approach. “My boys!” We didn’t make it all the way to the door before she met us with arms open wide. “Mitch, it’s so good to see you.” I heard her voice break and I feared that she would start to cry, but she held it together.
“It’s good to see you too, Dorey. I swear you haven’t aged a bit,” I said when I pulled back from her hug.
It was true. She was the picture of what a life of good choices did for a person. Lines of worry and stress didn’t line her face, she was still in great shape, and I bet she still walked up to five miles every day. Howard used to say she walked that much so she could eat whatever she wanted; there may have been some truth to that because she didn’t skip the fat in her cooking. I wouldn’t be telling Edna Garretty, but I hadn’t found anyone who made better fried chicken than Dorey Davis.
“You’re a sly dog,” she said with a blush before she slapped me playfully. She turned to Mark and held open her arms to him. “Glad you made it home, son,” she said when she wrapped her thin arms around his bulk.
“It’s good to be home, Mom.”
Mark wasn’t kidding when he said that Howard and Dorey became his family. I almost felt like a third wheel. That all disappeared when Howard stepped on the front porch to watch the reunion. He had always been a pretty serious man – the kind you knew meant what he said. He didn’t hold back praise or affection, but it was done in a manner that made you know it was genuine. He left no doubts. When he opened his arms for a greeting, I didn’t hesitate to step into them. Showing affection to other people didn’t make me weak, it made me real.
“It’s so good to see you, boy.” His bear hug ended with a hard enough slap on my back to make me cough. “Try not to wait another twenty or so years before you come back, yeah?”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
I watched as Mark was greeted with the same exuberant hug and slap. I felt tears sting the back of my eyes when I heard Howard and Mark refer to one another as dad and son. I was ecstatic that Mark had a family to love and I hoped someday he’d consider me a part of his family too.
We went inside and Dorey brought iced tea and mini sandwiches to snack on after our long trip to tide us over until dinner. “I’m making your favorite - fried chicken and all of the fixings,” Dorey told me before she sat down.
“Mark said he didn’t tell you I was coming. He said he wanted to surprise you.” My surprise became confusion when both of them burst into laughter. I turned to Mark and he simply shrugged as if he didn’t know what was going on.
“I didn’t tell them I was bringing you,” he told me.
“As if you had to,” Dorey said, wiping off tears of laughter from her face.
“Did you think we didn’t notice the tone of voice you used when talking about Mitch?” Howard asked Mark.
“Recently it was more obvious that something between the two of you shifted and you became closer than maybe either one of you was comfortable with, but we kept hoping,” Dorey said, gesturing between the two of us with her hand.
“You didn’t fool us at all when you said you were bringing your boyfriend to meet us.” Howard sent Mark a playful scowl. “We might be old, but neither of us are senile. Yet!”
Mark’s face looked a little flushed over not being able to hide his feelings for me. I thought it was the best thing I’d heard in years - maybe my whole life. I placed my arm around his shoulders and gave him a kiss on his pink cheek. I kept any comment that might’ve been floating around in my brain to myself so I didn’t ruin the moment.
“So, what’s been going on with you?” Howard asked me, changing the subject.
I shamefully didn’t have much to tell them about my personal life so I started off talking about how my life changed when I took over as CEO for Heston’s. “I passionately love building resorts and providing families with memories that will last their lifetimes,” I told them, not caring how dorky I might’ve sounded. “My personal life was non-existent,” I told them, ignoring the snort that slipped out of Mark. What he was thinking about was not a story I was going to tell my foster parents. I told them the story of my former bodyguard setting up a meeting with someone who could take his place once he got married and moved. “He said he knew just the guy and imagine my surprise when that guy turned out to be Mark. It just felt like there was more going on than simple coincidence.”
“That’s so sweet,” Dorey said, dabbing at her eyes again. That time it wasn’t from laughter.
Mark looked into my eyes and I saw how much my words meant to him. I also saw that he’d show me how they made him feel later when we were alone.
“I’m glad the two of you found one another again,” Howard said. “You were always thick as thieves as teens. I think I knew back then that there was much more between you than a simple friendship. I saw the devastation in both of your eyes when Mitch left to live with his father. I also saw Mark return back to the surly kid who first showed up on my front door step four years prior.” His soulful brown eyes took on a serious look as he leaned forward and addressed us from the other side of the coffee table. “If you two love each other half as much as I love my Dorey, then you do something about it. You don’t waste time questioning everything; you act on your feelings. Life is too short to walk alone and both of you have been doing that for far too long.”
He pointed at Mark and said, “You threw yourself into the deadliest places on the earth to avoid getting emotionally hurt again. And you,” he said turning to me, “you spent your life being a shallow playboy rather than put your heart on the line.” He chuckled at the horrified expression on my face. “We can read tabloids, you know.”
“I’m sorry,” I told him.
“Don’t apologize, boy! Just don’t waste the opportunity you have now for a happy life with a good man.”
I looked at Mark and found him watching me closely. “I won’t,” I promised – to Howard and Dorey, to Mark, and especially to myself. I had everything I needed in the man who sat beside me.
Dorey made us fried chicken, mashed potatoes, homemade biscuits and gravy, and asparagus for dinner. Later she served apple pie, ice cream, and coffee. We talked and reminisced for hours and it felt so good to be in their company. I made a promise to myself, and later to them, that I’d make more of an effort to spend time with them. They, along with Mark, were the only bright spots during the darkest time of my life. Once I was removed from their home, things got even darker for me.
I tried living up to Estelle and my father’s expectation, but failed miserably at every turn. It was a horrible environment for a traumatized kid to live in and I was ashamed of myself for crying myself to sleep almost every night for several months. Males in general don’t like to cry, especially not teenage boys who hadn’t learned yet that some things were worth crying over and it didn’t make you less of a man.
When it was time to say goodbye, I hugged both Howard and Dorey a little tighter than I did when I greeted them. It was harder to leave than I thought it would be; in fact, it felt like I was momentarily a fifteen-year-old kid again. Mark’s strong, confident hand on my shoulder gave me the strength I needed to pull away from them knowing that I wasn’t saying “goodbye” to them again, it was more like “so long for now.”
