“Is something wrong with Chase?” I asked as I led him back to my office.
“Nothing is wrong,” he assured me quickly with a warm smile.Grayson was smiling at me?“I know I’m the last person you’d expect to see at your office, but it turns out Chase and I need your legal advice.” I was sure my surprise showed on my face because Gray chuckled. “We haven’t even told our families about this yet.” His excitement built with each word until it became a palpable presence in the room. “Pastor Simms recommended Chase and I as adoptive parents to a young lady in her congregation. We met with her and her parents recently and…” Gray paused to swallow hard. “She chose us, JJ. Our daughter will be born in January.”
“Gray, that’s fantastic news. She’s going to be the luckiest little girl in the world, and I sincerely mean that.” I was shocked to hear the news from Gray instead of Chase.
Sensing my surprise, Gray smiled and said, “I needed to be the one who asked for your help after the animosity between us. I didn’t always treat you very kindly, and I’m sorry for the way I’ve behaved.”
“Gray”—I blew out a relieved breath—“I didn’t make it very easy on you most of the time. To be honest, not many guys would have accepted the situation like you did. I appreciate you not making Chase choose between us because I would’ve lost my best friend.”
“He wasn’t going to give you up, buddy. Believe me, I tried.” Gray offered a wry smile, and for once, I found myself completely comfortable in his presence. “Anyway, we would like to hire you as our legal counsel to make sure the adoption goes through without a hitch. We’re a bit overwhelmed right now. Chase and I would love to focus solely on getting our new house ready for the baby and not worry about the legal aspects. To do that, we need someone who will have our backs. And that would be you, J.”
“I’ll gladly take your case, but I’m not taking your money.” Gray opened his mouth to argue, but I cut him off. “It’s not up for negotiation. Take the money you would’ve paid me and put it toward creating the coolest nursery on the planet.” There was no give in my voice, and Gray wisely knew to pick his battles because this was not one he would win.
“I appreciate that very much. We’ll be making the announcement to our friends on Sunday when we have you all over for dinner. You and Miller are coming, right?”
“Absolutely.” For the first time in nearly a decade, I was looking forward to the holidays. In the past, the memories of everyone I’d lost made them unbearable, but things were completely different now that I had Miller. He brought so much happiness and love into my life that I’d never be able to properly express my feelings for him. Just telling him I loved him wasn’t enough. I would miss my brother and mother for the rest of my life, but Miller gave me a reason to smile and look for happiness instead of clinging to sadness.
“You know,” Gray began, “I don’t want to ruin the good thing we have going here”—he gestured between us—“by making comments about your not-a-relationship with Miller, but I just want to say that I’ve never seen him so happy. I, um, scoffed at the ‘no labels’ thing, but you know what? It works great for you guys, and it’s no one’s business but your own.”
“Thank you, Gray.”
“You’re welcome. Enjoy Thanksgiving with the Brexlers. They’re a fun bunch of people.”
“That they are.” Miller had included me in every family function over the last several months, and I had fallen in love with them. It was no surprise Miller had turned out the way he had after growing up in that household. They were boisterous, fun loving, and very accepting of my intrusion into their lives.
“I need to head back to the office to work on some last-minute details before I take the next few days off for the holiday.” Gray rose to his feet and offered his hand. “It’s okay with me if you share this news with Miller, but tell him to keep his mouth shut. I don’t want my parents finding out from his parents.”
“Deal.” I shook his hand and told him I’d see him later.
I had details of my own to wrap up because it was my last workday before the long holiday weekend. I ended up working later than I wanted, and it was seven before I knew it. I sent a text to Miller asking if he had already eaten and offered to pick something up if not, but he never responded. I called him and left a few voicemails, but he didn’t respond to either my texts or phone messages.
I was too worried to stop and get anything to eat. Instead, I drove straight to his house. All the lights were off, and he wasn’t home. I drove to my house in a haze of worry, wondering what the hell I should do next if he wasn’t there. Call his parents to see if they’d heard from him? That sounded over the top, but I found myself frantic with worry. Then I saw his car in my driveway and breathed a sigh of relief.
“Miller?” I called his name as I walked through my front door. “Bones, where are you?” I found him and Indy sound asleep on the couch. I knelt beside the couch and touched his face. “Bones.” My touch startled him, and he jerked into a sitting position. “Are you okay?” His face looked pale, and his skin felt clammy when I touched it.
“Yeah, I guess I was more tired than I thought. I can’t remember the last time I slept this hard.” He shook his head to clear the sleep fog, then his face scrunched up in irritation. “I had an unexpected visitor at the university this afternoon.” I could tell by the sour expression on his face that it wasn’t a happy visit like the one I’d had with Gray. “Your buddy, Bax, stopped by to see me.”
“What? Why?” I had a really bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. “He’s not my buddy.”
“Apparently, he’s the benefactor behind an archeological and anthropological dig that will occur on a Civil War battlefield. They believe there could be a cache of old Confederate money that was captured and hidden along with munitions and other pieces of history. A Maryland farmer discovered old uniform pins for both the Union and Confederate armies while tilling his ground. He also found some spent ammunition and a little metal tag that one of our history professors believes was used to seal a bag of Confederate money.”
“How does any of this involve you?”
“The farmer took the items to a museum, and the curator reached out to our history department because the site of discovery was not on a known battlefield. The history department chalked it up to a minor skirmish that might have occurred between battles. The farmer didn’t believe it, so he bought a metal detector and did a little digging on his own. It was obvious from all the hits he got that his land was probably more significant than a small skirmish site. So now, the history, anthropology, and archeology departments will work together to dig up and preserve what we find.”
“Ahhh. Bax wants you involved in the dig, is that it?”
“Yep. I guess they’ve gone through several months of government red tape, although this is the first I’ve heard about it. Our buddy, Baxter, used his influence to move things along. The dig is set to begin the Saturday after Thanksgiving. They want to get started before the weather gets too cold and the ground freezes. I would normally be excited for this, but I’m suspicious about his involvement. I’m the youngest member of the archeology and anthropolgy departments, yet I was chosen to oversee the dig? He’s either figured out we’re dating and wants to cause problems for us, or he now thinks I could be the other half of the most powerful gay couple in the country. Either way, I’m not happy with his involvement.”
“But you don’t have a choice, do you?” I heard the tension and dread in his voice. I told myself Baxter wouldn’t dirty himself by hanging out at a dig sight, but I was starting to believe I didn’t really know anything about the man he had become. There was hardly anything about him that resembled the good guy I remembered, but then again, power corrupted people.
“No, I don’t,” Miller agreed. “And honestly, I don’t want to walk away from a potential major discovery.”
“This is too important to pass up.” I leaned forward and kissed his mouth. “Besides, what’s the likelihood his pampered ass will even show up?”
“Not likely,” Miller agreed, looking hopeful. “I could use some more volunteers. Do you know of anyone who might like to spend a day digging for centuries old war artifacts while freezing his nuts off with his boyfriend? I bet a guy like that would be rewarded mightily in the bedroom.”
“Yeah?” I replied with an enthusiastic nod. “I’m in, Bones.” He rewarded me with a toe-curling kiss that held the promise of more to come.
