“THAT’S THE LAST one,” I announced, dropping a box labeledDog Toysinto the center of the living room. It had been a long time coming, but we were finally all moved into our new home.
“Good, now all we have to do is unpack them all. How much crap did you bring with you?” Micah asked, flopping down onto the couch.
“Hey now,” I protested. “It’s a good thing I had all thiscrap,” I said, stealing his bottled water from his hand. “Because if not, we’d still be using lawn chairs in the living room.”
“Those were comfortable,” he defended before he laughed.
We both kicked our feet up on the coffee table, and it felt like home. It probably had a lot to do with most of the furnishings being mine from my place in Texas, but that wasn’t it entirely. It was Micah, being in the same place as me, that made it all feel right.
As I looked across the room at the beautiful fireplace, I thought back to the journey bringing us to this point. The school district did everything in its power to drag the case out, to make me look like the bad guy, simply because I was gay. When my lawyer and I had them backed into a corner, and they knew they’d lose the case before it even started, we ended up settling out of court. Once I was awarded my damages, I handed in my resignation and left teaching at the end of the school year.
I had hopes of finding a teaching job here in California, but at the same time, I was more than content simply to be next to Micah on our couch, in our home, together. “We did a damn fine job,” I said wistfully, thinking about all the memories we’d create right here.
“Not so fast,” Micah objected. “We still have to unpack.”
We laughed together, finishing our water and talking about where everything should go. And though it was a long day, by the end of it, we had our room set up enough to crash in the bed sometime around midnight.
When the early morning sun sliced through the bare windows, Micah groaned in protest. “It’s too early,” he grouched.
“Yeah, it is,” I agreed, rolling over to look at the time. “But if you don’t get that sweet ass of yours in gear, you’ll be late for work.”
He grabbed his phone and cursed, “Oh shit,” before jumping out of bed. Within ten minutes he was out the door, off to his job at the YMCA. When he first moved back to California, he joined the gym there. It was where he found his calling as a trainer, and after completing the course work, he was a certified physical trainer. While he could work in any gym he wanted, he loved it at the Y. He especially loved bulling around with the old veterans who spent the majority of their days at the gym because they had nowhere else to be. He loved it so much that in the summer, he added on the title of camp counselor to his training sessions—another job he loved just as much, especially because it meant he was able to spend most of his day with Simon, who went to summer camp there.
Knowing how he was spending his day made me long for the days under the hot Texas sun, coaching football and goofing around with the players. I knew I’d teach again and that was enough to go on for now. There were bigger and better things I needed to work on today.
“I’ve got nine hours,” I said to myself, peeling myself out of bed. Every muscle in my body ached, and my feet stung when they hit the floor. But I knew if I was going to pull this off, I needed to get my ass in gear. It had taken a lot of work to keep him out of the spare room. But I made sure to unload every box coming into the house that had to go in there. Since it was the room farthest from the front door, he was all too willing to let me do the extra work.
When we first saw the room, it was set up as an office. The walls were a light gray, the perfect backdrop for my surprise. Right on schedule, the doorbell rang and my plans were set in motion.
By the time everything was in place, I had just enough time to shower before Micah came home. And just as planned, when I walked out of the bedroom, Micah was walking in the front door with Ethan, who would be eight months old next week, on his hip. Simon stood next to him, his nose sun-kissed, freckles decorating his cheeks. I gave him a not-so-secretive thumbs-up and winked, letting him know everything was ready to go.
Of course I needed an accomplice and Simon was more than willing to help out. It hadn’t been easy to hear about Micah’s past with Delilah. And then when he told me about the baby, that was a real shock as well. But once I met Simon, something in me clicked. He was the happiest kid I had ever met, and once I spent some time with Delilah, I could tell where that came from. Knowing my plan would have an impact on her life as well, I wanted to make sure she was okay with it, too. She was all too happy to help, saying all she ever wanted was for Micah to be happy.
Micah and I had already been house hunting when Ethan was born, and once I laid eyes on that sweet baby, I knew exactly what I was going to do once we had a home of our own. It was so crazy to think that after all these months of waiting, I was finally here.
“Come here,” I said to Micah.
Simon giggled which of course made Micah immediately suspicious. “What did you two do now?” It wasn’t totally out of the realm of possibility for Simon and me to team up, especially after throwing Micah one of the best surprise birthday parties ever just last month. But I think Simon’s favorite surprise was when we brought Grandpa George a puppy when we visited over spring break.
“Oh nothing,” I teased. “Just close your eyes and come this way.”
Though he grumbled some, he finally gave in, letting me lead him down the hallway to the spare room he’d intended to use as our joint office and home gym. Once we were in the room, Simon yelled, “Surprise,” so loudly I thought my eardrums would burst.
But hell, who could blame him?
When Micah opened his eyes, he gasped in shock at the room unfolding before him. “What the—” He censored himself, but Simon knew where he was going because he shot his dad the side eye.
“Do you like it?” I asked, hoping beyond all hope that he wasn’t mad.
“Like it?” He spun around, trying to take everything in at once. “I love it. But you didn’t have to. This was supposed to be your office.” It was a fight we’d had many times, one that made Micah feel very guilty. The court case awarded me the luxury of a decent sum of money, most of which we used to buy this house. And though I convinced him that it was ours to share, he still felt like I should do what I wanted with it.
“Did you pick this out?” he asked Simon, sitting on the twin bed with the Star Wars themed comforter. Ethan babbled on his lap as if he was admitting to the role he played in it all.
“Uh-huh,” Simon answered proudly. “And I even helped Jude pick out the stuff for Ethan, too. Look,” he continued, excited over all the details of his new room. “I even got him his own lightsaber. It’s the green one. That’s the best kind.”
Micah walked over to the crib on the opposite wall. Eventually it would transition into a bed just like Simon’s, and the boys would have a room of their own right here in our home. “You didn’t have—”
Cutting him off, I said, “Yes I did. They need a place here, and that crappy small guest room is not it.” Ethan reached for me, and my heart swelled knowing that he felt at home in my arms.
