“Yeah. I like them. They’re pretty.”
“I could make them for you.”
Her eyes lit up. “Really?” She tore off, heading to Tyler, who was talking to Zach and Sam.
“Is that something new? I didn’t think you were doing a children’s clothing line.” Marcus poured him another mimosa from the pitcher sitting on the counter. They’d polished off the huge breakfast of bagels, lox, and French toast Tyler had prepared and, groaningly overfull, were now sitting around and catching up.
“I never know when the inspiration will strike, but, why not? And not a full line yet. I can start with dance outfits and see how it takes off.”
“Well, if Lillie’s any indication, you’ll do great.”
“Maybe Tyler would let her do the modeling for it; she’s adorable and might pick up some money doing odd modeling jobs.”
Marcus nodded thoughtfully. “It’s a good idea. I’ll talk to Tyler about it. He’s very careful with her, and I’m in agreement. He doesn’t want her thinking she can have everything she wants.”
Julian placed the sketchpad on the counter, then sat back and rubbed his chin. “How does it feel being a father?”
Coughing up half of the mimosa he was drinking, Marcus wheezed, gasping for breath. “Father?” he said, sounding more frog than human. “What the hell are you talking about?” He wiped his eyes with the napkin Julian handed him.
“Oh come on, Marc, be serious.” Julian waved at Zach, who’d passed by them moments before and now came back out of the kitchen with a cup of coffee, to join them. “Zach, don’t you agree?”
With a wry smile, Zach set his mug down on the counter and crossed his arms, smile lines fanning out from his eyes. Gone were the days when despondency swamped Zach, crippling him with indecisiveness. Marcus had finally stopped worrying about him.
“Do you know how many times over the years you’ve asked me, ‘Zach, don’t you agree?’ and I could kick myself for not asking you first what you were talking about instead of answering ‘yes’ off the top of my head?”
“Ha. He’s got you there, Juli. Zach’s always been too smart for you.”
Nonplussed, Julian the Jackal wasn’t about to give up if he smelled fresh meat.
“Fine. Here’s the question. I merely asked Marcus how he felt about being a father.”
Wide-eyed but unable to contain the grin breaking out across his face, Zach leaned back against the countertop, his blue eyes sparkling behind his glasses.
“Well, now that’s a whole different story. Yeah, I’m with Julian. How does it feel?”
“You two are insane. I knew once you got married and you got engaged,” he said pointing to Julian and Zach respectively, “that would be the end of your brains, and you’d insist on making me—”
“Stop it already.”
Shocked into silence by Zach’s unusually stern voice, Marcus obeyed, more curious than annoyed with Zach.
“You’re so intent on proving how much you don’t care about Tyler you’re going to drive him away. Is that what you want? To be alone again, picking up random men and hooking up instead of facing the truth that being with Tyler is the best thing to ever happen in your life?”
Funny how he’d always thought it would be Julian who’d pin him to the wall, since they so often butted heads. Instead, quiet Zach, possessing an inner core of steel neither he nor Julian imagined, stepped into the fire, knowing Marcus wouldn’t dismiss him outright and would listen.
“It’s time to grow up, Marcus, and be a man. The man I know you can be, that youareif you’d only wake up and take a look at what you have right in front of your face. Admit it to yourself, even if you won’t to us, that you’re in love with Tyler.”
Awareness prickled up his spine. Had Tyler heard Zach? He shot an uneasy glance over his shoulder to see if Tyler had overheard what Zach had said, but lucky for Marcus, he was still in the living room, happily discussing football with Sam.
“Don’t worry; he didn’t hear Zach,” said Julian, no longer laughing, looking more frighteningly serious than Marcus recalled seeing him in a while. “I was afraid to say anything because I knew you’d bite my head off like the last time at brunch when I tried to talk to you about Tyler.” He set his glass down on the counter and held Marcus’s eyes. “But now that Zach brought it up, I agree with him. It’s hard and scary as hell when it happens, but once you accept not only the place that happiness holds in your life but your right to be happy, you wonder how you could ever have lived without it.”
“Did you two plan this ambush, waiting for a time when I’d be alone to stalk and harass me about my love life?” Marcus grumbled, but it was halfhearted at best, and Zach stifled a gasp.
“God. Julian you were right. Look at his face.” Zach nudged Julian who broke out in a wide smile.
“Well, well, well; let me write this day down.” He made a great show of clicking his pen and flipping the pages of his sketchpad. “November 28. The day Marcus Feldman mentioned the words ‘love life’ instead of ‘just fucking around.’”
“Oh, fuck off,” said Marcus irritably. “I’m not nauseatingly annoying like you two. Maybe it’s gas.”
