Something flashed in his expression and Francis held back a sigh. He knew Mark wasn’t going to forgive himself for the way he’d acted before toward the LGBTQ people in town. Or maybe he would, eventually, but that time wasn’t now.
A while later, Francis checked on the Grahams. Henrietta chatted with Aiden on the porch and Charles seemed to be asleep in his chair nearby. Someone had tucked an afghan around him, and Francis smiled at the sigh.
“We’re keeping an eye on his breathing,” Henrietta told him quietly when Aiden excused himself to go see his husband in the kitchen.
Francis sat in the seat he’d vacated and smiled at Henrietta. “How are you feeling today?”
She looked surprised for a second, then she chuckled. “Well, Joel keeps coming out of the kitchen to bring me things to taste, so I’m being well-fed already.”
“Good. As you should be. Let me know if you need anything, okay?” Francis patted her hand carefully.
“Of course.” She glanced at Charles and smiled. “I’m so incredibly lucky and happy to get to have this, and so is he.” She turned her gaze to Francis. “Before you came into our lives, we were two old people living alone together with just the maybe once a month visit from someone who wasn’t there to draw blood or checking if we were still alive. This week, with your friends….” Tears rolled down her cheeks, and she blinked rapidly. “This is all I could’ve asked for.”
“Oh, Henrietta,” Francis said on a sigh, then got out of his chair to embrace her too-thin body. “I wish I’d made my way here sooner.”
“Nonsense.” Her tone was firm as they parted. “You were helping mothers and their babies. That’s something very important. We are truly blessed to have you here. Mark, too. In the last few years, he’s always been the same, you know? Quiet and polite, but closed off, too. Just look at him now.”
Francis’s gaze snapped into the form he’d come to love so much despite their rocky start. Mark was laughing at something Kaos was saying, and Rita smacked Mark on the arm as if they’d been friends for ages.
Yeah, Mark had changed, maybe even for the better. But then…. “I think he had all that inside the walls he’d built around himself. If you’re trying to credit me somehow, don’t. Maybe I shone a light into his fortress through a crack in the wall somewhere, but it was him who decided to break down every barrier between his true self and the world outside.”
Henrietta chuckled. “Oh, Francis.” She didn’t elaborate, just shooed him off when Joel called him from the kitchen.
* * * *
The party was a success. There was so much food and drinks—although none of the people in their circle were big drinkers—and Nora’s incredible cake. Henrietta asked help for getting ready for bed, or like she put it “help me to roll Charles and myself into our quarters.”
Charles was happy, that much was clear. He was also too tired and while his blood sugar levels were good enough when Francis checked him last thing, the rattling in his chest worried him.
Once the Grahams were in bed, Francis returned to his friends and poured himself his second glass of wine of the evening.
The night was getting cooler, but the fire pit warmed everyone as they’d gathered into groups.
Francis curled up in one of the sun loungers and watched his people.
Makai and Emil were curled up on another lounger, with Minnie, Zinnia, and Jack nearby. They were talking about something, some TV show from what Francis could hear, intensely with gestures and all.
Padraig and Aiden were sitting at a table on the other side of the fire pit, talking about something serious. Probably reminiscing about the past, if Francis knew them at all.
Rita came from the inside and took the chair next to Francis’s. She smiled at him tiredly, but looked happy.
Francis spotted Mark and Joel talking in the shadows of the edge of the yard, and had some idea what the subject might’ve been. He felt a rush of something like pride. He knew Joel would never corner a person about their kinks, even if he wanted to help them. Either he’d approached Mark carefully or Mark had braved asking him for a chat.
“This is a good bunch,” Rita said, then sipped at her own wine. “They mix incredibly well.”
“Yeah, they do.”
“I’m glad we came here. Everyone’s needed a vacation, but you know how it is.”
Francis smiled. “I remember.”
Kaos got to his feet across the fire pit and came to them, sitting on the edge of Francis’s chair.
“Hey, I wondered if I could bring the dogs here on Monday? If you guys aren’t doing anything special, I mean? I have a client coming over from the UK, and they’re in town for only a day. I can’t have Hestia there to distract me and I think Padraig has a full day at the clinic as well.”
“Of course, the Grahams mentioned missing their dog so I doubt they mind. And we’ll probably just hang around or at least most of us. Who knows what we come up with, but sure, please bring them over.”
“What kind of dogs do you have?” Rita asked, and Kaos’s face lit up like it often did when he spoke about any of his three loves: his art, the dogs, or Padraig.
