“You’re still limping,” Nate observed, linking his arm with Joshua’s, who turned to look back over his shoulder.
“You need help?” he called to Colin, who was pulling suitcases from the trunk. His husband threw him a disbelieving grimace and waved him forward.
“Hey there, buddy,” David said, grinning as he approached Joshua, one hand held behind his back. “I’ve got a present for you.”
“Yeah?” Joshua said. “What is it?”
“This,” David said. He held out the item to Joshua who stared at it in open-mouthed surprise.
“Oh my god, David,” he laughed, taking it from David’s hand.
“What is it?” Colin muttered, moving toward them with their suitcases in his hands. He dropped the cases to the ground and took the object from Joshua’s hand. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he breathed out. “Mycane!” He had used this cane to help him get around for months after he was shot and had left it with David and Nate when he was finally able to lay it aside. “I thought you threw this thing away!” Colin laughed.
“We decided to keep it. Maybe do a ceremony with it and burn it or something. But now Josh can use it until his knee is better,” David said. “You know, like a walking stick.”
“Thank you for thinking of it, David,” Joshua said, then reached to hug him. “You guys have been wonderful...as always.”
David hugged him in return but felt Joshua tremble and heard his breath shudder in his chest. “Josh? You OK?”
“Doctor Abrams!” Colin snapped.
Joshua burst into laughter and wheeled to face his husband. “Doctor Abrams?”
Colin shrugged and bent to kiss him. “Works for Adam. Thought it might work for me. You were starting to slide.”
“I was,” Joshua admitted. He laid a hand on Colin’s shoulder and gazed at him, feeling his eyes well with tears of love and gratitude.
“Joooshhhuuaaaaaa,” Colin warned, dragging out every syllable of Joshua’s name. “Knock it off.”
“You being ‘mean Colin’ today?” Nate asked.
Colin made a fake evil face and lurched toward Nate, walking like Frankenstein’s monster. “ARRRUUGGHHH!” he growled. “Watch out, Natey-baby, or I’ll EAT YA! And I don’t mean in a GOOD way!”
Nate laughed and threw a fake punch at Colin, then he and David grabbed their guest’s luggage. “We’ll take these up to your room. You guys just settle in.”
Joshua smiled and linked his arm with Colin’s as they ambled toward the cabin. “Sit with me?” Colin asked. They sat down on the glider and Colin took Joshua’s hand in his. For several minutes they sat in complete silence. Directly in front of them stood a strand of sugar maple trees whose leaves moved gently in the breeze that flowed toward the cabin from the small lake below. The air was filled with the scent of sun-kissed trees and earth still damp from the morning rain.
“Jesus, this was a good idea,” Colin whispered.
Joshua nodded, then turned and pressed his face to Colin’s chest, snuggling against him, his arm winding around Colin’s waist.
“Honey? You OK?”
Joshua nodded. “I just love you so much. And I’m so grateful to you.”
“Knock it off,” Colin growled.
Joshua laughed and nuzzled against Colin’s chest.
“So, he calls you Doctor Abrams, huh?” Nate said, returning to the porch. “Sincewhen?” He smirked and leaned down to prod Colin with an index finger.
“Adam used it in the hospital, and it works,” Joshua said. “Every time I’d start to melt down, he’d bellow out ‘Doctor Abrams!’and it would snap me back into myself. Forced me to adopt a professional demeanor.”
He glanced at Nate who settled on the wide porch railing. “It reminds me of who I am.”
“How are youreally, Josh?” David asked, sitting backwards on a chair he’d carried from the cabin. “No bullshit.”
“I’m better,” Joshua told them. “The swelling is nearly gone, and the bruises are fading.” He lifted his right arm. “This still hurts now and then...” He wrinkled his nose. “But not much. The knee will get fixed in a couple weeks.” He leaned against Colin and sighed. “The head stuff is taking a bit longer, though it’s better than it was.” He pointed to his eyes. “What hurts themostare the damned eye sockets. Adam said they had quite a few tiny fractures and they ache.”
