He padded to the kitchen with a smile on his face, convinced they were going to have a fairytale ending after all. Whoever said crime doesn’t pay had obviously not tried marriage fraud.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
In the days after he made the post where he’d come out and admitted to marrying Noah, Jace had been swamped with messages and emails from his extended family—some offering congratulations, some expressing confusion. Jace mostly ignored the second category and thanked the first, which seemed like the most sensible thing to do. Anyone who couldn’t congratulate him didn’t deserve a response.
His sister had been grilling him about Noah all week, asking for pictures, then asking if he had any cute brothers hanging around, and then when they were going to come see her. She didn’t seem even a little surprised that Jace was suddenly married to another man, but it was hard to tell over text. Maybe she was shocked and just being supportive.
Jace had been a little worried about his parents—they’d always been supportive of him, but he’d never had to come out to them before. He’d gotten an email within an hour, signed from both of them, telling him how proud of him they were.
Now, they wanted to meet Noah—online, at least. Jace knew he had no reason to be nervous—Noah was fun, and charming, and definitely the kind of person you took home to your parents. That didn’t stop him from sitting in front of his laptop, waiting for his parents’ call, and freaking out.
Noah took his free hand, squeezing it tightly. “You’re practically vibrating. You wanna take a deep breath, there?”
Jace paused, and then took Noah’s advice, inhaling deeply and then exhaling slowly. He repeated it a few times, feeling the tension start to leave his body.
“They’re just your parents,” Noah continued. “And they’re not even in the room, so you can cut them off if you want. All you have to do is close the laptop if you decide you don’t want to talk to them. But they seemed cool. Way cooler than my mom, anyway.”
“I think your mom’s coming around,” Jace said. She did seem to be getting that Noah was married to someone he liked being married to. Jace had even seen her liking a photo of the two of them together, which they were still posting in case Rafe did decide to do something drastic.
He seemed to have disappeared, though. Jace suspected Diego had something to do with that. He’d been a good friend to both Jace and Noah. That was the best part of derby. The sense of being a team extended way past game day.
The incoming call icon popped up, and Jace hit accept before sitting back on the couch so he and Noah were both in view. His parents popped up in a similar position, both grinning and waving into the camera.
“Welcome to the family!” they chorused. Jace smiled. This was going to be fine.
“Thank you so much,” Noah said. “I’m sorry everything happened so fast and we didn’t tell you guys. It’s been… weird. Umm, I’m Noah.”
“We figured,” Jace’s mom said. “I’m Sandra, and this is Don.” She nudged her husband. “But you can call us Mom and Dad, if you want. No pressure. We’re just very excited that Jace has found someone.”
Jace blushed, clearing his throat. “You wanna go easy on him? I don’t wanna scare him away.”
“Well, he’s already married to you,” Jace’s dad said. “So he can’t escape now.”
“I don’t want to escape. You both seem like lovely people, and I’m so happy to finally be meeting you.”
“So what do you do, Noah?” Don asked.
“I freelance, in web design. I used to work for a company here in Baltimore.”
Sandra frowned. “So how do you know Jace?”
“Did he not tell you?” Noah glanced at him, grinning. “We play roller derby together. I knew it was love the first time I tripped over him at practice.”
“I remember that incident as youknockingme over and then falling on your ass.”
Noah shook his head. “You’d definitely fallen over of your own accord. I was innocent.”
“I believe Noah. He’s got an honest face,” Sandra said.
Jace rolled his eyes. “You’re their new favorite son,” he said. “I’ve been replaced.”
He wasn’t really worried about being replaced, and he was glad his parents seemed to like Noah. That was all he wanted, for his whole little family to get along. For Noah to feel like this really would last, like he could be a part of Jace’s life forever.
It was still early days, but Jace had never been happier. Sure, they’d done everything backwards—most people didn’t get married before they started dating—but it was working for them. Some people juggled chickens. This was the waytheywere doing things, and that was okay.
“I did always want another son,” Don pointed out. “How are you at fishing, Noah?”
“I know my way around a rod and reel.”
