Chapter Twenty-Five
“Is that an actual newspaper?” Ben asked as he walked into the kitchen, nodding to what was, obviously, an actual newspaper in Sam’s hands.
“You’re in it.” Sam said, lowering the paper so he could point out the article.
“That doesn’t mean you need to travel back to the dark ages to read the article. It’ll be on their website.”
Sam shrugged. “I wanna take a clipping.Local Journalist Uncovers Blackmail Plotis definitely one for the scrapbook.”
“You’re not keeping a scrapbook,” Ben said. “My mom kept a scrapbook.”
At some point, while he’d been gone, Ben’s mother had died. Sam hated that he hadn’t been around to help him through it. They’d only met a couple of times, but she’d seemed like… well, she’d seemed exactly like the kind of woman who’d raise someone like Ben.
His father had been gone since before Sam had met him, so that meant he didn’t really have anyone left in the world.
Sam still wasn’t speaking to his parents after they’d disowned him, so they were both alone now.
Well, not alone. They had each other.
Sam hadn’t ever moved on after Ben had invited him to stay. It had just never seemed like something urgent, and now, he never intended to leave unless Ben kicked him out. They were happy.
Happier than Sam had ever believed he was going to be.
“I’m carrying on the tradition,” Sam insisted. “I’m proud of you. Besides, I’ve seen your magazine collection.”
Sam had been touched to discover that Ben had copies of every magazine he’d had a cover or full-spread photo in for the last ten years. They weren’t organized into a scrapbook, but that didn’t change the fact that he’d bought and kept them.
If Sam had ever doubted how Ben felt about him, the last of it had fallen away when he’d realized that Ben had been doing that all this time. Ben hadn’t forgotten him for a moment.
“I don’t have a leg to stand on here, do I?” Ben said, flicking the coffee maker on.
“Nope,” Sam said cheerfully, removing the page with the article on it and picking the paper up again to search for the crossword.
He was terrible at crosswords. Ben was amazing at them, but he wouldn’t do them unless Sam pretended he needed help. Normally, he did them on his phone and called out the clues, but there was no point in wasting the one in the paper.
“Eliot tells me he and Danny are thinking about adopting,” Ben said, keeping his attention firmly on the coffee maker.
“Are you telling me this because you want a baby?” Sam looked up. They were bound to have this conversation eventually, although it seemed a little premature. They weren’t even talking about getting married.
Not yet, anyway. Soon, though. Sam meant to have that conversation soon. They’d already done their waiting.
“No. I mean. I actually haven’t really thought about that. Probably not? I think we’d make great uncles, though.”
“Every kid needs a gay uncle,” Sam agreed. “And an uncle full of awesome stories.”
“So just you, then?” Ben smiled wryly. “Anyway, no. I think he’s coming to me for advice, but I have no idea what to tell him.”
“I have literally no experience to draw from.”
It didn’t surprise Sam at all that Eliot was coming to Ben for advice. Eliot so obviously looked up to him that if Sam didn’t know he was happily married, he might actually have been jealous.
It wasn’t like that, though. They had a great relationship, and Sam was glad that Ben had at least hadsomeone. Not for the whole time he was gone, but for a while.
“I figured, but I also figured it couldn’t hurt to ask.” Ben sighed. “I’ll think of something. I want Eliot to be happy. Danny would make such a good father, and I think Eliot has the right stuff, too.”
Sam hummed. He didn’t know either of them as well as Ben did, but so far they seemed like responsible adults who’d have no trouble handling a kid. Whether or not theywantedone was a personal decision, and not something anyone else could tell them.
He had a feeling that the fact that it had even come up meant that they probably did want one, though.
