But then, they hadn’t had much to say until the last few weeks.
“So tell us,” Dante said. “And then tell us about the necklaces, because I remember these. I remember these on the first day we met. I remember them for the last seven years. They’ve changed. They were stained wood disks with pewter charms at first, bound by ribbons. I remember that. Easy to make, easy to throw away. But every day we’ve worn them, every day we’ve touched them and seen them on each other, they’ve become more and more personal, am I wrong?”
Bartholomew and Lachlan met eyes.
“No,” he said softly. “Now sit, while we tell you a story.”
It was hard to believe that Bartholomew’s story could beat Alex and Simon’s teleporting dog story—or Jordan and Macklin’s teleporting people story—but somehow Lachlan and Bartholomew’s epic sprint through a convention ensorcelled by Bartholomew’s baking did the job.
And then they talked about making the necklets to protect the people in the cul-de-sac, and Dante and Cully exchanged glances.
“So, these were made around a month ago,” Dante said, confused. “How did they—”
“Well, remember how Alex said the dog teleported twice?” Bartholomew asked.
“Yeah.”
“That second time she went was after we cast an epic spell to get you back. It involved a really nice table Lachlan had made for us, a picture of the two of you, elements both transitory and permanent, candles of twelve colors, and those necklaces. Alex wrote the spell—he’s not as good as you, but he’s great at assembling ingredients and research, you know that—and he, Jordan, and I cast it. And after it knocked us on our asses and teleported the dog, we all noticed a couple of other things it had done. One of them was that the necklaces were gone from the table, but they were in the picture of the two of you.”
“Oh wow,” Dante said, stunned.
“Oh yes,” Bartholomew told him seriously. “We wanted you guys back so bad, but we weren’t quite strong enough without Macklin, Jordan’s boyfriend. He’s a wizard, did you know that?”
Unbidden came the image of a disco ball and sirens that had invaded their home one day, and Dante understood. “It makes sense,” he said. “I think… I think the house knew he was powerful and worked its ass off to block him from us. You remember, Cully?”
Cully shuddered. “I thought I’d start seizing,” he said frankly. “The lights and sound…. Whoever he talked to that day, it wasn’t us.”
Bartholomew nodded. “Whatever you guys said, it tipped him off to the presence that was keeping you trapped in the house. But we didn’t have him then, and we didn’t know about portals yet, so what we managed to do was give the necklaces to you. But we’ve been talking about them, and how they’ve changed in all our pictures of the two of you, and we think that… well, you guys were probably drifting around in time and space in there. So the pendants drifted with you, and some of that reality stuck.”
Dante frowned and looked at Cully unhappily. “But… but I remember both,” he said softly. “I remember us apart, and I remember us together. Which one was it?”
Cully’s eyes were troubled, and to Dante’s horror, grew red-rimmed. “I wish it was true, the together,” he rasped. “I… I can’t remember any other boyfriend anyway. Most of me is saying, ‘We were together, we were. There was only the one thing, the one stupid thing we weren’t doing!’ But….” He bit his lip. “But—”
“It was an important thing,” Dante rasped. “And there were things we needed to learn before we were together. And as awful as the last month or so has been, I can’t help but think we might not have made it if we hadn’t learned what we learned locked in that house.”
“What did you learn?” Bartholomew asked softly.
“I learned to trust,” Cully said. “Not just Dante, but you guys too. I learned that if the only person I let into my heart is me, I’ll be all alone with my sewing machine, and I’ll be successful, but I won’t be happy. You all came through for me, and Dante did too, and I didn’t know that before now.” He grimaced at Bartholomew. “I’m sorry. I should have.” He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “You’ve been such good friends. But I was jealous that Dante seemed to be able to let you in with so little reservation and… I would have eventually driven you all off. I know it. But not now. Not when I know what I have.”
Cully turned to Dante, who bit his lip. “What did you learn?” he asked.
“I learned I need to ask for things for myself,” Dante said. “I wouldn’t ask you to change, or even look at me differently, because I figured I could live with anything as long as I had some part of you. But you and me, we deserved to be happy, and I deserved to have you look at me like a lover, and I needed to ask you for that. We could have been lost in that house without the magic because I never asked for more.”
“Those are good lessons,” Bartholomew said softly. “True ones. So the question is, how do we reconcile what really was with the two realities we all remember.”
“Easy,” Lachlan said, and Barty turned to him with such shiny-eyed faith that Dante had to have a little hope.
“How?” he and Cully asked together.
“The tell-the-truth table,” he answered, looking very pleased with himself.
Bartholomew’s face lit up. “Oh! Right. Jordan wanted them at our house tonight for just that reason.”
Dante couldn’t help it. He laughed. “Okay, this table keeps coming up. I’m thinking you did more than put candles on it when you said a few words.”
Bartholomew and Lachlan nodded their heads.
“Wait,” Bartholomew promised. “You’ll see for yourselves.”
BARTY and Lachlan stayed for breakfast and then cleanup before excusing themselves to go spruce up Lachlan’s house for dinner.
“And we need to leave you guys alone,” Bartholomew said astutely. “You’ll need to talk.”
They actually didn’t.
True to his word, Cully curled up on the couch with the dog and the book, getting up only to take Glinda outside for a brief walk. Dante went through their finances and his own commitments to various editors and publications, checking his email and okaying a couple of projects he saw himself starting in the next few days.
But a part of him really wanted to start another love story too.
And given he was sitting at his computer with a lazy day ahead of him, that’s what he did.
They both napped in the early afternoon, and Dante mumbled something about why Cully wasn’t setting up his sewing room.
“Not in the mood to sew,” Cully said, surprising him. “I’m reading this really great love story by this guy I know. I want to see how it ends.”
Dante fell asleep smiling.
That evening, they dressed up a little, jeans and button-downs, and when Jordan and Macklin showed up looking spiffy as well, they all shared an embarrassed laugh.
“You don’t understand,” Jordan said. “We’ve been working our asses off getting moved, getting the spell together that brought you back, keeping hell from taking over the neighborhood. This is practically a night out on the town for the whole batch of us. I’m pretty sure Kate’s wearing a dress, and Josh might even have found something with a collar.”