My eyes blurred until I couldn’t see anything other than the water swimming in my gaze. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Fucking Lane. How did I ever get so lucky to deserve him?
“There’s nothing stronger than a heart. It has the power to break us, but to build us up too. Lane’s right, ya know? You’ve always had such a big heart, Isaac. Bigger than you needed, big enough that you could share it with others. Like I said, I was thinking about our capacity for love and how I never thought I’d love again, or that I’d never love anyone but Leslie, until Helena changed that, and I think…I think Lane did that for you. I think you always knew how better than me, but he made it possible for you to share your heart because you knew you could trust him with it. And we can love people in so many ways. While he’s always been one thing to me, he was always something different for you. The same goes for you and Helena…and you were something different for Lane.
“After I got that painting, I called your grandma first. She told me I was a fool, and that it was clear as day you’d been in love with Lane for years. She’s right on both accounts.”
I smiled. Fuck, she was great.
“Then I talked to Helena before I came out here to speak to your mama, who I also know would think I’m being a fool. I love Lane. He’s my son…and the best person in the world I can trust to love and take care of the most important person in my life the way you deserve. Don’t know why we couldn’t just see that from the start. We raised you boys to be good men, to take care of each other. We can’t be mad at you for turning into exactly who we wanted you to be.”
I pulled my dad into a hug. We held on tight, cried together, then sat there and talked to Mom and shared some laughter together.
A while later Dad stood and said, “Why don’t you come to the house?”
“Lane…”
“Come to the house, son.”
I nodded, stood.
Lane was there with Helena when we went inside. I could tell they’d done some crying and talking of their own.
It was Helena who came to me first. “I always said that all I wanted was for you both to be happy. I might have forgotten that for a little while, and it might take some getting used to, trying to change my way of thinking, but…you and Lane…you make sense. No one has ever made Lane happier than you, and no one has ever loved him like you do either. That’s all a mother can ask for. I love you, son.”
I pulled Helena into a hug. “I love you too, Mom.”
She burst into tears at that. I looked over her head at her son, the man I’d loved most of my life, and smiled.
We stayed for dinner, then decided to stay the night. The four of us played board games together until Mom and Dad went to bed.
Lane and I made our way up to the attic, not even discussing where we were going. It would always be our place.
“Let me draw you,” Lane asked.
“Always.”
EPILOGUE
Lane
Two years later
“Who stole one of my cookies?” Mom asked, arms crossed, looking at everyone in the living room. Our whole family was in town. The last time we’d all been together like this was the summer Isaac and I had first admitted we were in love with each other.
It had been an interesting couple of years since. Grandma Marcie had already known. Hell, she’d known before Isaac and I told anyone. And she’d been our biggest supporter from the start. She also liked to tease us about squeaking beds. Clearly, we hadn’t been as sneaky as we’d thought that night two years ago.
Our cousins didn’t care. They were surprised, but it hadn’t been a big thing with them, nor with their kids.
The aunts, uncles, and Nana had been a tougher sell. It’d been harder for them to understand, to make the transition from Isaac and me as brothers, to Isaac and me as partners. But they had because we were family and they loved us. Family was supposed to accept you for who you were, and ultimately, that was what ours had done.
It wasn’t perfect, of course. There were times in the beginning when people would forget. We’d hear things like, How’s your brother? Or, Can you get your brother for me? It was awkward but understandable. Those situations didn’t happen anymore. Not with the people closest to us.
When we were visiting our parents once, we’d run into Johnny, one of Isaac’s friends from high school. He’d been scandalized that we were together. He’d tried to hide it but hadn’t been able to do it all that well, so we’d made our excuses to cut the reunion short. One of his other friends had called a couple of weeks later to say he was happy for Isaac. He’d found out because Johnny had been blabbing to anyone who would listen about what a freak Isaac had turned into. I’d felt bad for Isaac, but he hadn’t cared. We didn’t need those people in our lives.
“Wasn’t me,” Isaac said from beside me, pulling me back into the current discussion about Mom’s chocolate-chip cookies. “But I’m also not saying that the culprit isn’t sitting right next to me.”
I whipped my head toward him. “You dirty rat! I can’t believe you just did that. It wasn’t only me. Taylor took one too!” I called out my cousin, who gasped.
“Why are you dragging me down with you? I don’t want to be involved in your and Isaac’s strange kinks.”
“Taylor!” Aunt Ophelia shrieked.
“I’m kidding, Ma.”
Isaac opened his mouth. There wasn’t a bone in my body that didn’t know he’d have some sort of inappropriate comment that would embarrass me. I cocked a brow, giving him a don’t-even-think-about-it look, which made him chuckle, before leaning over to kiss me. “You’re no fun,” he said softly.
“I’m all the fun,” I replied. I turned to Mom. “Also, Isaac spilled wine on the carpet upstairs.”
“You cheater!” he growled playfully.
“Isaac!” Mom yelped.
“I got most of it out! And don’t listen to him. It was actually all his fault. We…” He let the words trail off. Yes, he might be willing to make a silly joke that would embarrass me, but he wasn’t going to be truthful about what we’d been doing to cause the wine to spill.
“When we were teenagers,” Isaac started.
“Stop right there.” He wouldn’t. As if reading my mind, Isaac crossed his arms, giving me a challenging half-grin.
“Oh, this I have to hear,” Grandma said.
“It can’t be that bad if it was my Lane,” Nana added.
I knew exactly what Isaac was hinting. It was the story he’d teased about telling that night when Jayden was here years ago. And speaking of Jayden, he and I had stayed on good terms, talking every once in a while. He was dating a new man, and they seemed to be doing well. He’d had nothing to do with Salvador after that night at the party.
“You know I have my ways to get back at you,” I warned my partner. No sex for a month, I tried to tell him with my eyes, which was obviously a lie. I wanted Isaac all the time, but I was willing to fake the threat.
“Whatever you’re planning, I don’t think you could handle it,” Isaac replied, because of course he’d read between the lines and knew it was a lie.