His Best Man

by Elle Keaton

After watching Rod enter the mall—under his own power these days, no crutches—he directed his truck toward the farmers market he’d heard so much about. The real estate agent he’d been talking to had mentioned it as well. Travis figured a farmer was a farmer; he’d see what the market had to offer.

  He was impressed. The market was much larger than he’d expected, extending the length of several city blocks in downtown Skagit. About half the market was covered and seemingly permanent, while the other half set up under the open sky. Today they were lucky: it was beautiful, only a few clouds in the spring sky and not a chance of rain.

  The market offered something for everyone: spring veggies and fresh-cut flowers, handmade sausages and deli meats, fresh-baked breads and pastries, even essential oils. An older gentleman sold thunder gourds, whatever those were. And it was packed with people; many of the stalls had lines of customers waiting their turn. The sausage stall had “Sold Out” signs covering several of their offerings.

  “Travis?” a familiar voice called over the din of the crowd.

  Travis turned to see Cam waving at him from a few stalls down. Waving back, he wove through the crowd to where Cam stood in front of the largest display of produce Travis had seen yet.

  “Cam, how’s it going? Where’s Ira?” The two of them were usually together unless Cam was bartending. Although Travis remembered that Cam had told him he was applying to the local university for fall-term classes.

  “Good. Ira’s painting and getting ready for a show in LA. Travis, this is a good friend of mine, Brandon Campbell. He and his wife are big organic farmers; they’re huge providers to local restaurants, and there’s even Seattle places on his list.”

  Travis leaned across the colorful root vegetables, swiss chard, lettuces—the rest he had no idea of—to shake Brandon’s hand. Brandon was incredibly handsome, Travis couldn’t help but notice. An enormous shaggy black dog stood up and ambled over, standing next to Travis so that his head was under Travis’s hand. A not-so-subtle request for a scratch on the head. Travis complied.

  “Don’t mind him, he’s just nosy. Sit back down, Pronto.” Pronto let out a big dog sigh and returned to the back of the booth where he’d been sitting. Travis had always wanted a dog, but Lenore said they were too much work and the house would be full of hair. Travis thought vacuuming was a small price to pay for companionship. He wondered if Rod might want a dog. They could start with a dog and work up to a kid. Maybe. The idea of kids scared Travis, but not as much as it once had. He was pretty sure that had to do with being with the right person.

  “Travis is from eastern Washington; he’s some kind of farmer too,” Cam added to his introduction.

  “Oh? They’ve got a lot of grapes out there,” Brandon said.

  “I grow wheat. But grapes are something I’ve been thinking about.” A few weeks earlier when he’d been talking to his dad on the phone, Michael had mentioned that there was a vineyard going in a few miles from them. And while Travis didn’t want to live in Walla Walla anymore, he wondered if he and his dad could use his little patch of earth for grapes. Every time he went to the grocery store he marveled at the wine selection, especially the successful boutique wineries from east of the Cascades. He’d spent hours doing research.

  He and Brandon fell into a long discussion about terroir, soil, and crop variety. About long winters, summers, and the economics of farming. It wasn’t often Travis met someone close to his age who was excited about farming and actually knew what they were doing. For Travis it had always been a chore, one he was expected to do for his entire life—at least until recently.

  “I’ve experimented with grapes out here, but we really don’t get enough sunshine,” Brandon said. “The area is good for the German and Swiss wine grape varietals, but that’s a smaller market. Have you thought seriously about grapes?”

  Almost like when he fully understood what Rod meant to him, that he loved him, Travis knew he was on the right track—something he could do in Skagit and probably love, the missing piece in his plan. Grapes, grapes, grapes. He couldn’t wait to talk to his dad again.

  He and Brandon exchanged cell numbers.

  Cam had stayed, patiently listening to their conversation. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen two people that excited about dirt.”

  “Shut up, you, dirt is cool.”

  A maroon sedan he didn’t recognize was parked facing the wrong direction in front of their house when Travis pulled into the driveway after picking Rod up at the mall. They’d also taken Gloria to her assisted living facility and stopped to spend time with Jasper, which was fun but also kind of exhausting. Travis was looking forward to an evening of bad TV. After setting the brake, he peered over at the car.

  “Crap.”

  “What?” Rod asked as he twisted to look out Travis’s window.

  Travis knew the profile of the person sitting in the passenger seat; he would recognize her anywhere. It was his mother. At one time he would have welcomed her. It had been over six weeks since he’d seen her last; he would’ve invited her inside his new home and hoped they could come to an understanding. From where he sat now, she looked angry and bitter. There was someone in the driver’s seat, but Travis couldn’t see who it was. “It’s Lenore,” he said.

  “What’s she doing here?” Rod peered over at the car. “And who is with her?”

  “I can only imagine that it’s not good—and, who knows? You go in the house; I’ll take care of this.”

  They’d talked about what Lenore had done in the past and how she was reacting now. Travis didn’t want Rod to worry about it.

  “Look, nothing she has to say is going to change my mind,” he repeated, in case Rod had forgotten their conversations.

  “I’m not worried about you changing your mind. But you’re not facing her by yourself. We’re a team now. Partners. Get it?” Rod opened the door of the truck and hopped out, not waiting for Travis to reply, and started to limp toward the car.

  Travis quickly followed, watching as his mom and then Lisa Harris, of all people, emerged from the small car. He and Rod stopped and stared. What the hell was Lisa doing here? Last Travis knew, they’d agreed to act like the engagement had never happened. He hadn’t heard from her since she left on the trip with her dad, and he’d figured he would never talk to her again.

  He looked at his mother with eyes wide open. No longer through the lens of a boy who thought she could do no wrong. Travis thought about what Abigail had told him about how Lenore had treated her growing up, and he wondered why a person would choose to give their love conditionally the way his mother had. He shook his head; there was no good answer to that question.

  “Mom, what are you doing here?” he called out as he started making his way toward her.

  Lenore came around the front of the car to meet him. It was then he saw a small pistol in her hand. He froze; his mother was a great shot and knew her way around weapons. The two of them had spent hours together at the shooting range when he was a kid.

  “What, you aren’t even going to say hello to your mother? Do I not deserve a hug anymore? Instead you threw your life away to be with a faggot?”

  His stomach sunk further at her words. She was not the person he remembered from childhood at all. She was an angry, homophobic person who couldn’t bring herself to love her own son if he chose to love another man. “Mom, why do you have a gun? Lisa, what’s going on?”

  Looking closer at Lisa, he could see she was barely keeping herself under control; her face was tight with strain and exhaustion.

  “Don’t speak.” Lenore waved the gun between the three of them.

  Travis was terrified. Not for himself; if his time was today it was today, but he guessed his mother wouldn’t shoot him. She had someone else in mind. If she believed Travis was going to stand there and let her shoot Rod, she was—well, she’d crossed the line into irrational, and Travis didn’t know how to help her anymore. Maybe he never had.

  “Hi, Lisa,” Rod said, not ack
nowledging Lenore or her gun.

  They were standing in broad daylight on the front lawn of their new house. The house and city they were making their new life in. This was not happening. Travis tried to think what he could do to defuse this suddenly intense situation.

  Rod kept his attention on Lisa. “You must be thirsty after the long drive; would you like to come inside? Travis went grocery shopping yesterday. I’m pretty sure there’s food in the house.”

  Lisa began to move toward Rod, something like relief crossing her face.

  “You’re already turning Travis into a woman,” Lenore hissed. “Homosexual.”

  “Mom,” Travis implored. He needed to get them off the front lawn, away from innocent bystanders who happened to drive or walk past. Lenore was a good shot, but the way she was acting right now, Travis doubted if she was really in control. He didn’t want her taking any kind of shot; anyone could get caught in the line of fire the way she was waving the gun around. “Does Dad know you’re here?”

  “He went to the TriCities,” she said by way of answer, which probably meant he didn’t know. “You’re grocery shopping for the faggot now?” she continued. “Does he have you scrubbing the kitchen floor too? Making breakfast and dinner, taking care of the laundry. Are you the woman now, Travis?” Lenore screamed those last words like being a woman was the worst thing she could think of.

  “We’re partners, Mom, we do everything together. I’m sure you’ve noticed there is no woman in our relationship. We are two men who love each other and—”

  “Shut your mouth. Shut up. Just shut up,” she screamed, waving the gun around again. It was almost five o’clock in the evening; some of their neighbors were home or arriving home. Travis saw a curtain twitch in the window across the street. They hadn’t met many of the neighbors yet, and somehow his mom shooting one of them seemed like a bad way to begin.

  “Mom, can we take this inside? Please?”

  In the distance he heard a faint siren. He wondered if someone had already called the police or if SkPD was responding to something else. Rod and Lisa both remained standing between the house and the car. It must have been a rental car, or maybe it was Lisa’s. Travis didn’t know.

  His mom heard the siren too, and he heard the safety click off. His attention was divided between Rod and Lisa, his mother, and the figure coming up behind his mother on the sidewalk. With car doors opening and closing around the neighborhood and traffic sounds from the larger arterial two blocks over, plus being completely focused on the three of them, Lenore had no idea anyone was behind her.

  A man wearing a dark suit and tie had quietly crossed the street. Travis had watched out of the corner of his eye as the man left his house to approach Lenore from behind. All of them—Travis, Rod, and Lisa—could see him, but no one gave any indication. Travis wanted to warn him off, but something about the way he moved had Travis thinking he was a professional. He moved with catlike grace; for as bulky a guy as he was, he approached unseen and unheard.

  “Mom, why are you doing this?” He only needed to keep her talking and focused on him for a few more seconds. A minute at most.

  “Why am I doing this?” She threw the words back at him in disgust. “Why? You dare to ask me why?”

  “Yes, why? Why is it more important to you for me to be with a woman than with the person who makes me happiest in the entire world? I don’t understand.”

  “Don’t say that in front of your fiancée.” She waved the gun toward Lisa. Travis realized that was probably how Lenore had gotten Lisa to drive all the way from Walla Walla.

  “Lisa and I broke it off months ago, Mom. We aren’t engaged; we aren’t getting married. There is nothing between us.”

  “I tried to tell her.” Lisa spoke for the first time. She’d edged closer to Rod. They were only a few feet apart and much closer to the front door than they had been.

  Lenore saw the direction of his gaze and turned her focus to Rod. “You should have died in that accident; it would have saved a lot of trouble. Things would be right. I would be on my way to having a grandchild.” Travis’s heart clenched at her words, at her disregard of their lives and happiness.

  The suited man grabbed Lenore from behind in a wrestling hold and knocked the gun from her hand in one swift movement. His mother screamed and cursed as the big man wrestled her to the ground and held her down with a knee in her back. He was twice her size, but Lenore was screaming obscenities and thrashing around trying to get loose. Travis went to her, not knowing what else to do.

  “Mom, stop struggling. Please.”

  She spat at him, a huge globule nearly landing on his boot. Travis was so shocked he almost let it hit him.

  A police cruiser sped around the corner and screeched to a stop behind Lisa’s car. Two uniformed SkPD officers got out, hurrying over to where the stranger was holding down his mother.

  One of the officers cuffed Lenore while the other called in that they’d arrived and the disturbance had been contained.

  The stranger stood up and brushed off his suit before holding out a hand to Travis.

  “Adam Klay, I live across the street.” He pointed at the house he’d come out of, the older two-story home kitty-corner from them with a large front porch and an even larger maple tree in the front yard.

  Travis shook Adam’s hand, his own hand shaking a little.

  “Thank you.” He felt a hand against the small of his back. From the touch alone he knew it was Rod. He leaned into the comfort, the adrenaline leaking out of him, leaving him shaking and weak.

  “What happened?” Adam asked, motioning for them to step away from where Lenore was lying. One of the officers bent to help her to her feet, and she started yelling again.

  “I don’t know where to start. But I guess the short story is that that’s my mother, and she objects to me and Rod being together.” And now she’d helped out them to the entire neighborhood. There was not hiding your sexuality, and then there was announcing to everyone within earshot what you did in the bedroom.

  “Hi, I’m Rod, Travis’s partner. And you are?” Travis smirked a little Rod’s possessiveness, at the same time that he reveled in it.

  “Adam Klay, neighbor and,” he reached into his suit jacket to pull out a leather wallet and flipped it open to reveal a shiny badge, “FBI.” He slipped the badge back into his jacket pocket.

  “You live across the street? We have an FBI agent living across the street?” Rod shook his head, “Uh, sorry—anyway, to answer your question, from what Lisa’s said and I’ve pieced together, Travis’s mom forced Lisa to drive across the state at gunpoint so she could confront him about being in a relationship with me.”

  One of the uniformed officers spoke up. “Looks like this one is ours, Klay. We’ll take over from here. Thanks for the assist.”

  Adam shook hands with Travis and Rod again. “Hell of a welcome to the neighborhood. If you’re up for it, come knock on our door. I’m sure my boyfriend would love to meet you. If it’s warm enough, we’ll sit out back.” With that he strode back across the street to his house.

  Boyfriend?

  The officer was watching them and chuckled at their stunned expressions. “Klay’s a good guy. You’re lucky he was here. I’m going to need to ask you a few questions and take down your statements. Do you want to go inside?”

  Travis knew Rod had to be tired from standing as long as they had, and he figured they could all use a coffee or something.

  “Yeah. Let’s do this inside.” He held a hand out to Lisa, who’d joined them, and together they went inside. Rod was the one who noticed she was shaking and found a blanket to wrap around her shoulders.

  “We meet again. I didn’t think it would be like this,” Travis heard him say.

  “You’re telling me. She asked me to stop by and then said she needed a ride. I thought she was acting weird. We hadn’t talked since Travis and I called it off, but I was trying to be a better person. Serves me right. I’m going back to carrying pep
per spray.”

  “Pepper spray?”

  Travis groaned and took himself into the kitchen to start a pot of coffee.

  “He didn’t tell you? The night he broke it off, I kind of lost it and ran after him with my self-defense spray. Lucky for him he’s fast.”

  Travis heard Rod try to keep himself from laughing. He supposed it was good they could find something funny in all this.

  “Don’t get any ideas!” he yelled.

  It must have been the come-down from all the adrenaline, because there really was nothing funny about being pepper sprayed, but Lisa started to laugh, which set off a chain reaction, and soon all three of them were laughing so hard they were crying. One of the officers poked his head through the open door. “Everybody okay?”

  They assured him they were. Travis found cups and poured them all coffee, then went to sit on the couch with Rod.

  One of the police officers took his mother away in an ambulance. She would be held in a psychiatric ward for evaluation, he said. When Travis called his dad to let him know what had happened, he started shaking and felt something a lot like tears pressing from behind his eyes. Again, Rod was right there, rubbing his back while he talked.

  “I’m on my way, son. I’m so sorry.” His dad had answered immediately, and by the time Travis was halfway through his story he could hear the sound of tires on asphalt competing with Michael’s voice as he drove. “I’m taking the back way. I’ll be there as soon as I can. I should have seen something like this coming.” His dad sounded sad and a little broken. Travis didn’t know what to say.

  “I love you, Dad.”

  “I love you too, son.”

  The remaining officer quickly and professionally took their statements, taking longest with Lisa. When he was finished, he flipped his notebook shut, and Travis showed him to the door.

  “There may be more questions; we’ll be in touch.”

  “Thanks for all your help.”

  “Protect and serve.” He winked at Travis. First the FBI and then the cop? Travis was liking Skagit better and better.