by Quinn Ward
“Why Mom? How are Gabe and I disgusting to you? Is it because we’re two men? Would your opinion change if Gabe was the daughter of your best friend instead of the son?”
“It has nothing to do with whether he’s a man or a woman,” she countered, still breathing so hard I could see her nostrils expand on every exhale. “Gwen isn’t just my best friend, she’s my sister.”
“Your stepsister,” I clarified. Four little letters made all the difference in this situation. “This is why you didn’t know sooner. Gabe wanted to be honest with everyone, but I knew you’d act like this. I love you, but I also love him. You’re my family, but so is he. And I’m not going to break both of our hearts just because it makes you uncomfortable.”
“What about my heart?” she pleaded. I backed away slowly, needing the physical connection to Gabe so I wouldn’t crack under the pressure.
“Mom, I’m an adult. You need to remember that you raised me to be intelligent and independent. I was never going to be your baby boy forever.” Gabe squeezed my fingers, giving me the strength to continue. “Yes, our relationship is a bit different because of Gramma and Grandpa, but I don’t think that’s a good enough reason to turn my back on the man who’s my entire world. A piece of paper from two generations ago binding our families to one another doesn’t make us blood-related. I love him and I’m going to keep on loving him as long as he’ll have me. Someday, I hope you’ll be able to be as happy for us as everyone else has been so far. I truly wish you’d see how happy I am, how lucky I am to have someone like Gabe in my life.”
“I don’t know if that’ll ever happen.” Mom stood from the table and walked out of the house without another word. We all stared at the back door, stunned by how poorly she’d taken the news.
I kept waiting for the guilt, the shame, the feeling that I’d disappointed her. Instead, I felt Dad’s strong arms around my chest. My boyfriend’s fingers still gripping mine tightly. And over Dad’s shoulder, Gwen and Joel with matching sad smiles on their faces. Maybe mom would come around, maybe she wouldn’t, but this was what family was supposed to be. These were the people I would always be able to count on to love me unconditionally.
“I’m proud of you, son,” Dad whispered. That’s when I lost it. Tears streamed down my face, some happy, others sad. “Give her some time and she will be too.”
“I hope you’re right, because I meant it when I said I can’t leave him.”
“And that’s how I know you two are going to last.” He turned and offered a hand to Gabe. “Take care of him. It’s going to be rough for a while.”
“Always.”
We left home that weekend knowing things had forever changed. Eventually, I hoped my mom would realize there were worse things in the world than me falling in love with Gabe, but that would be up to her. I couldn’t fight, not when I finally felt free for the first time since I realized I was attracted to him as something more than a friend. We’d been inseparable since birth, and God willing, we’d stay that way our entire lives.
21
Gabe
I hadn’t been delusional when we’d come back to school after the big blow up. Trevor was the one who thought up the worst-case scenarios, but I’d done plenty of that on my own over the years. I’d thought of all the ways he’d react if news of our relationship wasn’t well-received. I knew Trevor was trying to put on a brave face so I wouldn’t realize how deeply DeeDee’s words had cut him. What I hadn’t been prepared for was the creepy silence that followed him everywhere. Every time I tried getting him to talk about it, he snapped at me, telling me there was nothing to talk about.
I couldn’t help but feel like he was slipping away from me.
At first, I’d considered telling Jayden that as much as I appreciated the offer, I couldn’t work for him, blaming the distance on me having a job instead of devoting as many hours to school as he was. When I’d brought up the idea to Trevor, he told me I was an idiot and to keep working if it made me happy.
That was when I decided we needed to get away for the weekend. Trevor hadn’t been kidding when he said it was tricky to find a place for two college guys to rent a hotel room, but I had a trick up my sleeve. It was a long-shot, but I’d try anything if it meant getting him to unwind a bit.
“Here goes nothing.” I picked up my phone and dialed the number on the website. I’d found a family-owned inn near the state line listed on several LGBT travel websites. Apparently, the owners were a young gay couple, so I hoped they’d understand my plight and take pity on me.
“Thank you for calling Bird Island Inn, this is Dane. How may I help you?”
“Hi, Dane. I’m really hoping you can. I’m trying to do something special for my boyfriend, and I’m hoping you have a room available.” I was careful to steer clear of mentioning anything about spring break. Yes, we would be out of school, but I didn’t want him thinking I was hoping to turn our room into party central. Hell, if anything, I’d chosen the location because it didn’t seem like a collegiate hotbed.
Everything was going well, right up until the end of booking the room. “...everyone in the room must be over the age of twenty-one.”
I could just not say anything and hope they wouldn’t look closely at my ID. Old me would have done exactly that, but this time I didn’t want to risk ruining a week of relaxation with my guy. “Um, about that…”
Dane let out an audible sigh. “I’m sorry, but that’s the inn’s policy for insurance reasons.”
“And there’s no way around that?” I pleaded. Dane seemed like a reasonable man. Would he hear me out? I was desperate enough to make a total fool of myself. “Look, I know you have your reasons and I completely respect them, but I’m trying to do something for my boyfriend. He’s been running himself into the ground trying to study and make sure I know he’s not forgetting about me. You don’t need to hear our sob story, but we’ve been through a lot of stuff in the past few months and I want him to relax during spring break. We can’t do that if we head home.”
The line was silent long enough I thought Dane had gotten bored and hung up on the pathetic college kid ready to drop to his knees and beg. Then, I heard him tapping away at the keyboard. “If you’re bullshitting me, you should know this isn’t a huge hotel. Every guest comes in through the doors right by the front desk. We’d know if you were trying to sneak people in.”
“We won’t, I swear,” I promised. “It’s just the two of us. We’re not party animals, just a couple of guys who have earned some time alone together.”
“Don’t make me regret this.”
I pumped my fist in the air. This was going to be the best surprise ever, and I didn’t even have to call our parents to help me set it up. Yeah, I was totally puffing out my chest about that because it felt like we were finally finding our footing as adults.
“You won’t. If you want a deposit to cover any damages you’re worried about, I’ll bring cash. You have no clue how much this means to me.”
Okay, he probably didn’t need me rambling like an idiot. I pressed my lips together and waited for him to ask me for whatever information he needed to make the reservation.
Five minutes later, the arrangements were made and the countdown was on. In just over forty-eight hours, we’d have our toes in the water.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” Trevor asked for at least the tenth time. I’d met him at the door to our room with a duffel bag in hand. The only reason I didn’t steal his backpack and leave it behind was that he’d lose his mind if we left it unattended for a week. He’d worry so much about someone breaking in and stealing it that he’d never relax.
“Nope.” I flipped on my turn signal, praying I’d remembered the directions correctly. I had never been as grateful to my dad for insisting that I learn how to read maps because I didn’t want to put anything into the GPS on my phone. Trevor was just nosy enough I could see him stealing my phone and then spending the drive trying to figure out what I had planned. “
Don’t you have a book you can read or something?”
“My bag is in the back,” he explained as he laced his fingers through mine. “It’s obvious you went to a lot of trouble to surprise me, so I didn’t want to have my nose buried in homework.”
“Do you have assignments you need to work on this week?”
Trevor shrugged.
“Don’t pull that shit,” I warned him. Both of us were walking a tightrope, trying to balance paying attention to one another with keeping our grades up. He struggled with it more than I did because I’d be perfectly content never studying if it meant more time loving him.
I pulled off the highway into an abandoned gas station.
“What are you doing?”
Without responding, I got out of the Jeep and opened the back, pulling out his backpack. He huffed when he realized what I was doing and opened his door. I would have dropped the bag in his lap but I didn’t want to hurt him. That thing had to weigh fifty fucking pounds.
“Gabe, it’s fine. I don’t have anything I need to get done right this minute,” he protested. “We’re on break. The world isn’t going to end if I’m not studying every waking moment.”
“You say that, but remember I know you better than anyone.” I leaned in, cupped his face, and pressed my lips against his. “I want you to work now so you’ll be able to relax when we get where we’re going. And if there’s stuff you need to do while we’re on vacation, I’ll understand. We’ll figure out a schedule that works for both of us just like we do when we’re at school. I love you, Trev, which is why I’m not going to let you stress yourself out.”
I could practically see the tension melting from Trevor’s shoulders as he exhaled, hugging the backpack to his chest. “I’ll put it away once we get wherever, I promise.”
I slid my hand around to the back of his neck, kissing him deeper this time, sliding my tongue between his lips. Unlike when we’d been on our way to school last fall, this time Trevor didn’t show any signs of discomfort. He slid his hands up my side and held me tight, even when we broke the kiss. I gave him one more kiss on the tip of his nose before backing out of the car.
If he’d realized my ulterior motives for suggesting he study on the drive, he didn’t say anything. The rest of the trip was quiet, other than the music playing softly in the background. He didn’t even look up until we were at the top of the bridge headed to the island. “We have beaches closer to school.”
“I know, but we both needed to get away from there for a bit.” I propped my phone on the dashboard. I thought I remembered how to get to the inn, but I didn’t want to get lost when we were so damn close to the end of our trip. “I think you’re going to like this place. I had to do some fast talking to get them to rent to us, but I managed to convince them we weren’t going to hold any wild parties.”
From the outside, Bird Island Inn didn’t look that much different from the houses lined up along the beach. I pulled into a parking stall rather than the loop at the entrance because I had no plans to leave our room today once we’d checked in, unless it was to go out to the beach for a walk with my man later.
My man. God, I didn’t think I’d ever get tired of thinking of Trevor that way.
My palms started sweating as I led Trevor into the lobby of the inn. Although Dane had been cool about renting the room to us after I’d explained our situation, part of me wouldn’t let down my guard until we were locked in our room. Until then, there was time for him to change his mind.
There was a cute twink working the front desk when we walked in. He glanced up at us and flashed a brilliant smile. Either he was the world’s friendliest front desk clerk ever, or word of the schmoopy gay couple had gotten around. When he brought his hands up to his heart and his smile softened, my face turned beet red. Definitely the latter, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
“Welcome to Bird Island Inn,” he greeted us. I was surprised he didn’t bound around the end of the counter and pull us into a tight hug. I gave him my name and he handed me the paperwork to check in while he made our keys. “You’re in room eleven. Head up the stairs and to the end of the hall. You’re going to love the view from your balcony.”
I was sure he was right, but I wasn’t sure we’d ever make it that far. Still, I didn’t want to say that and have him figure out that my plan for the next week was to make sure neither of us could walk by the time we checked out.
“And if you’re up for it, you should check out the mailbox.”
“The what now?” I laughed, remembering that Trevor hadn’t done the research I had on this place. If he’d figured out where we were going and looked at their website, he’d have known all about this mysterious mailbox.
I wasn’t sure we’d visit, but as the desk clerk described it to him, I could see little hearts popping up over Trevor’s head. Apparently, we were hiking down the damn beach at some point.
“If you’re not in the mood to walk, we do have some of the notebooks in our library,” the desk clerk offered. He scrunched his nose up. “Personally, I don’t think they hold the same magic if you don’t at least see where they come from first, but Dane convinced the university to let us have some.”
His expression went all soft at the mention of Dane, tipping me off that this was likely Brook, the other owner listed on the website. He was cute but not at all what I was expecting. Honestly, he looked like he was our age. And then I remembered reading a bit on the site about how the mailbox had helped bring them together and played an important role in their relationship. Suddenly, the walk seemed more worth it. I wasn’t stupid enough to think it wouldn’t be torture, but if it made Trevor look at me the way Brook looked just saying his partner’s name, I’d do it.
“Anyway, don’t get me started on that topic.” He waved a hand in the air as if dismissing his thoughts. “So yeah, like I was saying, if you need ideas for things to do when you’re not hanging out on the beach or up in your room, feel free to call the desk. If no one is down here, we have it forwarded to our phones.”
“Thanks, will do.” I swiped the keys off the counter and slid my hand into Trevor’s. If I didn’t get him out of there in the next few seconds, I had a bad feeling he’d be making a new best friend in Brook.
“He seemed nice,” Trevor observed as we climbed to the second floor of the inn. When I pushed open the door to our room, his mouth fell open and he dropped his backpack to the floor. He threw his head back as he opened the doors leading out to our balcony.
Seeing him look so blissed out with his eyes closed reminded my dick why I’d brought him here. Okay, yes, relaxing was part of it, but I also wanted to see his head thrown back that way when he was pounding into me, filling me with cum.
Yeah, needed to cut off that train of thought. I reached down, pinching the base of my dick before I got so worked up I couldn’t think.
I crossed the room, pressing my chest to Trevor’s back, resting my head on his shoulder. The view from here was pretty damn spectacular. I closed my eyes, listening to the sound of waves rolling onto the sand and my boyfriend’s quiet humming. “Do you like your surprise?”
Trevor turned, cupping my face in his hands. Everything felt softer here. The gentle caress of his thumb over my cheekbone, the barely-there brush of his lips over mine. “It’s perfect. You’re going to have to drag me out of here when it’s time to go home.”
“Let’s not think about that now.”
Trevor reached back, turning his head to kiss my cheek. “You’re right. I’m going to live in the moment for a change. No thinking about what could go wrong in the future.”
“Now that sounds like a plan I can get on board with.”
We left the doors open while we explored the room. It was only a pipedream at this point, but I could almost picture this as our life. It would be amazing to wake up every morning to the sounds of the ocean and a cool breeze filling the room.
“What’s that?” Trev let go of my hand to see what was in the gift baske
t on the kitchenette counter. He opened the notecard that was attached, gaping at me when he spun around. “Did you see this? This can’t be part of the standard service.”
I took the notecard from his hand, easing myself down on the loveseat as I read the slanted handwriting.
I hope the two of you have an amazing week at the inn. You’re lucky to have found one another. Use the enclosed gift card for a date night. Let the host at Bomber’s know Dane and Brook sent you. They’ll take good care of you.
That was… fuck, that was pretty damn amazing. I rested my hand on the back of the loveseat when Trevor sat down next to me. It only took him a few seconds to take the hint and curl up against my side. “I think it’s their way of trying to help out a broke gay couple in love. I was pretty convincing when I was begging him to rent us the room.”
“But why would they do that?” Trevor was getting better about being out but he still struggled sometimes. He couldn’t fathom living in a world where no one gave a shit about who people were sleeping with, much less one where someone would give total strangers a gift card for a night out.
“Who knows.” I kissed the side of his head. “Maybe something about our story resonated with them. Maybe they’ve been where we are. The big thing here is to remember that even when we have shit going on at home, there are people out there who won’t look at us and see anything wrong with loving each other.”
“That’s because they don’t know the truth,” Trevor argued. I couldn’t wait for the day the shit his mother said didn’t bother him. We’d made so much progress and I really thought we were past it, but then, there she was again.
I tightened my arms around his torso, pulling him onto my lap. “The only truth that matters is that we’re the luckiest men in the world. We didn’t have to look for love because it was always there in front of us.”