By the time they left the house, it was late morning and the sun was bright in the sky. It felt like the perfect kind of day to be married, and Evan reached for Scott’s hand, deciding he didn’t care at all who saw them like this.
“GOOD MORNING,” Scott said brightly as he stepped up to the counter at the county clerk’s office. Evan watched him, feeling a familiar rush of affection. “We’d like to apply for our marriage license, please.”
“Congratulations,” the woman said flatly. She was wearing an unflattering twinset in an ugly green color and lipstick that clashed. “I need both your IDs. The fee is thirty dollars.”
Evan pulled out his wallet and retrieved his driver’s license and three tens, then slid them across the counter while Scott fumbled to get his wallet from the back of his incredibly tight jeans. He started to make a noise of protest and stopped at Evan’s pointed stare.
“You can buy lunch,” Evan said under his breath.
“Fine.”
The paperwork was simple, and it didn’t take long before the clerk stamped her seal on it and passed it over.
“Your license is valid for sixty days,” she said in a flat voice. “It’s valid throughout the state of Virginia and must be presented to an authorized marriage celebrant at the time of your marriage ceremony.”
“When can we get married?” Scott asked.
“Any time between right now and sixty days from right now.”
Scott looked at Evan. He blinked. Then a look of mischief danced over his face. “Right now?”
“Sir, if you want to go over to the courthouse and wait for a judge to be free, you can do it right now. You could be waiting for hours, though.”
Evan reached down, grabbed Scott’s hand, and squeezed.
“Thanks,” Scott said, gathering up the paperwork and their licenses. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Are you thinking we should get pizza first?”
Scott laughed and tugged on Evan’s hand, leading them back out into the bright sunshine. “Fuck it. We’ll grab something on our way over. Let’s do it now.”
IT WAS two hours—two hours of turning the paperwork over and over in his hands—before there was a judge free to sign their marriage certificate. Evan had insisted they stop for coffee and a sandwich before going to the courthouse. He’d had sex instead of breakfast, and his stomach was protesting loudly. Maybe the nerves had something to do with it.
“No witnesses, gentlemen?” the judge asked as he looked at them with a crooked smile.
“No, Your Honor.”
“Eloping?”
Evan looked at Scott and grinned. “I guess so.”
“Sign here, please. If you wish to change your names you will need to file a separate petition.”
It was strangely official, signing their names, paying the fee to the clerk at the courthouse, walking away with a piece of paper that proclaimed them husbands. Legally. Officially.
“Let’s go to the beach,” Evan said as they headed back to the car.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. We can catch up with people on the way.”
“I like that idea.”
Scott had a good car, a black and shiny SUV that handled the miles of commuting just fine. Evan drove it mostly on weekends. Scott insisted that he saw enough of the inside of the car during the week.
It was still early spring, the air cool, though the skies were blue and the sun bright in the early afternoon sky. The world felt like it held so much potential. Even though it let the cold air in, Evan rolled the window down and turned up the heat on his feet.
Evan shifted in his seat and reached across, took Scott’s hand and ran his thumb over the band. Scott didn’t take his eyes off the road, but his hand twitched in Evan’s in response.
The sign for the hospital was like a beacon of guilt the first time Evan drove past it. By the second time he couldn’t ignore it anymore.
“We should go in and tell our moms.”
Scott threw his head back and laughed. “I was just thinking the same thing.”
“Do we share a brain now?”
“Apparently so.”
Evan flicked the turn signal and took his hand back. He didn’t stop in to see his mom at the hospital all that often. He knew she had a shift this afternoon, the reason they hadn’t already made plans to catch up.
“I just checked my mom’s schedule,” Scott said, slipping his phone back into his pocket as Evan pulled into the huge hospital parking lot. “She’s working for another hour.”
“You have your mom’s work schedule?”
“Our diaries are linked,” Scott said and rolled his eyes. “Family thing. I’d link yours too, but you never put anything in it.”
“I don’t,” Evan said.
Scott squawked and pointed at a space close to the hospital’s main entrance, and Evan swung the SUV round into it. Evan pocketed the keys as he hopped out of the car and locked it, then leaned against the hood and folded his arms.
“How are we going to do this? One mom first, then the other? Or should we go on our own….”
“You should tell your mom,” Scott said. He walked around to settle himself between Evan’s thighs. “I’ll go track my mom down. It’ll take longer. Then I can text you and let you know where we are.”
“Okay.”
“Nervous?”
“A bit.”
Scott grinned, his eyes flashing with love and amusement. He leaned in and pressed a kiss to the corner of Evan’s mouth.
“It’s different for you,” Evan said, wrapping his arms around Scott’s waist. “Your mom had big weddings for her two other kids. She probably won’t care that we didn’t do that. My mom, though….”
“She knows you’re not a big fancy wedding kinda guy,” Scott said. He scritched his fingers through the short hairs at the back of Evan’s neck. “I’d be surprised if she was expecting that from us.”
“She probably expected to be invited, though,” Evan mumbled.
Scott sighed softly and didn’t mention that the whole elopement had been Evan’s idea. He was nice like that.
“Tell you what. If the pressure from the parental front gets too much, we’ll have a dedication down on the beach. Renew our vows, or whatever.”
“I don’t think I remember our vows.”
Scott laughed again and kissed Evan’s cheek. “We’ll make up new ones. If they want us to.”
“Okay.”
“Feel better?”
“Not really.”
“I love you.”
Evan nodded. “Love you too.”
“Come on.”
Evan’s mom had changed jobs a few times since she started working at the hospital as a receptionist during Evan’s teenage years. She’d moved up to managing a whole department, coordinating blood tests across departments and throughout the hospital. It meant Evan knew exactly where to find her: in her office, on the third floor.
Scott stayed on the elevator to go up to the ward his mom was most likely working on, squeezing Evan’s hand for reassurance just before Evan left. He knew his way around this building pretty well these days, not because anyone he loved had been a patient, thank God.
His mom was just where he’d expected her to be. He knocked lightly on the door to her office, which was propped open, as always.
“Hey,” he said softly when she looked up.
Her face immediately relaxed from a frustrated frown into a beaming smile.
“Evan! It’s good to see you.” She got up from the desk and walked around to hug him. “Everything okay?”
“I’m good,” he said, nerves twisting in his belly. He hugged her tightly, wanting the feeling of his mother close to his chest, allowing himself a moment of childish weakness. When he pulled back, he held up his left hand to show her the ring. “I guess I have news.”
“Oh, Evan,” she said, hands flying to her mouth. “Oh my gosh.”
“So… I got married today.”
Evan felt the tears stinging his own eyes. “Me too.”
“You got married?” she wailed. “I didn’t even know you were engaged.”
He accepted the light punch on his arm, knowing he deserved it.
“Scott asked me last night,” Evan admitted, making a show of rubbing the sore spot on his arm. “We went over to pick up the marriage license this morning, and they said we could use it right away…. I suppose it was a spur of the moment thing.”
His mom grinned and shook her head. “Oh, Evan.”
“What?”
“A spur of the moment thing? You’ve been in love with that boy your whole life. I’ve been waiting for this for years.”
Evan chuckled softly, feeling the blush crawl across his cheeks. “I guess so.”
“Are you happy?”
“More than I ever thought possible.”
His phone buzzed in his pocket with a text. He pulled it out, checked the message, and offered his elbow to his mom.
“That was Scott. Want to go celebrate with crappy cafeteria coffee? He found Annie. She’s taking a break.”
“Sure.”
She pulled the office door closed behind them and locked it with the security card she wore on a lanyard.
“Let me see that ring,” she demanded once they were in the elevator, heading for the cafeteria on the top floor of the hospital.
Evan dutifully held his hand out for her inspection.
“It’s beautiful, Evan.”
“Scott chose it,” he admitted. “His matches.”
“I’m so proud of you.”
Scott and Annie were already in the cafeteria when they arrived, almost at the front of the line for the coffee cart. Evan slipped into Annie’s place as she pulled Evan’s mom into her arms so they could sob on each other’s shoulders. Evan heard more than one mumbled “Our babies” and decided to concentrate on what on the menu would be the least offensive to his taste buds.
“How did it go?” Scott asked in a low voice.
“Could have been worse. She cried.”
“Mine too.”
Scott gave him a conspiratorial grin. Evan grinned back.
He ordered four lattes, hoping these, at least, would be palatable, and two pieces of chocolate cake to share.
“Right, young man,” Annie said as she dug into her cake with a fork. “Tell me everything.”
“I already did, Mom.”
“Fine. You tell me everything,” she said, pointing her fork at Evan. “Then I can see if your stories line up.”
Evan laughed and draped his arm across the back of Scott’s chair. An almost-hug. “Well, last night Scott asked me if I’d marry him. I said yes. Then this morning we went down to the courthouse and made it official.”
“You always knew we weren’t going to do the big wedding thing,” Scott added.
“Are you mad at us?” Evan asked his mom in a small voice.
“Mad? No. Why? Should I be?”
“For not doing the big family wedding.”
She shook her head. “Your marriage is your thing, Evan. Yours and Scott’s. I want for you whatever you want for yourself.”
Evan’s mom had married Mark a few years back. It had been a small ceremony at their local church with their close friends and family, then a big potluck dinner back at the house. That had been her thing, what made sense for them as a couple.
“I agree,” Annie added. “There’s no point doing something for the sake of it, especially if it’s not what you want. Or worse, doing it because that’s what’s expected of you. When I married your dad back in the eighties, God, it was awful. My mom and her sister took over most of the planning. I wasn’t allowed to make any of the decisions. I cried before the ceremony because I felt so helpless.”
Evan’s mom patted her hand in sympathy and pushed the rest of the cake toward her. Annie gave her a smile of thanks.
“That’s why I let Lacey do her thing when she got married.”
“So, when are you going to have kids?” Evan’s mom asked, and Scott choked on his latte.
“Mom,” Evan complained, thumping Scott a few times on the back.
“I’m fine,” Scott croaked. “Jesus, Stacey. Warn a guy before you say stuff like that.”
“He’s trying to get me pregnant,” Evan deadpanned, just to try and get a rise out of their mothers. “It’s not working, though.”
“Evan,” his mom scolded, and when Scott hit him on the arm it hurt a lot more than when his mom did it.
“Can we take a rain check on that question?” Scott asked. “A really long rain check.”
“You’re thirty-four, Scott,” Annie said. “And not getting any younger.”
“You’ve already got three grandkids and another one on the way. You don’t need any from us.”
“Lacey loves being pregnant,” Evan added. “I’m sure she’ll have a whole bunch of kids.”
“We’ll keep nagging them, Stacey,” Annie said, patting Evan’s mom on the hand. “We’ll wear them down eventually.”
She checked the watch pinned to her shirt and sighed. “I need to get back to the ward. I have three days off after today, though. Lunch tomorrow? Bring Mark, Stacey. I’ll call the kids.”
“Family dinner?” Scott asked.
Stacey nodded. “Family dinner. To celebrate.”
Scott squeezed Evan’s knee under the table. “Sounds perfect.”
FAMILY DINNER to Stacey meant more people around her dinner table than had made up Evan’s whole family growing up. Being the only child of an only child single mother whose grandfather had died when he was still an infant, meant the whole Sparrow clan had been a lot to deal with at first.
Evan had made peach cobbler for dessert because Scott insisted it was his favorite and secretly claimed it was better than his mom’s. Their new marriage hadn’t changed much so far. For their Saturday night entertainment, Scott had ordered Thai food, and they’d watched The Addams Family on Netflix. Life was good.
“Hello?” Scott called, letting himself into the house he’d grown up in.
There was a cacophony of yelling in response, and Evan instinctively ducked, scooping up Tom’s youngest under his arm, pleased Scott had been the one to pick up the dessert.
Having known this kid since the day she’d been born, Evan casually grabbed one ankle and dangled her from it as Scott closed the front door behind them. Violet was clearly still strongly influenced by her two older brothers, despite only being two and a half years old.
“Hey, munchkin,” Scott said, turning his head to the side until she giggled and screamed again.
“Fine, I’ll put you down,” Evan sighed. He set Violet back on her feet—carefully, because she was still small, bless her—and she immediately took off into the house again.
Scott ran the back of his fingers down Evan’s exposed forearm and smiled. “Come on.”
The real action was in the kitchen, as always. Evan’s mom was sipping pale liquid from a wineglass as she sat on a barstool with her ankles crossed. Evan went to her, kissed her cheek, and accepted her firm hug.
From there, hugs were the order of the day. Everyone knew they were married by now, but Scott had agreed that instead of touring all their family’s houses for the afternoon, they’d just catch up over dinner. That suited Evan just fine. He really didn’t want them to make a fuss.
Mark too pulled Evan into a firm hug. Evan leaned into it, surprised to find himself almost choked up by the gesture. He and Mark were good friends, always had been, but Mark had no parental desire at all, and since Evan had known him, Mark had treated him like a friend. An equal.
“Your mom and I are so happy for you,” Mark said, a small smile gracing his handsome features. “You’re a good man, Evan. I’m glad you found him.”
“Thanks,” Evan said. He pressed a hand to his sternum, suddenly emotional, and hugged Mar
k again.
He escaped with a glass of lemonade, finding Lacey in the living room playing cars with Violet.
“Hey,” he said, leaning down to kiss her cheek. “Brought you this.”
“Thanks.” She punched him hard on the arm.
“Ow! Why do you people keep doing that?”
“Because you fuc—because you freaking eloped!”
Violet didn’t seem to notice the slip and continued to play quietly.
“We did,” Evan admitted, holding out his hand so she could study the ring on his finger. If there was one thing he’d learned, it was that the girls wanted to see the ring.
“How was it? Hopelessly romantic?”
Evan toed his shoes off and nudged them under a side table, then sat down cross-legged next to her and grabbed a tank to push back and forth aimlessly.
“Yeah, I guess so. It was pretty special.”
“My brother is pretty special.”
Evan huffed a laugh. “I’m so happy, Lace. This is perfect.”
She rubbed her heavy pregnant belly with the palm of one hand and nudged her shoulder against his. “You’re family now. Another brother. I thought I had enough of those, but apparently not.”
“I like being family. Officially.”
She took his hand and pressed it to the gentle rise of her stomach. After a moment, there was a firm kick from within.
“Jesus, Lacey. That’s freaky.”
“He’s in a wriggly mood.”
“Baby?” Violet asked.
“Yep,” Lacey told her. “Your baby cousin. He’s being a wriggle-bum.”
Violet abandoned her tank formation and came over to press both hands to Lacey’s bump. For a second, she held herself there, then frowned at Lacey.
“He’s not moving now,” she complained.
Lacey moved Violet’s hands carefully, and a moment later, Violet jumped back with a squeak. Lacey laughed.
“There you go. I told you he was wriggly.”
Violet screwed her nose up. “I don’t like babies. I like cars.”
“Me too, kid,” Evan said. Lacey bumped against him with her shoulder again.
Dreamspinner Press Year Nine Greatest Hits Page 19