by Anna Martin
Scott did not have these concerns. He reached for Evan’s hand more often than not, paying no mind to where they were. The grocery store. The mall. Or on the boardwalk at the beach. He seemed completely oblivious to the dirty looks that got thrown in their direction, and if anyone dared to comment on their quietly linked hands, he usually stuck his tongue down Evan’s throat in retaliation.
It wasn’t Evan’s preferred method of dealing with homophobia, but it sure worked.
The evening was warm and breezy, the perfect weather to just walk and talk and not think about the rest of the world as it passed them by.
“Andy!”
Evan almost startled when Scott called out, and whipped his head quickly around. Their old friend was standing with his arm around a beautiful woman, pointing out at the ocean.
Andy turned and grinned at both of them, letting his arm slip from around the woman’s shoulders.
“Well, well, look who it is,” Andy said with a broad smile, then laughed as he pulled first Scott, then Evan into back-pounding hugs. “How are you guys?”
“Good,” Scott said, grinning too. “It’s been a while.”
“Too damn long. I don’t come back all that often. Guys, this is my wife, Dianna. Dianna, this is Scott and Evan. We went to high school together.”
“Nice to meet you,” she said, smiling and tucking her dark hair behind her ear. “Andy has told me absolutely nothing about you.”
Andy hid his smile in a kiss to the side of her head. “Thanks, darling. So, you guys are still inseparable, then?”
Scott gave Evan an amused smirk, then quirked his eyebrow as if to say “Should we?”
Evan shrugged, and Scott’s grin was wicked.
“Didn’t you know? We’re together,” Scott said.
“Uh-huh.” Andy frowned. His wife elbowed him in the ribs. “What?”
Evan reached down and grabbed Scott’s hand, lacing their fingers together. It still took Andy another beat to get it.
“No shit!” Andy finally exclaimed. “Since fucking when?”
Evan laughed. “A few years now.”
“Jesus. You can tell I don’t come back here often. Well, congratulations.”
“Thanks,” Scott laughed.
It felt good, having an old friend know about their relationship and be pleased about it too. Andy looked almost completely the same as he had in high school—a little broader now, and he’d grown a fashionable, stubbly beard. His hair was darker too, with less of the old redness streaked through it. Just like when they were kids, he smiled easily and looked comfortable in himself. Evan often thought it was an underrated thing.
“We need to stop living in such a cave,” Andy murmured. Dianna poked him again.
“That ‘cave’ is my hometown.”
“Would you two like to join us for dinner?” Evan asked on an impulse. “We’re going to a new place that just opened up.”
Andy and Dianna had their own silent exchange, which amused Evan more than it should. Apparently he and Scott weren’t the only ones who had been together long enough to develop that skill.
“Sure,” Dianna said easily. “I have a dairy allergy, though, so I need to be careful.”
“It’s a Japanese BBQ grill,” Scott said.
“Perfect.”
The restaurant was at the other end of the boardwalk, offering them the chance to exchange the bare-bones outline of the past decade of their lives. Andy and Dianna lived in a small town outside Savannah in Georgia—one house, two dogs, no kids, not yet. They’d met at college in Atlanta, danced around dating each other for years, then got married only six months after making it official. Andy’s parents had retired to Florida, which he seemed almost embarrassed about.
“Such a cliché,” he groaned. “At least we have an excuse to go to Disney World on the way back from visiting them.”
“That’s how I convince him to go,” Dianna stage-whispered. “Tell him we can go see Mickey if he behaves himself.”
The restaurant was busy, though it was Friday evening, but it was still early enough for them to change their reservation from a table for two, to four. It meant they lost their place at the grill and traded the view for a wide window looking out over the Atlantic.
“Worth it,” Scott said, looking out at the slowly setting sun.
“So, how come you guys are back here?” Evan asked, settling back after leaving the server to get their drinks. Scott had thrown his arm over the back of the chair, and it was a comfortable warmth against Evan’s shoulders.
“We both took a few days vacation. Made it a long weekend,” Andy said. “We needed it. I’ve never brought Dianna up here before, and it seemed like a good opportunity. Sorry I lost touch with you guys after college.”
“Don’t be,” Scott said, shaking his head. “We all did. It’s what happened.”
“I thought you were in Chicago.”
“I was.” Scott nodded. “For college, and I stayed there until I transferred to DC.”
“Illinois is cold,” Evan said darkly, preempting Andy’s next question. “I don’t acclimatize well.”
Dianna laughed. “Me either. So, I have to ask. If you’ve all known each other since you were kids, why did it take you so long to hook up?”
Scott groaned and tipped his head back as Evan leaned forward.
“Well….”
“You’re in for it now, man,” Andy laughed.
“Hush,” Dianna admonished.
“I’ve been out since college,” Evan said, ignoring Scott, even when he put his hand on Evan’s knee and squeezed it reassuringly. “No one cared, whatever. This one, however….”
“It took me a little longer to figure it out,” Scott said.
“You gonna get hitched?” Andy asked, and the hand on Evan’s knee stilled.
“Maybe,” Evan said easily. “We live together already. Our life is pretty good.”
Apparently uncaring of who might see, Scott dropped a kiss on Evan’s shoulder. “Yes, it is,” he said softly.
They ended up staying out too late, laughing too loudly, the wine and food enough to prompt them into relaxing. The night was cool by the time they stumbled outside and bid Andy and Dianna good-bye, promising, this time, to stay in touch. For reasons Evan wasn’t able to name, he was fairly sure they would.
The local radio stations were playing either country or tooth-aching pop, so Scott pulled up a playlist on his phone and hooked it up to the car’s stereo system.
Evan turned on the cruise control and leaned back to watch the road, his hand loosely linked with Scott’s as he drove. It felt better than he would have ever thought for one of his oldest friends to know he and Scott had become a thing. He probably shouldn’t have been surprised at Andy’s easy acceptance—after he’d gotten over the shock, of course. Andy had always been perennially laid-back.
It was late when they got home. The date had ticked over, and their neighborhood was quiet, as it tended to be in the early hours.
They had a routine in the evenings, one that Evan silently cherished. He was a creature of habit, something that had only increased as he aged. Evan always showered first while Scott locked up the house and made sure Princess had water in her bowl. Then he brushed his teeth, and when he was done, they switched, Evan leaving the water running as Scott passed him a towel, then took his place. Some nights Scott finished quickly and got into the shower with Evan. That was the sort of deviation in routine Evan was just fine with.
Now he was back in the South, Evan had stopped wearing pajamas to bed. He’d never really adapted to the feeling of clothes in bed for the few weeks he’d been in Chicago. Now even during the winter, he had a warm body to curl up next to, and it hadn’t taken long for Scott to pick up the habit too.
“You wanna read tonight?” Evan murmured as he pulled the covers up to his chin and rolled onto his side to poke Scott in the belly.
“Nah.”
Scott read cult sci-fi on his Kindle or graphic nove
ls on his iPad. He was currently working his way through everything Evan had worked on, even if it was just backgrounds or inking.
The forest lamp had made its way back from Chicago, and Evan had used it as inspiration for their shared bedroom. This room was cream instead of green, and Evan had picked out green accents in the furniture instead. Their whole house was a little less put together than Scott’s old apartment. It seemed to suit them better, the way the two of them were together.
Scott turned off the lamp and rolled over to curl himself around Evan’s body. With alcohol still warming his veins and his head feeling fuzzy, Evan started to drift almost immediately. Scott skimmed his hand up and down Evan’s arm and whispered noiseless words against his neck.
“Hey, Evan?”
“Hmm?”
“You love me?”
“Yeah,” Evan said, feeling the smile tugging at his lips. “I love you.”
“Good. Evan?”
“Yeah?”
Scott hesitated for a moment, and Evan felt himself almost fall asleep.
“Will you marry me?”
“Yeah,” Evan murmured. “Of course I will.”
“Good. That’s good.”
The next morning, Evan woke to the feeling something was very, very wrong.
The light coming in through a crack in the curtains was weak, telling him it was still early. Early enough that, on a normal day, and especially on a weekend, Scott should be curled up behind him. And Princess should be asleep at their feet.
He almost startled awake, reaching back for Scott and finding nothing but barely-warm sheets.
When he rolled back and made to get out of bed, heart in his throat, Evan stuttered.
There was a ring box on his nightstand—a dark blue velvet ring box with two men’s wedding bands inside.
The previous night came back to him in a fuzzy rush.
I love you.
Will you marry me?
Of course I will.
Evan reached out and pulled the two rings from the box. One was made of dark metal with a band of smooth, dark wood running through the middle. Olive wood, most likely. The second ring was solid wood, lined with what he thought was white gold, the outside polished to an incredibly smooth shine.
Evan let out a messy exhale. “Fuck me,” he murmured to himself, turning the rings over and over in his palm.
A noise from farther in the house startled him for a moment, and then he rolled out of bed, pulled on a pair of boxers from the drawer he shared with Scott, and went to find his boyfriend.
Scott was in the kitchen, furiously scrubbing at pans Evan was pretty sure were already clean.
“Couldn’t sleep?” Evan asked softly.
Scott startled and sloshed water over himself. He’d put on a white T-shirt and matching boxer briefs and stood barefoot at the sink.
“Yeah,” he said in a soft voice.
Evan quickly moved to pull Scott back into his arms, wrapping one arm solidly around Scott’s waist and putting his chin on Scott’s shoulder. When he was sure he had his partner’s attention, he uncurled his hand, showing Scott the rings.
“Which one’s mine, then?” Evan asked.
“You can pick.”
“Which one did you think would be mine?”
“The, uh… the olive one. But you could have the other one if you wanted,” he added with a rush.
“I liked the olive wood one too,” Evan murmured. “It’s beautiful, Scott. Where did you get these?”
“Found them online. There’s a guy out in San Francisco who makes them. He said we could resize them if necessary, or he’ll exchange the olive wood one if it doesn’t fit. It fits me, though, so I guess it should be fine on you.”
Scott turned in Evan’s arms then, and his expression was so terrified Evan wanted to kiss it off his face. He settled for rubbing their noses together.
“Marry me,” Evan said softly.
“I intend to,” Scott laughed.
“Right now. Marry me right now.”
“We have to get a license from the courthouse, then—”
“Right now,” Evan insisted. “We can sign their paperwork another time. I want to marry you here, in our kitchen, today.”
“Okay,” Scott said, reaching up to smooth his hand over Evan’s jaw. “Okay.” He cleared his throat. “So… I, Scott Marshall Sparrow, take you, Evan Derrick King, to be my husband.”
On mornings like this, when the sun was still coming up, their kitchen faced out at the perfect angle for the glowing sunrise light to pour in through the wide window where they grew kitchen herbs. Evan watched as the golden light moved, somehow turning Scott’s hair blackish blue.
“I, Evan Derrick King, take you, Scott Marshall Sparrow, to be my husband,” Evan said, settling both his hands at the bottom of Scott’s back. “For richer or poorer.”
“In sickness and in health,” Scott said, and his voice sounded a little choked.
“For as long as we both shall live.”
Evan leaned back far enough to take Scott’s hand and slipped the silver band onto his finger. When Scott echoed the gesture, it turned out he was right—the wooden ring fit Evan perfectly. Evan found it surprisingly light. It was like the ring was meant to be there.
“You are the best thing that ever happened to me,” Scott said, and there were definitely tears in his eyes now. “And I swear to God, I never deserved it. I never deserved you. And I will spend my whole life showing you how much you mean to me. Every day.”
He leaned in for a kiss, and Evan stopped him with a brush of his thumb over the sweet pout.
“I fell in love with your eyes,” Evan murmured. He smiled as Scott blinked them, letting the tears fall. “They’re so blue.”
“My eyes have always been blue,” Scott said with a broken laugh.
“I know.”
Scott shook his head slowly. “Since when?”
“Since forever. Since I was seven years old and Scott Sparrow was the coolest kid I’d ever met. He still is, you know.”
When Scott laughed, Evan couldn’t stand it any longer. He reached up, framing Scott’s jaw with his hands, and took Scott’s lips in their first married kiss.
For the first few seconds, it was sweet and chaste and perfect. Then Scott slipped his tongue into Evan’s mouth and grabbed Evan’s ass and hauled the two of them together. Evan almost laughed as they fell back against the counter, lips moving in perfect synchrony.
“Do you want to break a record for the fastest time from marriage to consummation?” Scott asked, and then Evan did laugh.
“Fuck yeah.”
“This was not how I expected this morning to go,” Scott said as he kissed up Evan’s neck, stopping to nuzzle at the spot just below his ear. “I have never been more honored to be wrong.”
“What were you expecting?” Evan asked. He tipped his head back to give Scott better access. Scott definitely knew what he was doing with this part of Evan’s body.
“A discussion, maybe. To kiss you. I thought we might start making plans on when and where we’d do this….”
“Are you mad?”
“About what? Doing it right away?” He shook his head. “No. I’ve wanted this for so long. Waiting was a terrible idea.”
He took Evan’s left hand and brought it up, rubbing his thumb over the black ring.
“It looks good,” Evan said.
“It does.”
Evan flattened his palm against Scott’s, then threaded their fingers together.
“Come to bed,” he said softly, and this time Scott didn’t hesitate before following.
Their bed was still rumpled from the night before, covers and comforter kicked around by combined feet and the desire to sleep close to each other. The cat was uncharacteristically absent, and Scott shut the door behind them, keeping her out. This was one thing they didn’t need a witness for.
Evan hesitated by the bed, watching as Scott pressed himself against the closed door. When Evan
held out his hand, Scott all but fell into his arms.
“We’re going to make this real,” Scott said as he kissed up Evan’s neck, his hands already roaming over Evan’s side and back.
Evan pulled at Scott’s T-shirt, tugging it up and off, then kissed over the newly exposed skin of his collarbones and shoulders.
“Mine. My husband.”
They fell onto the bed, kicking off underwear, knowing each other now so intimately this was second nature. Scott pressed his hands to Evan’s body with the sureness that came with years of practice. Sometimes Evan felt like Scott was an extension of himself.
Evan easily flipped Scott onto his back and caught the surprised laugh between his lips. He kissed over Scott’s jaw, his Adam’s apple, down over his chest to pull tight pink nipples between his teeth.
He nosed at the dark hairs on Scott’s belly and rubbed his lips softly over the pink, sticky head of Scott’s dick, gathering the flavor on his lips.
“Oh God,” Scott groaned. His fingers came to tug at Evan’s hair, shorter now than it had been for most of his life though still as blond as it had always been.
Evan had always loved the term “lover.” No matter what else they were to each other, that word seemed just perfect to describe what they were to each other. They loved. They were lovers.
He mouthed at the head of Scott’s cock, then took it deep into his throat, making Scott groan and buck and tug at Evan’s hair. They made love with the easy grace of two men who knew each other now, so intimately, so perfectly that nothing felt impossible.
“Swing your legs ’round,” Scott said, tugging at Evan’s hair again.
Evan huffed a laugh and did as he was told, keeping a firm grip on the base of Scott’s cock. He settled with his knees either side of Scott’s ears and went back to tonguing at the head of Scott’s dick, making it slippery and perfect.
The moment Scott echoed the action over Evan’s dick, Evan stuttered, pressing his forehead to Scott’s hip as he let out a long moan.
“Come on,” Scott teased, slapping Evan’s ass sharply. “Tit for tat.”
“I’ll fucking tit for tat you,” Evan muttered.
“That makes no—oh fuck.”
Evan liked to think he was better at sucking dick than Scott. He’d had more practice at it, after all. And he knew how to completely take Scott apart with little flicks of his tongue, massaging the shaft of Scott’s dick with hollowed-out cheeks as his fingers played behind Scott’s balls.