“You’re just the smartest and most generous person I’ve ever met.” David looked over at William. “Isn’t that what I said?” William giggled and nodded exaggeratedly.
“Asking the boys to lie for you?” Jerry said as he shook his head. “That is just too….” Jerry shrugged his shoulders as if there were no words to convey his feelings.
“You’re not the smartest and most generous?” David widened his eyes and looked up at Jerry, all innocence and playfulness.
“I’ll deal with your punishment later.” Jerry turned back to the boys. “Okay, we’ve got some shopping to do, and if you’re like me, you hate it. So, let’s get going ’cause the sooner we start the sooner we can be home watching a movie and eating popcorn.”
“Can Cory and I pick out the movie?”
“Affirmative,” Jerry said as William scooted out of the booth. “We’ll need jeans and boots and hats and underwear and socks and shirts and sweat pants and more jeans and maybe some rubber boots for mucking out stalls and gloves for helping me fix—”
“But I already have all that stuff,” William protested.
“Not for you, cowboy.” Jerry brushed his hand over William’s head. “Cory needs all that stuff if he’s going to be staying with us.”
Cory stopped dead in his tracks just after exiting the restaurant. David noticed right away and backtracked to where Cory was standing. “I don’t have any money,” Cory said. David looked ahead to see Jerry had noticed as well but kept walking beside William, his big hand still on the little blond head. He exchanged a smile with Jerry for a moment before turning back to Cory.
“It’s okay.” David put a hand on Cory’s shoulder. “Think of it as payment for helping out with some chores.”
“I can’t… I don’t….”
“There are no strings here, Cory.” David pushed against his shoulder, trying to get him moving again. “Jerry and I want to help you.”
“Why?” Cory took a step forward and then turned to face David.
“Why not?” David shrugged and offered a sincere smile. “It’s what people are supposed to do for each other, isn’t it?”
Cory nodded, but still seemed confused by it all. David managed to get him walking again, and they quickly caught up with Jerry and William, who were waiting outside of the nearest jean store.
“I’d get Wranglers,” William said as he entered the store beside Cory. “They’ve always held up for me.” David exchanged a look with Jerry; he could tell that Jerry was enjoying this outing as much as he was. It all seemed so normal and not at all where he thought he would be. He’d always wanted this, but never thought he would ever actually get it.
David finally saw Cory smile and relax a little as William began to extol the virtues of the various styles of Wrangler jeans, which seemed to occupy almost an entire section of the store. As Jerry looked through the hats and shirts section of the store, David sidled up beside him. “He was worried about how he would pay for his new clothes.”
“Figured that’s what you were talking about.” Jerry picked out a few cowboy-style shirts and a couple of Stetsons. “He’ll settle in soon, when he realizes that we’re not like his old man.”
“Just breaks my heart, Jerry,” David said as he watched William picking out jeans for Cory to take to the dressing room. “What if there is some relative out there? All of this will be for nothing.”
“Not for nothing,” Jerry corrected, and then exchanged the cream-colored Stetson for a black one. “Even if there is a relative, we’ll make sure he visits. We’ll make sure he knows we still care about him.”
“I guess,” David said as he followed Jerry to the changing room. “I just hope William will see it that way.”
“He will,” Jerry said with a lopsided grin.
“I love you,” David whispered, accepting a quick kiss on the forehead from his husband.
“Love you, too, mountain lion.”
Chapter 16
JERRY had breakfast on the table by the time he heard the other three men in the house begin to stir, the sounds of showers and toilets giving him a pretty good indication of who was almost ready for a good, hearty breakfast. He’d been sure to make extra, especially for Cory. The poor kid had gone full hog on all the chores he’d been given and was aching something fierce, Jerry was certain, but Cory never complained and did his best to keep up. He was nursing some pretty serious blisters on his hands since he kept forgetting to wear his gloves, but Jerry couldn’t have been prouder of the kid if he’d been Cory’s real father.
In fact, he had forgotten completely that Cory might have to leave, had forgotten about Sara’s investigation into whether he had any other living relatives. Cory had become such a part of their lives already. David had been spending his lunch hours at school visiting websites that offered explanations about how the foster care placements worked. With David’s lunchtime Internet surfing, Jerry had learned enough now to know that Child Services would try for a kinship placement before a foster placement, and he understood that. He would certainly question anyone who would want to place a child—regardless of age—with a total stranger before a blood relative. It was what they’d done with William, and he was not about to question that decision. Of course, it wasn’t exactly the same situation since Pamela, Jerry’s cousin, had stipulated in her will that William should be raised by his only living relative—Jerry—if she and her husband were no longer able to care for him.
Whatever placement Cory would live with would have to take so many things into consideration that it all seemed like far too much to bear in mind for Jerry. There were the familial ties; the cultural history of the child; the opinion of the child; the age of the child; the continuity that family could provide to the child; and the mental, physical, and emotional needs of the child. It was all too much to absorb. There were no percentages, no way of assessing how much impact each category would eventually have in determining the placement of the child. And so, before he drove himself to distraction with scrutinizing every possible combination and permutation, Jerry decided to stop considering anything but the moments Cory would be part of the family.
David had even been to the school—he waited until Wednesday before going to see the principal. He was—if the truth was known—quite intrigued to see how he would be treated. He and Jerry had already made the decision to keep Cory out of the school for that week, so David had decided to speak to the principal about organizing all of the work that Cory would need to complete instead of speaking to each individual teacher. And he was glad that he had decided to do it that way. The e-mail that he received from Mr. Husack listing all of the work Cory would have one week to complete seemed impossible to David; he had completely forgotten that high school blocks were almost ninety minutes long. Missing one period could well represent a significant portion of a unit.
Jerry had been a little disappointed to learn that David had decided to play the whole thing straight and professional, never mentioning Mr. Husack’s insult even once, but he’d not been surprised by it. Jerry had meant what he’d said to the principal about David being out of that man’s league entirely. No doubt about it, Jerry had found himself one classy, refined man, who just happened to be a wildcat between the sheets. And the way David was with William. Jerry would always be too proud to admit it, but he sometimes felt that David made a much better father; he had a way of talking to William, of comforting him, that made Jerry a little bit envious sometimes. But luckily, most of the time, Jerry figured he was doing pretty good for a middle-aged man who’d never really thought he’d have a husband, let alone a husband and a kid.
“Morning,” Cory muttered as he took a seat at the table.
“Morning yourself, there, sunshine,” Jerry said with a big smile. Cory wasn’t really a morning person, but he was a lot better at pretending than David or William. “David told me that you got some corrections to do for math?”
“Yessir,” Cory said with a moan.
“You get tho
se done, and then you can come out and help me fix the last few fence posts.” Jerry deposited a heaping plate of bacon, eggs, hash browns, and toast in front of Cory. “Bet that math doesn’t sound so bad now, does it?”
“Rather do fence posts,” Cory sighed as he picked up his fork and dug into the food. “Sorry,” he said around a mouthful of bacon. “Thank you for breakfast.”
Jerry let out a chuckle and opened the fridge to pour him a large glass of orange juice, depositing it in front of him before retrieving his own breakfast. “You’re welcome, Cory.” Jerry put his own plate on the table and sat, taking a few sips of his coffee before digging into his own bacon and eggs. “Math not a good subject for you?”
“No, I get it, but I just don’t see how it’ll ever be useful, all those angles and the Pythagorean theorem.” He looked up at Jerry and offered a weak smile. “The teacher always says it’s the process that matters and not what we’re learning, but I still don’t see the connection.”
“You don’t, huh?” Jerry put his fork down and picked up his mug, taking another couple of long, slow sips while he did some figuring in his head. “Any idea what you want to do when you finish school.”
“I like drawing.” Cory put down his own fork and picked up his orange juice, downing half of it in one long swallow.
“What kind of drawing?”
“Graphic novels, anime, that kind of thing.”
“Love to see your work some time.” Jerry smiled, truly intrigued that he’d finally found something in common with Cory at last. “But in the meantime, let me ask you a question, a math-type question.” Jerry’s smile grew when he saw Cory look toward him, giving him his full attention. “If you’re serious about pursuing your art, then you’ll need to have a head for math. For example, which is the better deal, buying two ten-inch pizzas at $8.99 each or one twenty-inch pizza at $18.00?”
“I don’t like pizza, so neither.”
“Liar,” Jerry laughed, surprised at how Cory was opening up and cracking jokes. “I’ve seen you eat, and you’ll never convince me that you’d turn down any food.” Jerry sat back in his chair. “Come on, which one is the better deal?”
“The two pizzas, I guess.”
“Why?”
“Two are better than one, right?” Cory picked up his fork again, and Jerry got the impression he was pleased with his reasoning. “Besides, it all works out to twenty inches of pizzas for only the difference of two cents.”
“And if you don’t care about your money, sure, that’s one way to look at it.” Jerry leaned forward again. “But if you break it down to cost per square inch of pizza, you’re getting twice as much pizza if you buy the twenty-inch.”
“No way,” Cory huffed, his eyes wide with disbelief.
“You know how to find the area of a circle?”
“Yeah,” Cory said indignantly. “Pi times radius squared.”
“So,” Jerry said quickly, pleased with himself. “Work it out. And if I’m wrong, I’ll let you go back to bed and I’ll do your math homework for you.” Jerry could see the wheels begin to turn as Cory’s expression became pensive and earnest. “Eat up. Something tells me you’re gonna be fixing fence posts after all.”
DAVID shook his head as he hollered to William one more time from the bottom of the stairs and grabbed his briefcase from the bench in the front hall. He went into the kitchen to grab a bagel or something to eat in the car before he had to meet Lenore and was surprised—although he didn’t know why—to find William dressed and finishing his breakfast while Cory worked on homework.
“You little monkey, when did you get down here?”
“When you were in the shower.” William popped the last little bit of toast in his mouth, scooped up his plate, and deposited it in the sink. “You should see the math that Cory has to do. It’s really hard.”
“Oh yeah,” David said as he walked over to stand beside Cory. “What is it? Trigonometry? Congruency?”
“Functions.” Cory looked up and rolled his eyes.
“I loved math when I was in school.”
“Can you help me with it later?”
David wanted to laugh at the sheer desperation in Cory’s voice. “Sure thing.” David shifted his briefcase to his other hand and then put his hand on top of William’s head and flexed his fingers as if his hand were a spider crawling away. “But first, we’ve got to get Sir William to school… after he goes up and gets his backpack.”
“Which would be the better deal, David. Two ten-inch pizzas at $8.99 each or one twenty-inch pizza at $18.00?”
“Is that one of your questions? Seems like a middle school word problem.” David didn’t wait for an answer, looking instead to the ceiling as he tried to crunch the numbers in his head. “If you figure cost per square inch—”
“Never mind.”
David took a seat opposite Cory. “What’s wrong?” David’s smile grew exponentially as Cory explained the math problem that Jerry had left for him to figure out. “Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but he’s right.”
“Is he ever wrong about anything?”
“Listen, Cory,” David said as he leaned forward, “he may downplay his intelligence, and why, I have no idea, but Jerry is probably one of the smartest people I’ve ever met; and I mean book-smart and street-smart. You could learn a lot from him.”
“Jerry said he’d like to see my drawings.”
“There,” David announced as he stood. “See? He’ll help you with art, and I’ll help you with math.” He reached out and placed a hand on Cory’s shoulder. “Are you still upset about the suspension?”
“No,” Cory sighed. “Well, sort of. I mean… it’s nothing.”
“’Kay, I’m ready.”
At the sound of William’s voice, David looked toward the hallway and then back at Cory. “Do me a favor, Cory?” When Cory looked up at him, David continued, “Why don’t you give Jerry a chance. He’s a really good listener, and I know he would really like to help you.”
“Okay,” Cory said and offered a smile. “Bye, Billiam. Have a good day at school.”
“You too, Cory. Remember about tonight.”
“I won’t forget.” Cory looked back at David and whispered, “Sorry, he’s sworn me to secrecy.”
“Fair enough.” David shifted his briefcase once more and then let go of Cory’s shoulder. “And if Jerry starts to gloat about the pizza question, just remind him that he still has trouble counting to twenty in French.” David winked and smiled at Cory, pleased that he didn’t seem as glum as he had only a few minutes before.
“William?” David found William out by the corral, talking to his father. “William?” He called again as he moved to the corral. “Time to go. Come and get in the car while I say goodbye to your dad.” He scratched the short blond locks as William passed him and stepped up to Jerry. “Pizza?”
“Hey, he wanted to know how he’d ever use math.”
“I’ll call you at lunch today once I know what Lenore wants to see me about.” David leaned up and kissed Jerry on the lips, quickly, just in case William was watching. “Cory seems a little down-in-the-dumps about something. I told him what a good listener you are.”
“Did you now?” Jerry pushed his hat back on his head and showed that smile, the one David could never get enough of. “I was thinking that maybe he and I’d spend some time in the studio this afternoon. Seems that Cory likes to draw.”
“I know,” David said as he reached out and rubbed his free hand over the cotton of Jerry’s T-shirt, the sweat Jerry’d worked up already starting to soak through the well-worn fabric. “I’m so glad that you two finally found something in common.” David stole one more quick kiss and then backed away a few feet. “I can’t wait to hear about your afternoon when I get home tonight.”
“I can’t wait for you to get home tonight.” Jerry licked his lips playfully. “Been a few days, mountain lion.”
“I know, baby, and if Lenore didn’t want to meet with me, I’d
be dragging you into that barn to clean your stall, but….” David pouted and then blew his husband a kiss. “Love you.”
“Love you back.”
David turned around and headed for the car, flushing a little at the whistle that he heard from behind him. And not for the first time, he couldn’t help but marvel at the twists and turns that life constantly threw his way. Ten, five, even two years ago, he never would have looked twice at a man like Jerry. He could be refined as anyone else from the monied elite, but Jerry was also very… down-to-earth just didn’t describe him.
Matter of fact, pragmatic, honest. None of those words were able to encapsulate everything that Jerry was. There was no doubt that Jerry was sexy and an incredible lover, but it was the Jerry outside of the sex, beyond the lust, that had David completely enthralled. For the first time in his life, David was sure that when the lust did dwindle and lose its hold on the two of them, there would be something else of substance between them. And it even went beyond William and the family they’d built. For David, it even went beyond the idea of growing old together in this house, surrounded—perhaps—by grandchildren.
He had found in this one man, this one gloriously funny, idiotic, goofy, sincere, and loving man, someone who had shown him what his life could be. David had learned from Jerry how to be himself, how to ask for what he needed and wanted, how never to settle for less than he deserved. Jerry had taught David that loving someone didn’t mean expecting the other to make him happy. He’d learned from Jerry that it was okay to take from people sometimes, that it was acceptable for him just to be. Jerry never expected—nor asked—him to hide his flaws.
David pulled the car out of the driveway, and as he listened to William whistling some song that he knew but couldn’t place, he felt his heart would burst with the love and acceptance he got from the two of them. He would give anything to Jerry and William, do anything for them. And even if he had the chance, David knew that he wouldn’t ever change a thing about his family or his life.
An Earlier Heaven Page 15