by M J Giani
They still had ups and downs, but they were becoming less and less, as time went by. Cole’s brothers had cut ties with Byron and called him ungrateful, but in their world, they were happy.
“Dr. Taylor is called to the reception, Dr. Taylor.”
Cole sighed, hoping there weren’t any more interventions, he hadn’t any strength left! When he reached the reception, his heart was filled with love, for there, in the middle of doctors, nurses and some patients, both men of his life were standing there. He didn’t mind that he was running in the hospital, but he did it quickly because Byron was standing in front of him, and since he needed him like ever before, he embraced Byron, without caring who was watching. Jason was small, and not knowing what to do, grabbed Cole's legs in an impromptu hug. Smiling, Cole looked at both of them.
“What a surprise? How did you know this was really what I needed?”
“We came, Dad, isn’t it your birthday?” Jason said. “Dad?” Cole looked at Byron, who smiled and nodded. Cole didn’t know whether it was more confusing that he forgot his own birthday, or the name by which he was called. Byron whispered in his ear.
“He asked me if I could, and I said yes.” Moved, Cole bent down to the child's level.
“Yes, you’re right.” He caressed his head. “I'm glad I have you. Oh, and I almost forgot. How about we have dinner together, as a family?” Happy, Byron smiled that smile that he loved, and kissed him in front of everyone.
“Stop it!” Jason said, feeling disgusted. Laughing, both of them separated. Suddenly, Cole noticed that several doctors and nurses were standing there, looking at the three of them.
“But there isn’t there any work to do in this hospital or what?” boomed the authoritative voice of Dr. Prescott-Reid. Cole looked at his old mentor and smiled.
“Cole, won’t you introduce me?” He said, joining the couple.
“Yes of course! Byron, this is my good friend Dr. Prescott-Reid, this is my boyfriend, Byron, and this is our son, Jason.” Jason reached out his hand, to which Cole said that he was very proud of his little boy.
As he was changing his clothes, he thought that he was more than glad to enjoy a very nice evening with his family, and he wasn’t even feeling sleepy at all.
That night, after having dinner with Byron, he asked him to spend the night with him, which Cole happily accepted. In the middle of the night, Cole was in front of the bedroom window, looking outside at the full moon shining in the sky. He felt Byron coming up behind him and hug him. It had been four months since he had returned home, and this was actually the first time that he was alone with Byron, and his heart melted at the thought.
He turned around to kiss the greatest man alive, to which Byron groaned, and then, carefully, Cole led Byron to the bed.
Byron sat down on the bed and sat Cole on his lap. They looked at each other for a long time, Byron silently hugged Cole, when suddenly, he threw him to bed, and then, very carefully, so as not to hurt him with his weight, laid on top of him. He loved seeing the contrast of their skins, looking so different from each other, without anything standing between them. It was magnificent.
Byron wrapped around his arms around Cole’s narrow hips, and that alone was almost enough to make him come. Cole opened his legs, putting his hands on his knee bends, while Byron took a deep breath and licked his fingers. Byron rubbed Cole’s entrance, who strongly grabbed the man’s back, to the point of scratching him, due to all the desire he was feeling.
“I love you, Cole” Byron whispered, between heavy breaths.
“I love you too. So much.” Cole groaned. Byron put a finger inside him, carefully introducing, so as to go deeper inside him. Cole's fingers pressed the muscles of Byron's back, embracing the intense pleasure that was invading him.
When Byron introduced a second finger, Cole was on the verge of an orgasm.
“Please!” Cole moaned, he didn’t want to wait any longer. He moved his hips, trying to move towards the fingers deep within him. His body wanted something and he wasn’t going to stop until he had it.
“My God, Byron, come!” He ordered Cole.
“Yes! Yes! Now, my love...” Byron said. Finally, at the request of his elf, his kitten, with a single impulse, Byron penetrated Cole, who was ready for this. A low and deep sound erupted from Byron’s throat, as he kissed Cole's mouth, biting and sucking his lips. When the orgasm came, it came for both of them siultaneously, as in a final thurst, spasms went through both bodies. The primitive and wild dance had led them to madness. Before that, it had never been that perfect. It was like coming home. Their true home.
“Marry me...” Byron said softly.
“I will.” Cole said, partly because there was no other answer he could give.
***
Cole would’ve liked to say that from there, life had been a bed of roses, but unfortunately it wasn’t the case. When Cole finally moved his stuff to Byron's house, he received the call from Kelly: Anna had been found dead from an overdose. Byron got so upset with that, as he felt guilty for leaving her and taking his child away from her,when she obviously needed help. In fact,when Cole came home that day, Byron was in his office, sitting in the dark.
“Do you want to be alone?” Byron shook his head. Cole felt relief, and he carefully sat near Byron and hugged him without hesitating. Byron’s body was stiff at first, but soon, he hugged Cole back and wept like a child. Cole wasn’t jealous, since he knew he was crying for his youth, for the premature death of a woman with whom he had shared so much of his life, and especially, for the mother of his child. Although the family let Byron attend the funeral, they didn’t stop blaming him for everything, and by the time they got home, he was looking quite depressed, and Cole was afraid for him – for them.
A month after the event, they got a letter written by Anna's mother, Olivia, where she spoke a little about Anna's childhood. Byron learned that Anna had been diagnosed with a disorder that led to major depression and deviant behavior, like drugs.
When Olivia married Walter, she hoped that a new life could help Anna, and when it didn’t, she thought that the second best solution would be to marry her as soon as possible.
In order to avoid losing her marriage, she pushed her daughter into the arms of the first man she was interested in: Byron. Then, she ended up apologizing, and asked for his forgiveness, as due to her weakness, her daughter was dead, her grandson had no mother, and Byron was miserable. Cole, who had read the letter at Byron’s request, didn’t know what to say. He had never really noticed anything wrong with Anna, but then again, she was the queen of manipulation, so anything was possible. Byron took the letter and ripped it, since he didn’t want to risk Jason finding it. After that, the weather improved greatly, and it was then that Byron finally realized that the fault wasn’t his. Anna was a very sick person, indeed.
A few days later, they found out that Olivia had left her husband and went out into the world. Nobody knew where she was, but Cole liked to imagine that she was on an island, surrounded by sand and palm trees and, who knows, a true love by her side. With Anna’s loss, she tried to contact Kelly again, but she didn’t answer – she didn’t want to talk to him, so he would have to respect that. It was settled, then: both families wouldn’t speak to each other, and it was for the best.
14
One year later
Cole was at the phone, waiting for Byron to answer the phone. He couldn’t stand the suspense, as he had good news to give him, and he would explode if he didn’t do it now. Cole looked at his watch. He had to leave in an hour to pick Jason at school, and he wanted Byron to come with him.
Jason was now seven years, and he was doing very well in school, being a very happy child who knew that he was loved by his two fathers, and loved them back with his little heart. His adoptive mother had been delighted to be a grandmother, and spoiled Jason whenever he could, making no distinction between him and Byron.
She loved both, in fact, and all of them had a special place in her h
uge heart. Speaking of family, Cole's family was a thing of the past, since they kept prefering to blame them for everything that happened, instead of confronting themselves with what they had done. Besides, they couldn’t accept their relationship, since they thought it wasn’t appropriate that two men were raising a child as if they were a "normal" family, but they didn’t care. They had support around them from people like Roy, who had introduced them to his many friends, as well as his boyfriend. Jason asked lots of questions about his family, at first, but then, at some point, he stopped. As for Kelly, Cole heard she was working in a new hospital near to where he lived, but that was it.
Sometimes, he felt sad when he thought of her. He knew she would’ve been glad to know Jason and to be his adopted aunt, but although Cole had accepted what John did to, he could never forgive him – and that excluded her as well.
Meanwhile, Cole's career had taken off as well, with the announcement of a new promotion and ever since then, he had written several articles for magazines, and he even won an award. He was a speaker at several conferences and he was recognized worldwide. As for Byron’s security company, "Winter Security Agency", it had a difficult start, but it eventually became one of the best companies in the country. Some of Byron’s friends, who had left the military career, had joined the company as well. Byron had contracts with big companies that enjoyed their discretion and professionalism, which had led them to stop another level of life: they had bought a villa in the outskirts of the city, which was only thirty minutes away from the hospital Cole was working – and all of this, thanks to their careers.
Cole never thought that he could be so happy, after all the misfortune they had gone through, Byron and him. It was almost impossible to have a happy ending, but with love, care and sincerity, they had managed to create a happy family. Who would say that two people who had been rejected by their families could’ve gotten that far?
One day, as they were lying together after a passionate night, Byron was looking at Cole with love in his eyes, and he dropped the bomb.
“I think we should have another child, what do you think? We’ve already adopted a puppy for Jason, but we have so much more to give.” The puppy, hearing his name, came into the room and laid down at the foot of the bed. Cole was silent. In fact, their lives were very full, they had great careers and a big house. Too big. Maybe they needed a girl! Byron looked surprised that his Byron had thought about it.
“If you don’t want to...” Byron trailed off, but Cole covered his lover’s mouth with a finger, preventing him from speaking.
“I think it's a great idea.” How could he be unhappy with a man who had such a big heart? A man who had suffered so much that at one point, he thought he was a bad man, when all he needed after all was love from the right person. That was was led Cole having the phone in his hand, waiting for Byron to meet him.
“Hello? Cole?” Byron answered, with his hoarse voice.
“We have a girl!” Cole shouted “They called from the agency, there’s an African girl who needs a loving family, and they thought we’d be the perfect couple to adopt her!” Cole knew he was crying, but he was just so happy.
“Ok love, you need to breathe!” Byron began breathing slowly. “Now repeat what you’ve said. We have a girl, right?”
“Yes, she was left at the door of a hospital, and Ms. Chambers said we could go there today to meet her.”
“Okay, I'll be right there.” Cole heard the sound of things falling on the other side, as his husband was also feeling thrilled.
“I'll pick Jason from school.” He hung up, fetched the documents for adoption and left. It turned out that Chelsea, the young girl, was the perfect child: she had lots of hair and she barely cried, so it didn’t take her long to win their hearts. Roy also spoiled her a lot when he met her, so Byron decided he would make a good godfather, a role which he took very seriously – no one could even breathe in the girl’s direction without having Roy coming soon to “save her”, an attitude that made his parents laugh a lot.
In their first anniversary, the couple made a big party for their friends: there was Roy and his husband Alex, Dr. Prescott-Reid with his wife Amanda, his mother Eva, Byron’s friends, and besides that, some of their even brought their children along, and the family’s dogs as well. To sum up, the house was full. Laughter, noise and music filled the house, as well as love and friendship. Cole was getting more ice from the refrigerator when he heard the phone ringing, He picked it up and went to the hall, as there was so much noise all over the house that it was hard to find a quiet spot.
“Hello?”
“Cole?” a voice said.
“Kelly? Is that you?” Cole was surprised with this call.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to bother you. I know I don’t have the right to call you, but I really needed to apologize.”
“What happened?” After so many years, getting a Cole from Kelly was strange. Cole thought she didn’t have this new phone number at all.
“I’ve left the house; I couldn’t stand it any longer.” Kelly started crying, and Cole felt pity for her. “I couldn’t stand John. He cheated on me all the time, and he hit me so many times...I know that maybe you don’t want to talk to me anymore, but please, I'm sorry. I’m sorry for everything.” Crying made the difficult to understand Kelly’s words.
“It's okay, Kelly, calm down. I’m fine.” He looked at the garden, where his family and his friends were, and smiled when he saw Roy fighting with Alex about the way Chelsea should sit on the swing. Thinking about it made him laugh. It was hilarious seeing those two grown men fighting for the attention of his girl, and then he saw Jason throwing a ball to with a military who was trained to kill, as if they were the same age, and he felt blessed. Byron felt Cole's gaze on him and turned arounded. He smiled and mimic the words: “I love you." Cole smiled and put his hand on his heart.
He loved him too.
It was easy to dismissing someone who was unhappy when have everything.
But Cole couldn’t do that, since Kelly had called to apologize, and perhaps retrieve their friendship. Turning his attention to the phone, he repeated.
“I'm fine, I'm in my true home."Home" was where the heart was, and his was right there, in that garden.
Byron was his home.
His Byron.
Cole and Byron.
About M J Giani
MJ Giani is an author of novels with LGBT themes.
When she is not focused on her writing, she spends her life traveling the world, or wandering through her beautiful country, Portugal, always with her family by her side.
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my gratitude to the many people who have seen me through this book. To all those who gave their support and talked about what they read, wrote, gave their opinions, and overall, have allowed me to improve.
I would like to thank Amazon for allowing me to publish this book. And above all, I would like to thank my son, for giving me strength in adversity, as well as the rest of my family, who supported and encouraged me.
I would also like to thank my friends Sérgio Nunes and Ana Branquinho, for helping me with the process of choosing the cover and the ideas.
And last, but not least: I apologize to all those who had an important role in this book, and whose names have not been mentioned.
Thanks for reading! Leave a brief review on the Amazon website and let me know what you think!
Thank you and good reading!
MJ Giani
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