Easy Does It Twice

by Gianni Holmes

  “You love him.” He said it more of an observation than a question.

  I nodded and smiled at him. “With all my heart, which means I would do anything for his kids.”

  “Except I’m not his biological son.”

  “You are my son.”

  We both glanced up to stare at Gordon who had slipped into the room undetected. He closed the door behind him, his gaze fastened on his son as he approached the bed. I stared at him, only then realizing how worried I had been about him. Now I could relax knowing he was okay.

  “You’ll always be my son, and nothing will ever change that,” he said to Ollie. “I know you’re going to have a lot to deal with, but that shouldn’t be one of them. I love you and always will. Okay?”

  Ollie sniffed and nodded. “I’m glad you’re my father and not him.”

  “Yeah, you don’t have to worry about him because he can’t hurt you ever again,” Gordon told his son. “We’ll make sure of that. Drew tells me for what he did, he can get a maximum of a life sentence for the hate crime with bodily harm. Plus, other stuff.”

  I frowned at him. What other stuff was he talking about?

  “It turns out your mother didn’t commit suicide after all,” he told Ollie. “So you can also get that silly notion out of your head that she took her life because you’re gay. That was all Eric’s doing as well. He killed her.”

  “What?” I squeaked. “Oh my God. Are you serious?”

  “Yeah, he was, and we got him confessing the whole thing.”

  “So it’s not because I told her?” Ollie asked, his Adam’s apple bobbing.

  “No, it’s not. Your mother loved you.” He reached for Ollie’s hand and squeezed it. “I swear we’ll get through this.”

  I decided to give them some space, so excused myself to get some fresh air. I had been cooped up in the hospital for too many hours. Gordon gripped my hand before I could bypass him and squeezed it. “Don’t go too far.”

  “Okay. I’ll be back soon.”

  I wanted to kiss him but wasn’t sure with Ollie in the room. Gordon took the decision out of my hands by giving me a swift peck. I smiled at him, feeling light-hearted. Bad things had happened to this family, but they would overcome.

  I hurried from the hospital building to get some fresh air. I wasn’t sure Gordon had eaten anything yet, and the hospital meal left something to be desired, so I walked the block to find somewhere to get a take-out. I found a café just a five-minute walk from the hospital. I bought an overpriced cup of coffee and some danish for Gordon. Thank God my wallet had already been in my pants when I dressed last night.

  Laden with the coffee and a brown paper bag with the danish ,I trekked back to the hospital. I ran into Gordon in the waiting area.

  I frowned when I saw him. “Is something wrong?”

  He shook his head. “No. I didn’t know where you were.”

  “I got you coffee and something to eat,” I replied handing him the bag. “I wasn’t sure you’d eaten yet.”

  He smiled at me. “You’re right. I couldn’t stop to eat. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “My mom and Charlie are with him now.”

  I nodded. “Okay. I should go and probably give your family some time to deal with this.”

  He frowned at me. “Beau, you are a part of this family. I don’t know how I would have kept sane without you.”

  My heart skipped a beat at his words. “It was a long hard fight and it’s not over by a long shot.”

  “But I think we’ve been through the worst. And if it’s not the worst, I’m willing to ride out the worst with you.”

  And when he leaned forward and kissed me in the hospital where anyone walking by could see us, I knew that he meant it. We had already been down one rocky road. If there was one thing we had learned, it was that even the second time didn’t guarantee it would be easy. But that was fine. We weren’t looking for the easier road. All we wanted was the right not only to love, but also to remain in love.

  Epilogue

  Ollie

  Cling! Cling! Cling!

  Beside me, Charlie snickered as Grandma clicked the side of her wine glass for my dad and Beau to kiss. Dad glared at her because it must have been the sixth time since the reception started that she was doing this. Beau didn’t mind the attention. He was a cool guy who made my Dad happy. When I thought about how much I’d hated him at first, I felt ashamed of my behavior.

  I secretly acted as though I wasn’t as fascinated as my Grandma at the sight of my Dad and his new husband kissing. I would usually be grossed out because this was my Dad, but my curiosity won out. I’d never been kissed by a guy before, and wondered if it was any better than the way it had felt when I’d made myself kiss my past girlfriends. to show them I had interest in them. I usually had zero, but it had been a perfect cover up to where my interest lay.

  My father had gone through a massive change, one I liked to see. He was comfortable in his own skin now, something I was still struggling with. Hell, my mind was all kinds of screwed up. Who wouldn’t be after all I had been through? I was still involved with therapy, but some days I felt like I was no closer to being fixed. Beau told me I was looking at it all wrong. I shouldn’t be looking to be fixed but how to accept what happened and moved on. In some ways, he had a point, but when I thought about it, I just wanted to be my old self again. Before my biological dad had cruelly taken my innocence. His trial had been swift, and his verdict had been guilty. His sentence was life in prisonment.

  I glanced at the man across the table and found him watching me. I scowled at him because he made me feel confused. Drew was no longer a police officer, choosing to resign after he had been placed on administrative leave for not reporting Eric’s abuse of Beau while he had been wrongfully detained. Yet, here he was, a part of the wedding reception.

  I was puzzled at my reaction whenever Drew was around, and he sometimes came around a lot. He used to pop by at the hospital to check on me when I was hospitalized and my body making a slow recovery. I had been puzzled why he dropped by then, and I was puzzled by the way I caught him looking at me sometimes.

  It didn’t help that I felt an attraction to him. My fear of him, however, diminished his appeal. Whenever I sexually thought about him, it was a sure way of bringing on a panic attack. I needed to get over them because I hated the way they made me feel insufficient and vulnerable.

  I wanted to be normal again.

  I couldn’t achieve that normalcy around my family. They treated me too fragile, as though I would break. They watched their words around me and asked me several times during the day if I was okay. Even Principal McLean had allowed me back in school to re-sit my final year, but I had turned down the offer. After my ordeal, school was the last thing on my mind.

  I glanced around at the people who made up my family. Dad and Beau at the head table, both looking handsome in their new suits. Grandma and Charlie were also seated at our table. To Beau’s right were his parents who had flown from France to be at the wedding. They were okay people who had put my dad’s fears that they wouldn’t like him to rest.

  My grandmother and aunt had refused to attend the wedding though my dad had invited them. They had tried to gain custody of my sister and me, but they’d dropped the idea when they learned I was gay. My sister had flat out told our aunt that she loved our family just the way it was.

  I loved them too. Even Beau. As I stole another glance at Drew, I knew I couldn’t hang around. I needed to go away for a while, to get away from all the bad things that had happened. I’d already spoken to my therapist about it, and she had agreed that a change of environment might be exactly what I needed.

  The host of the event, some trucker guy dad had formed an alliance with, introduced the first dance. I smiled, watching for Beau's reaction. He had no idea the surprise my dad had for him. Dad had confided in me about it, and I'd felt almost envious the attention he paid to Beau. I wanted that sort of attenti
on from someone too. I glanced at Drew again and damned if he wasn't observing me. He smiled before he turned away and my heart pitter-pattered in my chest.

  "And singing live for the first dance, we have Nina Storey with her smash single 'Till There Was You'."

  "Oh my God!" Beau exclaimed in shock. He spun around to face my father, his expression so comical everyone laughed. "Oh my God, you didn't, Gordon!"

  "It's the first song we danced to," I heard my dad say to him. "You told me you loved that song, so this is my wedding gift to you."

  Several people around us who heard my dad's words teared up. If I weren't dead inside these days, I would have done the same.

  To grandma's delight, Beau landed another kiss on Gordon, this time a steamy one that made me blush.

  My dad stood, and he and Beau walked to the center of the floor to have their first dance as a married couple. Nina Storey's song was beautiful, and I could tell why they loved it. Glancing away from the couple, my eyes locked onto Drew's. Heat seared through me at the combination of the way he watched me and the words of the song:

  In the middle of what I thought was truly the end

  I met you in a place I felt I could begin again

  I barely found the words

  but you knew what to say

  You felt my fear and then you loved me anyway

  I never knew that there was something more

  I never thought I'd ever know what all my heart was for

  Till there was you

  Till there was you

  When everything was broken

  You were all I knew

  Till there was you

  Till there was you

  Afraid to find my way

  You were the one to pull me through

  Till there was you

  I know the road we walk won't be an easy one

  I know the odds are higher loving on the run

  You give to me in ways I never knew

  You make impossible real

  You made it true

  Now I know that there was something more

  I never thought I'd ever know what all my heart was for

  Till there was you

  Till there was you

  When everything was broken

  You were all I knew

  There was you

  Till there was you

  I failed to find my way

  Afraid to find my way

  You were the one to pull me through

  There's so much more than what's in front of me

  You opened up my world to who I'm supposed to be

  Till there was you…

  Listen on Soundcloud

  https://soundcloud.com/nina-storey-823576669/till-there-was-you

  Afterword

  Thank you for reading Easy Does It Twice. I consider this book to be my baby. I originally meant for it to be a 50k word novel, but it ended up being over 95k words. I also never meant for it to take on some of the serious discourse that it did. However, I always stay true to my characters who tell me their tales. Beau and Gordon did a fine job.

  I’m quite passionate about this book because of my passion for teaching foreign languages as is infused in the character, Beau. I loved exploring how valuable teachers are, and how they are often not appreciated for their latent functions.

  The second book in this series, Ollie On the Out will come to you in August. Pre-order will go up soon for this book. In July, My Dear Mr. Corporate, the second book in my Corporate Pride series will be published and it is currently on pre-order. I’ve several books writing to add to both series. To keep abreast with books I am working on, excerpts and freebies, feel free to stalk me at any of the following:

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