"We'll time it where everyone is where they need to be for tryouts. You can play ball, Son. And Autumn, if want to cheer, that's fine too. None of that changes. If I make it, and that's a big if, then we'll move you during off season," Avery clarified to the relief of both children. Robert nodded, but now that things seemed normal again, Autumn got up and wormed her way into the small place beside Avery, sliding under his arm, so she could sit next to him. He wrapped his arm around her as her big blue eyes focused on Kane.
"I thought you never would change your vote. Nonnie says you're wrong, but you won't ever give. You have to give this time, Daddy. We support each other all the time, remember?" Autumn was most likely to follow in Avery's footsteps. It was just very undecided where her political beliefs were headed. She was all over the place, picking and choosing so her views were based on the issue, not the side. Avery just hugged her tightly as they both stared at Kane. Avery grinned bigger and nodded at him.
"You will have to vote for me. And no opposing candidates' signs in the yard this year," Avery said.
"No, Daddy! You can't put up signs for another candidate, that would be wrong," Autumn exclaimed.
"He already said he'd vote for Dad," Robert jumped in on Kane's defense. This was something new. While they'd not had sibling fights much before, that had changed as they entered this school year. The fights were coming faster and they were becoming more argumentative with each passing day.
"So we're moving forward. I can let them know we're running for office?" Avery asked before Kane could. He was an expert at diverting their attention where Kane stumbled a bit sometimes. Funny how that worked. He'd come from a large family, Avery an only child. It should have been the other way around.
"You'll have to be gone a lot, I bet. I'm gonna miss you," Autumn said, laying her head on Avery's shoulder.
"You guys can come with me as much as possible, and when I'm not home, I'll call." Autumn nodded. Robert came to sit by them, sliding under his other arm.
"What about La Bella Luna?" Robert asked.
"The expansion's changing everyone's role. Kane can do more on the road now," Avery said.
"And Daddy has his portable computer," Autumn said, as if that solved everything.
"Paulie, Rodney, and I will work everything out. It'll be okay," Kane reassured Robert.
"Granddaddy Paulie won't move with us?" Autumn asked, a little alarmed.
"He hasn't decided yet, but I'm working on him, I promise. So what's the vote?" Avery asked.
"I vote go for it, as long as I get to play basketball," Robert said.
"I'm fine with it. I think it's up to you. You have to do all the work," Autumn agreed.
"We'll all have to help him," Kane said, and Autumn's eyes lit up.
"Do we get to help in the campaign? I love when Nonnie tells us about working on Great-Granddaddy's campaign." She was all smiles and eyes on Avery. She so knew exactly how to work him. She couldn't have said anything better.
"Absolutely! You can do it all," Avery said, kissing her forehead.
"Yay!" Autumn jumped up and bounded up the stairs. "I have to call April and tell her!"
"Hang on! You can't tell anyone yet. Not until I announce it," Avery called out after her.
"Okay," Autumn yelled back, but she was already in her room, the door shutting loudly behind her.
"So that's it, then. You freaked me out a little, you looked so serious. I thought someone died," Robert said. He rose, stretching out his back as he followed his sister upstairs. "I'll make sure she doesn't tell. I'll listen on the phone."
"No listening to her on the other phone, Robert. She needs her privacy," Kane called out as his son walked up the steps.
"I just pretend to listen. It makes her crazy," Robert said from the top of the stairs.
"And you wonder why you two fight," Kane said. All Robert did was laugh as his door slammed shut behind him.
"Well, I guess that's it then. I'm running," Avery said, moving from the coffee table to the sofa, wrapping an arm around Kane's back.
"I guess you are," Kane nodded. He let Avery draw him into a small snuggle.
"So, are you changing your vote for me?" Avery teased, sliding his hand under Kane's sweater, letting his fingertips graze the bare skin of his stomach.
"I don't know. You'll have to work for it. Convince me." Kane leaned in to capture Avery's lips with his. There was only a small swipe of tongue before he pulled away, conscious of the kids being home.
"Oh, I'll work for it. Come upstairs and we'll start now," Avery suggested, waggling his eyebrows.
"Tonight," Kane said. He moved away from the hold, and it cost him to do so, but he pulled Avery up with him. "I think it's a pizza kind of night, and we need to call your mom and Paulie. They'll play a huge part in this. We need to tell them the big news."
"Kane…" There was a distinct whine to Avery's voice. "Babe, I like my idea so much better…"
Chapter 22
Late January 1990
Before Avery had even announced his intention to run, the campaign committee evaluated every part of their lives. Individually and as a family, they were tutored, trained, and reset for the public eye. All new clothes were bought, which Autumn loved more than Kane or Avery had thought possible. Preset answers were drilled into all of their heads, ready to pull out of their back pockets at any given moment.
As much as Avery argued, Kane pulled the plug on the restaurant expansion. He and Paulie held a private meeting a couple of days after Avery decided to run, and they agreed Kane's focus and attention needed to be on the children and Avery. In Paulie's infinite wisdom, he pushed Kane to be home more, while moving Rodney, their bartender, more fully into the role of manager. He'd been Kane's right-hand man and backup for years. The decision was absolutely the right one to make, but Kane's heart hadn't quite separated from the restaurant.
It hurt to see their plans squelched, and it was a hard lump to swallow thinking about stepping away from the restaurant. He hid all the inner turmoil of the decision from Avery. As much as it bothered Kane, Paulie had an easier time with the decision. For Kane, he knew how much Paulie loved him, but Paulie took that love to a whole new level where the twins were concerned.
Paulie had even gone so far as asking Kennedy Adams to make Minnesota her full-time home. She'd traveled between Minnesota and her New York flat for years now. Paulie called her and talked her into moving back, so the two of them could tag team each other to be a better help to Kane in Avery's possible absence. All those discussions happened behind Kane's back because Paulie left nothing to chance where his family was concerned.
Avery's political campaign ran like a well-oiled machine; all they needed was their candidate, and as predicted, Avery Adams took to politics like a duck to water. Being gay seemed to play very little part in the voters' decisions in November, because Avery refused to allow any questions about his personal life. For Avery, his family wasn't open for speculation and that stance seemed to work.
Avery won his senate race in an easy landslide, and set off to Washington DC, grudgingly leaving his family behind to finish out the school year. It wasn't until then that the national news began to take notice.
"Daddy, Peter Jennings is talking about you again!" Autumn yelled from her perch in front of the living room television set. She'd given herself the job of media specialist, a position she'd created, which meant she tracked every bit of press on Avery and their family that she could get her hands on. In her sweet eleven-year-old way, she scrapbooked all the information for Avery, putting colorful hearts and kisses on each page. For the information not in print, she took notes and wrote them up every night in her journal, adding them to the scrapbook in chronological order.
"What's he saying this time?" Kane asked absently, somewhat distracted in the kitchen. He never stopped his flow of making dinner as he flipped the faucet on, letting the pasta cool in the colander.
"That you and Dad aren't really married," she yelled bac
k. Kane heard what she said and gave a sigh. He didn't answer back right away. Their marriage was always the fallback story when news was slow around the world and nothing else was going on.
Since Avery had been in Washington, the national news covered the homosexual issue, and then children being raised by same-sex parents, now they were back to the beginning—the legality of their union. Avery would always laugh it all off, saying their family was so intriguing they drew in high ratings anytime they even got a haircut.
Autumn and Robert loved thinking they were so special, but for Kane, it was already getting old.
"Honey, do you think you should be watching all this?" Kennedy asked from the doorway between the kitchen and living room.
"It's okay, Nonnie. I know they're married by God, and he's more important than anything," Autumn said. Kane had moved in behind Kennedy to check on Autumn, but she was bent over, taking notes, completely oblivious to them standing there watching her. Kennedy wasn't letting it go. She'd disagreed with Avery for allowing Autumn to be this up close and personal with the media coverage, and her irritated, steely gaze cut to Kane, making it clear she wasn't happy at all.
"I agree, it's getting a little worse, but nothing too terrible," Kane replied, trying to keep the worry from his eyes.
"This is no surprise. We knew it would, Kane," Kennedy said, looking back at Autumn, still bent over, writing as the newscast continued.
"It was just so easy here in Minnesota. I'd hoped that would last," Kane said, leaving the doorway to turn the water off. "I'll talk to Avery when he calls. She just takes it all so serious. Maybe it'll come to an end soon."
"Kane, you know it's not going to. The whole bottom half of this great country thinks your marriage is an abomination. I'm not sure she needs to keep such a close eye on this." Avery's mom came to stand directly in front of Kane. She was holding firm, and Kane agreed with her. But with Avery already gone to Washington, and Kane, Autumn, and Robert still in Minnesota finishing the school year, it just gave Autumn something to keep herself connected to her Dad. Avery called her every day and let her tell him about what she found. He just wasn't prepared to put a stop to all that.
"Dinner's ready," Kane called out. Kennedy was such a force when she got something stuck in her head. He would deal with her later.
"Daddy! Your dad's having a live interview," Autumn yelled. "And your brothers and sisters are there too." Her pitch became higher as she clicked the volume up several notches.
Kane dropped the colander back in the sink and rounded the kitchen island to the door in a matter of seconds. The sound of his father's voice caused his heart to stutter. It was something he hadn't heard in thirty years. The man's voice was older, but still bellowed in his deeply Southern accent. Kane slowed as pain lanced his heart. He'd thought he was past this. He'd reconciled these feelings with these people who he had spent more time without than with. He hesitated at the kitchen door as his father came into view.
"He doesn't look like you at all," Autumn called out, but Kane ignored her. His eyes remained riveted to the television screen. In Kane's mind, his father hadn't changed. He was still the same man who had kicked him out of his house all those years ago.
In the most recent letter he had received from his family, they had written and asked for money, saying their father was in poor health, but the man on the screen was anything but sickly. He looked robustly healthy as he spewed his opinions at the reporter who seemed to cower under the older man's vengeance-filled words.
"Those children are an atrocity! That boy is No. Son. Of. Mine. Corinthians 6:9-11, do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God! The devil owns Kane Adams's soul and the State of Minnesota should be wiped off the planet for allowing those children to live in that den of debauchery."
Kane sat down on the edge of the sofa completely stunned. His heart pounded in his chest. He barely registered Kennedy removing Autumn from the living room. What had he truly expected from his family? How had he not better prepared for this day?
Did he honestly believe they had all worked out an agreeable solution, that he could give them money to help overcome his sins? Yes, he did believe that, and he had to sit down because his heart thundered in his chest and his knees grew weak. He could feel the heat climbing in his cheeks as horror and embarrassment took its grip on his body.
Kane stared at the television as the screen went dark a moment before Peter Jennings image took shape, and the reporter looked momentarily astounded. "Ladies and Gentlemen, those are the views of Pastor Dalton, not of this station…" The news cut immediately to commercial. Kane sat there, staring at the screen. After a second more, he let out his pent-up breath, evaluated the pain in his heart as not a possible heart attack, and ran his shaking hands over his face. The home phone started ringing.
"Honey, it's Paulie. Paulie, hold on, call waiting's beeping in. Hello, yes, honey, he's here." Kennedy was apparently back in the living room and had answered the phone. Both children had been ushered upstairs but were sitting on the top step looking down at him with sad, concerned eyes. Kennedy always sent them to their room when things got rough, but they weren't those kinds of kids. The four of them were a unit, a little team.
Kane waved them back down to him as he reached for the remote control, turning the television off. Autumn and Robert raced down the steps; Autumn almost knocked him over as she tackled him in a hug.
"I'm so sorry, Daddy. I wouldn't have told you if I knew he would say those things," she whispered in his ear as she kept a death-grip hug wrapped around his neck. Robert stood less than a foot away, until he bent in, too, wrapping himself around Kane and Autumn. Tears were in his eyes.
"Guys, it's okay. I know how they feel," Kane said, holding them both tightly in his arms.
"It's wrong. You're a good man, Daddy," Robert said, holding him tighter.
"Kane, here talk to Avery. He's worried. Paulie's on his way over," Kennedy said from behind him. He managed to take the phone, situate the kids beside him, and remove most of Autumn's long blonde hair from his face as he lifted the cordless to his ear. He didn't speak as he listened to Avery barking out orders on the other end.
"I hear you breathing," Avery finally said.
"Autumn heard it all," Kane replied.
"That's okay, baby. They have us to help process it all," Avery said.
"My grandfather thinks I'm an atrocity," Autumn yelled close to the phone for Avery to hear her.
"Tell her that's not her grandfather. He's a thief and bigot and you're better off without him." The venom was back in Avery's voice. Kane couldn't speak the words. He couldn't say anything. He just hugged the children closer and let Kennedy pat his shoulder. There had been enough said in front of the children tonight.
"You guys stay here, I need to talk to your dad alone. No more TV tonight," Kane said. After a moment more, he left them sitting there and made his way to the far reaches of the kitchen.
"Kane, please talk to me," Avery finally said.
"I'm sorry," he mumbled and dropped his head inside his hand as he took a seat at the kitchen table.
"Sorry for what?" Avery asked, his tone clear that Kane had nothing to be sorry for.
"That was national news. Everyone all over the country heard my father's hatred toward us. I can't believe he brought the kids into this," Kane said.
"Honey, I don't care about that. I'm worried about you. He didn't look like he was too much on his deathbed. That was an awful nice house they were standing in front of," Avery said, his tone turning harder.
"I send them money every month," Kane confessed.
"I know, and he sure cashes those checks. He didn't mention that, did he?" Avery asked.
"They've been lying to me this whole time," Kane whispered. How, after all this time, was his heart still completely broken over anything that
concerned them?
"Baby, I'm coming home," Avery said.
"No, Avery, stay there. I'll be all right." That kicked Kane into gear. Avery had just settled in. They'd found a house on one of Kane's weekend trips to Washington, and Avery had the house furnished.
As a freshman senator, Avery had hit the ground running, taking Washington by storm and already making a name for himself. He needed to stay and continue the foundation he was building, not drop everything and run home to him because of his callous family.
"I hate I wasn't there for you tonight. I'll catch a flight out as soon as I can." Avery sounded distracted but determined to move forward with his plan.
"Avery, no. Listen to me. I'm all right. Don't rush home, it's a waste of your time. Besides, I need to go check on Robert and Autumn," Kane said, already rising. On a last thought, he blurted out an unfiltered, "Honey, are you sure we should move them from here?"
"I can give this up, and I will if you think it's best, but what does that teach Autumn and Robert when our first real hint of adversity has us packing it in? We're doing something, Kane. Something bigger than politics. We're functioning happy people, living normal lives, working for the greater good of our country. We need to be together. We belong together. It doesn't work if we're apart, honey." Avery had repeated the same speech about fifteen times since he'd won the office.
"Avery," Kane started. He got the 'greater good' concept, and he even believed in it, but not at the price of Robert and Autumn's well-balanced life.
"Dammit, Kane! You know I love you more than anything. I hate to see you hurt. I hate they still have the power to hurt you, but that doesn't change who we are or what we're doing," Avery said, clearly frustrated. "If you were here, we could have dealt with this together. But now I'm a million miles from you. I should come home."
Always (With Bonus Material) (Always & Forever Book 1) Page 21