TWELVE

 

At first, Taylor’s behavior had made no sense to Dane at all. Taylor had been the one to text Dane, to ask him to dinner, but now Taylor seemed like he couldn’t care less about even interacting with him. Taylor didn’t even greet Dane when Dane got into the car. And he seemed utterly focused on something else, something that didn’t have anything to do with Dane.

Which was fine, Taylor was allowed to have things on his mind. But if so, why had he invited Dane over at all? None of it made any sense, not until Dane entered the house and heard the word that would change everything for this small family forever.

Remission. Danica wasn’t sick anymore, the cancer which had been threatening her small body had been driven back. There wasn’t a person in that room who didn’t know what that meant, and Dane squeezed Taylor’s shaking body against his own, and suddenly, everything all made sense. Of course, Taylor had been distracted, and one thing that Dane had noticed was that when Taylor was very, very emotional, he shut up.

“This calls for a celebration,” Dane informed everyone in the room. Now that he thought about it, there were no smells of cooking coming from the kitchen, and he understood without needing to be told that Rebecca had been far too busy to cook. Nor should she have to now. “I’m ordering pizza. What’s your favorite kind of pizza, Danica?”

And that’s when the celebration, the impromptu party, started. Danica wanted to call her best friend, Priya, right away, and Priya and her mother were soon over. The news spread fast, and in just a half hour or so, the small house was packed with what felt like it must be at least half of the small town.

These were good people, Dane realized, with some shock. He had blown them off, as he tended to blow off most of the people in the towns that he passed through, but these men, women, and children were genuinely happy for Danica, and no one was looking at Dane and judging him for being there. Everyone was accepted, in the face of Danica’s amazing news.

It was probably too late at night, especially for the children, when people started to file out. But who could begrudge the child her celebration? She would remember this moment her whole life, the day when she had found out that she was going to live.

Still, it was a bit of a relief when the last guests, Priya and her family, left, and Dane and Taylor could fall down on the couch together, neither of them able to stop grinning at each other despite how exhausted they both were. Rebecca, too, was clearly exhausted, but that was nothing on how Danica seemed to droop.

“Goodnight, sweetheart,” Dane whispered in her ear as she hugged him before being bustled off to bed. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks, Dane,” she murmured back sleepily, and then, with her tongue loosened by her exhaustion, she continued. “I think I would be the happiest girl in the whole world if you would just stay.”

She didn’t know. Dane shot a look at Taylor, who gave a bit of a sheepish grin and a shrug. Taylor hadn’t told them, although, in the face of the current news, it was hard to get too stung about that. Though he couldn’t help but wonder, was Taylor ashamed of him? Was he changing his mind about all of this?

“I guess I got some good news for you, then,” Dane said, speaking impulsively. If Taylor wouldn’t tell them, then Dane would. And he had, he realized, when he saw the joy dawning on her face, filling it with even more happiness, though Dane would have sworn that that wasn’t even possible.

“You’re staying?” she guessed, and Dane grinned and nodded. He smiled as she squealed and caught her in his arms as she flung herself back at him. She, at least, was happy about the news, and completely unreserved about it, too, unlike her big brother.

“That’s wonderful news,” Rebecca said warmly, and apparently sincerely, as she wrapped her arm around Danica and gathered her daughter against herself. “It’s been a day of good news.”

And it was weird, but she seemed to mean it. And the smile that she gave Dane seemed genuine, though Dane would never have guessed that anyone like her would be happy to have him around. He had judged people, it seemed, just as much as they had judged him. Had made his decisions like he already knew that no one would accept him when clearly, he’d been wrong.

Danica and Rebecca left, and Taylor reached out and gripped Dane’s hand, squeezing it lightly.

“I’m sorry. I meant to tell them, but the moment they got in the door there was this whole thing with the remission and …”

Relief flooded through Dane, to the point where he felt like he had no choice but to reach out and snag Taylor, his fingers catching on his chin and turning the younger man to look at him. They kissed, and it said more than any words could have, and far more eloquently, too.

Taylor hadn’t been ashamed of him. He had meant to tell them. It was just that Danica’s news had overshadowed everything else, which was fair enough. It didn’t seem, from the force with which Taylor kissed him back, the way he pressed against Dane, that Taylor had any doubts at all about wanting Dane to stay.

It didn’t occur to Dane to think that they should be more careful. That they probably shouldn’t kiss right in the living room when Rebecca, who had been so great so far, could be back at any moment. But he didn’t think about that, not until it was too late. Not until he heard someone deliberately clearing their throat above them.

The kiss broke, and Dane looked guiltily up at Rebecca, who was looking at them through slightly narrowed blue eyes. Would this be what ruined it? What made her retract the welcome which she had given to Dane from the beginning, the acceptance?

“Um.” Taylor coughed slightly, his cheeks very pink, and then shot a sheepish little smile up at his mom. “I guess this is a good time to come out?”

Dane chuckled softly, despite his worry, turning to look at Taylor, still keeping his arm protectively around the other man’s shoulder. The truth was, Dane needed the comfort every bit as much as Taylor did. Because when Dane had come out to his parents, they had not reacted well at all.

No one had been there for Dane then, but if the worst happened, Dane would take care of Taylor. Taylor would not have the same experience of being lost and alone and terrified that Dane had had, he was sure of that much. Whatever happened, they would deal with this together.

“You and Dane?” Rebecca was looking back and forth between the two of them, and Dane’s shoulders drew up into tight, dense, hot little knots, prepared for anything. Prepared to be denounced, to be kicked out of the house. But he wouldn’t leave, he assured himself, without Taylor. Nothing could make him abandon the guy in a moment like this.

“Yeah,” Taylor admitted softly. “He wants to stay for me, Mom. You always asked why I didn’t date, well, now you know why. You always said that you wanted me to be happy.”

Rebecca held up her hand and fell down into the easy chair close to them, reaching out a hand to take Taylor’s, which he gave to her almost in a daze. Effortlessly, she cut off his almost defensive recitation, giving him a small, dazed, but pleased little smile.

“I was starting to wonder. So you’re gay?”

The way she said the words, it was like she was just confirming something. Like it wasn’t even that big a thing. Like she was just going out to pick up groceries and wanted to make sure that she had remembered everything on the list of things to get. There was no shock, no disbelief, and no outrage.

No demands that they, both of them, immediately leave the house, with nothing more than the clothes that they had on their back.

“I’m gay,” Taylor confirmed, and then shot a little pleading look over at Dane, as though mutely asking why his mother was acting like this. Not that he was unhappy about it, obviously, but Taylor, too, hadn’t had any real idea of how his mother would take this. “And I’m in love.”

A dull roaring sound started in Dane’s ears, and his encouraging smile melted away, he could feel it slipping right off of his face. He stared at Taylor in disbelief, because he had never, not in a million years, thought that he could get Taylor to say those words. Even as Dane had started to feel them himself, he had been so sure that Taylor could do better, would do better, and would figure out soon enough that Dane was nothing.

“I’m so happy for you both,” Rebecca said, and when Dane turned his utterly uncomprehending eyes toward her, she gifted him with the most beautiful smile, like he was precious, special, worth something. Because Taylor loved him, and she, by some miracle, trusted her son’s opinion of him.

Reaching out with her other hand, she took Dane’s, too, so that the three of them were linked. There was no artifice in her smile. Dane would have seen it in her eyes if there had been. Although if he had any doubt, it would have been swept utterly away in a few seconds.

“So what are you going to do, if you’re staying? Where are you going to live, and what are you going to do for work?”

These were all sensible questions, and Dane softly chuckled as he realized that he had gotten so swept up, so carried away by this new thing with Taylor, that he had neglected to think about some fairly important details.

“You know, ma’am, I got absolutely no idea,” Dane admitted. “I got some money, enough to find a cheap motel for a bit, maybe, until I can find a job.”

“Rebecca, not ma’am,” she told him, and he realized that he had lapsed back into more formality than he usually showed, just by the shock of all of this. A lot had happened today, a hell of a lot, and he was still reeling from that.

And he was about to be reeling much more.

“I won’t have my son’s boyfriend,” she favored them both with an incredibly warm look, and Dane felt the odd sensation of heat rushing to his face. Boyfriend? Had she just called him Taylor’s boyfriend? “Staying in some cheap motel. This house was my parents’. They left it to me, and when my husband left me with the kids, I always thought I would clear out the little apartment above the garage.”

Well, that was a lot of questions being answered all at once. He had wondered what had happened to her husband, and why she had been able to, as apparently a single mother, afford a house. He kept listening, though, not quite sure where she was going with this story.

“Well,” She dropped their hands and briskly rose to her feet. “No time like the present. Just give me a few days, and I’ll have it cleaned up for you. The fair leaves in, what, three days? I can do that.”

Like something had been settled, she leaned down and brushed her lips over Taylor’s forehead, and then, remarkably, over Dane’s, too. His head wouldn’t stop spinning. Things just kept on happening, and he was having a hard time keeping up with all of the changes all at once.

“Mom, I don’t think he gets it,” Taylor sounded amused, and Dane shot him a dirty look in response. Dane didn’t get it, but that didn’t mean that Taylor had to find that funny.

“Sorry. My head’s a bit muddled.” Rebecca acknowledged, with a slight laugh. They were all loopy, Dane realized, all tired and full of unaccustomed feelings. “Dane, I would like you to move in, to stay as long as you want. And I’m going to talk to my boss tomorrow. I might be able to find you a job if you don’t mind construction.”

As Dane tried to make her words make some sort of sense in his head, she beamed at them benevolently once more and gave them a little wave.

“I’m going to bed. Goodnight, Taylor. Dane, I hope to see you tomorrow.” The woman shot him a wink, and then she disappeared off into what Dane had to assume was her room.

Did she know that, with just a few sentences, she had utterly changed his life? Not only that, but she had gone a fair ways toward healing a wound inside himself that had been quietly festering as he ignored it.

There was only one response to give to Taylor, who was looking at him as though not quite sure how Dane was going to respond. Which was fair enough, Dane supposed, because until just a split second ago, he hadn’t been sure himself.

“I love you, too,” Dane said, sure that he sounded like an idiot, but he didn’t even care. He swept Taylor up in his arms and carried him off to his bedroom because there was no reason for them to hide anymore. No reason for them not to sleep wrapped up in each other’s arms, no worries about being found out because the one person who mattered already knew.