On a chilly December day, three months after Bo’s biopsy, Bo climbed up onto the couch and sprawled across Gage’s lap, grinning at him in the mischievous way that only young children could. Gage set his phone down and looked at Bo, wondering how he could grin so wide without hurting his cheeks.

“Hello, baby boy,” Gage said. He ruffled Bo’s hair, and Bo cried out in protest and flopped dramatically off Gage’s stomach to cuddle up against his side. “What are you doing that’s got you grinning from ear to ear?”

“Nothing,” Bo declared, then giggled maniacally and buried his face against Gage’s side.

“Nothing, huh?” Gage rolled over and swept Bo into his arms. Bo shrieked with delight and locked his arms around Gage’s neck as Gage rolled them. When he came to a stop, Bo was on top of him, positioned just above the barely there baby bump that Aaron had been worshiping earlier that morning before he’d left for work. “How come ‘nothing’ looks like so much fun?”

Bo giggled.

“Laughing’s not going to get you out of this one, mister.” Gage kissed the top of his son’s head. “What have you been doing? I thought that things were a little too quiet around here.”

“I made something for Uncle Alex,” Bo revealed.

“A wedding gift?”

“Mmhm.” Bo grinned wider.

“And where did you do that?” Gage lifted an eyebrow. Bo had been playing quietly on the living room floor, not even an arm’s length away from him. “Will you show me?”

“Mmhm.” Bo let go of Gage’s neck and rolled off the couch. His feet thudded on the floor, and he ran at full speed to the section of carpet he’d been playing on. “Look!”

Before Gage had even climbed to his feet, he saw the gift Bo had made. There, on the carpet, were bountiful swirls of purple glitter. Some of it was stacked in tiny hills, some of it had been fanned across the carpet, and some of it looked like it had been rubbed into the fibers, like Bo had wanted Gage to understand that he was completely and totally screwed.

Gage looked at the purple mess with horror.

Glitter.

Where had Bo gotten glitter?

“Baby boy,” Gage said, trying to sound positive. “That was really nice of you to do for Uncle Alex, but don’t you think it would have been better on a paper you could give him? I’m sure he’d love to have one of your paintings… but we can’t give him our carpet.”

Glitter. Purple glitter. Purple was Alex’s trademark, and it wouldn’t have surprised Gage in the least if Alex had slipped his son a pot of glitter the last time he’d been over. Since Bo had started on his prednisolone, people had been in and out of the house to visit him, and often, they brought gifts. Gage’s older brother, Everett, had been over several times with a different stuffed animal each visit, only to be showed up by Aaron’s twin brother, Caleb, who seemed to know what Everett was doing and brought bigger stuffed animals just a few days later in a bid to outdo him. Both Aaron’s parents and Gage’s parents stopped by regularly to see their grandson, and Mal had been in and out, more crestfallen and introverted than he’d been before, but excited to see Bo’s progress toward good health. Alex and Laurence had been by at least once a week since Bo’s diagnosis had been made and his recovery had begun.

Alex brought pizza every time.

But pizza wouldn’t excuse glitter. Gage knew that no matter how many times he vacuumed, he’d find glitter until he moved out. Alex had brought a plague upon their household, and Gage would find a way to repay him in kind.

“It’s my painting,” Bo declared proudly. He pointed at the glitter swirls. “For Uncle Alex.”

“Tell you what…” The glitter wasn’t going anywhere, and at least it wasn’t paint or glue. Of all the art supplies Bo could have dumped all over the carpet, Gage supposed that glitter wasn’t the worst. “Why don’t you and I sit down at the table and we can make a painting for Uncle Alex on a paper that we can give him for his wedding, okay?” Alex and Laurence’s big day was just a little more than a month away. “But, if we do that, then you have to help me.” Gage bit the inside of his lip, wondering how he could swing this. “I’m going to need a lot of scrap cardboard to cover the table with so we don’t make a mess. I’ve also got to try to save some of your pretty glitter from the carpet so we can give it to Uncle Alex. Can you go get me lots of scrap cardboard from the side room while I take care of the glitter?”

“Yes!” Bo said, stars in his eyes. He ran from the living room and waited patiently by the side door in the kitchen—there was a lock on it so Bo didn’t get out there and cause trouble. Now that he was full of energy again, he’d become quite the explorer, which delighted Gage as much as it concerned him. The house was babyproofed in anticipation of their future child, and there was little that Bo could get into, but that didn’t stop his little hands from getting into all kinds of things they shouldn’t have. And after a Sunday morning disaster where Bo had figured out how to open Gage and Aaron’s bedroom door without making a peep, door safety had become a valid concern.

Gage undid the lock for him and opened the door, and off Bo went to collect old cardboard.

While he did, Gage grabbed his phone from the couch, brought up the Single Dad Support Group chat, and snapped a picture of the mess to send to them.

TeenDad2: My life right now. Omg. @Gwynning, I think your husband-to-be gave my child ammunition to ruin my quiet morning the last time he was over

xVerity: Is that glitter?

TeenDad2: A whole pot of it, I think

LoveHarley: And you wanted ANOTHER kid? Hahaha

KnotMyProblem: At least the ‘2’ part in TD’s name makes sense now, right?

There’d been a change in KnotMyProblem over the last few months. Since the incident with Aaron, he’d returned to the chat, but he’d been more respectful toward Gage—which Gage appreciated, but which seemed to have made the other Single Dads suspicious. xVerity, the most astute of the group when it came to interpersonal dynamics, had messaged Gage privately to ask if everything was okay. As far as Gage could tell, things were fine. He trusted that if KnotMyProblem had an issue, he’d come to Gage about it.

He’d even congratulated Gage on his pregnancy, although behind his words, Gage read hurt and disappointment.

LoveHarley: God, I can’t wait to meet you guys next month! @Gwynning, I’ve never been so excited to go to a wedding before.

xVerity: It’s the perfect excuse for me to go scope out the city before I move there, so I’m pretty excited, too.

KnotMyProblem: Wait, wait, hold on, move there?

TeenDad2: xV, you’re MOVING HERE??

xVerity: The company’s asked me to relocate in order to fill a recently opened position at our sister location, so Nikki and I are officially packing up and heading to Aurora in the new year

TeenDad2: omg omg!

TeenDad2: this is great!

KnotMyProblem: xV, make sure you bring lots and lots of glitter for Gage’s kiddos.

TeenDad2: omg Knot can you not?

Still, Gage couldn’t help but grin. It would be good to have more friends in the city, especially friends like xVerity, who was raising his daughter on his own, and who understood what it was like to be a parent.

TeenDad2: Now all we need to do is make sure Knot and Harley never leave, and we’ll have the gang all in one place. Can you imagine the SDSG acting like an actual support group? With chairs and coffee and roll call and stuff?

KnotMyProblem: I think you mean role call, TD.

TeenDad2: omg it doesn’t matter. But I think I’m right? Isn’t it roll call??? Guys?

KnotMyProblem sent the chat a picture of a dinner roll snatched from the internet.

LoveHarley: I’m actually dying. Roll call. Can I get in on that? xV, can the irl SDSG have roll call instead of role call, please?

xVerity: Duly noted. But just fyi, roll call IS the correct way to spell it

Gwynning: Did someone say roll call?

Gage was halfway through typing out Gwynn’s name in capital letters to welcome him back to the chat when Bo barreled through the door, carrying as much cardboard as he could. “Daddy!” A flattened cardboard box that had once contained a bottle of acetaminophen toppled onto the floor as he sprinted around the counter. “Help!”

Gage tossed his phone onto the couch and jogged over to help Bo. He took the cardboard from his arms and set it on the table. The boxes would need to be cut open and laid flat so they could cover the table most effectively.

“Okay. Here’s the deal.” Gage looked down at Bo, who gazed up at him expectantly. “I wasn’t able to get any of your glitter out of the carpet because I’m too big. If I give you a little dish to collect it in, do you think you can use your small hands and do a really good job collecting as much as you can, so we can make a nice glitter painting for Uncle Alex?”

“Yes!” Bo exclaimed enthusiastically. He rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, almost vibrating with excitement.

When he got this excited over being helpful, Gage didn’t feel so bad about his little white lies.

“Then you can do that while I prepare the table and get the paper, the glue, and the paint, okay?” They were kept on the top shelf of the upstairs closet in a container with a tricky lid, just in case small hands managed to find their way to them. “And maybe, if we have enough time, we can make a painting to give to Daddy for Christmas, too.”

“Yes!” Bo laughed and clapped his hands, then took off across the living room, carpet-bound. Hummingbirds couldn’t keep up with him. His newfound energy meant that he got into trouble more often than he did before, but if a little mischief meant that his son was healthy, Gage didn’t mind. He’d give Bo a thousand pots of purple glitter if it meant his baby could run and laugh and play.

Nothing had made him so happy as the first time Bo had sprinted for him, excitement sparkling in his eyes, because Gage had made the mac and cheese with animal shapes for lunch.

His little boy was back, and this time, he’d make sure he stayed.

That afternoon, they painted purple glitter swirls for Uncle Alex, and a lion to give to Aaron on Christmas day. Bo had insisted on that one.

“It’s Daddy’s favorite!” he’d claimed.

Gage was fairly certain he knew why.

That evening, after Aaron had returned from work, dinner had been eaten, and the dishes had been left to dry, Gage cuddled with his family on the couch in front of a new episode of Peppa Pig—Aaron had tracked down a season that Gage had overlooked and brought it home to surprise Bo. Outside the window, snow fell. It muffled the world and kept them snug together, comfortable beneath the blanket Alex had given Bo one year—Bo’s favorite, patterned with puppies.

As the episode ended, Bo yawned and burrowed beneath Aaron’s arm, tucking himself against Aaron’s side. Like it was nothing, Aaron lifted his arm to allow Bo to settle, then wrapped it loosely around his son and held him in place. The next episode began.

There was no more wheezing. The sickening rattling in Bo’s lungs had stopped. The television filled in the silence, but Gage heard the beauty of sounds of nothingness all the same.

Their little boy was getting better, and their family was whole again.

“Do you think he’s asleep?” Aaron asked not more than five minutes into the episode.

Gage, who’d been lost in his thoughts, turned his attention to Aaron and Bo. Bo’s face was mashed against Aaron’s side, and drool soaked into Aaron’s shirt. His chest rose and fell steadily. His eyes were closed.

“Out cold,” Gage replied. “You want me to take him to bed?”

“I’ve got it.” Carefully, Aaron turned at the waist and scooped Bo up from the couch. Once Bo was in his arms, he stood. Of all the things Gage had ever seen, nothing compared to the sight of Aaron taking care of their son.

He hadn’t thought it was possible to love Aaron more than he already did, but he’d been wrong.

“What do you want to do once I get back from tucking him in?” Aaron asked. “We could watch a movie, plan our wedding, research furniture for the nursery…”

“I think, tonight, all I want to do is be close to you.” Need had settled into Gage’s bones, drifting through him like the snow that fell outside. It blanketed his soul in its presence and demanded that he address it. Right now, he craved to be near the man he loved. It didn’t matter what else they did, as long as they could do it together. “You can put on a movie if you want. That’d be fine. I’m going to pull a Bo and snuggle up against you, no matter what it is.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Aaron kissed his forehead on the way past. “I’ll be right back.”

Aaron’s footsteps distanced themselves from the couch, then headed up the stairs. Gage listened to the sound of Bo’s door opening, then waited for the tiny click as it shut. Before long, Aaron was back on the couch, his arm spread so Gage could tuck himself against his side. Wrapped up in the blankets they shared, Gage curled up against him. Aaron draped his arm around his shoulders, holding him loosely.

It was bliss.

“I love you, Aaron,” Gage whispered. He closed his eyes as Aaron powered down the DVD player and switched the source on the television so they could stream. As young adults, their love had been on fire—a passionate, wild affair that had left them both hungry for each other. But now, with years behind them and fatherhood backing them, their love had matured into something sprawling and subtle. It had woven itself through Gage’s body and wrapped around his soul, and he knew that as long as he nourished it, it would continue to grow.

“And I love you, BP.” There was a smile in Aaron’s voice, and it warmed Gage from the inside. He toyed with the ring on his left hand, pushing it up and down as he basked in the way Aaron’s words made him feel. “I have always loved you.”

It was a statement Gage believed in—one he’d hold close to his heart for the rest of his life, no matter how difficult life or love became.

Aaron loved him. Gage believed.

He was strong enough for that.