WILDFLOWERS

 

 

“MARRIED?” YOSHI demanded as they ate lunch in Larx’s office. “Married?”

Larx shushed him, but Nancy, Tane’s sister, was sitting with them this day, and she took up the cry. “Seriously? Married?”

Larx grimaced, a little embarrassed but secretly as thrilled as a girl in a romance movie. “Yes. Married. Like they do in the storybooks, right? It happens.”

“Well, yeah,” Yoshi said, rolling his eyes. “To you, maybe. But you get shot teaching science and subdue psychopaths with shotguns. I mean, just because you think getting married happens doesn’t mean it happens to the rest of us!”

Nancy patted his arm. “Honey, Tane will ask you. Or, you know, show up someday with rings and say, ‘Wear it or don’t. I’m wearing it because it’s how I feel.’”

Yoshi looked at her sourly and waved his left hand with the etched stainless steel band on it. “It’s like you were there.”

Larx stared at him. “That’s a wedding ring? It’s awesome!”

“It’s a not-wedding ring, because we had a not-wedding,” Yoshi muttered. “He helped Berto move into Aaron’s old house and came back with the rings and that super not-romantic proposal she just mentioned and told me that I shared his goddamned pain so I should share his goddamned joy.” Yoshi shrugged, and his cheeks heated. “Okay. So maybe it was a little romantic.” Then he looked up from his egg-salad sandwich—which everybody was eating, because Easter Sunday had been last weekend and who had anything else?—and sighed. “But it’s not a summer wedding in your backyard, with the sun setting and a white canopy and your daughters singing and your sons ushering people to sit and the whole town there, because Aaron’s running for sheriff and why wouldn’t you invite people—is it?”

Larx stared at him. “That’s what we’re having?”

Yoshi nodded. “Yeah. I won’t let you settle for anything less.”

“You guys, I was thinking some friends and some cake—”

“I’ll do the flowers,” Nancy said on a happy sigh. “I bet the girls will help me—”

“Don’t count on Olivia,” Larx muttered. “She’s going to be pregnant through August, and she might just try to hurt you.”

“How is she doing?” Nancy asked kindly. She’d had Olivia in her class, as had most of the teachers at Colton High.

“Better,” Larx said simply. He wouldn’t tell them about the two tearful, emotionally fraught phone calls he’d gotten during her two weeks in Auburn. Aaron had been there afterward to pick up the pieces, and they seemed to be all stitched together now. What mattered was that Olivia was coming home tomorrow afternoon, and on Sunday night Elton’s father was going to try the family introduction thing again. Larx didn’t have a lot of hope he’d fix things, but hey, it was a free meal. “That reminds me!” He was happy to change the subject. “Candace—her first day back at school is Monday. What’s the buzz in the hallways?”

Yoshi smirked. “The buzz is, the heroic principal went up against her homicidal stepdad and saved everybody’s life, hurray! And what was Yoshi doing when this happened? Yoshi was home, feeding teenagers pizza. Because Yoshi likes teenagers a little better than Yoshi likes guns.”

“Okay, Douchy, you can stop talking about yourself in the third person now,” Larx told him. “We all know the world would have fallen apart if you hadn’t constipated three teenaged boys and caused my daughter to break out.”

“That was the grease in the pizza, not me,” Yoshi said with supreme righteousness.

“And it doesn’t have a thing to do with”—Larx’s playfulness faded—“whether or not anybody at the school knows about the nature of her abuse or the procedure afterward.” He didn’t even want to say the words in the high school environs. Candace’s trauma was her own—Larx wanted to make damned sure she had control over who knew about it. If the whole school was buzzing about her, he’d make arrangements for her to go to school in Truckee—he wasn’t going to subject her to the additional pain of having her private life on display.

“I haven’t heard a whisper,” Yoshi said, just as soberly. “I asked her geography teacher—the one whose class her friend attends—if her friend has said anything or is the type to gossip. She said the girl’s life revolves around Candace as a friend. She’s been sad and distracted since Candace left, and she’s really excited that she’s coming back. Period. So I think we’re bringing her to a safe place.”

Larx nodded. “Good. If we get even an inkling that it’s not, we pull her out and we shelter her.” If Candace could trek twenty miles across the mountains in the snow, sleeping in a snow shelter to stay alive, the least they could do was help her navigate the pitfalls of high school society. Larx was damned well going to try.

“Deal,” Nancy said, and Yoshi nodded in agreement.

“How about Jaime—how’s he doing?” Larx looked at Nancy because she usually ate lunch in the staff room, and she had more of the pulse of the teachers than they did.

“Great,” she said, nodding. “As you very well know, he’s stayed active in his clubs, has started hanging with the drama kids, and is signed up to take the PSAT practice courses starting next weekend. Your boy is doing okay; you can relax.”

Larx rolled his eyes. “Never,” he said, meaning it. “We can never relax. You think I relax about my kids? You are sorely mistaken.” No finish line. There was no finish line. You just kept running the best race you could.

For a moment they were quiet, because everybody had been worried about Livvy, and then Yoshi spoke up.

“Seriously—you think we’re going to stop badgering you about the wedding that easy? I mean, Larx—this is going to be Colton’s social event of the year!”

Larx just shook his head. “Aaron runs for election in the fall—don’t you think he’ll have enough on his plate?”

“Nope,” Nancy said smugly. “Just leave the details to us.”

“I don’t even believe this,” Larx muttered.

“No, seriously. We’ll take care of it,” Yoshi reassured him.

“Guys, we haven’t even told the kids!”

Nancy and Yoshi looked at each other in evil agreement. “You have a week,” Yoshi said.

“That’s fair,” Nancy agreed. “A week. You said he asked you three weeks ago? You have a week to tell the kids, or we tell them you’re both eloping to Tahoe.”

Larx stared at them. “You’re awful people.” He meant that.

“We’re awful people who are going to arrange your wedding,” Yoshi said sweetly. “I think you should be nicer to us than that.”

“I think he should bring us sandwiches,” Nancy said thoughtfully. “Sub sandwiches. Because Jesus, egg salad is going to make me fuckin’ puke.”

Yoshi agreed, and then they both started talking about wildflowers in mason jars and who they knew who decorated cakes as a hobby, and Larx spent the rest of his lunch lacing his hands behind his neck and wishing for a teleportation device.

And trying not to dread Sunday, when the whole family had to face Olivia’s in-laws for one more happy try.

 

 

COLTON HAD one “fancy” restaurant, a steakhouse, with tablecloths and limited seating and a waitstaff that sort of trickled down from Reno because Colton didn’t have quite the amount of gambling despair. Aaron and Eamon ate there sometimes for dinner when they were discussing administration, because Eamon liked the place. He’d treat Aaron, usually, because the price was pretty steep, and Aaron was always grateful.

Elton’s father had made reservations there for ten, which meant they pretty much took up the floor, and Larx brought Jaime because, in his words, “This guy fuckin’ owes us big.”

Well, not that Jaime ate a lot, but Aaron wasn’t going to argue.

The dinner started awkwardly, plastic smiles and the obscenely loud clatter of utensils. All the boys were dressed in button-down shirts and sweaters, and Christiana had busted out with a full-skirted dress and heels. The black skirt had a tiny white print of Jack and Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas on it, and Aaron heartily approved.

Olivia was dressed in a sapphire-blue tunic and leggings, her baby bump just barely visible when she sat down. Elton wore a suit, like his father, and Cheryl was wearing slacks and a sweater with sparkles.

Larx had even managed a sport coat over his sweater, and Aaron had too. Aaron had been a little dismayed at how much alike their sweaters looked—but there was nothing they could do about it now. It was like they were all hoping the awkward finery would make people forget about the couple invading Larx and Aaron’s home and saying nasty things three weeks before.

But then, it had been a big three weeks.

“So, Olivia,” Shawn McDaniels said cordially, “I hope your, uh, treatment went well?”

Olivia laughed. “It’s not like they pumped me full of drugs and zapped my brain, Mr. McDaniels. We just went over medication I could use while pregnant and nursing and talked about regimen and meditation techniques. It was just that we had to journal every day and practice everything we were taught, so, you know, by the time we got home, it was habit.” She rolled her eyes. “Lots and lots of habit.”

“Will you be able to take that habit and go back to school after the baby’s born?”

Aaron and Larx both sucked in a breath, because Olivia had talked frankly the day before about how much she needed her people right now.

“We’ll see,” she said, with a confidence Aaron admired. “Right now there’s colleges in Reno which are closer, and online courses that I can complete without leaving home. I really would rather take things slowly, sir. Taking care of myself, taking care of my people—the degree in biology will come.”

“Biology?” Cheryl McDaniels said, fascinated. “I had no idea that was your major. What made you decide to go into that?”

Olivia smiled slightly. “My dad’s a science teacher. He spent a lot of our childhood taking us into the world and showing us that it was full of wonder. I mean, scientists are going to save the world, right?” She smiled brightly. “I’ll join them when I can.”

Oh! She was lovely. Charming. Quirky. She was Larx’s daughter down to her toes. Aaron didn’t see how anyone wouldn’t love her as a new daughter—but the McDaniels family tried.

“I’m not really sure scientists are going to save the world,” McDaniels intoned, and Aaron barely refrained from rolling his eyes.

“Well, it’s not going to be the politicians,” Kirby muttered to Christiana, and she snorted, drawing the attention of the rest of the table.

“Really, young man? Who do you think is going to save the world?” Oh God. He was one of those people who condescended to teenagers. Aaron was supposed to be running for an elected office, and he could hardly sit at the same table as this guy. Not good, not good, not good!

“The teachers, sir,” Kirby said boldly. “I’ve never learned anything from a politician, but all my best decisions come from information and a working brain. It would be great if the politicians paid them more thought—just, you know, in case you want to take that into your day job.”

There was general laughter at the table, and McDaniels retreated long enough for the family to order. Larx had told Aaron that his order would depend on what kind of asshole McDaniels would be beforehand. He’d been civil but unsubtly trying to show up pretty much the entire family. Larx ordered the steak and lobster, and while Aaron ordered the fish on diet principle, he admired Larx’s decision greatly. Aaron was reasonably sure the meat wasn’t going to be the only thing being grilled while they waited for their food.

However, McDaniels’s first targets had proved to be unexpectedly resilient in the poise department—he chose his next victim with an easy kill in mind.

“So, Jaime—”

“Hai-me,” Jaime corrected. “You don’t say the J in Colombia. It’s pronounced Hai-me.”

Elton’s father swallowed and tried again. “Jaime—are you and your brother going to be living with my son for long?”

And for a moment, Jaime looked bewildered. “We’re renting the rooms from Deputy George, sir. It’s like people in an apartment complex, except we all went in together and got a dog.” The smile that popped out on the young man’s delicate features could have made angels swoon. “We gotta live there together for a little while at least, sir. It’s a real good dog.”

“As long as you and Berto need to,” Aaron reassured.

“It’s actually a lot better than living at the dorm, Dad,” Elton intervened. “We take turns making dinner, Olivia makes breakfast for everybody, and we clean the house twice a week. It’s nice having a family there.”

“But these people aren’t related to you!” Shawn McDaniels burst out, and Larx and Aaron both hid their smirks behind their hands.

“What?” McDaniels demanded.

“We were just wondering how long it would take you to get there,” Larx said dryly. “Elton’s the father of my grandson. He’s family. And even if he wasn’t, we like him. We’ll keep him as long as he wants to be here.”

“Thanks, sir,” Elton said, holding his hand out for the five.

“My man.” Larx gave back. “Now seriously, Shawn, are you done poking at us? I thought we were here to get to know each other, not be deposed.”

“Good word,” Kellan said from Aaron’s elbow. “I was trying to think of something that meant ‘grilled like a trout’ but sounded like a grown-up would say it.”

Larx regarded him with mock severity. “Aren’t you going to be eighteen in a couple of months? I mean, won’t you be a grown-up then?”

And Kellan shook his head with horror. “Hey, I was promised a two-year addendum to my childhood when I moved in. I’m not claiming grown-up until I’m twenty.”

“Addendum.” Larx winked. “Nice word!”

Everybody laughed except Shawn McDaniels, who managed to suck all the light out the world as he was sucking down scotch.

“I’m just trying to get a feel for who my son will be spending his time with!” Shawn protested. “You have to admit, your… lifestyle is somewhat unorthodox.”

“The working-parent lifestyle?” Aaron asked drolly, figuring it was his turn to take a hit. “Because my wife worked—she had to. We needed the money. Or did you mean something else?”

McDaniels regarded him with an unfriendly glare. “You know very well what I mean.”

“No, sir,” Christiana said, dimpling evilly. “Spell it out for us.”

And now McDaniels was on the receiving end of eight very unfriendly sets of eyes. “I’m sorry, I’m just old-fashioned—”

“Why is it people use that word as an excuse for doing something really awful?” Christi asked, like they were having a different conversation. “Right before someone does something really racist or dumb, they’re like, ‘I’m just old-fashioned, but I think children should be beaten and not heard!’ Or, ‘I’m just old-fashioned, but I think women should vote like their husbands do.’”

“Wait!” Kirby said, like an excited student. “I’ve got one! ‘I’m just old-fashioned, but I think girls are too dumb for science!’”

“Or athletes shouldn’t be in drama!” Kellan added.

“Or I’m just old-fashioned, but I think Mexicans should go home,” Jaime said, disgusted. “I’m not even Mexican. Do people think that’s the only country south of Texas?”

“I’m just old-fashioned, but I think a father should give cows to his in-laws so they know how much his daughter is worth,” Elton said pointedly, and Olivia smacked him on the arm.

“Twenty. I am a twenty-cow woman.”

“And an entire coop of chickens, my love,” Elton said, smiling sweetly.

“Hey,” Aaron said, eyes twinkling. “Old-fashioned isn’t always bad, you know?”

He watched Larx’s eyes widen across the table, because Larx could read his mind.

“Examples, Aaron,” Christi demanded—but she trusted him, so her smile never dimmed. “We need examples.”

“Okay,” Aaron said, watching as Larx shook his head in panic. They hadn’t said anything to the family—not once—about their conversation three weeks ago, about the tremendous monumental thing they’d agreed to, about the direction their lives were heading. “How about, I think when two people are really in love, and their lives join seamlessly, and they want to be together even when they’re super pissed at each other, that if it’s important to them, they should get married.”

Olivia and Christi caught on first.

“Daddy?” Olivia asked hesitantly.

Larx mouthed “You asshole” at him before turning to the kids. “Yes. Aaron asked and I said yes.”

The table erupted into applause and whistles and good wishes, and Aaron watched as Shawn McDaniels conceded defeat. Nobody here was going to let him make them feel small—not a soul.

“Congratulations, gentlemen,” he said when the hubbub had died down. “Do you have anything planned? A date? A venue?”

“Venue should be our front yard,” Aaron said, smiling. “I’m pretty sure there’s flowers in the spring and summer, and we can barbecue in the back.”

“But when?”

“Sometime not winter,” Jaime burst out. “I’m sorry—I know you people are all, like, ‘Okay! It’s spring! Hurray!’—but there’s still snow in the shade, and I think you all are full of it!”

More laughter, and the food arrived just then, but Aaron winked at Larx’s glare from across the table and knew he’d be in for it later. There’d be kids in the back of the minivan, though, so Larx would just have to wait until they got home.

 

 

“THAT ENDED better than it began,” Larx said as he was getting ready for bed.

Aaron was already under the covers, and he watched Larx’s trim body in the light from his reading lamp and smiled. “You think that’s the end?” he baited.

Larx looked at him sideways before hanging up his sport coat and setting his belt on the dresser. “Feeling frisky, Deputy,” he said primly.

“Hey, I’ve been cleared to run with you,” Aaron said. “I think that means we can do the other thing too. The big thing. The thing you’re dying to do, and don’t deny it.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Larx said with a wink. Then he sobered. “One more week at home—will you live?”

Aaron shrugged, resigned. “I’m on desk duty for another month, and Eamon wants to ride with me for a week or two to make sure I, you know….”

“Stop flinching,” Larx said softly.

Driving—it was still a problem. So far the kids had missed it, but Aaron felt Larx’s hand on his knee whenever they got within fifteen feet of another car, no matter which one of them was driving. Larx knew.

“Yeah.” Aaron leaned back and massaged the knot forming between his eyes. He had plans for this evening, dammit, that didn’t include worry. “But that has nothing to do with what I want from you tonight.”

Larx laughed and then crossed his arms in mock irritation. “After dropping that bomb on the kids, you think I’m going to put out?”

“What did you think we were going to do, Larx? Run away to Tahoe and elope?”

Larx scowled. “Have you been talking to Yoshi?”

“No! I just know you—you don’t want the ceremony for yourself. Well, tough.”

The tension bled from Larx’s shoulders, and he took off his slacks and folded them before hanging them up. “Good luck with that,” he muttered. “Nancy and Yoshi have plans for us. You have no idea. I mean, I think they’ve picked a date and everything.”

“Well, good. Have them coordinate with the kids—seriously, all we’ll have to do is hire a housecleaner and show up for the ceremony.”

Larx guffawed. “My God, you have no idea what you’ve done, do you. Do you have any idea how bananashit this whole thing is going to get?”

Aaron shrugged. “As opposed to our lives during the last six months? And hey—Kellan and Kirby graduate in a couple of months, and there’s going to be a baby in August, and—”

Larx threw his hands in the air and stalked to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Aaron used the time to remove his boxers and take off his T-shirt, stashing them neatly under his pillow. Larx might talk a good game about getting too irritated for sex, but once he got in bed to find Aaron naked, the whole world would come to a halt.

Aaron was really looking forward to that happening tonight.

Larx came back into the room and shut off the light, not even looking at Aaron before sliding into bed. Aaron rolled to his side and pulled Larx into his arms, finding his mouth even in the starry vision of the new dark.

Larx groaned in total surrender, just that quickly, and ran his hand down Aaron’s flank and hip, gasping slightly.

“Wow, Deputy,” he teased. “It’s like you’re in the mood to do the thing.”

“Not the thing,” Aaron whispered in his ear. “The fucking thing. I’m in the mood to do the fucking thing.”

And oh, Larx moaned again, responsive, giving, all his irritation turning to passion in a flash of desire.

Aaron took his time, seduced him, used his mouth, his teeth, his hands, his tongue, brought Larx to wanton, begging submission, and Larx urged him on.

“Yes! Oh… there. Kiss… oh please, touch… let me touch you—please, Aaron, let me suck you—”

Aaron’s cock grew hard from Larx’s words alone.

And when he followed words up with touch, Aaron’s need amped up from hard to unbearable, to swollen, aching, throbbing with arousal.

He’d wanted to spend an hour, but he needed much sooner than that. It felt like moments, heartbeats, a few cries in the night before he had Larx where he wanted him, thighs spread, ass lifted on a pillow, slicked up and dripping and waiting for possession.

His body welcomed Aaron like the cave welcomed the dragon—hot and moist and ready for invasion.

And passion.

And tumult and frantic chasing after glory.

Larx found his first, arching up, tightening around Aaron’s cock, spewing, thick and urgent onto his stomach as Aaron watched in the faint light. Aaron’s own climax rippled through him, clenched his stomach, knotted his chest, exploded outward into sound, even as Larx gasped under him, hand shoved in his mouth to muffle his cries.

Aaron never wanted to leave the haven of Larx’s body.

He fell forward, feeling his recovery in every sinew, regretting nothing.

“Oh God,” he groaned into the hollow of Larx’s shoulder. “I needed that. Did you need that? I needed that.”

“I so needed that,” Larx panted, wrapping his legs around Aaron’s hips, his arms around Aaron’s shoulders. “I needed that more than air.”

Aaron rolled to the side and grinned at him, and Larx grinned back. His narrow face relaxed as it so rarely did.

“Did you need it as much as our family needs our wedding?” he asked, making sure.

Larx groaned, a totally different kind of groan than he’d let out a few minutes ago. “Oh, fine. I get it,” he admitted. “It needs to be big. They all need to know. It needs to be a deal.”

Aaron closed his eyes, relief and orgasm making him weak. “Good. Because us being in love? In spite of all the chaos of our lives? That’s a big deal to me.”

He felt Larx’s kiss on his shoulder as Larx rolled to his side so he could rest his head there next. “Me too. We’ll make it a big deal to the world. I promise, Deputy.”

“I’ll hold you to that, Principal.”

“Mm….” Larx was falling asleep, naked and despoiled, and Aaron thought he’d wake him to dress in a few minutes. Right now Aaron could hold everything that had been missing from his life for so long in his arms, against his chest, next to his heart.

He knew—they both knew—what a rare and strange thing happiness was. They knew enough to grab on to it with both hands and carry it with them into an ever-changing future.