Chapter Twenty-Five

After everyone had cleaned up and said their goodbyes, Luke took Jeff and Cam out for a celebratory dinner. Initially, Jeff was nervous that Cam would be uncomfortable sitting across from them out in public, but he needn’t have worried. The kid was on cloud nine after his first ever live performance and he was chatting up a storm. He didn’t even bat an eyelash when Jeff and Luke started sharing food and holding hands under the table.

When they were halfway done with their second courses, Cam dropped a bomb.

“Oh, yeah. Mr. Martin, I forgot to tell you. I got accepted into Milton.”

Jeff sat down his fork and beamed at him. Milton was about an hour and a half’s drive away and it was Cam’s first choice of universities.

“What!? Seriously? When did you find out? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Cam tried to shrug it off, but he couldn’t hide his proud grin.

“I got my acceptance letter through email last week. I’ve been so busy with the play and stuff that I just now checked this morning.”

“Well congratulations kid. You’ve earned it.”

Jeff held up his glass and offered him a cheer. Then he glanced over at Luke, who had been awfully quiet throughout this entire exchange. Cam’s father had tears in his eyes.

“I didn’t even know you’d been applying,” he said softly.

Cam shrugged again and stuffed some more pasta in his mouth.

“You can thank him,” Cam said, nodding at Jeff. “He’s been helping me pick out schools to apply for ever since he helped me get my grades up. Without him I probably would have ended up in community college with all the other D students.”

Luke gaped at both of them. Jeff just smiled and continued eating.

After they were all stuffed to the brim with bread, pasta, and the delicious chocolate cake that Luke had ordered in celebration of Cam’s announcement, they returned to the Davis residence as a group. Once inside, Cam immediately started yawning. Two hours of high energy performance followed by three more hours of celebration had really taken a lot out of him.

“I’m going to bed,” he said, kicking off his shoes by the door. “Gotta be sharp for tomorrow’s matinee. Night dad, night Mr. Martin.”

“Goodnight, Cam,” Jeff called back.

“Love you,” Luke added.

Cameron waved off their sentiments and walked up the stairs in a daze. Once he was tucked away in his room, Luke and Jeff cracked open a bottle of wine and sat down in the dining room to continue talking.

“Have I mentioned that you’re a miracle worker, Jeff Martin?”

Jeff grinned.

“You may have mentioned it a time or two, but please, by all means, continue.”

Luke kicked him lightly under the table and Jeff laughed.

“Really, it was nothing,” Jeff said. “Cam did all the work. He just needed a little encouragement.”

Luke shook his head and ran his fingers down the side of Jeff’s jaw.

“You know,” Luke said, “If you want to come join me out in the shed, I might just let you work some miracles on me too.”

Jeff grinned and captured his boyfriend’s lips in a kiss. Then the two of them slipped outside to have a private little celebration of their own, far out of hearing range for any peacefully sleeping teenagers.