Chapter Twenty

“LAST TICKET.” Fuck, he was tired.

The last two weeks had been brutal: training the new chef, trying to think, dealing with the fire inspector and the police. He knew Mitch had set the fire. Knew it, but there wasn’t any solid evidence, and Mitch was fucking gone. Gone. Like, disappeared.

The police were talking about searches and shit, but Jeff knew Mitch. He’d had his say. That would be the last of it.

Jeff helped Brianna get the last salmon out, then sighed.

Over. It was over. He could feel it in his soul. Mitch wouldn’t be back.

“You’ve got a visitor,” Martin told him as he entered the kitchen, Don trailing behind him. “Something about coming to take you home.”

“Well….” He looked over, beamed. “Don. Guys, this is my partner.” He loved the way Don’s face lit up when he said things like that.

Don waved. “Hey.”

They all waved, Ben coming up to shake Don’s hand. “I’m glad to see you. Sorry to see Jeff go.”

“I’m sure you are—he’s an amazing chef.” Don grinned at Ben, shook his hand.

“He is.”

Jeff grinned. “Shut up.” They’d already had his going-away party; it was time to leave.

“It’s the truth.” Don radiated happiness. “Come on. I’m not sure I’m legally parked.”

He nodded, gazed around the restaurant. He’d thought he was going to have this forever. Forever.

“You okay?” Don asked him softly.

“Yeah. How are the kids? Did you drive down?”

“The kids are great. And I did. I want to take you somewhere.” Don was parked in the alley behind the restaurant. “Although you can do the actual driving if you want.”

“That’s cool. Go ahead.”

Jeff had left the car with Don last weekend so he and the kids could drive around looking at houses, and Jilly had been dropping him at work. Then he’d taxied back to her place every night.

Don got them on the road and headed out of the city. “So, how does it feel?”

“Odd, but okay.” He probably wouldn’t process all of it ’til later. “Let me text Jillian and let her know you came in.”

“She knows.” Don threw him a grin. “I’ve got your bag in the trunk.”

“Yeah? Wow. Okay. Are the kids in there too?” he teased. Sometimes Don’s efficiency scared him.

Don laughed. “No. They’re safe with Mike and Samantha.”

They spent most of the drive in silence—a comfortable, companionable silence—but when they got to the turnoff, Don didn’t take it.

“Don? Love, you missed the turn.”

He got another grin. “I did if we were going to Mike and Samantha’s.”

“Where are we going?”

“To that bed and breakfast we stayed at. I thought it would be nice to have a night to ourselves, and we need to talk.”

“Oh.” How dear. He leaned over, kissed Don’s cheek. “Maybe this time will be less traumatic.” He loved that place, even with the bad memory of that phone call.

“God yes.” Don looked so happy as he turned off the highway. They’d be there soon—it wasn’t that far off the beaten track and yet still felt private.

“Did you and the kids see any good houses?”

“Yeah, we saw a few. There’s this one place, though….” Don shrugged. “It’s one of the things we need to talk about.”

They rounded a corner, and there the place was. It looked as good as he remembered.

“Good deal.” Jeff couldn’t help his smile. “Still a beautiful damn place.”

“And actually pretty close to everything, isn’t it?” Don pulled into a parking spot on the big round drive, turned off the engine.

“Yeah. Are they expecting us? I hate to wake them up.”

“Yeah. But I wanted to talk to you first. I talked to Ken for a while when I called him. I know you like this place a lot, especially the living and dining rooms downstairs. They’d convert into a manageable and lovely room for breakfast and lunch. And there’d be income from the rooms as well. So I called and asked if they’d be interested in selling, and they said they were. They want to retire, but they want the place to stay with family too, so they hadn’t just put it on the market or anything—” Don drew a breath.

“I…. Really? They…. Really?”

“Yeah. I hope you don’t mind, but every time the place got mentioned, you got this look on your face, and I didn’t want to suggest it if it wasn’t a possibility, so I called them to feel them out.”

“But… do we have enough? I mean to buy it and everything and try to make it work? Do you even want a bed and breakfast?” Oh God. Oh God.

“It’s a gorgeous place, and it would be a source of income even after the kids are older. We’ll have to talk price and stuff with Ken and Timmy, but if your check won’t cover it, I bet you can get a loan for the rest. And I’ve been putting my salary in the bank, so we’d have something to live on while we’re waiting for the place to start making money.” Don smiled warmly. “Just think—we’d be all together.”

“We have a… a lot. The house was well-insured.” Could they do it? He had the insurance from the house, and there was money from Beth’s insurance, so the kids would never want, no matter what else happened.

“So if you want to do it, we need to go talk to Ken and Timmy about it.”

Jeff turned, looked at Don. “Do you want to? It’s a ton of work for both of us, with the gardens, the kitchen, the rooms.” There were even barns for animals.

“It’s a lot of work, but we’d be working for ourselves, right? Making something good for our family.” Don touched his cheek. “I’ll support your decision—back you a hundred percent.”

“I love it here. Fell in love at first sight.”

“Then let’s go make your dream come true.”

“Yeah?”

Don nodded. “Yeah.”

Jeff took Don’s hand. “Okay.”

DONNY’S CHEEKS were hurting he was smiling so much. He and Jeff and Ken and Timmy had come to an agreement on price and on when they’d take possession of the rambling house that was their new home and business. Oh, nothing had been signed yet, but that was a formality. Jeff had cried a bit, hugged Timmy, and Don and Ken had sat and glowed.

Ken handed Jeff a bottle of champagne as Timmy passed around four flutes. Jeff got the champagne open with a pop, and they hardly lost any of the fizzy wine. Laughing, Donny held his glass out, waiting for Jeff to make their toast.

Jeff grinned. “To the future.”

Timmy nodded. “To retirement in Hawaii!”

“To both!” Donny clinked glasses with his lover and the two older men, then drank. It was a new beginning for all of them. A new dream they could share.

There were the public areas, the big kitchen, the private parts of the house, and they’d still have three lovely rooms to let.

They were going to have to put in more tables, but he had some ideas about that, about a collection of tables from antique shops and garage sales—restored and made beautiful—for the dining room.

Donny looked over at Jeff, met his lover’s—his partner’s—eyes.

Jeff was studying the space, excited, focused. This was it: Jeff’s dream. Fortunately, Donny had his dream too. A family. People to love and support and live with who loved and supported and wanted to be with him.

“Do you mind if I steal my man away for a private celebration?”

Ken laughed. “I was just about to ask the same thing.”

Timmy giggled happily, pushed into Ken’s arms. “Take the room you had before. Tomorrow we’ll talk to the lawyers and have papers drawn up.”

“Sounds perfect.” Donny smiled and waved, then grabbed Jeff’s hand, tugged him toward the stairs.

Jeff followed him, quiet, wide-eyed, and Donny could see Robin in that beloved face, see where the wonder and joy came from. He would spend the rest of his life helping both of them—and Kimberley too—keep that look on their faces.

“So you’re happy.”

“I’m stunned. I hadn’t even considered that this could be ours.”

“I could tell you wanted it to be, though.” He’d seen the look on Jeff’s face, had wanted to do this for his man.

“This place is amazing, Don. Everything I want in one place.”

“Like it was made for us, isn’t it?” He was totally in love with that look on Jeff’s face.

“Yes. A safe, homey place for the kids, a breakfast place, a hotel for you to put your mark on.”

“Yeah, I do have a few ideas.” He squeezed Jeff’s hand. “So will you hit me if I point out that this wonderful thing would never have happened if it wasn’t for that fire?”

“Probably, so don’t.”

Donny chuckled but didn’t push it. This was why he’d been able to look past the fire, though. Maybe not always, and maybe not obviously, but he really believed that you could turn things around, make something good out of the bad stuff. He didn’t need Jeff to acknowledge that to make it true.

Besides, they were at their room, and he could think of better things to do than talk or get thumped. He let them in and wrapped his arms around Jeff’s neck. Oh damn, he’d missed this. Missed it so much.

“Hey.” Jeff smiled for him. “We’re going to buy a bed and breakfast.”

“Yeah. We’re going to live together and work together and raise a beautiful family together.” He walked Jeff back toward the big bed.

“And we’re going to make amazing pastries and quiches and lunches and eat supper in the garden together.”

“It sounds like a dream.” It did too; he wasn’t being facetious. It sounded like a wonderful, amazing dream.

Jeff stopped, then nodded. “It does. It sounds like our dream, Don.”

“Yeah.” He swallowed and nodded. How had he gotten so lucky?

He pushed Jeff down onto the bed and crawled up after him. Jeff wrapped his hands around Donny’s waist, that happy smile waiting for him. Donny pressed kisses on Jeff’s lips, on his cheeks and his eyes, wanting to let Jeff know how good he felt, how happy.

This was it. His life.

He was going to hold on to it, forever.