TWENTY

 

“Oh my God, guys! You were so good!” Darien was practically bouncing, and even when Jamie looked for any signs of ill will on the other man’s face, he didn’t see any at all. Unlike Ken, who had hated Jamie from before he’d even met him because he was taking Darien’s place, Darien didn’t seem to be bothered by that at all.

Maybe the answer to that was easy to figure out, though. There was another man with Darien, a smaller, almost delicate man, with intense, beautiful dark blue eyes fixed on Darien at all times, practically radiating devotion. It was not only lovely to watch, but also very obvious that Darien, when he’d left, had had a damn good reason.

“Hi,” the other man, Darien’s boyfriend Noah, greeted Jamie with a bit of a smile. “I’ve been meaning to catch up with you. I’ve started working on your website, and when you have some time, I’d love to get your thoughts on it.”

His website? Jamie blinked, and then a slow smile started to cross his face. Noah was not only Darien’s boyfriend, but he did all of the social media work for the band. Still, Jamie hadn’t expected to get a website of his very own.

Darien was busily flinging himself at the other members of the band, Aaron first, which was a pretty brave call, but Aaron endured the hug stoically enough. Then Lance, who just laughed and spun Darien around, and finally Ken, who wore an expression of pain on his face, and who clung to Darien until the other man let go.

With those greetings done, Darien turned to Jamie, offering him his hand and a wide, sincere, cheerful smile. It was a bit dizzying, the amount of energy that this guy could put off, but Jamie took his hand and returned the smile. It was pretty nice to be accepted, he had to admit, by the member of the band who had gotten away, the one who had given up his place to Jamie.

“Hi, I’m Darien,” the man introduced—like Jamie hadn’t figured that out by now. “I’m so glad to finally meet you.”

It was all so sincere, and Jamie’s heart squeezed tightly in his chest. Sometimes, it had felt like he would never make it and would always be fighting to be accepted, but here it was. He’d been accepted. Only Ken seemed to have any doubts whatsoever, and even Ken had stopped being such a dick.

“Hey,” Jamie greeted, turning his head to accept Lance’s kiss on the cheek when his boyfriend came over to him. Lance draped an arm around Jamie’s shoulders, and he cuddled up to the other man’s side, smelling sweat but not caring. Jamie was sweaty, too, they’d just been on stage.

“So, here we are, in Vegas,” Lance pointed out, draped possessively over Jamie in a way that never failed to make Jamie feel warm inside. “So we’re going to drink, and gamble. Because that’s what you do in Vegas.”

Darien gave a secret little smirk as he let go of Jamie’s hand and went back to Noah, taking the smaller man’s hand in his own.

“There’s something else that people do in Vegas,” he pointed out. “Something people have been doing for a long time. They get married.”

Lance chuckled softly, then turned to whisper in Jamie’s ear.

“Stupid kids. I think we just witnessed a proposal.”

Noah had turned very pale, and Jamie smirked a little, enjoying how clearly shocked the guy was, how he had obviously not expected such a thing, not in a million years.

“So, uh, Noah …” Darien continued on, his tone still cheerful, but feeling a little bit more forced now, as though he struggled to try to remain as normal as he possibly could. “Do you think you’d like to do that? Marry me?”

 

* * *

 

Before the hour was out, the group of them, Aaron, Lance, Jamie, Ken, Noah, and Darien, plus Justin, who had been seen wandering around backstage scribbling in a notebook and singing softly to himself, were at a wedding chapel. Noah and Darien were filling out the paperwork, and there was a strange, electric energy in the air. The sort of thing that would make big changes happen, or so it seemed to Jamie.

Jamie shook his head, perched on Lance’s lap, his arms around his boyfriend as he watched Noah and Darien, heads bent together, speaking lowly to each other as they filled out the papers. They were in love. It was almost tangible in the air between them.

“They’re going to be happy together, but it’s pretty insane to just get married in Vegas,” Jamie mused, almost to himself, though he knew that Lance could hear him. No one else should be able to, though.

“Right?” Lance agreed, his hands resting sweetly on Jamie’s hips, his body warm and sweet under Jamie’s own, warming him all the way through. He rested his chin on Lance’s broad shoulder, smiling a little bit. “But it works for them. They really do love each other. They’ve both given up so much for each other.”

Jamie nodded, and he thought about that for a long time, letting himself be swept up in the tingling electricity of the moment. Letting himself trust enough to be perfectly honest.

“I always thought, if I got married, I would do it someplace like this,” he admitted. “Spur of the moment. Just let myself get swept away and go for it.” Jamie smirked a little bit at his own comments. “Overwhelmed by love, or whatever. Pretty stupid, huh? I guess I’m as much of an idiot as they are.”

Jamie felt fingers, strong and sure, on his chin. It was lifted so that he was meeting Lance’s eyes, and while there was a smile on those beautiful lips, the eyes were all determination, deeply thoughtful and focused.

“Maybe not that stupid,” Lance murmured and then leaned in and brushed his lips lightly over Jamie’s. “I mean, we’re right here. Darien and Noah are getting married, anyway. We could just, you know, get in on that action.”

As far as proposals go, it wasn’t the most romantic thing ever. But Jamie kissed him, really kissed him, and that was enough of an answer. Less than half an hour later, with the paperwork hastily filled out, Jamie stood beside Lance, with Darien and Noah on the other side of him, with their friends in the pews, and the next thing he knew he was saying that he did, and so was Lance.

And then they were married. Just like that, all legal and binding, he and the only man he had ever truly loved were bound together.

“Hey,” Lance murmured, as their lips passed after the symbolic kiss which announced to the world that this was a real thing, that this had actually just happened. “Don’t think that you’re getting away, just because this was a crazy thing to do. You’re mine, and now that I’ve got you …”

Jamie smiled at him, sure that he wasn’t even touching the ground. Wrapped around Lance, he felt like he was floating, like he might just rise right up into the air like a helium balloon if he didn’t have Lance there to hold on to him. Strange how they could both anchor each other and spur each other on to things as crazy as this was at the same time.

“Now that I’ve got you,” Jamie finished for Lance, “I’m not letting you go. Deal with it.”

And then he kissed him, and it was his husband he was kissing, not his boyfriend. He let himself get utterly lost in it, and the next thing he knew, he was having his back patted and being congratulated, and the paparazzi had finally tracked them down, and pictures were being taken.

The next day, Jamie knew, he and Lance would be all over the tabloids, but that should make Lester a little bit happier. The story pretty much wrote itself. Only unlike the story between Ken and Lance, which had been fabricated, this one was sincere. A few careful interviews were given, and this would serve to be the best possible thing for everyone in the band.

So Jamie let himself gaze up adoringly into his new husband’s eyes, and he held him close, and he let the pictures capture it all. He let himself bask in the attention, in the love of a good man, in the fact that he had, somehow, against all the odds, made it.

This was his husband, and he was surrounded by his band. His friends. And he had built it all for himself. No one had handed him a thing, but he had bitten, and clawed, and scratched his way to this place where he was.

As things started to calm down a little, Jamie glanced over at Justin, who was standing off to the side and looking wistfully at the group. At first, Jamie thought that Justin, who was, he’d come to realize, a little bit shy and very quiet, was just uncomfortable with the group, but then he saw where Justin’s eyes were.

“Lance …?” Jamie had been with the group for only about three months at this point, and there were still new things coming up. Lance followed his gaze and then let out a soft sigh as he nodded.

“Yeah. He likes Ken,” Lance kept his voice pitched low so that no one else could hear, only Jamie. “But Ken doesn’t know. And I don’t think Justin wants Ken to know, either.”

Jamie frowned a little. He was so happy, so blissfully happy, and he hated to see anyone as miserable as Justin clearly was. But the man met his eyes and gave him a little bit of a shrug.

“I guess they’ll figure it out,” Jamie murmured, “Or they won’t. But I like Justin. I hope they do.”

Lance let out a soft, utterly seductive little chuckle, one which sent chills down his spine and which threatened to fill Jamie’s whole body with hot, throbbing arousal. When would it end? This desperate need? He hoped never.

“We did, and if we can, then anyone can,” Lance pointed out, and Jamie had to laugh and nod and acknowledge the point.

They had made it. As impossible as that would have seemed at so many points during this crazy ride they’d been on, they were together, bonded for life. Married, and happy, and that was really some sort of miracle all on its own.

“My husband,” Lance murmured, and Jamie clung to the man he loved, in the company of the best friends he’d ever had, and just let himself soak it all in.