Eleven #2
“I went down and picked up a domestic partnership agreement, but we gotta both sign it and have it notarized and then we can go on the registry, and God, what?” he asked, exasperated. “Can you stop lookin’ at me like I’m crazy?”
“Sorry. I’m just a bit stunned is all.”
“Why?”
“I never expected this.”
“You’re looking at me like I grew another head.”
“Sam, that domestic partnership agreement and going on the registry is a big—”
“Yeah?”
“Sam, if you do that, then everyone will know that—”
“I know!” He raised his voice. “That’s what I want.”
“Sam, what if being with me is hard on you? On your career?”
“J, I’m not expecting it to be any other way.”
“Yeah, but—”
“I don’t give a shit. I want everyone to know you belong to me. That’s the most important thing.”
A knock on the door drew our attention. Aja poked her head into the room.
“You guys need to come back out here.”
“Be right there,” Sam assured her.
She smiled at us both before she closed the door.
I turned to leave, but Sam caught my shoulder and stepped around in front of me.
“What?”
“So will you have me? Will you marry me?”
Such a simply spoken question that I had never thought to hear.
Being gay, I’d figured marriage wasn’t an option for me.
All my friends thought it was something stupid that never worked out, that only straight people did.
It was a heterosexual, not a homosexual agenda.
I had never had an opinion past it not affecting me one way or another.
But into my life had come a very traditional man who’d never once not thought of marriage as a milestone in his life.
Even with our many talks about how his life wouldn’t be like he had imagined, he still held fast to the idea that he would be a husband.
“Jory?”
I stared up into his eyes.
“You want me down on one knee?”
I shook my head.
“At the hospital, the doctors were explaining to Dane what they were doing with you. If you’d been really hurt, they would’ve asked him to make decisions about you.
I hated that. Just standing there like I was invisible…
I want to be the person that decides. I want to be the only one they let in if you’re ever hurt. I want to be your husband.”
My eyes blurred, and I felt tears on my cheeks.
“So whaddya say?”
I assumed it was a given. Of course I would marry him. I would do anything with him he ever wanted.
“J?”
I was completely overwhelmed; any words were out of the question.
“Aww, babe,” he said, hands on my face before he bent and kissed me.
My arms wrapped around his neck, and I kissed him back with everything I felt but couldn’t say.
He clutched me tight, breaking the kiss to smile against my mouth. “So what’s your answer?”
“Yes, Sam.”
“Yes, Sam, what?”
I took a deep breath as I stared up into his eyes. “Yes, Sam Kage, I will marry you.”
His scowl was instant. “Jesus, that was, like, the longest goddamn minute of my life.”
I laughed at him as he grabbed me and kissed me breathless.
“I love you, Jory.”
“I know.” I smiled up at him.
When I was being kissed again, I forgot about everything else but the man in my arms. Nothing mattered except that I was loved. I suddenly understood the depth of what Dane had felt on his wedding day. To have everything you wanted all at once was very humbling.
I was sitting on the couch watching Sam and Aja play a video game while Dane stood by the window on the phone. Everyone else was gone.
“I think everyone got along really well, don’t you?” I asked Sam.
“Yep.”
“Did you enjoy meeting Sam’s family?” I asked Aja.
Nothing.
“Aja?”
“Oh, are you talking to me?”
“Yes, I’m talking to you.”
“Sorry,” she said quickly, her eyes never leaving the screen.
“So?”
“So what?”
“Did you enjoy meeting Sam’s family?”
“I did. I’m looking forward to going over there this Sunday. It sounds like fun.”
“Sam, that was nice of your mom to invite Dane and Aja.”
“Yep.”
I rolled my eyes. Talking to the walls would be more interactive. I got up and crossed the room to Dane, who raised a finger when I started to say something to him. I needed to give him a minute. I padded into the kitchen and started to make some tea.
Now that no one was talking to me, I started thinking about what had happened.
I had been gone two days, Caleb three, and because we had both gotten away, no ransom had been paid.
Apparently, the night the car was stolen, the kidnapper had been taking us to the drop-off site, where we would have been exchanged for the money.
The kidnapper had taken Caleb with him at gunpoint to walk to the pay phone, and when he got back, the car was gone.
He ran off after that, leaving Caleb alone to walk the streets looking for help in Oak Lawn.
I had told Hefron and Moore that I was sure there had been a second guy at some point, but that after hearing them argue about Sam, I was fairly certain one of them had been shot.
Whoever the dead one was, he had wanted to let me go rather than tangle with Detective Kage.
Hefron and Moore didn’t blame him. Sam’s reputation for meting out justice and punishment preceded him.
I put the kettle on to boil and walked into the other room, even though I heard a knock on the front door. Let someone else get it. I took a seat on my bed, and that was where Dane found me minutes later.
“Hey.”
When I looked at the doorway, he tossed something at me.
I caught it and realized it was the Sony Ericsson Z600 I’d wanted but didn’t need. Of course, when I was taken, the first thing the kidnappers killed was my cell, so now I was in the market for one.
“You needed a new one,” Dane pointed out, “and this one was just delivered by courier.”
I nodded.
“You, me, and Aja are all on the same plan,” he informed me. “Also, I went ahead and canceled both your credit cards and ordered new ones. The only thing you need to do is go get another driver’s license.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” He nodded, walking into my bedroom and sitting down beside me. “So Sam said you agreed to marry him. That’s good. I look forward to being his brother-in-law.”
“I’m glad.”
“You don’t look that happy.”
“No, I’m happy about that. I just… I want this whole thing to be over already.”
“I’m so sorry, J. If it wasn’t for me, you—”
“Please,” I groaned, bumping him with my shoulder.
“You have no control over the scary people in the world—believe me, I know. Some psychopath has got it out for you for whatever reason, that’s his problem, Dane, not yours.
You’d hafta be crazy to think you have any control of anything but yourself. ”
“Excellent observation.”
“That’s not advice, it’s just…logical,” I said, fiddling with the new cell phone in my hand. “Thanks for this.”
“You’re welcome.” He put his hand around the back of my neck.
“Did you like Aubrey Flanagan?”
“I did, and more important than me liking her—Rick likes her.”
“I know, right? It’s nice.”
“It is,” he said, massaging my neck and the base of my skull. I closed my eyes and just breathed.
“Oh, this is interesting,” he said quietly. “Sam found that doctor you used to date, remember?”
“Nick Sullivan.”
“Yes.”
“And? What about him?”
“He’s married now.”
“Oh yeah? To who?”
“Sam says to a very beautiful woman named Bailey.”
“Interesting” was all I could think of to say. I would never pass judgment on anyone else’s choices. It wasn’t my place.
“He lives in Lake Forest with his wife and little boy. Sam said he asked about you.”
“That’s not surprising. We were close once.”
“That’s weird, isn’t it?”
“What’s that?”
“Being close and then not.”
I turned my head to look at him. “I don’t emotionally connect with many people. I’ve slept with a ton of guys, but I can count, like, two before Sam that I really felt anything for, and Nick Sullivan wasn’t one of them.”
“Okay.”
“Have you been to the hospital and seen Caleb?”
He shook his head.
“Don’t you think you should?”
“I’m where I need to be. I’m with my brother and my wife.”
“Caleb’s your brother too.”
But he wasn’t listening anymore. He got up to get the kettle when it whistled, and I was left on the bed, staring out at the sky. It was raining steadily, and the water was running down the window in rivulets. Days like this, I was thankful to be warm and safe and inside.
“J.”
I looked up at Sam as he walked into the bedroom.