Chapter 28
Deejay
Cooking for twelve people takes all morning even with both Matt and Robbie helping me by running herd on the littles—I love how Matt calls the smaller kids that—and giving me a hand in the kitchen when they can. At noon, my sons Kirk and Orson arrive, with hands full of gift bags.
“Papa, we’re home!”
Kirk calls out, making his voice ring through the whole house. He can throw his voice anywhere within twelve miles, so everyone in the house knows he’s home when he does that.
I make my way out of the kitchen to greet them. “Welcome home,”
I smile happily, hugging each of them.
Orson holds up his gift bags. “We have birthday presents for the birthday boy and gifts for everyone else because we always hated not getting presents on someone else’s birthday.”
I snort a laugh and choke on it, shocked that anyone would ever call Matt a boy.
“Who’s birthday?”
Matt’s deep voice deadpans behind me, which makes me laugh, cough, and choke again.
Orson’s eyes go wide as he looks up at Matt. “Jesus fuck, dude,”
he swears.
Matt hands me a half-gone sports drink to help with my coughing fit. “Matt Blank,”
he corrects Orson, holding out his hand to shake. “Nice to meet you.”
“Orson Aquino, and that’s my brother Kirk,”
Orson replies slowly. “We brought gifts for everyone. Happy birthday.”
“Thank you,”
Matt replies, shaking Kirk’s hand as well.
“It’s really not fair. Why is everyone bigger than me?”
Kirk complains but follows it with an immediate wink. “Got any of that height to share?”
“Sorry, I already gave my extra half inch to Robbie. He’s officially five-one now,”
Matt grins, chuckling.
“Damn, already too late.”
“Come on, you can put the presents in the breakfast nook for later,”
I tell them, glad to see my older sons getting along with my…Matt.
I don’t know what to call him. It’s a bit too soon for boyfriend, but we are much more than friends, and already family. It’s a confusing situation for labels.
In the kitchen, the rest of the kids arrive, Jasper, Cary, Kendall, Colt, and even Robbie makes an appearance. There is a lot of excited babble and greetings, and hugs. I watch my boys with Robbie, though. Kirk is on the short side for a man and Orson is just under average, so I wonder how Robbie will receive them. He shakes their hands, which he couldn’t do for me when we met, and seems fine with their questions and curiosity. I breathe a sigh of relief then grab Matt’s arm. “Help me get dinner onto the buffet in the formal dining room,”
I direct softly.
He gives me a soft smile and a nod. “Sure thing,”
he agrees, taking up the heavy prime rib I spent all morning smoking while I grab a couple of side dishes.
We arrange the food on the serving buffet in the formal dining room, and just finish as Fraser and his wife, Amelia come in. From the excited noise of the younger kids, I can tell they also brought presents. Matt’s hand lightly smacks my ass as he passes by on the way to meet them. I don’t know if I want to smile or frown at him for that, but since no one saw, I figure happy is an acceptable emotion.
Fraser is one of my sterner adoptive sons and only a couple years younger than me. We were both already adults when I adopted him, but it made legal things easier for us, same with my oldest adopted son, Val, who’s only a year younger than me. I adopted those two and Den all at once, which was both awful and wonderful. I wouldn’t want to go through multiple adoptions like that again. It felt like I lived at the courthouse for a while.
I hug Fraser as I greet him, managing to get through the sea of bodies. “Hey. It’s so good to see you,”
I tell him, holding him tightly.
“It’s good to be here,”
he replies stiffly. He’s never been a hugger, but he always accepts our family’s penchant for them.
I release him and hold my arms out to his wife. Amelia hugs me like we haven’t seen each other for a year and kisses my cheek. “Hey, Papa. It’s so good to see you!”
she exclaims happily. Amelia is young, barely twenty, but she and Fraser fell in love over his morning coffee at the coffee shop she worked at. Now she works as a homemaker for her lawyer husband and they’re both happy clams.
“Amelia, it’s so good to see you. Are you still happy with this guy?” I tease.
She looks lovingly up at Fraser with a huge grin. “Of course. How could I not be? He’s such a fantasy.”
Amelia is human and says shit like that to get a reaction. Fraser is her favorite book-boyfriend come to life, at least that’s what she told me before they got married. His talent as a lie detector attracted her curiosity since she had never encountered a non-human before. I think she fell in love because of that, but the fact that Fraser fell in love at all impresses me. He can’t stand liars, so I knew back when I first met her that she always spoke the truth.
“Good. Come along, everyone, food’s getting cold. Let’s go, go!”
I holler, ushering my family into the formal dining room. For a while chaos reigns as the older group helps the littles get their food before plating their own, but finally everyone gets seated at the table. It gives me a deep sense of satisfaction when I see my family eating the food I cooked for them. I didn’t always have enough food to escape hunger and love that no one has to leave my table unsatisfied. I love that I can feed them until they are full and happy.
The conversation at the table mostly focuses on updating the older siblings on the lives of the younger ones and getting to know the new additions. Cary and Jasper tag-team a story about a slug they found in the yard this morning with Matt.
“It was huge, as big as my hand, but Daddy told me that it can’t hurt me, so I hugged it to death!”
Cary says excitedly, showing us how he accidentally killed the thing.
“I had to wash his hands with the hose! And then we got to play in the water because I got Cary all wet,”
Jasper adds. “Daddy said it didn’t matter since we were all wet anyway.”
It feels like time slows down into microseconds.
Kendall’s eyebrows shoot up.
My older sons’ brows all furrow in confusion.
Colt tries to smack Jasper.
Matt grabs Colt’s hand at the last second, pulling him away from Jasper and out of his chair.
Then Fraser nearly comes out of his chair at the same time Orson and Kirk do.
“STOP!”
I shout, standing up.
They all freeze, except Matt, who sets Colt on his feet instead of letting him drop to the floor. “Sorry, didn’t mean to pull you out of your chair,”
Matt apologizes in a deep rumble. “Don’t hit your brother,”
he adds levelly.
Colt pulls his fist back and swings, hitting Matt in the jaw. Matt had plenty of time to avoid it, and he should have based on the crack of Colt’s knuckles. “Fuck you!”
Colt screams furiously.
“Colt!”
I yell, shocked.
“What the hell is happening here?”
Orson demands just as shocked at Colt’s violent reaction as I am.
“Daddy?”
Cary cries, standing up on his chair, fear in his face.
Matt picks Cary up, hugging him close. “I’m fine. Don’t worry. Sometimes a boy’s got to hit something he can’t hurt, don’t worry about Colt. He’s fine too. Everyone is ok. Everything’s fine,”
he reassures the boy, kissing him between assurances.
“Not to be a dick, but I don’t see how everything is fine,”
Orson disagrees.
Matt gives him a chilling look. “Everything is fucking fine,”
he insists.
“Why did Colt hit you?”
Cary sobs.
Jasper stands up, shame faced. “It’s my fault isn’t it? Because I called Matt Daddy too,”
he asks, tearfully.
I come around to him and pick him up, hugging him. “No. Of course nothing is your fault. Colt is responsible for his own actions. But you do know that Matt isn’t your daddy, right?”
“But he will be if you marry him, right?”
he cries, burying his face in my shoulder.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit!
“What?”—Kirk.
“Marry?”—Fraser.
“Are you dating?”—Amelia.
“What the fuck?”—Orson.
“Yes!”
I hiss at them, losing my patience. “Matt and I are—exploring things right now.”
“He’s barely legal,”
Fraser protests angrily.
“What the fuck are you even thinking about a kid like that?”
Kirk demands, looking just as furious as Colt.
Orson glares at me. “I can’t believe you’re putting your kids in this kind of position. Jasper’s already confused, and you’ve barely known this guy for a month. Colt is pissed and has every right to be, and you let it get to the point that he fucking threw a fist.”
Matt vibrates with fury next to me. I look up at him, not sure how to deal with this pushback from my family, but he’s looking at Robbie. Robbie slowly gets up, and walks over to Matt, taking Cary from his arms. “I think we’ll go play cars.”
I set Jasper on his feet and kiss his forehead. “Go play with Robbie and Cary,”
I tell him gently.
He kisses my cheek, hugs Matt’s leg, then follows Robbie out to the living room.
Matt picks up both of the twins, who’ve been whining because of the tension in the room. “I’m going to hold my boys here because if I don’t, I won’t be able to speak calmly,”
he tells the table. “First of all, I am a fucking Obsidite. I’ve been an adult according to my species for four years, and I’ve been an acting adult since Cary was born. I took care of him, I fed him, changed him, stayed up all night when he was sick—me. That is my kid and I have been his only parent since he was born.
“Second, how fucking dare you say shit like that to Deejay in front of his kids. You have a problem with how he’s raising his boys, you talk that shit out when they aren’t there to see you question his authority on his own sons.
“Third, the relationship between me and Deejay is none of your fucking business because it doesn’t affect you. You’re nothing but a footnote in our book, so you can fuck off with your opinion. I am an adult. I am the one who started this. And I am the one who is going to see it through, and you can shove your opinions on the subject up your fucking assholes because it. Is. None. Of. Your. Business.”
Matt turns a stony gaze on Colt. “If you ever try to hit what’s mine again, I will lay you flat. You can hit me all day long, I can fucking take it, I am the Obsidian Reaper and I can take your fury, but I won’t put up with you beating on anyone smaller than you. Understood?”
Colt swallows hard and nods. I have never seen anyone intimidate him, but Matt has accomplished it.
Matt scans the table before his eyes land on me. “I think I’ll skip the rest of this afternoon; I’ve had about as much family as I can handle after last night.”
My heart clenches and I nod. “I get it.”
He bends over and kisses my cheek. “Taking the babies up for their nap.”
I nod again, looking up at him as he stands up straight, then watching him leave before turning on my family, letting my fury come out. “Every person sitting at my table right now is old enough to understand this, so I am going to say it one time. I like that man,”
I point out the door Matt just left through. “I haven’t met someone I am even allowed to like for ten fucking years and the first time I do, I get reamed by you fuckfaces?
“Fraser, I didn’t say shit about Amelia being a teenager when you got married, did I? I accepted that you knew what you wanted, and I supported you. I fucking did everything I could for you to make sure you got what you wanted. In fact, Orson, Kirk, I don’t remember either of you giving one single shit about Amelia’s age because Amelia was a fucking adult who could make her own decisions and your brother was so fucking happy to meet her that we all just wanted him to have his happy. I did not expect you all to give me any kind of shit about the person that fits me, but I can see I was wrong. Feel free to stay and eat and pass out your gifts, but you do not get to say a damn thing about me and Matt. Excuse me while I go play cars for a while because I am so angry I can’t fucking look at you.”
I turn on my heels and head to the door.
“Papa,”
Kendall calls, stopping me briefly. “I like Matt.”
I give him a tight smile. “Thank you, Kendall,”
I tell him then head to the living room where all the cars and the kids that know how to play them are.