Chapter 6 #2
“Mom, this is Darcy. Darcy, this is my Mom Belia.”
Darcy thrust out his hand, but it was knocked away. “I’m a hugger.” Then Darcy was wrapped in a firm hug. He panicked for a half a second, then hugged her back. He blinked back sudden unexpected tears; it had been a very long time since he’d had a hug like this. A true hug from a mom.
She stepped back and frowned at him. “Tears?” She looked at Charma. “Tears? Are you planning something bad?”
Darcy shook his head and opened his mouth, but he wasn’t sure how to explain. He wasn’t sure his voice wouldn’t crack and be all wavery if he did explain. He looked to Charma too.
“No, no. It’s nothing like that. Darcy hasn’t seen his parents in a very long time.”
“They’re dead?” She put a hand on his arm and looked like she was about to come in for another hug.
“More like I’m dead to them,” Darcy said quietly. “On account of being gay.”
She shook her head, and she did hug him again. “You can have as many hugs as you need, Darcy. And you can call me Mom.”
“Oh.” He wasn’t able to blink back the tears that came this time, and he hugged her back tightly, a little overwhelmed.
“All right, let’s go inside. We’re giving the neighbors a show, and I like to be wearing my good jewelry if I’m doing that.” She winked and linked her arms with each of them, walking them up the stairs and then into the house.
The place was warm and cozy, inviting, and the smells were amazing. There was definitely bacon and he was pretty sure someone had been baking, too. Bread and something sweet maybe. This was not at all what Darcy had been expecting.
“Come into the kitchen, sit and eat.” She got them both seated, set plates in front of them, and then began to fill them.
There were scrambled eggs and bacon, beans and sausages.
A biscuit was added to his plate and a glass of milk plopped down by it too.
There were more biscuits in a basket on the table, another with muffins in it.
“There’s more of everything so make sure to help yourself. ”
“Thank you.”
He and Charma ate in silence for a bit—Charma hadn’t let them even have a piece of toast for breakfast because they were apparently expected to eat a very large breakfast at his mom’s. He could see that was true, and he was really glad he had an empty stomach on which to have this feast.
“This is so good,” Darcy said when he’d eaten about half his plate and most of his biscuit. He could eat those for days.
“I’m surprised no one else is here,” Charma noted as he buttered a muffin and took an enormous bite.
“Not because they didn’t want to be, I promise you that. I told them they had to stay away. As your mother, I get to meet your young man first. Everyone else can gawk when we go to the festival.”
“There’s going to be gawking?” Darcy asked. He wasn’t sure he wanted to be the center of attention like that. What if he did something stupid? Or less than graceful? When he was nervous, he lost some of his coordination so either of those were a definite possibility.
“Well, Charma’s never brought anyone home before. Plus, he left a while ago and he’s been missed. We’re better when we’re all together and most of our kids don’t go far from home. Charma always has walked to the beat of his own drummer, though.”
Charma rolled his eyes at Darcy, but Darcy was pretty sure it was exaggerated. So far, his mom seemed really, really nice. Darcy knew he didn’t have a great example to compare her to, and she had made Charma feel like he needed to leave, but still.
She put more bacon on Darcy’s plate, and another biscuit on Charma’s, and then sat with her own plate. “So, Darcy.”
Okay, here came the grilling he’d been warned about.
“I’ve heard the story of how you met from Charma. Now I want to hear how you tell it.”
“Oh, god!” Darcy laughed. “I rescued this cute little chameleon at the beach and carried him all the way home in my front pocket! Then I take him out and all of a sudden there’s a very naked guy in my living room. I didn’t know where to look!”
“But you were definitely looking,” Charma noted.
Darcy felt his cheeks heat. “Yeah, yeah. I did. I couldn’t help myself.”
“Then he covered me up!” Charma almost sounded affronted, and Darcy laughed again.
“I was trying to be circumspect.”
“His clothes were way too big for me, but at least the T-shirt was rainbow. All that was missing were some sparkles.”
“You provided those,” Darcy said quietly, and Charma met his gaze and smiled.
“Oh, you are both too cute.” Belia waved her slice of bacon around, encompassing both of them, and then took a bite. “It was clearly kismet.”
Darcy was happy to nod to that. He thought it was interesting, though, that Belia believed in kismet and had called her son Charma, even if she had given it a cutesy spelling.
He stole another piece of bacon and pondered having a second biscuit, they were so good. But just the bacon was filling him up, so he figured if they were going to be walking around at this festival, he’d be better off not overfilling his stomach.
“Breakfast was amazing, thank you so much, Mom.” He tried the word out, liking how it felt. He really did feel like he was part of a family here, and he hadn’t had that in a very long time.
Belia beamed at him. “I’m so glad you liked it. Are you sure you don’t want another biscuit.”
“No, I’m not sure, but if I have another one, my stomach might explode. They are the best I’ve ever had, though.”
“Such a sweet boy,” she told Charma, who laughed.
“I know, Mom.”
“Good. Now, I’ll pack you up some biscuits to take home with you. So make sure you stop by the house before you leave, okay?”
“Okay.” He wasn’t going to say no to that. In fact, they might have to pick up some butter for them because they deserved butter and all they had at home was margarine.
“Well, if everyone has had enough, I’ll just clean up and then we should go.”
“Really?” Darcy asked, surprised that that was it.
Belia tilted her head. “Yes… what am I missing?”
Darcy’s cheeks heated. “Oh. I. Uh. Well…” He was not going to throw Charma under the bus. “I was expecting to be grilled and I didn’t get grilled.”
She laughed, and the sound was close to her son’s bright notes. Charma’s laugh was better though.
“And I was totally expecting to give you one. But I can see from the way you look at each other that you’re totally smitten with each other.
And the fact that you saved Charma’s life without even knowing he was actually a shifter, well that speaks volumes about your character.
Besides, I’m sure everyone else will make up for it. ”
Charma groaned.
“That’s right, son, they’re going to have plenty of questions for you, too. After all, you left the compound.” She gave them both a sharp look. “Are you planning to stay gone or come back here to live?”
“Uh.” This time, Darcy didn’t actually have an answer. It wasn’t something they’d discussed.
“I didn’t even know that was a possibility,” Charma told her.
“Of course it is! There will always be a place for you here.”
“Good to know. But it’s not something we’d ever talked about so that will have to happen before we even consider it.”
He nodded to Charma, glad they were on the same page there.
Moving had never even occurred to him. They were both going to be doing better now that they were sharing rent and expenses, but that didn’t mean they had the available funds to move.
And he would bet the homes in this community were not cheap, family or not.
“Well, it’s always an option. Now who’s helping me clean up?”
Darcy stood immediately and started gathering their plates. “Always happy to help.”
She grinned and patted his arm. “See, a good man.”
He didn’t know about that. He just tried to live his life doing better than the people who had kicked him to the curb for who he was. And now he got to do that with Charma. He knew that what that made him was a lucky man.