Chapter 22
TWENTY-TWO
Joshua was too busy listening to Dominic narrate one of his many tales of being on the road with Trey to pick up on the tension at first. Benji and Van had returned to the group at separate times, and he’d only paid them a passing glance—one look at Benji’s slightly puffy lips told him all he needed to know.
Bobby approached a few minutes later, and something about both Benji and Van changed. Stiffened. Their new body langue was enough to get Joshua’s attention. Bobby looked pissed. Van’s expression was mostly blank, but Benji looked . . . well, kind of terrified.
The pieces fell together quickly and painfully.
Bobby saw them together. Great.
He didn’t get a chance to address it, though.
“Attention!” Percell’s deep voice boomed over a microphone, shushing the chattering crowd of at least a hundred guests. “My parents have pulled into the parking lot. Everyone get ready to yell surprise.”
Joshua hung back with Benji, Van, and the rest of Fading Daze, while the others rushed closer to the entrance to wait. He slung an arm across Benji’s waist and held him, keenly aware of his taut muscles.
Moments later, a door clanged open. Footsteps echoed.
Four people turned the corner, and the crowd erupted in shouts of “Surprise!” and “Happy anniversary!” The room buzzed with cheers and applause.
Dominic and Percell both rushed forward to embrace their flabbergasted parents.
Zelda’s cheeks were streaming with tears, and even Robert seemed overwhelmed.
Joshua could imagine their reaction once Roxy and Starr arrived.
Joshua didn’t know how long it had been since all five of the Bounds children were in one room together.
Probably last Christmas, when Percell had managed a quick visit home.
Benji leaned in to Joshua and whispered, “Bobby saw me and Van in the car. Kissing. He looked pissed.”
Joshua squeezed Benji’s waist. “We’ll deal with it, okay?” He glanced at Van, who was keeping a respectable distance, smiling at the family gathering several yards away. “It’ll be fine.”
“I need a drink.”
“This is a dry party.”
Benji laughed with no humor. “I like how you think. Water is fine. I just . . . my mouth is dry.”
“Be right back then.” And because he couldn’t be a dick, no matter what Bobby had or hadn’t seen, he said, “Van? You want anything to drink?”
“Water,” Van replied. “Thank you.”
“Sure.”
Joshua didn’t like leaving Benji when he was upset, but the drinks table wasn’t that far away.
It had been set with a giant bowl of ice, scoops, cups, and a wide assortment of two-liter soft drinks.
Another tub of ice had small bottles of water, so he plucked out three of those, shook off the excess water, and brought them back to his boyfriends.
Bobby tracked the whole thing with his eyes.
Joshua resisted the urge to glare at him, to press the issue and make Bobby talk, instead of assaulting them all with the stink eye.
He didn’t, though, because the Boundses were making their way over, pausing to hug and chat with their guests as they went.
Zelda hugged him and Benji both, then clasped Van’s hand tight when Benji introduced him as “a really close friend” of theirs. “A friend of theirs is a friend of mine,” she said. “Benji’s been family for years, ever since he took up with Dominic and Lincoln.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Van replied. “Happy anniversary to you both.”
The paired moved onward, and then was gone.
“Does Joshua know how close a friend he is?” Bobby asked, the words soft but sharp.
Benji glared at him over his shoulder and shut him up with a terse, “Yes.”
Bobby grunted then walked away.
Danielle took his place. “Okay, what was that all about?”
“Your brother being a nosy bastard,” Joshua said. “Seriously, though, when was the last time he got laid?”
“Don’t know, don’t want to know.” With an exaggerated shudder, she grabbed Andy’s hand and pulled him toward the food buffet.
Others had started going down the line, piling the offerings onto paper plates from dishes manned by volunteers in black shirts and pants. “You guys hungry?” Joshua asked.
“I could eat,” Van said. “Ben?”
Benji shrugged. “Yeah, okay.”
So much enthusiasm.
Stress over Bobby’s discovery had turned his normally high-energy boyfriend into a morose shadow of his usual self, and Joshua hated it. Van kept giving him curious looks, but Benji wouldn’t relax until he could confront Bobby about it all—and this party wasn’t the time or place.
Benji selected from the buffet without really looking.
Joshua knew Benji hated meatloaf, but he requested a slab of it along with a healthy scoop of scalloped potatoes.
Joshua filled his own plate with amazing smelling food.
Van was pickier. Without his usual supply of healthy food, Van was stuck with a sautéed greens, a piece of salmon, and a giant scoop from a fresh fruit salad at the end of the line.
Despite Bobby’s scowl, they settled at the same table as him, Danielle, and Andy, because not sitting with them would look weird.
Dominic, Trey, and Lincoln had seats at another table marked “Reserved,” where the Boundses would all eventually settle.
Roxy and Starr had appeared, to the excitement of their parents.
With Roxy attending college in Florida, she rarely got home to visit except for long holidays.
All around them, friends and extended family members chatted and laughed.
Joshua had never been to a family gathering this big, and he found himself studying the room’s dynamics as much as the people at his own table. Several recognized one or more members of Fading Daze and came over to chat. Dominic and Trey got a lot of extra attention, too.
Eventually, four of the five Bounds kids climbed onto the stage and gathered around a microphone, with Dominic in the middle. The crowd hushed as everyone’s attention shifted to the back of the room.
“I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for coming,” Dominic said in a clear, steady voice. “Taking time out of your lives to join us in celebrating two amazing people that I have the honor of calling Mom and Dad: Zelda and Robert Bounds.”
Applause roared. At her table, Zelda wiped her eyes with a napkin, one arm around Starr’s shoulders.
Dominic waved a hand to shush everyone. “Thirty-five years ago, Zelda and Robert said ‘I do’ in a quiet Justice of the Peace ceremony, witnessed by their parents. They weren’t looking to change the world, only to try and make it a better place for those who live in it.
And they did, not only in their careers and with their friends, but also with their children.
They had so much love to give, and they knew that there were children out there starving for love and support. ”
Next to him, Roxy started to cry. Dominic slid his arm across her shoulders and continued.
“I have the great honor of being their first chosen child. I don’t know what possessed them to pick a screaming, underweight, half-Filipino baby, but they did.
They chose all five of us, for all different reasons, but the results are the same—we grew up loved and protected and we all know how lucky we are.
There are thousands of other kids out there in need of love and adoption, not only by straight couples, but now by LGBTQ couples, as well. ”
Someone wolf whistled.
Dominic grinned, then turned his attention from the crowd to his parents.
“Mom. Dad. You have loved me every step of the way, through every crisis and celebration, through every setback and step forward. I look back at the life I’ve lived and I have no regrets, because every single moment molded me into the man I am today.
I am so proud to be your son, and I think I speak for all of my siblings when I say thank you for choosing me. ”
One by one, Percell, Taisha, and Roxy each took the mike and repeated the thanks. All of the women, including Zelda, were in tears by the time the four Bounds kids left the stage to embrace their parents.
Joshua glanced past Benji’s misty-eyes to Van, who looked stricken. And pale. He caught Joshua staring and startled.
“Excuse me a minute,” Van said. He shot to his feet, so fast his chair nearly fell over backward. Benji caught it, and they both tracked Van to the meeting hall’s entrance.
“The speech probably got to him,” Benji whispered.
Van was adopted, like Dominic, but not by loving, generous parents. By people who wanted indentured servants, not children.
“Should one of us go after him?” Joshua asked.
“Maybe he needs to be alone for a minute.”
“What’s wrong?” Bobby asked, his cutting through the din of conversation. “Not going after your boyfriend?”
Next to him, Andy choked on his soda.
“Say what now?” Danielle said, eyes wide. “His boyfriend is right there.”
“That’s what I thought, too, until I saw Benji outside with his tongue down Van’s throat.”
Benji flushed bright red, but he didn’t look away from Bobby’s accusing glare. “I’m not cheating on Joshua,” he snapped, keeping his voice low so the whole room didn’t get in on the secret.
Bobby sneered. “Really? ’Cause last memo I got said you two were exclusive. You re-negotiate what that means?”
“Hey, man, lay off,” Andy said. “They’re grown ass dudes. They don’t owe you an explanation.”
“The hell they don’t. Benji’s actions already cost us a week’s worth of gigs, and that can’t happen again.”
Fucking hell.
Benji’s spine snapped straight. “What are you talking about?”
Danielle dropped her face into the palm of her hand. Joshua’s gut rolled unhappily. The secret they’d all tried to keep was about to blow up in their faces.
Benji’s ears were ringing with Bobby’s words, but they didn’t make sense. How had anything he’d done cost the band a week’s worth of gigs? Eddie had given them time off to re-configure the schedule after one or two people cancelled last minute, which wasn’t unusual.
Was it?