Chapter 35
Circus
The Summer Nights Festival is easily my favorite Sunbury event. The warm night air smells like apples and peaches from the fruit stalls up and down O’Connell Road, and the strings of brightly colored bulbs hanging over the street wash everything in rainbow shades.
I turn from the window and look around at what, a couple of weeks ago, was an empty storefront and smile at how far it’s come in the short time.
Arms circle my waist as Rowan presses a hard kiss just behind my ear.
He holds a churro up in front of me. “I bought you food.”
“Mmm, sustenance.”
“Enjoy the sugar while you can. Once the gym is ready, our eating plan starts.”
Joke’s on him. I’m looking forward to eating healthy.
And working out here.
We were lucky that Leon was able to squeeze in the shop before he’s contracted to start the huge shopping complex construction in Port Welling. But some days I do feel bad because he’s starting to look tired.
“Okay, plumbing should be fitted next week,” Leon calls as he appears from out the back. “Then we’ve just got to tile and polish everything up and you should be good to go.”
“I can’t believe how quickly you did all this,” Rowan says. Leon and I share a quick look. Money can make anything happen.
“The thing is, I’ve had an idea.” I have to force the confession out because it isn’t something I’ve even mentioned to Rowan yet.
“I don’t like when you have ideas,” Leon says.
I laugh and flip him off. “Too late for that, my friend. I’ve been talking to Joe from next door, and he’s thinking of retiring soon.
So … I had the idea that maybe I could buy that shop, open up the wall between the two and …
” This is the part they better not fucking laugh at.
But when I meet Rowan’s eyes, in one look he reminds me that he’ll support me with whatever.
I clear my throat. “I want to start a daycare or kids’ club or something so parents can work out whenever they want. ”
Leon sighs. “And by ‘had an idea’ you mean it’s already in the works, isn’t it?”
“Happening six months from now, yep.”
“I guess I’ll start drawing up plans.” Leon takes out his measuring tape and moves toward the wall.
Rowan turns to me. “What brought this on?”
“Well … I really like kids. And it’s still a while before we even crack open that conversation, so finding a job where I got to work with them sounded like a good idea. There are some courses I’ll take, and I’m going to deck that shop out like a kid’s fever dream. It’ll be—”
He laughs and presses his lips to mine. “Absolutely perfect.”
He knows without me saying that this is another outlet where I’ll be moving away from my virtual life some more. The psychologist I had an appointment with last week supports me wanting to keep that side of me alive but has encouraged I create balance. So that’s what I’ll do.
I don’t want to miss my time with Rowan.
And while he runs classes and trains people, I’ll be right next door helping kids finger-paint, or reading them books, or annihilating some preteens at one of the gaming consoles I’m going to have installed.
So maybe I don’t have a complete plan yet, but the details will come. I mean, in just a few weeks we’ve already made Rowan’s dreams come true.
People are in and out all night, taking in the gym and asking questions about the types of equipment and classes Rowan will have.
I leave him to it, happy to stand in the background, handing out flyers for discounts to anyone who walks in the doors.
Watching him, I can’t remember a time I ever felt this happy.
And that knowledge always comes with a fresh tinge of guilt. I’ll never not miss my parents. But I also know that this, right here, is all they ever wanted for me. So while I let the guilt in for a little while, I don’t let it drag down my mood.
Someone knocks into me from the side. “Oops, sorry, Circus,” Brenda says, breathlessly.
“I’m trying to get these up in all the shops for the festival, but I’ve just spent ten minutes arguing with that useless Eric Fletcher about the gay agenda and—” She cuts off.
“Long story short, his flag is up, now I need to pop this one up before Rowan sees.”
I almost laugh at the bunch of rainbow flags she’s clutching. She hurries to the window, pins the flag up at an awkward angle, and then hurries off again. Brenda and Karl are still awkward around us, and still worried that we’re going to hell, but they’re trying to love us anyway.
Sometimes, like tonight, she swings way too hard to the supportive side.
“What was my mom doing?” Rowan asks. Apparently she’s not the ninja master she thinks she is.
“The usual. Supporting her son, spreading the gay agenda …”
“I don’t want that up in the window. It’s like … I’m advertising or something. My business has nothing to do with me being gay.”
He starts for the window, but I catch his shoulder. “Better leave it. Apparently we’re not the only ones who’ve been attacked by rainbows.”
“Do I want to know?”
I nod toward the door, and Rowan follows me out onto the street. Sure enough, in all the storefronts up and down the street are little rainbow flags.
He shakes his head. “Total overkill.”
Laugher comes from behind us as Leon steps out of the gym. “You think this is overkill? You should see the diner.”
“Oh God, no.”
“It looks like a Pride parade threw up in there.”
“Gross.”
“Yeah, but the rainbow shake was delicious.”
The disgusted look on Rowan’s face makes me laugh.
“Excuse me, are you Leon Jefferies from LJ Construction?”
I look around for the voice and find a skinny guy staring straight at Leon.
“Yeah, that’s me.”
The … kid? Maybe? I mean, he’s small, but I don’t think he’s much younger than us, holds his hand out to Leon.
“I’m Auggie. I’ve submitted an application for the apprentice you’re looking for, and since I drove up for the festival tonight, I thought I might introduce myself if I saw you.”
The guy’s trying so hard to be professional, but his words just keep vomiting out of him.
“I mean, your whole story is impressive. No college, started the company from scratch and built it from the ground up. Now you have one of the biggest contracts this side of Portland …” He laughs awkwardly.
“Now it sounds like I’ve been stalking you.
I haven’t, so you know. But … yikes, okay, that sounded really stalkerish.
” His face floods with a blush. “Oh, man, I really need to stop talking, don’t I?
Sorry, I just, sometimes I struggle to do that. ”
Leon seems confused as hell as he looks the guy up and down, and I know exactly what he’s thinking. There’s no way this guy could lift one brick let alone build anything.
Hiding a laugh, I hold a flyer out to the guy and cut him off just as he opens his mouth again. “We’re opening in a month. You should stop by.”
Apparently my offer is too much because he blinks in surprise and quickly takes the flyer before backing up. “Umm, yeah, thanks. Okay, that’s all. Look out for my name. Or don’t. I mean, just umm … maybe I’ll see you around. At work?” He gives a fake laugh. “Or not. Okay. Bye.”
He turns and flees, and the second he’s gone, Rowan can’t hold back his laugh. “What the hell was that?”
“Enthusiasm?” I offer, because seeing how embarrassed he was makes me feel bad for him.
Leon stuffs both hands in his pockets. “That was weird.”
“I’ll say.” Rowan tugs me closer and presses a kiss to my hair. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone talk that fast.”
“Or prove so quickly that they are the complete opposite of what I’m looking for.”
“You’re mean,” I tease.
Leon points down the road. “There’s no way I’m putting up with that every day.”
He has a fair point. The guy was a bit intense.
“Anyway, I’m off. With the town this full, there’s gotta be good pickings at Ugly’s later.”
We say goodbye to Leon as he leaves, and I stand there, surrounded by Rowan’s arms as we watch the families in the street.
“You know,” Rowan says after a few moments of silence, deep voice tickling my ear. “You’re right that we’re not in a place to be having that conversation, not yet anyway. But … I want it one day. A future with you. Kids with you. I want to give you the biggest family you ever dreamed of.”
I can’t stop my smile. “I want five kids.”
“Sure.”
“And three goats.”
“Okay.”
“Maybe a rooster, and some chickens.”
“Circus …”
“And a whole herd of alpaca.”
His silent laugh hits my neck. “Why don’t we start with one and go from there?”
“One Rowan.”
“And one Circus.”
Everything inside me settles. “That sounds like the perfect start to me.”