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A few of us chuckled as Zack perked up. “Seriously?”
“Finished the paperwork last night,” Sean said.
“Fuck yeah.” Zack grinned and took a long pull of his beer. “I definitely won’t have any problems pleasing the client in that setting. Even if he keeps me up every damn night with a soda-can girth dick.”
Awareness that Preston approached shifted me toward my right as everyone snickered over Zack’s declaration.
My lover glanced around the group hesitantly, sliding his palms down his slacks.
My heart ached, and I reached for him with my free hand, noting Nancy and Michael trailing behind him. “Come here, baby.”
Preston slid into my personal space right where he belonged, tucked against my side.
“This is my boyfriend Preston,” I got to title him as such for the first time tonight—actually, ever. Pride and elation swelled my chest, and I grinned like a goddamned dork.
Everyone took turns stepping in to greet him with handshakes, Mason’s face going a shade redder, Kellen attempting and failing to hold back his smirk.
“Glad to see you got the man of your fantasies,” he said, and Preston choked on a laugh.
“Uh…yeah. Um, thanks?” Preston’s voice shook, his face pink as he focused on the floor.
Goddamn, was my shy man cute as fuck.
Zack and BetsyAnne were the only two glancing around the circle as though unaware of what was going on. Preferring to turn the topic off my embarrassed other half, I introduced Nancy and her husband, no one batting an eye at me calling her Preston’s other mom.
Talk about acceptance and support.
My heart felt a little bit lighter, and while I would never get over the sadness of my dad being gone, his and Jacqueline’s passing had offered Preston the freedom to be himself. I would have preferred all of us to be happy together on the earth, but it hadn’t been meant to be.
We had other family though, truer friends than most people could hope to find—more loyal than the rest of the crowd supposedly celebrating Jacqueline Casswell and her husband’s life.
We were only a half hour into the party she’d planned for herself, and already I could sense Preston’s weariness.
Jasper initiating conversation with Nancy shifted focus off me and my love where we stood shoulder to shoulder, fingers entwined in a perfect fit. I could still feel hundreds of eyes on us from those outside our small group, but I didn’t give two flying fucks what others thought about us being together. If they didn’t like it, they could go choke on a goddamned python dick.
Just not Mason’s. He was all heart eyes for his younger husband, who daddied the hell out of his needy ass.
A hint of that possessive jealousy roused in my gut, and I tugged Preston in front of me so he could lean against my chest.
He sagged with relief as I’d expected, and I wrapped my free arm around his stomach, my beer still in the other.
“You okay, baby?” I asked against his temple as he rested his head on my shoulder.
A stuttered inhale expanded his chest before he sighed. “Is it wrong to be thankful we’re free to love each other out in the open like this?” he murmured for my ears alone.
I shrugged, my gaze flitting to the two urns on the dais to our right. We would combine our parents’ ashes before burying them in New York, where Jacqueline’s heart had belonged. Dad wouldn’t wish to be anywhere else but by her side, so I didn’t mind his grave being so far away from home.
“I honestly don’t know,” I said, “but I can’t help feeling the same. They enjoyed a fulfilling life the past thirteen years and now won’t ever have to be alone in their grief. What more could a couple in love ask for?”
“I’ll always regret not telling her about us.” Lingering sadness strangled the words he so graciously gifted me.
I squeezed him a little tighter and kissed his temple. “Let’s live the rest of our days without hiding who we are—every minute to the fullest like they did.”
Preston lay his forearm atop mine and entwined our fingers together against his side. “Together?”
“Always.”
The Elite crew ended up at The Bloomberg’s bar long after the celebration of life ended. Mr. Barone would see to the urns and plans for the following day when Preston and I would take a limo to the gravesite in uptown Manhattan. It was to be a private affair with only the two of us seeing them into their final resting place.
