Page 103 of His Choice

Cliff laughed. “Yeah, right. But my mother isn’t wrong. I would be thrilled. Only if you don’t have something else in mind.”

“You remember Ezra and I had our reception here,” I reminded Aaron and Mikey. “It was so lovely. The staff made sure everything was perfect.”

“Yes, we’ll be forever grateful,” Ezra added.

“We are, too,” Mitch said. “When Keller and I got married on the grounds, it was amazing. We worried about taking advantage of Cliff’s friendship, but he really meant it when he said he wanted that for us. Keller and I could never have afforded a venue as nice as this.”

“True,” Keller agreed. “I was a little worried about my pa falling off the wagon when he saw everyone around him drinking, and guys walking around with trays of wine glasses, but he didn’t. It turned out to be the perfect day.”

“He’s gone without for years now, huh?” I thought back to when Mitch had met Keller, and it seemed so long ago, yet like yesterday.

Keller nodded, looking as proud as any kid ever was of their parent. “He has. Things are so different. Mitch and I actually like spending time with him now. And he’s changed a lot in his thinking, too. He’s become such a big ally to gay people, and he’s critical of racists and bigots in all forms.”

“It’s true,” Mitch agreed. “Once he faced his real demons, he stopped projecting on everyone else. He’s at our house for dinner every Sunday and we go to sporting events together.”

Mitch, as a chief of police, was comfortable, but hardly wealthy. Nevertheless, he helped Keller’s father with payments for a nicer apartment than the trailer that he and Keller had lived in for years. I never once heard Mitch complain about it.

“You boys think about whether you want to marry here,” Brighton said, bringing the conversation back to the topic of Mikey and Aaron marrying. “If yes, just pick a date other than October seventeenth of this year.”

“Why? What’s that?” Myles wondered.

“The day Brighton and I chose to marry here,” Cliff declared with a grin.

“What?” I exclaimed. The Aaron-Mikey announcement had led me to believe Cliff wasn’t engaged.

“It happened last week,” Cliff responded. “Only Clara knows. We wanted to get you all together to tell you.”

I rushed to hug him and Brighton. Soon, I was crowded in as everyone else surrounded us, clapping Cliff’s and Brighton’s shoulders and pulling the men into hugs.

“If you say April Fools, I shall never speak to you again,” Ms. Walker teased Cliff.

“Have you ever known me to be a prankster?” Cliff asked before pulling his mother into an embrace. “Thank you, Mom. If it weren’t for your common sense talk that day…”

“You intervened for him, too?” Adam asked. “I didn’t know that.”

James and Thad, two of Cliff’s staff, entered the room with trays holding glasses of champagne for everyone to take.

When Cliff saw that everyone had one, he raised his glass. “To my mother…for everything.”

“Hear, hear!” One of the men shouted before we all took a sip.

“And to Cliff and Brighton, and Aaron and Mikey!” Mitch shouted.

The guests all yelled cheers to the happy couples, then drank more wine.

Nobody had noticed that Flynt and Josh had entered the house until they went to stand by their fathers, Adam and Myles, looking confused by what was happening.

“Did someone just get another mangy cat?” Flynt asked, remembering a similar scene when Mitch had surprised Keller with Henry, Keller’s favorite cat from the local shelter.

Myles leaned in to his boys. I couldn’t hear what he said, but it was obvious he had explained who had just become engaged. Flynt and Josh smiled, then shook hands with Cliff, Brighton, Aaron, and Mikey.

“Is it okay if Aiden and Charon come over, too?” Flynt asked Cliff.

Charon, my niece, was dating Josh. They were a delightful couple. Josh was as fair and handsome as his biological dad, Myles. Charon resembled me when I was younger—a thin, Black girl with huge brown eyes and a smile that could be featured on dental ads. She was as sweet as she was pretty. Josh adored her. It was too early to predict whether either of the boys’ relationships would last, but Charon’s, Flynt’s and Josh’s choices gave all of us confidence that they gravitated toward kind, smart, responsible individuals.

“Sure, they can,” Cliff responded. “Give them a call. There’s plenty of food, and I understand the chef made a tiered vanilla cake.”

“Awesome!” Flynt replied. “Um, because I just got news, too.”