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I was certain he’d meant it as a joke, as had I, but somehow we both grew serious. “Would you want that down the line?” I asked softly.
“Would you? I’ve been married, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat, but it’s different for you.”
I knew what he meant, and he wasn’t wrong, but what had once seemed impossible now felt surprisingly real and attractive. “I want to marry you, Fir Everett. Not right away because we both need time to adjust to this, but I’m serious about my future with you…and one day, I hope we’ll have the same name.”
He practically melted against me. “Jesus, Tomás, when you’re in, you’re all in, aren’t you?”
“That okay?”
He kissed me firmly. “More than okay. It’s perfect. You’re perfect.”
“I’m not, but I’m doing the best I can.”
He kissed me again. “That’s all I ever ask.”
“So Main Street, then?”
“Main Street it is.”
Of course Fir had been right. As soon as people saw us holding hands, they whispered and pointed. I had no trouble ignoring it, used to the public attention, but Fir’s cheeks grew fiercely red. Still, he held on to my hand and walked tall, and I was proud of him.
“You know that at some point, your picture will get taken and published,” I said softly. “You know what happened with Tiago and Cas when they started dating.”
“It’s okay.”
“You sure? Your kids may catch some flak for it in school.”
He shrugged. “I doubt it. This is a different generation, you know? They don’t care as much about labels. I have high hopes for them when they’re old enough to govern. Maybe we’ll finally achieve true equality for all.”
Brianna was, as always, happy to see us, and when she spotted our joined hands, she shrieked with joy and bounced over from behind her counter. She hugged Fir first, then me. “If you hurt him, I’ll never sell you another krentenbol ever again,” she said, and I believed her.
“I love him, querida. More than I ever thought possible.”
The fierceness in her eyes softened. “Good. You both deserve it.”
We settled down in a corner, and she brought us tea and something called a tompouce, which was a strange but fun-looking pastry with two layers of puff pastry with Bavarian cream in between and pink frosting on top. “Nothing but sugar and fat.” She winked at me. “So you know it’s good.”
And good it was, my god. Creamy and so sugary it hurt my teeth but so freaking good.
“The boys would love this.” Fir pushed back his empty plate. “I’d have to schedule a dentist visit right after, but they’d happily pay that price, I bet.”
This was the time to bring something up I’d been wondering about for a while now. “Can I ask about your kids? About their biological parents, I mean?”
Fir nodded. “Everyone assumes Gabe is my biological son, but he’s actually Samuel’s. They both are. My youngest sister donated egg cells for both of them, and we found a surrogate willing to carry them. We never asked my sister, but she offered, and we immediately accepted. It was the closest thing to biological kids we could think of. It just so happens that Gabe takes after her and my side of the family physically, so everyone assumes he’s mine. But they’re both his, biologically, only connected to me through my sister.”
“That’s a wonderful thing she did for you.”
“It was. My other sister was a little miffed that it hadn’t occurred to her to offer, but once Gabe was born, we wanted our second to be a full brother to him, so we went with my youngest sister’s eggs again and were able to use the same surrogate. We got lucky that in both cases, it took with the first pregnancy, which is rare. But it helped that both my sister and our surrogate were still young.”
“If we are together…” I didn’t even know how to finish that sentence.
“It would make you Gabe and Josiah’s stepdad, yes.”
Me, a stepdad. Santa mãe de Deus, I’d never seen that coming. “You’re okay with that?”
“Tomás, if I didn’t trust you with my kids, we wouldn’t be sitting here.”
“I’m scared I’ll fuck up.”
