Page 16 of A Sugary Life

The pair looked his way.

Tobie stopped smiling. “Are you okay?”

Graham ran ahead of him and hugged Phoenix before answering. “I'm fine.”

Tobie didn’t look convinced, but he forgot about Graham’s red eyes and nose the minute Shay picked up the papers where he had dropped them.

“Okay.” He dug the ink pen from his back pocket. “Oops. Hopefully, I don’t have ink all over my butt. I forgot about this guy.”

The boys giggled.

Shay set the papers on the floor in front of him and signed and initialed every place highlighted on both the boys' paperwork. When he finished, he passed everything to Phoenix.

Tobie moved from his lap so Phoenix could sign.

Phoenix did his part. “There. It’s done. We’re a family.”

Tobie started dancing.

Graham looked shell-shocked. “That’s it? We got parents?” He looked Tobie’s way. “We got parents.”

They held hands and jumped up and down together.

Tobie hugged Graham. “We get to stay together.” Even though he whispered the words, they were close enough that Shay heard him.

He looked at Phoenix. They locked eyes. An entire conversation passed between them without saying a word. In a minute, they would hand these documents to Zander, and they would be a family. Holy shit.

Chapter Eight

The sight of Graham and Tobie in their little suits, with one throwing flower petals while the other carried the ring, was the cutest thing Phoenix had ever seen. It had taken three months to plan the perfect wedding. Twelve weeks of whirlwind days. While they had dove headfirst into parenting, the family counseling Zander had arranged for them helped quite a bit. Every day, he had watched the boys turn a little more back to just being children. He was so in love with this family.

Standing face to face, exchanging their vows, Phoenix fought the urge to cry. They were already married, but it didn’t matter. Shay stood in front of a huge crowd and pledged his love and life to Phoenix. He looked sexy with his suit fighting his muscles. It was almost funny the way Phoenix rarely thought about Shay’s looks at all. They had spent too many years together. All Phoenix saw these days was the man he loved with a scary level of depth. No words could describe what lived inside him.

Shay kissed him, and cheers went up around them. There was a teenage boy inside of Phoenix absolutely dying that Shay Armstrong had kissed him in front of everyone. Something inside him healed. As dumb as he felt about his all-over-the-place emotions, there had been the tiniest of voices whispering Shay would freak and it would kill Phoenix. Some old wounds were too deep for reason to reach.

They each grabbed a boy’s hand and walked back down the aisle with them the moment they were set free. They squealed and jumped as bubbles were blown their way. The happiness and excitement written on their faces were everything. The joy was so thick, Phoenix felt like everything happened around him and not to him. Like he watched his life through someone else’s eyes. Everything felt too amazing for him to absorb it all at once.

As the table came into view and Phoenix saw the cake that matched that worn magazine image, reality slammed into him.

“Chef Hugh gave me a cooking magazine. It has all kinds of pictures of food. There’re recipes.” There was no missing the excitement in his voice. Phoenix heard it but couldn’t reel in his emotions. Just as Phoenix had known he would, Shay pretended to be interested in the pages Phoenix showed him. He flipped the page, and a tall white cake with silver decorations and light pink flowers caught Phoenix’s attention, making his eyes widen.

“Look at that cake. Wow! It’s huge. It’s so pretty.”

Shay eyed the image. “That’s a wedding cake. People like to shove it in each other’s faces after their wedding or something like that.”

Phoenix couldn’t stop staring at the cake. An unexpected wave of fear and sadness overwhelmed him. He realized they would grow up and Shay would get married someday. Phoenix would be left behind. His eyes filled with tears. He couldn’t help it. Phoenix hyperventilated before he could stop it. He fought for air. The magazine fell from his numb fingers. Shay’s eyes were inches from him with no recollection of how he had ended up there. He held Phoenix’s face.

“Breathe, Phoenix. I have you. Just look at me and breathe.” He demonstrated breathing in and out.

Phoenix followed his lead. The panic didn’t subside. “You’ll get married someday and I’ll be left all alone.”

Shay’s nose curled. “I’m not getting married.”

Phoenix nodded. “You will. You’re very pretty.”

Shay rolled his eyes. “Boys aren’t pretty.”

Phoenix cried harder. Shay didn’t believe him. It would happen. Shay would be gone.