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Jon
EPILOGUE
Five Months Later
Jon sat across from his parents who both stared blankly back at him. Archer was on his right-hand side and Grace was on his left. “I’m not sure that I understand,” his mother said. “Grace is pregnant with your baby, and you are all three involved somehow?” she asked.
Jon knew that telling his parents had to be done, especially with the baby coming in just a month. Honestly, they had put it off for as long as possible, but he knew that doing so any longer wasn’t fair to Archer or Grace. They had both come clean to their parents and bosses and it was time for him to do the same.
“Yes,” Jon simply said. “We’re all together now and Grace is going to have our baby.” They had agreed that they wouldn’t disclose the biological father of their child to anyone because frankly, it wasn’t anyone else’s business. They didn’t want people to treat one of the guys as if he wasn’t the baby’s father because they had agreed to share that title. He and Archer had decided that together, they’d make one fucking great dad and that was what their kid and future children deserved. Sure, it would have been easier to tell his parents that the baby was biologically his. They’d actually accept things easier knowing, but that wasn’t what was right for their family, and Jon was done doing things to enable himself to hide from his parents or anyone else, for that matter.
“How does that work exactly?” his father asked.
“Dave,” his mother chided, “that’s a personal question.”
“Well, I think that we have a right to know,” his father insisted. “I mean, our son’s been gay this whole time and he never told us.”
“I haven’t been gay, Dad. I’m bisexual. I like both men and women. And while I won’t draw you a diagram as to how things work between the three of us, I can tell you that Archer and I are together and so are Grace and me.”
“At the same time?” his father asked.
“Yes,” Jon said.
“Jesus,” Archer mumbled under his breath. “Our sex life isn’t really up for discussion, Mr. and Mrs. Hollis. We don’t ask you personal details about your sex life and we’d appreciate the same courtesy.” Jon shivered at the thought of discussing his parents having sex. That was the very last conversation that he wanted to have with anyone.
“That’s fair,” Mrs. Hollis agreed.
“So, who’s baby is it?” Mr. Hollis asked.
“It really doesn’t matter,” Gracie challenged. His father looked her over and Jon knew that he wanted to give her some fight, but then thought better of it when he saw her belly. Even his grumpy, opinionated father wouldn’t quarrel with a very pregnant woman. “Both Jon and Archer will be this baby’s father and every other child that we will have together too. None of that matters. The only thing that truly matters here is that our baby will have more love than most kids. You need to decide if you want to be a part of that or if you want to focus on things that you don’t like about our relationship, and frankly, will never be able to change. Your disapproval won’t keep the three of us from being happy, but it will keep you from knowing your grandchildren.”
Jon squeezed her hand into his own and smiled at her. He couldn’t have said it any better than Gracie just had. “What’s it going to be?” he asked his parents.
“You have to give us some time to think about all of this, Jon. You just sprang that you’re gay on us about fifteen minutes ago,” his mother said.
He sighed, “I’m bisexual, mother,” he reminded.
“Right,” she said. “It’s just a lot to take in right now and you need to give your father and me some time to do that.”
He stood and pulled Gracie up with him. Archer quickly flanked his other side. “Don’t take too long to decide how you feel about all of this, guys,” he insisted. “Gracie is due in about a month, and I’ll be focusing on our baby and our family. If you want to be a part of all of that—great. If not, I understand but you won’t be a part of my or my child’s life.” It was an ultimatum and a nasty one at that, but he didn’t have room for disapproval in his life.
“I love you both,” he said. Jon didn’t make a move to hug or kiss either of his parents. They had asked him for time, and he’d give that to them. For now, he was going to leave with his family and that was just fine with him. He had finally found the two people with who he wanted to spend the rest of his life, and he wouldn’t let anyone else’s opinion of who he should or shouldn’t be with get in the way of his own happiness—not anymore. It was one of the reasons why he had agreed to run for the open county council seat. He was done hiding and if people didn’t think he’d be able to do his job just because of who he loved, then they didn’t deserve to have him representing them or their interests.
* * *
A week later, Grace had woken them up in the middle of the night, telling them that her water had broken on her walk down to the kitchen to get a glass of water. They looked like three clowns trying to get out of their new house, finding their half-packed bags and tossing everything they thought would be necessary into them, to head to the hospital.
They had only just moved into their new home about a month prior and not everything was unpacked. They had concentrated on getting the baby’s room finished and ready for her arrival, but they still had a lot of boxes sitting around waiting for their attention. He and Archer had promised to get to them while they were off for their paternity leave for a month with her and the baby.
Life had certainly been a whirlwind since the three of them got home from France and Jon wouldn’t want it any other way. He loved the life that the three of them had been building together. They were a mesh of his stuff and the stuff that Grace and Archer had accumulate over their year of marriage and together, everything seemed to fit perfectly into their new home.
After thirteen hours of labor, Gracie pushed out the most perfect human that they had ever seen, and he and Archer were in complete love with their daughter. She had them both wrapped around her little finger. Jon knew that their daughter would never want for anything between him and Archer doting on her.
Gracie was the perfect mother and came up with the best name for their little one—Edison Rose. Of course, it took them a week to agree to name her that, so they called her, “Baby girl” for the first seven days of her life. Honestly, Jon knew that they would have good and bad days but every day since little Edison was born had been an awesome day.
Jon had called his parents to let them know that the baby had arrived safely and that Grace and the new little one were doing well. He had to tell all of that to a voice message because his parents had refused to answer or return any of his phone calls. Jon worried that they had already made up their minds, but what else could he do? He wouldn’t change who he was or who he was with to please them. He had spent his life trying to make both of his parents happy and he was officially finished with that. He’d no longer live a lie and being with Grace and Archer was the first time that he was being true to himself. He wouldn’t go back now—he couldn’t.
Of course, Grace and Archer both tried to tell him to give his parents more time, and that they’d come around, but he was beginning to have his doubts. He knew that they might never want to see him again and while that would hurt like a son-of-a-bitch, there was nothing that he could do about it.
