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K A & B H
Elias brings his arms around Kyle, holds him tightly under the faraway stars, as the two gaze down at the gravesite, lost in their respective thoughts and wishes.
“I’m ready,” says Kyle when it feels right.
Elias kisses him. “I’m not sure I’m ready,” he admits.
Kyle glances at him questioningly. When he feels the hot and prickly sensation of anxiety dancing around in Elias’s chest, he realizes what he means. “Why not?” teases Kyle. “You afraid to meet everyone? No one’s gonna bite you.” He gives Elias’s ear a nip, catching him by surprise. “Except for me.”
Elias smirks. “That’s … actually oddly reassuring.”
“I want everyone to meet you. I want everyone to know the person who saves my life every day.”
Elias makes a funny face, clearly masking the pride he feels in hearing those words from Kyle. “You give me far too much credit.” Then he grabs Kyle’s ass and gives it a sudden squeeze. “And I’ll take it,” he adds.
The two of them leave the site in the dark, feet crunching along the sand and dirt. As they walk away, Kyle peers over his shoulder, watching as the rock grows smaller at his back. He promises himself to return, to honor their memory, just as he did when those items once sat on his table. He will come back every day when the sun sets if he must, just to say their names.
Mom. Dad. Kaleb.
And now Brock.
The moment Kyle comes in through the doors of the bar, the first person who spots him is Cade.
And she isn’t having it. “What the hell?” she cries out. “I’m generous, I give you two nights off like a decent human being, a good manager and friend, and here you come, visiting both of those nights? Are you incapable of staying away from this bar? Is it the jukebox? Are you addicted to—Oh.” She blinks upon seeing Elias. “Who’s this hunk? Another blast-from-the-past?”
Kyle smirks, slips an arm around Elias. “Actually … this is a blast from my present and future. His name is Elias.”
“Wait a sec.” Cade lifts her hands. “Are you two …?” She wags a finger between them, eyes wide as she pieces it together. “Are you two a thing? Since when? How did I not know?”
Kyle and Elias share a look. “I guess we’ve got a little bit of catching up to do,” admits Kyle with a wince.
Cade frowns disapprovingly. “Becks,” she says without even looking. “Pour us a couple of hard ones. Kyle and I have got a little bit of catching up to do.”
The moment a drink is poured, a dozen glasses are already emptied. It’s a talent, the way Cade latches quickly on to new faces, making anyone welcome around her, a talent for which Kyle finds himself especially grateful. Elias is soon rolling in laughter, sharing stories, and falling in with the crowd in no time. At one point, when she’s telling a story to everyone about something funny her daughter did when she was three, Kyle finds his mind wandering to that night in the office when she shared her secrets. Even now as he listens to her talk adoringly about three-year-old Layna, he can feel the love that burns inside her like a beautiful lantern with an infinite supply of oil, casting away all the nearby darkness. Maybe there is something inside of Cade just yet, something beautiful and magical about her, like a gift waiting to be discovered, carried down from one protective ancestor to the next.
Kyle hopes he gets to witness her find that gift.
Leland, having become bored out of his mind in the back kitchen doing nothing, finds himself at the bar laughing along with them. There are few customers and no orders coming in. “I can totally see it,” Leland insists after wiping sweat off his face by lifting the front of his apron. “You two. You totally go together. Elias? That’s your name? Yeah, fits you, love it. Elias and Kyle … Kyle and Elias … Wait, what’s that I’m hearing? Do you hear it, Cade? Do you, Becks? Ah! That’s the sound of wedding bells!” he sings. “Nah, just teasing. But seriously, if that happens, I wanna be someone’s best man, I’ve never been a best man. Hey, Kyle, you don’t have any friends. Can’t you use me as a best man? No offense.”
It’s some time later while everyone’s laughing at a funny dance Leland is trying to do in front of the jukebox when the bar door swings open and in walks Jeremy, hand-in-hand with Layna. “Uh, Leland, are you trying to dance?” ask Jeremy.
“What’s going on here??” cries Cade, tears of laughter still clinging to her eyes. “What’s with you two and your hands??”
“Seriously, Cade, you are sometimes so oblivious,” mutters Becks as she pours another drink for Elias, who nods for thanks. Leland continues to dance in front of the jukebox like no one’s watching.
