Chapter 22

twenty-two

KASH

One foot in front of the other. Heel, toe, heel toe, heel toe. It was a mantra Kash had to repeat whenever he started to feel twinges in his body. He was still waiting on word about the wheelchair funding, though it was the last thing on his mind with Adele needing a new house and all of them losing nearly everything they had.

But the days after the fire had been a struggle. He felt like he was fist-fighting his body every morning to get moving, and he knew it had everything to do with the stress of what had happened. But he wanted to be able to walk down the aisle on Adele’s arm. So to speak. There wouldn’t be an actual aisle—it was a small courtroom in front of a judge who would have them recite impersonal vows before signing their marriage license.

And then it would be over.

It would be done.

He would be a husband. He would be Adele’s husband…and Adele would be his. He got tingly about it every time he pictured a ring on his finger, though they didn’t actually have rings. He wasn’t quite sure what to do about that, but?—

His thoughts were cut off when Adele yanked him to a halt. He leaned heavily on his cane as he turned. “Um. Can you not do that? I really don’t want to embarrass myself in public.”

Adele quickly wrapped an arm around him. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I saw…” He trailed off and jerked his chin toward a shop window with a ring display in the window.

Kash tried not to wince. “Those look expensive.”

“They’re advertising sterling silver and cubic zirconia,” Adele told him, leaning in close. “I want our rings to be personal, and I have plans for that. But for now, I want to put something on your finger so the world knows you’re taken.”

Kash was pretty sure he wasn’t a hot commodity to any of the single queer men in town, but he liked it when Adele got all possessive. And he couldn’t lie, he wanted that too. He wanted a symbol plain as day on Adele’s hand so no one ever got any ideas ever again.

“Let’s go in.”

Adele lit up and took his hand, pulling him through the door. The place wasn’t actually a jewelry store at all. It was a sort of curio shop with a bunch of trinkets behind glass cases and a lot of costume pieces. The cheaper stuff was sitting in little display cases tucked in black velvet slits, and the pricier ones were behind the cash register under yellow-tinged lighting.

“Can I help you?” came a voice from the front.

Adele let him go. “Are these Dungeons & Dragons figurines?”

That was not what Kash was expecting, but he understood immediately why they’d caught Adele’s eye. Gage had lost so much, and they were both struggling to figure out how to help him gain some of it back.

“They are. We have hand-painted sets up there on the shelf,” the woman said, coming around the corner. She had very white-blond hair in a braid hanging over her left shoulder and red-tinted glasses perched high on her nose.

“What about these?”

“Can you be more specific? I have low vision,” she told him.

“Oh, yeah,” Adele said. “The case a few feet in front of you. They’re all unpainted.”

She smiled at him and walked over, setting her face very close to the glass. “Yeah, we have four sets, I think. We have them in boxes in the back.”

“And paints?” Kash asked.

Adele turned his head and smiled at him. “A kit if you have it. My son loves these, but we, ah…we recently…he lost them.”

“We have everything you need up front. I’ll go take a few out, and you can look after you’re done browsing.” She turned and made her way back up front.

“Great.” Adele slid up to Kash and leaned in to kiss him. “Sorry. I know we’re here for rings.”

“Don’t be. Let’s get him everything they have. I know there’s a lot we can’t replace, but this is a start, right?”

Adele nodded, but he looked crushed, and Kash understood. Gage had been building his collection for years. He’d lost his books, his handwritten campaigns, and the most crushing was the tactile and braille map he and Lucas had been building.

Gage hadn’t said anything about it, but Kash had a feeling he wouldn’t be able to keep down his pain forever .

“Let’s buy them out,” Kash said, tugging on Adele’s hand. “As my wedding gift to Gage.”

“You don’t need to do that.”

Kash rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I do. I want to put a ring on your finger, and I want to put something Gage loves in his hands to show him that I will always do everything in my power to make his life better.”

“I think saving his life did that.”

Kash shook his head. That wasn’t the same. He would have saved anyone in the house—literally. Even Adele’s crappy ex. It meant more to him that it was Gage, but he wasn’t looking to have some life debt over him. He wanted—no, he needed to be sure Gage understood that when he meant to marry Adele, he also meant to fill whatever role Gage set aside for him.

“Okay,” Adele said, clearly reading Kash’s face. “Let’s grab baskets and fill them up.”

They did, and then eventually, they got to the rings. Adele found a set of plain white-gold bands that were more than Kash had wanted to spend, but from the look on Adele’s face, he knew he couldn’t say no.

“I’ll need a silicone one for work,” Adele said, testing the ring on Kash’s finger. The moment between them felt weighted and important, but Kash was too afraid to say anything. “But I want something like this too.”

Kash took the other one and slipped it over Adele’s knuckle. It was a size too big, but it would do for now. He couldn’t stop staring at the way their hands looked together—the physical mark of who they were to each other.

“How long have you been married?” the woman asked as she began to collect the stuff for Gage.

Adele laughed as Kash started to tell her they weren’t, but Adele interrupted him. “Feels like forever. I fell in love with him in high school.”

Kash’s voice was thick when he said, “So did I.”

She smiled as the register began to beep with every scan. “I love that. It’s rare these days. Everyone’s so…temporary, you know? Like, their attention span doesn’t last longer than a few weeks. They fall together and fall apart before they even meet face-to-face. My partner and I met the old-school way, and I think that’s why we’ve lasted so long.”

“The old-school way? Oh, you’re about to make me feel ancient, aren’t you?” Adele groaned.

She laughed. “The library. The one off Ridgemont has large-print Tolkien books, so I took the bus down to see if they had The Hobbit . While I was looking at the rest of the collection, they came over and asked me if I could help them find a braille copy of The Silmarillion . It was an epic meet cute.”

“How long have you two been together?” Adele asked, his face all soft the way he got in the face of other people’s love. Kash grabbed his hand and held tight.

“Seven years. We got married at Comic-Con with an Elvish-themed wedding. And I know that sounds nerdy as hell, even for a shop like this?—”

“No, I love it,” Adele said. “I think our son might end up having some type of D&D theme with…what’s that guy’s name? The hot vampire?”

The woman burst into laughter. “Astarion?”

“That’s the one. He’d want some Astarion cosplayer to officiate. I walked in on the full-frontal nudie scene last summer. It was…graphic, but Gage loves it.”

She laughed. “I may have played through that once or twice. Or five times. But your son sounds super cool. Is his partner a nerd?”

“Oh. He’s still single, but when he does settle down, I can’t imagine it either way.” Adele froze, then said, “Actually, y’all wouldn’t happen to have a spare braille or tactile map, would you?”

The woman blinked rapidly. “Is he blind?”

“His best friend is. They, ah…” Adele’s voice got tight. “They were working on one, but we lost our house in a fire a week ago, and the map was lost with everything else.”

“Oh my God. I heard about that fire,” she said. She set the bags to the side, grabbed a piece of paper, and scribbled on it, her nose an inch away from the counter. “Have him call me. We can hook him up.”

Adele tucked the paper away in his pocket. “Y’all are amazing.”

She smiled as she handed them the bags. “So are you. Stop by again, will you?”

“We will,” Kash said, and he meant that.

“So,” Adele said thickly through a mouth full of roast beef, bread, and au jus. They were in the driveway of an empty rental house that would be theirs on Saturday. They’d signed a year lease with month-to-month options for after. It was furnished and far more expensive than Adele’s mortgage had been, but it was a home.

It would be theirs for a little while, and it meant after their little ceremony, they’d have a place of their own.

“So,” Kash said with a grin.

Adele set his sandwich down and leaned against the headrest, smiling over at him. “I’m so in love with you. ”

“I keep waiting for the moment I get tired of hearing that,” Kash admitted. The words made him feel warm all over.

“And?”

“Keep trying.”

Adele snorted and leaned in, stealing a salty kiss. “I am so in love with you,” he said again.

Kash let those words settle behind his sternum—words he never thought he was ever going to hear. “Are you worried about tomorrow?”

Adele nodded, his face going serious. “The wedding is going to be fine, but afterward is going to be a nightmare. Bowen started party planning with the guys at the station. They’ve moved the reception from Lane’s place to Hector’s little farm.”

Kash only knew half of what all that meant, but he’d known the guys weren’t going to let them get away with a little slapdash quickie with appetizers and desserts after. “Frey said we have suits in our closet waiting for us. I don’t even want to know how they got our sizes.”

“Rifling through what was left of our underwear drawer, I bet,” Adele said.

Kash burst into laughter, but the mood quickly sobered the way it always did when it came to the house. “Did, ah…did they find anything at the house?”

“Bowen put whatever he was able to salvage in his garage. We can go through it when we’re up for it. I’m not right now. If that’s okay with you,” Adele added very quietly.

Kash reached for him, kissing him softly, chastely, letting their mouths linger together as they shared breath. “All that matters is this right here.”

Adele hummed. “Can we skip the ridiculous tradition of sleeping apart the night before the wedding? I’ve given up enough nights with you for a lifetime.”

“I’m not superstitious,” Kash told him, which was a lie. Firefighters came second to professional sports teams when it came to superstition, but he wasn’t going to give this one any weight. They’d already been torn apart and torn to pieces over the last two decades.

He wasn’t giving Adele up for a single night if he didn’t have to.

“Kiss me again,” Adele said.

Kash did. And then again. And one more time for good measure.

They finished their sad little pre-wedding meal—not that either of them had much of an appetite—then said goodbye to their soon-to-be home and headed back to Renato’s. Kash had no idea what was on the agenda for the night, but he was hoping there wasn’t about to be some impromptu bachelor party because he didn’t feel like a bachelor—and he was pretty sure Adele didn’t either. Not to mention, he was exhausted.

They rolled up to the house, and Kash vaguely recognized the car idling in the driveway. The house was almost completely dark though, which did not bode well.

“What the—is that Bronx?” Adele asked.

Just before Kash’s stomach sank to his feet, the front door opened, and Gage burst out with Lucas on his arm. They were laughing but came to a skidding halt when Gage saw Adele’s car parked. Adele opened the door in time for them both to hear Gage say, “Oh shit, it’s my dad.”

“Language,” Adele said, and echoing him in almost a perfect accent, Lucas mimicked him.

Adele burst into laughter as he and Kash both stepped out. “What are you two doing? ”

“Nothing,” Gage said. “I mean, I’m having a sleepover with Lucas. Bronx said it was fine.”

“I said it was fine,” Bronx confirmed, leaning out the window with a suspicious grin.

Kash didn’t think there was a surprise party happening at this point, but there was definitely something going on. He looked at Adele and saw the same worry reflected on his face. “I’m gonna…head in,” he said.

“No!” Gage cried. He pointed Lucas toward Bronx’s car, then ran over to them. “You can’t go in without Dad. What if you fall?”

Adele’s brow furrowed deeper. “The hell is going on?”

“What? Who did what? No. Nothing!” Gage said.

Adele sighed. “If it’s slimy or messy, I will ground you until you’re thirty.” He tugged Gage close, who laughed and hugged him back.

“It’s not slimy. It’s nothing. Just relax. Love you both!”

Then he was gone, and Adele came around to offer Kash an arm as they made their way to the door.

“It’s going to be slimy, isn’t it?” Kash asked.

Adele stopped at the stoop and reached for the handle, turning it slowly until the door barely disengaged. “Let me see your cane.”

Kash handed it over, and Adele used the rubber tip to push the door open hard. It swung and revealed the dark, empty foyer. There were no strange sounds or smells. It was just…the house. “Are Renato and Frey supposed to be here?”

“No idea.” Adele handed the cane back and took a tentative step inside. Still nothing happened.

“Is it safe?”

“I’m afraid to say yes,” Adele said, but he reached back for Kash’s hand and helped him inside. The door shut behind them, and it was only then Kash heard something off in the distance.

“Music?”

“If those little fuckers are throwing us a party,” Adele started, marching down the hallway. He came to a stop in the kitchen archway, but there was no sign of anyone. Adele let his hand go, and he walked to the counter, and only then did Kash see the note he snapped up. “It’s from Frey. They’re not staying here tonight.”

“That’s all it says?”

Adele turned to him. “Have fun, with a poorly drawn winking face.”

Kash snorted a laugh. “So the music…” He tilted his head. “The bedroom.” He took Adele’s hand again and this time led the way down the hall. The door was cracked, and beneath it, he could see light flickering.

His heart jumped in his chest just as Adele pushed the door open. “Tell me that little shit didn’t?—”

Light candles.

He hadn’t. He’d set up electric tealights all over the bedroom. There were piles of rose petals all over the bed, along with a silver tray that Kash had seen in fancy hotel rooms from cheesy romance movies. There was a bucket of something chilling on ice and what looked like a handmade charcuterie board.

Adele cleared his throat. “The boys left a note.” He hesitated, then read, “You deserve this. We’re too young to buy alcohol, and Bronx didn’t believe us when we said it was for you, so you get cider. Also, Lucas put together the snack board, which is why it looks the way it does, but it tastes great because I tried some. Please don’t be nervous about tomorrow. I can’t wait to be a family. Love you. Gage.”

Kash was not going to cry. He was not .

He dropped his cane when Adele turned and wrapped his arms around him, tugging him close. “That kid, I swear to God.”

“You did good with him.”

Adele looked down and met his gaze. “You helped shape me to be the man who raised him, so you get credit there too. And don’t argue,” he added when Kash took a breath to do just that. “You have always been half my heart and half my soul, and you always will be.”

And then he kissed him, and Kash forgot everything except those lips on his.