66. Four Years Later

Jeremy looked at the table and hoped it would be big enough. When he had bought it two years ago, it seemed enormous, big enough to seat everyone Jeremy had ever known. But over the past two years, it had become crowded, which, he supposed, was a good thing.

“It’s big enough, baby,” Davis said, reading Jeremy’s mind.

“You flatter me,” Jeremy replied.

“It’s gonna be fine. The entrees are resting, and people are bringing sides and desserts.” Davis held a stack of plates in his arms, setting them down one by one as he rounded the table. The doorbell rang earlier than Jeremy expected, but most of his friends were always earlier than he expected. “Go answer your door, Jeremy. I’ll set the table.” Jeremy blew him a kiss, then headed to the other room to answer the door.

“I know we’re early, but we just dropped River off with Kevin and are trying to enjoy every single moment of child-free time we can get tonight,” June said once the door was opened, pressing a kiss to Jeremy’s cheek.

“We can leave if you want,” Colin added, setting down a package of cookies.

“It’s fine. No worries,” Jeremy said, waving away their concern. “Grab a glass of wine if you want. There’s seltzer in the fridge, too.”

“Darling, am I driving or you?” Colin asked.

“I carried a baby for nine months. You’re driving,” she said.

“June, our daughter is four now. How long are you going to say that?”

“Probably a solid fourteen more years,” June replied. Colin let out a half-hearted boo as he left, and there was a knock at the door. “Oh, I bet that’s Dec and Phoebes.”

“Freedom!” Phoebe cried as she opened the door. “Adults! If I have to hear Raffi one more time today, I’m moving to the forest with Davis.”

“I swear we love our daughter,” Dec said wryly. “Also, we brought potatoes.”

Colin returned with a seltzer for himself and a glass of rosé for June. He gave the glass of wine to his wife, then headed to his sister and gave her a huge hug.

“I get it,” she said to him. “I get why you’re one and done with children.” Behind them, Dec rolled his eyes. “Declan Sean Whitford-McFadden, I can hear you rolling your eyes. I know that it’s in your Irish blood to have, like, seven children, but let me be dramatic.”

“I don’t want seven kids,” he said to Jeremy.

“Last I heard, you wanted ten,” Davis said, joining the group with a glass of wine for Jeremy and a seltzer for himself.

“Still none for you all?” Dec asked Davis.

“Nah, dogs are enough,” Davis replied, smiling at Jeremy. Being uncles to this group’s overly precocious children was more than enough for the two men, not to mention the costs associated with surrogacy.

“Hi, hello, hi!” Ryan and Emmy were next, arriving at the same time as Lina and Yuna.

“I made cheesy potatoes!”

“Dammit, Andersson. We were making potatoes,” Dec growled.

“Oh no, more cheese and potatoes.” Emmy grinned.

Ryan turned to her. “Were we supposed to bring vegetables?”

“Potatoes are a vegetable, right?”

“We brought broccoli,” Yuna said, rolling her eyes.

“And cauliflower. And green beans.” Lina looked between the other couples. “What? I didn’t trust anyone to bring what they said. I know how this group gets about potatoes.”

“Fair point.” Davis laughed, leading Yuna and Dec to the kitchen to drop off their dishes as the door opened again.

“We brought beer,” Flo said, dressed in a vintage dress and holding a six-pack in each of her hands.

“She brought beer,” Reggie said. “I brought gin.”

“Thank god,” Emmy said, crossing the room and taking the bottle out of Flo’s partner’s hand.

“Where’s Foster? I haven’t seen him in months,” Flo asked, looking around.

“Amanda said their flight was delayed,” Ryan said.

“You don’t track your sister’s flights?” Emmy asked Ryan. “I don’t know how I’ve been with you this long.” She swiped at her phone, then announced that their flight had landed and they should be here shortly. Amanda, her hair now a bright purple, and Foster arrived shortly after everyone sat down to eat. Jeremy waited impatiently, letting his best friend hug his sister before Jeremy tackled him in a bear hug.

“Wedding planning looks good on you,” he said to Foster after their hug.

“I mean, what else do you expect from me? I do own and operate Seattle’s best event space.” Foster had sent him the article last week, and Jeremy had printed it out and put it on his fridge, feeling a bit like an old man.

“The sooner this event happens, the better,” Amanda added. She looked at her brother. “You did it right. No wedding.”

“You could elope?” Phoebe suggested.

“I guess I should be happy it’s not a destination wedding,” Amanda said, taking a sip of her brother’s wine.

“Oh, but what if we—” Foster began before Jeremy clapped a hand over his mouth.

“Foster, why don’t you go get yourself a plate before Amanda decides to take the next plane back to Seattle without you?” Jeremy suggested, laughing.

“Get me one, too,” Amanda called, draining Ryan’s wine. “And Ryan needs more wine.”

Dinner went long, and drinks went on even longer. Commandeering the TV, Yuna showed photographs of her latest tattoos, Dec and Phoebe followed, showing a video of their daughter’s first steps.

“Jo is much more graceful than her mother,” Colin said, earning him a sisterly shove from Phoebe.

“More graceful than her uncle, too,” June added, then showed a photograph of her brother and his fiancée in front of a tornado. “I’m just hoping River is slightly less brave and a tad smarter than her Uncle Julian and Auntie Violet.”

Ryan jostled for control of the screen to show photographs of their latest trip to Vietnam and deftly steered Emmy away from talking about the museums they went to in excruciating detail. A toast was made to Davis, who had been promoted, and Jeremy smiled so wide his face hurt.

When Reggie fell asleep on Flo’s shoulder, she announced that it was time for them to head home. “Don’t believe everything they tell you about younger men,” she said to Davis as they left. “He can barely stay up past nine most nights.” The Whitfords and Whitford-McFaddens headed out afterward to pick up their children, followed by Emmy and Ryan, who called a rideshare and headed outside to wait for it. Yuna and Lina offered to help clean, but Davis shooed them out. Jeremy spent a few minutes with just Foster, as Amanda went to the backyard to say hello to the dogs with Davis.

“I miss you,” Jeremy said.

“I miss you, too.”

“You like Seattle?”

“I think I’d like anywhere,” his best friend replied. “But yes, I like Seattle. Amanda’s company is expanding again, so who knows where we might end up.”

“I’m proud of you,” Jeremy said.

“I’m here for two weeks,” Foster said, rolling his eyes. “Don’t act like I’m leaving right now and you have to be all sentimental.”

“Fine, fuck you. Spin tomorrow?”

“You know it.”

“Where are you staying?”

“Down in Boulder, but I’ll be up here most days, working with Flo and Reggie.” Amanda came back to the room, and Jeremy watched his friend’s face glow. When Davis came into the room, accompanied by their two dogs, Jeremy was sure his face looked similar. Final goodbyes were said, and then it was just Jeremy and Davis.

“Clean now?” Jeremy asked, looking at the mountain of dishes that was stacked near the sink.

“Leave the dishes until morning, baby,” Davis answered as he came up behind him, wrapping his arms around Jeremy’s waist. “I’ll do them. I’m always up before you anyway.”

“This is why I leave my dishes to pile up until you visit,” Jeremy replied, pressing his body back into Davis’s solid form.

“You ever think about moving up to the mountains?” Davis asked him later in bed, after Jeremy had taken them both in hand for their releases.

“No, baby,” Jeremy laughed. “You ever think of moving down to the city?”

“Hell no,” Davis said.

“Maybe when we retire,” Jeremy said, twisting their hands together, matching silver-and-wood bands winking in the low light. “We’ll buy a house somewhere between.”

“Maybe,” Davis replied, pressing a kiss to Jeremy’s knuckles. “I’m happy now, though.”

“Same, baby.” Jeremy kissed him then, soft and gentle.

“We’ve got what we need.” Mary Anne, who still slept at their feet, gave a snore in agreement. Ginger, a smaller beagle that Jeremy had fallen in love with at an event at the museum, crawled up between the two men. “Well, everything except personal space,” Davis added.

“Who needs that?”