Chapter 21

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WARD

WARD WOKE up on Monday morning and immediately reached for his phone. Charlie had gotten strangely silent yesterday after Ward told him about the appointment with Skylar. The boy had responded with a simple okay , followed by nothing.

It was a sudden, jolting stop to the conversations they'd been having since Christmas morning. Was Charlie mad? Jealous? The boy had made Ward promise, though.

Ward checked his phone screen and saw a new message from Charlie. He held his breath as he clicked on the notification.

Charlie : Good morning, Ward.

After that was a picture of Charlie, sitting at his desk in his bedroom, holding up his coffee.

Ward couldn't help grinning. The boy had sent him basically the same picture every morning for the past few days, but Ward could tell Charlie was taking the picture anew each time. In each one, Charlie either wore a different shirt or sat facing in a different direction. Maybe Ward was reading more into it than was there, but it felt like Charlie was silently telling him something. The boy was going to the effort to take a new picture each day. Was it just a quirk of Charlie's? Or was Charlie trying to show that he was in the present moment there with him?

Either way, the sight of that new picture filled Ward with joy and relief.

Me : Good morning, Charlie. :)

Charlie : You're awake! Have you gotten your coffee yet?

Me : Just about to.

Ward got out of bed, went to the bathroom to relieve himself, and couldn't help chuckling when he felt the new rugs beneath his feet. He had to admit, it was a nice touch. Safer than a towel on the floor, and definitely more comfortable. After he and Kelly had separated and divided their belongings, Ward hadn't seen the point in things like décor, being thrown back into bachelorhood. Then again, he hadn't seen the point of half the décor Kelly had picked out when they lived together, either. But now? Ward hadn't been able to resist doing something to make Charlie happy, even if the boy might never get to experience it directly.

Just reading Charlie's excitement on his phone screen had made his day. All over a couple of rugs.

Ward washed his hands, grabbed his phone, and headed for the kitchen. He poured himself some coffee, then laughed over the memory of something Skylar had told him.

Text messages with the boy had been sparse over the past few days. Skylar had gone back to work, so he was awake when Ward was asleep, and vice versa. But on Christmas morning, after Ward had been chatting with Charlie, he and Skylar had managed a couple quick messages back and forth before they both got busy with their own holiday celebrations. Ward had asked Skylar if it was okay for someone like Charlie to be drinking coffee.

Sky : Trust me, you do NOT get in the way of Charlie and his coffee! LOL!

Sky : But, seriously, there are actually studies that suggest coffee might have a different effect on neurodivergent brains compared to neurotypical ones. Coffee doesn't amp him up. If anything, it calms him down.

Ward had made a mental note to remember that.

He kept chatting with Charlie over breakfast, then had to put his phone aside to get ready for work. Ward didn't want to start off the week by being late. Hearing his phone vibrate, though, was painfully hard to resist.

Ward checked his phone one last time as he got into his truck, knowing he wouldn't be able to wait.

Charlie : Are you going to work now?

Me : Yeah. Just about to head out.

Charlie : Okay. Drive safe. NO TEXTING.

Charlie : You're not driving yet, are you?

Charlie : Don't read this if you are.

Me : No, not driving yet. But I do need to go.

Charlie : Okay. NO TEXTING.

Me : I promise.

Ward set his phone down, turned up the truck's stereo so he wouldn't hear if the phone vibrated, then headed off to work.

The air was foggy, and it only grew thicker as he left the city limits and turned onto the country road that led out to Vista Robles Winery. To either side of him, the oak trees and bare grapevines were hazy and faint. Ward resisted the urge to pull over and take some pictures for Charlie. He wondered if the boy would like it, seeing the land all sleepy and quiet like that.

Then Ward wondered what Skylar would think.

Geez . He had it bad.

He slowed down as he approached the entrance for Vista Robles, not even able to see the sign until he was right on top of it. Ward turned onto the property, drove past the tasting room, and wound his way through the vineyard until he reached the barrel room and storage warehouse. Attached to that was the winemaker's office.

Ward spotted a sedan parked in John's usual spot. He was pretty sure that was Adam's car. He'd seen the boy drive John to and from work for a while after John's old truck got destroyed in a fire back over the summer. Ward pulled in next to the car, then hurried inside. He wasn't late, but he wasn't as early as he'd planned to be, either.

When he opened the office door, John and Adam sprang apart from a heated embrace.

John coughed. “Morning.”

“Morning,” Ward replied.

“Hey, Ward,” Adam said. The boy didn't look nearly as embarrassed at being caught as John did. If anything, Adam looked deliriously happy. Not a care in the world.

“Your truck okay?” Ward asked John.

“Oh, yeah. Had to take it in for an oil change after that trip to Idaho–”

“Because heaven forbid Daddy go one mile over the recommended service interval,” Adam interrupted with a teasing grin.

John narrowed his eyes at the boy, but there was a hint of a restrained smile on his face, too. “So we dropped it off this morning, and Adam drove me here,” John finished.

“Ah–”

“So?” Adam asked, cutting Ward off. “How was your date? Did you wind up seeing Sky? Was it super hot? Tell me everything .”

Ward felt his cheeks turn red.

Adam gasped. “You did! Well? How was it?”

John raised an eyebrow. “Do I need to take you home and gag you?”

“Only if you use your cock,” Adam replied.

“Christ, Adam,” John muttered as a blush took over his face.

Adam laughed. “So? Come on. Tell me it was good.”

Ward coughed and cleared his throat, then dropped his truck keys into the top drawer of his little desk in the corner. “Yeah, it was good.”

“Ha!” Adam clapped his hands. “I knew it.”

John chuckled and shook his head. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Well, you're stuck with me for life now,” Adam said, “so I guess you'll have to keep me.”

A fond look came over John's face. The man reached out and grabbed Adam's hand, the two of them gazing into one another's eyes.

Then Ward saw the rings.

“You guys got married?”

John blushed, but Adam grinned. “Yeah.”

“Wow. Congratulations.” Ward shook hands with John. “Why didn't you say anything?”

“It was kind of an impromptu thing,” Adam replied. He hopped up onto a corner of John's desk, idly swinging one leg. From what Ward had seen, the boy never really could sit still.

“We were on our way up to Idaho, talking about some preliminary wedding plans,” John said, picking up the thread of the story.

“And we decided we didn't want to wait another day, let alone several months,” Adam continued. “I mean, we'd already lost eight years together. And life is too god-damned short not to grab every second.”

John gave Adam's hand a squeeze.

“Besides,” Adam went on, “Trevor, the leader of my old band, is actually an ordained minister. You know, one of those online things you can get just for officiating weddings.”

“Since we were meeting up with the band anyway…” John trailed off and shrugged.

“It was a whirlwind, though,” Adam said with a laugh. “Holy shit. We couldn't do it in Idaho, so we had to drive over to Spokane. And then deal with all the legal mumbo-jumbo to get a license and go through the waiting period and all that. But we managed to get it done in and around the holiday and the band's performance schedule. Just us and Trevor, with the rest of the band as witnesses.”

John gave Adam another fond smile. “If you want, we can do it again here, with our friends–”

Adam firmly shook his head. “Honestly? It was perfect. I don't need the big show. And getting to spend our wedding night in the chalet where we reconnected last year? I can't imagine anything better than that.”

John grinned.

Ward fought to keep a smile on his face even as a pang of envy slammed into him. He was happy for his friends. He really was. But it still stung to look back and remember the crushing humiliation of being left standing at the altar.

All around him, his friends and acquaintances were finding their soulmates and settling down for their happily-ever-afters.

Would it ever be his turn?

He thought of Skylar and Charlie, then found himself blushing again.

“So?” Adam asked.

Ward blinked, jolted out of his thoughts. “So?”

Adam made an impatient gesture, then rolled his eyes. “So? Did you figure it out? Are you officially bi now?”

“Adam,” John muttered, chuckling under his breath and shaking his head.

“What? I'm curious.”

Ward rubbed the back of his neck, feeling pinned by the two pairs of eyes fixed on him. “Yeah, maybe,” he said, then rolled his own eyes. There was no maybe about it. He was completely, utterly infatuated, and with two boys at once. The feeling was more intense than it had been with any woman he'd dated.

And it seemed like it would be forever before he got a chance to see either of them again. Had it truly only been a week since he met Skylar? It seemed like it had been both yesterday and ages ago, all at once.

Ward threw himself into work, trying to stay focused as the days slowly passed. Rosé bottling came and went, as did the pruning of the vines. He and John lost themselves in the bottling of the whites, as well as plans and preparation for the year. The Paso Robles Wine Festival would be happening before they knew it. Then the summer monitoring of the grapes. Then another harvest. Around and around it went, year by year. But this year was starting out so very different, not least because it felt like it was dragging on.

When he wasn't working, Ward spent nearly every waking moment, thinking of the boys. Charlie texted him almost every day. Conversation with Skylar was still hit-and-miss. They barely got a chance to respond to one another's greetings within the same day, let alone carry on an entire conversation. Still, it was something. Ward lived for every bit of it. For every scrap of a moment with either of them.

But, finally, the days and weeks passed. Valentine's Day arrived, and then Ward found himself flying north on the freeway, racing back towards the city. In a few, short hours, he'd get to see Skylar again. Then, maybe try to figure out a way to see Charlie while he was in town.

He couldn't wait.