6. Will

Chapter Six

WILL

W e took over a large corner section of The Tap Tavern for all of us boys to get together. Generally, we met up at Christian's or Samuel's house, but we wanted to celebrate Hayden's amazing news in the place where most of our relationships were formed. I missed Timothy being here with us, but he assured Hayden that he'd be home in time to meet his baby.

"Who are we waiting on?" Kenny asked, whispering in my ear.

He and Roland were such a new couple that he'd only experienced a few of our boy gatherings. All the Daddies had converged on Roland's house and were planning on playing cards. "Just waiting on Dylan."

"About that time, Dylan!" Toby yelled.

Indie groaned. "You better be glad my Daddy's not here. He told us we had to keep it down."

"Yeah, my Daddy's not here either, so we're going to have to regulate ourselves." Chip giggled. "What were they thinking?"

Chip's Daddy, Ollie, doorman extraordinaire, and Cameron, partial owner and general manager of The Tap, were both at Roland's house. Christian hadn't let any of the Daddies off the hook from hanging out tonight since they were celebrating with Waylan over the baby announcement, too.

Dylan rushed over to the table and dropped into his seat next to Archie. "I'm so sorry I'm late. I had to finish taking a test."

"A test?" Nigel asked.

Dylan leaned in. "Yeah, I decided to take the plunge, and I enrolled in the program to become a nurse practitioner."

"Congratulations," Nigel said, nodding. "I know you talked about it before. Good for you."

Luca narrowed his gaze at Dylan. "Don't forget, if you ever need a steady study buddy or some encouragement, I'm here for you."

"Me, too," Levi chimed in. "I finally finished, but I've got your back."

Dylan smiled gratefully. "I appreciate it, guys, but that's enough about me. We're all here for the man of the hour."

Hayden put both hands on his chest. "For moi? Yes , it's about time I'm celebrated."

Good-natured groans went around the table, but then we all raised our glasses in a toast. "I'm so proud of you, my friend," Nigel said. "You're going to make the best father."

We all clinked glasses and took a sip, then Hayden said, "And you're going to make my babies the best clothes." He turned toward me. "And you're going to design me the most fabulous nursery ever."

Excitement sparked in my belly. I'd planned to offer to help him, but I hadn't expected him to ask me for help. I'd have to tell Toby his theories on the universe guiding you the way you should go were spot on. But wait…

At the same time, multiple voices rang out with, "Babies?"

Hayden clapped his hands excitedly. "She's pregnant with twins."

The news spurred another round of congratulations and toasts from our group. Our waitress came over and took our order, and then Indie stood up. "Okay, I feel like now is a good time for us to all check in."

"Huh?" Julian asked. "Check in how?"

Indie pointed at him. "Well, I happen to know for a fact that you have your own big news. Daddy told me to make sure that we don't just sit around and gossip, but that we find out what's going on in each other's lives."

"Oh thank God," Levi said. "Christian told me the same thing, and I didn't really want to be the one to bring it up. Not that I don't think it's a good idea, but come on. He may be a Daddy to everyone, but I was dragged into this friend group kicking and screaming."

Archie smiled fondly. "But you love us now. And look at them, still trying to take care of us, even when they're not here."

Dylan snorted. "Brett better be glad he doesn't pull that crap with me."

Joey barked out a laugh. "Oh really? Because Brett sent me a text asking me to make sure that you ate a real meal. He said after working a long shift and schoolwork, you had a tendency to pick on finger foods instead of having something healthy."

Dylan's face went pink, and we all laughed, teasing him for trying to sound like he had his Daddy in line when we all knew how much he loved how well Brett looked after him.

"Let's go in order of when we got together," Toby said.

"Timothy's not here," Archie pointed out.

"Wouldn't Will be first anyway?" Kenny asked.

"That's so true," Toby said. "He has us all by a few years."

"That's true." I held up my hands. "But I'm going to have to pass for right now. Well, I guess that's not true. I'll be working on the room for Hayden's babies."

"Yeah, you will," Hayden said, smiling broadly.

"You'll do a great job," Nigel said.

"Definitely," several others agreed, warming me from the inside out.

"Okay, since Timothy's not here, Joey's next," I said.

Joey sat up straighter in his seat. "What can I say? I'm living the dream with Tucker, and my real estate company is growing exponentially. We're hiring a couple of more agents and another office worker for our office manager to boss around." He smiled at Chip. "I couldn't be happier."

Toby put his hand in the air. "Me, me, me. I'm next. Guess what?"

"What?" we all asked at once, bursting out laughing.

"Samuel and I decided that I'm opening a restaurant."

"No way," Archie said. "That's so exciting."

"I'm pretty pumped. Scared but excited."

After we'd stopped peppering him with questions, Toby said, "Okay then. Next up would be Dylan."

"Excuse me," Hayden said.

Nigel waved him off. "We already know your news."

"Not all of it," Hayden said.

"What else have you got?" Luca asked.

"We're buying a house, too."

Another round of congratulations and applause went around the table.

"What about you, Nigel?" Levi asked.

Nigel ducked his head bashfully. "I'm opening a storefront."

"No way", Levi said. "That's fantastic news, man."

We talked about the location and some ideas he had, which took us back to Toby, who told us the location he was looking into. Then it was Dylan's turn. He held up his hands. "I already told you my big news. More school for me."

"I think that's great, though," Archie said, leaning into him.

"What about you, Archie? Tell them your news," Dylan said.

Archie's face went red, but the smile trying to burst out on his face was obvious. "Zachary and Avi have decided that Zachary's going to stay home with their twins. So I'll be one hundred percent in control of the thrift store from now on."

"Your dads must be so proud," Kenny said.

Archie nodded. ‘Yeah, they are. Dad thinks it's cool that he works at the police station with Hutch, and that I'll be working with Pops."

Julian snorted. "Don't lie. You think it's pretty fabulous, too. The whole family does."

"I do," he admitted.

"Why don't you tell them about your dad's big accomplishment, too," Julian suggested.

If I hadn't seen it for myself, I wouldn't have thought it was possible. Archie's smile grew impossibly wider, taking over his whole cute little freckled face. "My dad, Marcus, if you don't know who's who, just made detective."

A roar went around the table. Of course we all knew who his fathers were, and they were both stand-up guys. It was always great hearing about good things happening to good people.

Oz, our favorite bartender now that Levi had moved on, sauntered over to our table, throwing a towel over his shoulder. "I love you all. I promise. But if you're too loud, I'm supposed to call your Daddy"—he pointed at Indie—"and your Daddy"—he pointed at Levi—"and since they're my bosses, I'll throw you under the bus so fast your head will spin."

Chip snickered. "No you won't, but we'll tell them you tried."

Oz grinned, put his hands together before his nose, and bowed at him. "That's all I ask," then he wandered away.

"Welp, I guess it's my turn," Levi said. "I just found out I have my own classroom after Christmas break."

"Hey," Dylan yelled down the table. "I thought you'd have to sub a year or two before they'd find you your own room in the district you want?"

"Me, too, man. But they have a teacher who's decided that once she goes out for maternity leave, she's not coming back. It's her third child, and she wants to stay home for a few years."

"That's really great," Indie said.

"Thank you. I'm pretty excited."

"Okay, I want to hear Julian's news," I said. I already knew it. He'd told us the other day after I told them my and John's insta-love story, but he'd sworn us to secrecy.

Julian cleared his throat. "So, there's an art gallery in New York City that wants to do an exhibit of my stuff."

"Holy shit," Toby said.

"That's epic," Dylan added.

After three servers delivering our food and more chatter about everything we'd heard so far, Levi said, "All right, Indie. What about you?"

Toby clapped his hands in front of his face like he had a secret no one else knew. Indie cleared his throat. "Well, I've been doing some soul searching, and believe it or not"–he pointed a finger toward Toby–"this guy has been a big help. So… I'm leaving The Tap?—"

There were groans from Julian and Luca.

"I know, I know. You'll miss me, but I'm going to be helping out more at the Takoda Outreach Center with talks and other stuff they need, and I'll be teaching yoga a few mornings a week." He rushed out the last word so quickly that I almost thought I misheard.

"No way," I said.

He shrugged sheepishly. Probably because he'd had a rocky start with Toby. "Yeah. I don't know, but Toby was right. That stuff really helps clear your head, and it's become an important part of my life and my routine."

Dylan held up a glass toward him. "Congratulations, man. I'm happy for you."

"Wow. Who's next?" Archie asked.

Chip raised his hand shyly. "Me."

"And if you were listening, I gave it away already," Joey said.

Faces screwed up around the table, but I'd caught it. From the amused look on Dylan's face, he had, too, but Chip deserved to share his big news. Joey winked at me. "Go ahead, Chip," he nudged his employee and friend.

"Joey and Tucker officially promoted me to office manager this morning."

Nigel thrust his hands up in victory. "Yes! Didn't I tell you that you'd love him?" Nigel was the one who'd brought Chip into our group—to Takoda to begin with—so he threw huge big brother vibes toward the sweet guy. It was awesome seeing his new life here working out so beautifully after the abuse he suffered before Omar, Nigel, and Ollie rescued him.

Chip blinked tears of happiness out of his eyes, and I'll be damned if I didn't feel my own eyes well with tears.

Luca winked at his friend, then more dramatically than he ever did anything, he removed our attention from Chip with a, "Well, I got the grant I applied for. We have to iron out some details, but…"

Our hooting and hollering got so loud that Indie said, "Oh shit," and held up his phone. "Our Daddies are threatening to come get us if we don't tone it down."

Archie shrugged. "I'd be okay with that. Hutch works so much he isn't always home in the evening."

"I'm okay with it, too, as long as they're just picking us up and taking us back to Roland's house," Hayden said.

"Oh, I like that idea," Kenny said.

Julian tossed a wadded-up napkin at him. "Imagine that."

"So I'm telling them to come get us?" Indie asked, obviously wanting to get back to his Daddy, too.

There were yesses all around. Indie punched at his phone, then laid it down and turned to Kenny. "Okay, a few of them are coming for all of us, so we have just enough time to box our leftovers and hear what's going on with you."

Kenny sniffed. "The same ol' same ol', but…this is nice, guys. Thank you for including me."

Levi barked out a laugh. "Once these guys claim you?—"

"Or one of the Daddies," Hayden inserted.

"There's no escaping them," Levi finished.

Kenny reached over and grabbed my hand. "I think I'm pretty okay with that. It's nice to have found such a loving family."

"It is," I agreed, squeezing our palms together.

"I'll drink to that," Dylan said, raising his glass. We all followed his lead, and it was one of the best nights we'd ever had.