One and Only (Part 8) | Ethan
Ethan was more nervous than he thought he would be. It was Friday night, and Jacob had a date with a set of twins.
In the last installment of One and Only
In the first installment of One and Only
It was Wednesday evening, and he and Jacob were doing up the dishes. They’d whipped up a stir-fry. They were getting better at cooking together. It was one of the things they enjoyed. They’d stopped in at a bookstore downtown and assembled an array of cookbooks. The plan was to tour the world—culinary-wise. They had four nights a week they could dedicate to it.
Ethan looked at the time on his phone. Joanne would be there any minute. She was stopping by for a drink. The kids were with a babysitter. She was heading out with a group of girlfriends for the night, but she was stopping at his place first.
The doorbell rang.
Ethan looked at Jacob. “Are you ready for this?”
Jacob took a deep breath. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“All right. Let’s get this over with.” Ethan headed for the front entry and opened the front door. Joanne stood there looking incredible. She was all done up for a night out. She was wearing the perfume Ethan had always liked so much. It brought back a lot of memories.
They’d had good times together. He had loved her once.
“You look nice,” Ethan said.
“Thank you.” Joanne peeled off her coat and handed it to Ethan. She wandered toward the kitchen as Ethan hung it in the closet. Ethan caught up and went to stand beside Jacob.
Joanne was visibly impressed. Her eyebrows rose, and she looked at Ethan.
“Joanne … this is Jacob.
Jacob reached out and took Joanne’s hand. “Nice to meet you,” he said. “Can I get you a glass of wine?” Joanne nodded, and Jacob turned to retrieve a glass.
Ethan and Joanne went to the living room and took up places across from each other while Jacob fussed about in the kitchen. They had made appetizers as well.
Joanne leaned forward toward Ethan.
“Jeez, Ethan,” she whispered. “When you said he was gorgeous, you weren’t joking.”
She sat back as Jacob made his way into the room. He set her glass of Sauvignon Blanc down along with a tray of sweet potato crostini with prosciutto, honey-roasted figs. He and Jacob had progressed with the difficulty of the dishes they had started creating.
Jacob took a seat beside Ethan.
“This looks delicious,” Joanne said. “Who made it?”
Jacob smiled. “We did. We’re on a bit of a cooking kick.”
“I’m so glad I haven’t had dinner yet.” She lifted a napkin and took one of the appetizers. She took a bite, hummed with satisfaction, then leaned back on the sofa.
“So, tell me how you two reunited,” she said.
“We were at the same live music event,” Ethan answered.
“I was on a date,” Jacob added. “Caught sight of each other across the room.”
“It was like two damned magnets,” Ethan said. “We just snapped back together.”
“Sounds romantic,” Joanne said.
Jacob smiled at Ethan. “It was. I told him I still loved him that same night.”
Ethan laughed. “Couldn’t let him go after that. I still loved him, too.”
“Took you a while to tell me.” Jacob took a sip of his wine.
Ethan looked at Joanne. “I had a few things I had to work out in my head. How it was going to affect the kids was top of my list. Having a new person on the scene, especially it being a man in love with their dad … I knew it might be hard for them.”
Joanne shook her head. “It shouldn’t be. Laura’s best friend has two moms.”
“I know, but that’s not their dad.” Ethan looked at Jacob. “Jacob isn’t used to kids. I knew this would be hard for him, too.” He stared at his hands. “I was also terrified to be in love with a man. This is an accepting city, but I needed to be sure I was ready for it—the stigma.”
“I’m sorry you have to feel that way,” Joanne said. “It shouldn’t be like that.”
Ethan sighed and caught Joanne’s gaze. “Thank you for being so understanding.”
Joanne leaned forward and touched Ethan’s knee. “I just want you to be happy.” She turned to Jacob. “So … what do you do for a living?”
“I’m an RN in a long-term care facility.”
“How do you like it?”
Jacob smiled. “Love it. Can’t imagine working anywhere else.”
“Family in town?” she asked.
“Not really.” Jacob furrowed his brow. “They wrote me off when I told them I was gay.”
Ethan reached for Jacob’s hand. They’d talked at length about Jacob’s feelings regarding his family abandoning him. Both his parents and his sister lived in town. He hadn’t seen them in twelve years. It was still a deep, festering wound in Jacob’s soul.
“I’m so sorry,” Joanne said.
Jacob sighed. “It is what it is.”
“Well ….” Joanne set her napkin down and rose to her feet. “I have to run. It was lovely to meet you, Jacob.” She looked at Ethan. “Whenever works for you and Jacob to introduce him to the kids, I’m good with it. I’ll talk to them first, so they know what to expect.”
“That would be great,” Ethan said as he followed her to the door. He retrieved her coat, and she kissed him on the cheek and said goodnight.
Ethan pressed the door closed.
“That went well,” he said.
Jacob trapped Ethan against the door. “It did … so now what?”
“What do you have in mind?”
“Upstairs.”
Ethan followed Jacob up the stairs to the bedroom. Their lips met, and the dance began as they removed each other’s clothes. Jacob pushed Ethan toward the bed when they were rid of them.
After the meeting with Joanne, they both needed to relieve a little stress.
“Bend over,” Jacob said. “We have more work to do on you.”
 | A guest post by
|