The Families in Rossford

PRESENTS

CONTINUED

The grey Christmas morning light was not working hard to push through the drawn curtains. He smelled so good. He was so close to him. He was in him. It was like he was young again, just a boy again. In a way Todd would always be his boy. And there was no need to be quiet, to worry about the noise of the bed. It was just like that paradise when he first had the house, and it was the first place he had ever lived alone, and Todd came over to do whatever. Fenn lifted his legs for him, he pulled him in deeper, he closed his eyes and opened his mouth and wrapped his arms tight around Todd, running his hands up and down his back, reaching down and down to run his hands over the ass that flexed, the ass that pumped in and out as the man moved in him, his head arching up, his mouth open, head descending, face enraptured, now eyes demonlike, now face buried in his shoulder. They moved like this into the morning until Todd suddenly shouted, shuddered and twisted. They twisted together as he came, his body convulsing as Fenn held him.

For a long time the shock ran through Todd’s long body. Mouth open he lay back, shaking and seizing, and then they were quiet while, with his large hand he stroked Fenn.

“Come here, baby,” Todd said, eyes still closed, moving like a blind child. He pulled Fenn on top of him. “Come and get yours. I wanna see you get yours.”

Tom’s playing grew more and more frantic, Lee’s scatting reached fever pitch; he made up words with the power of tongues tripping over each other. Dylan blew till his lips nearly exploded, the notes of the sax reaching past the ceiling, into the rafters until Danny and Ron stopped dancing and stood in wonder. They all stood in wonder, and then there was only silence.

Dylan stood there white and shaken, blinking, the saxophone hanging loose in his hands and Lee looked at the boy and said, “My God! My God!”

“My God,” Fenn whispered.

There was that deep silence that always came after. And then the sound of both their breaths and their chests heaving. They looked up into the dark, lying on their backs, side by side.

“If you were to ever be with someone else who would it be?”

“Seriously?” Fenn turned and looked at him.

“Yes?”

“On Christmas morning, after this, you’re asking me that?”

Todd lay on his side, his back to Fenn, and stretched out in comfort.

“You’ve got a point.”

Fenn, still on his back, said, “What about you?”

“I have no idea why I asked that question, now,” Todd said.

“Brian.”

“No, it wouldn’t be Brian,” Todd told him.

“That wasn’t a question. That was my answer. It would be Brian Babcock.”

Todd turned and said, “Why?”

“You are my spouse. Tom is my ex. You were both with him. It seems fitting somehow. The two of you remind me of each other. Since you asked.”

“I just think that’s strange,” Todd said.

“I think it’s strange that you brought it up.”

“I agree,” Todd said. “Because I don’t think of being with anyone else. I don’t want to be with anyone else.”

“Not even if it was me and Brian at the same time.”

“I don’t even think that would work.”

 Todd lay back and laughed. Fenn sat up and reached around Todd to push his hand through his lover’s hair.

“I thought you would say Tom,” Todd told him.

“Really?”

“I think Tom is the man you loved as much as me.”

“I do love Tom,” Fenn said. “Do you want me to tell you the truth?”

“We’re both too old to lie,” Todd said.

“I do love Tom. I think… in another world or with another psychology where a man could have two husbands, I might even have him for one. We do have the same child. And a lot else. The fire is still there.”

“Oh, thanks—”

“Shut the fuck up,” Fenn said tenderly, putting his fingers over Todd’s lips.

“Whatever fire I have ever felt for anyone else, when I see you it is gone. Just to come in the house and see you with your legs sticking out under the sink while you’re fixing the disposal or… half asleep on the coach in an old plaid shirt and feed cap… There is nothing that heats me up more than that. And when you start to kiss me, to make love to me, it’s like you’re that boy fresh out of college, so full of fire that wanted me so much even though I couldn’t see why. And still can’t.”

“I’m no boy anymore,” Todd murmured, laughing as he curled his body closer to Fenn’s.

“No,” Fenn agreed, running the back of his hand up and down Todd’s cheek. “No, you’re not. You’re something much better.

“Now you’re a man.”

Someone was poking him in his face. Someone wouldn’t stop.

“Knock it off, would you?” Brendan demanded.

“Wake up, Uncle Bren! Get up!” the child’s voice insisted.

He blinked, and the curly haired caramel colored boy was looking down at him.

“Huston, that’s really enough.”

But the little boy, who was on the bed, who Brendan could see had made a stack of pillows in order to climb up the bed, climbed up to Brendan’s face and squeezed his cheeks.

“Mewwy Chwistmas, Uncle Brendan,” he said, kissing him full on the lips.

“Huston!” Brendan could hear his sister calling.

“Huston!”

“Mommy he’s up!” Huston told Carol as she walked in the room, one hand on her hip.

“Well,” Carol said, picking up Huston, “I would apologize, but it is time to get up and open presents.

“Mathan!” she called down the hall as she went out the door with Huston crowing, “Get up, Uncle Bwen! Get up!”

Outside in the hall, Carol made a noise and said, “Excuse me, sir,” and then a moment later, Sheridan Klasko walked in.

“What are you doing here?” Brendan said, climbing out of the bed.

“And a Merry Ass Christmas to you too,” said Sheridan. He held out a small box.

“I called over to your house early this morning, but Kenny said you weren’t there.”

“It’s a long story.”

“I got time.”

“I don’t, though,” Brendan said, feeling around on his childhood dresser and picking up his glasses case.

“I mean I need coffee.”

“Well, that’s right downstairs.”

Brendan put on his glasses and squinted through them, “How long have you been here?”

“Hour or so,” Sheridan shrugged. “This was the second place I called. Carol said you showed up early and fell asleep.”

“I was at the old place under Fenn and Todd's. Then it reminded me of Kenny. Then it remidned me of Chad fucking Kenny. So I came here. Let’s go get some coffee.”

Brendan motioned for Sheridan to follow and then said, “Is that for me?”

“Yes. Open it.”

“I didn’t get you anything.”

“I didn’t ask you to.”

“I got Kenny something. I got him something nice.”

“Just rub the salt in the old wound, Bren.”

“I hadn’t meant to,” Brendan said, sounding more serious that Sheridan had meant for him to. “I was just thinking.”

“Well think downstairs.  Not there. And maybe you can get that sad look off your face.”

Brendan took the proffered present and then said, “But I don’t want to open it. Not just yet. I like to savor a present.”

“Alright then,” Sheridan said, shrugging. “But you gotta get out of this room.”

Downstairs by the fire, Brendan said, “I came home last night, and didn’t want to be there.”

“Is there a reason you didn’t want to be there?”

“Well, there’s always a reason. Isn’t there? For everything?”

“That’s not much of an answer.”

“At the moment I don’t know that I feel like giving much more of one. All you need to know is I got up right away and drove to Fenn and Todd’s. I asked for my old key back. But… I couldn’t be in that apartment alone. I just couldn’t. So I came back here. Mom and Dad and Carol and Mathan were still up.”

Sheridan shook his head.

“I can’t believe Mathan Alexander married your sister.”

“And one day Layla might marry your brother. We’ve been Houghtonized.”

“Does that make us related?”

“My brother-in-law is Layla’s … let me work this out…Adele and Fenn… Fenn and Lee… Layla is Lee’s first cousin once removed, so…”

“Mathan is Layla’s second cousin once removed.”

“Wait, that’s not right,” Brendan said. “Hold on.”

Sheridan took a scrap of paper from his pocket, “Cut out Lee and cut out Fenn, Adele’s first cousin is Mathan’s mother so Layla and Mathan are second cousins which makes Will and Carol second cousins-in-law, which makes us—”

“Nothing,” Brendan interjected.

“You’re just being a jerk. It makes us cousins… Sort of.”

Brendan chuckled, shrugged and turned away. “I can be kind of jerky sometimes.”

“Did you think that if we went through all that you would distract me from asking why you left your house last night?”

“Yes,” Brendan admitted. “I actually did.”

Sheridan shrugged and said, “But I’m still here.”

“I know me and Kenny are broken up,” Brendan explained. “And I know it’s my doing. But… I felt warm about him last night. It’s Christmas. I thought we might rekindle some things.”

“What happened with that guy, Ruthven?” Sheridan said, anticipating trouble.

“Kenny fucked him.”

“Well, look at the Christmas boys,” Erin Latham announced that morning as she sat at the kichen table in the large old farmhouse while Shelley poured coffee and Sean came in followed by Matty rounded the table to kiss his wife on the back of the neck.

“Good morning, Sis,” Sean said. He stretched and yawned. “Can I help with anything?”

“Yes you can,” Shelley said, turning around. She hooked her arm through her uncle’s arm and led him out of the kitchen.

“What am I helping with?” Sean said, innocently, as Shelley put a cup of coffee into his hand.

“You’re helping me with gossip,” she told him, sitting down in the foyer on the first step that led upstairs.

“What is going on between you and Brian?”

“I don’t know that I want to talk about that yet.”

“Well, that’s fine,” Shelley said. “But more importantly, what’s going on with that smile on your face? You were in such a good mood when you came home last night.”

Sean sipped from his coffee and turned his head.

“Do you want me to call you Uncle Sean?”

“You better not.”

“Old, old, Uncle Sean!”

Sean looked at her.

Shelley shrugged.

“What if I told you I met the man I’ve been trying to meet for fifteen years?”

“I would say you need to get a better event planner.”

“You’re a funny girl, Shelley Latham.”

“Shelley Anderson, and don’t you forget it.

“But seriously,” she amended.

“I think I just met a man I want to get to know better and better,” Sean explained. “I used to take it for granted I would easily meet this wonderful man and,” he shook his head, “this hasn’t turned out to be the case. But do I dare to hope this one could be different? I do.”

“Does he have a name?”

“He is tall and solid and he has this dark reddish hair, curly, beautiful. He is just the sweetest looking man.”

“But does he have a name?” Shelley said, flatly.

“Oh,” Sean seemed to be coming back to earth.

“Yes. He does. His name is Kenny.”

A relationship of nearly eighteen years prevented one from the knowledge of one night stands. He had broken up with Brendan a few times, and once or twice there had been someone during those break ups. The last time it had been Chad North, but that had turned into a prolonged affair and ended up in friendship.

That night, at the Christmas party, Kenneth McGrath felt that there was nothing he would rather do than go to bed with Sean Babcock. This was strange for him. When he’d met Brendan they were both boys, and the desire that had grown between them was nothing like this. The desire for Chad was the desire for being touched and being with a warm person. This adult fire in him, as he stood across from Sean Babcock, was something very different. The moment he was able to get away from Sean, he turned the full force of his lust upon Ruthven Meradan.

     It wasn't that Sean wasn’t good looking. He was, very much so. It was only that Kenny hated the idea of casual sex with someone it made more sense to begin a relationship with instead. The more he talked to him, the more it seemed like nothing but sex and maybe acquaintanceship could come from Ruthven, and when he began to gauge that Ruthven might want the same thing, then it made sense to extricate himself from Sean and go around the town building up a vibe with this boy. It had been so long since he’d just taken a virtual stranger to bed, but in the end it was so hot and so exciting. As he rode him into the night he realized it was the most intense sex he’d had in years, something he had not experienced with Brendan in a very long time.

As Kenny lay in the half dark, a little exhausted, Ruthven sat on the edge of the bed. Kenny sat up as well, admiring his body, but what he said was: “Brendan never came home.”

To this Ruthven said, “I’m getting hard again.”

He was. That was true.

“I don’t think he’s coming home,” Kenny realized.

“Last night was hot,” said Ruthven “Especially going down on you.”

Kenny was instantly hard. For a moment he reflected that this Ruthven wasn’t very complicated. He was, in fact, the boy that had been screwing Dylan Mesda for years. Kenny didn’t know what to make of it, and then he decided there really wasn’t anything to make of it.

He took Ruthven’s hand and pressed it between his legs, urging him to rub.

“Do you think that this time you would like to fuck me?” Ruthven said.

“Yes,” said Kenny.

It was the time when, with Brendan there would be close hugging and spooning, lifting the covers to drift off to sleep, when he and Ruthven lay naked, looking at the ceiling and then Ruthven stretched, yawned and said, “I should probably be going. It’s a big day tomorrow.”

Kenny nodded and Ruthven rose from the bed.

“Can I use your restroom?”

“It’s right down the hall,” Kenny told him.

A few moments later, Kenny could hear the water running, but chiefest on his mind was the question of Brendan’s whereabouts. He didn’t want Ruthven to stay, that would have been not so much awkward as… an imposition. He remembered waking up next to Chad after their first time and not being put off by it. But he couldn’t imagine waking up with Ruthven.

Ruthven came back in, dressing, and Kenny got out of bed to dress as well. He had to let Ruthven out and be a gentleman about it. He didn’t have a lot of experience outside of Brendan, but he remembered men who had dirty houses, men who tried to chew gum while having sex, men who had no hometraining.

“Can I get you something before you go?”

“No, man, that’s alright,” Ruthven said, pulling on his sweater. He wasn’t a bad sort.

“I’ll walk you,” Kenny said, flipping on a light. “Let me just make sure you’ve got everything.”

Ruthven patted himself down and Kenny looked around the room.

“Yup,” he said. “That’s about it.”

They went downstairs through the house and then at the door, Ruthven turned and kissed him on the mouth.

“Night, stranger,” he said, adjusting his baseball cap. He headed out, shuffling to his car. Kenny left the porch light on until the car drove off, and then he turned around and went back to bed.