The Village

Seth’s Perspective

Sitting at the head table with Zach and the rest of the wedding party, I had a great view of Freddy and Izzy at Kelly and Nathan’s table. Izzy was giving them all a little hell about what she would and wouldn’t eat, but Freddy was being the perfect gentleman. I did my best to listen to Eli address the crowd while keeping an eye on my two hellions. Apparently, I wasn’t doing a great job of listening because Zach hit me with his elbow and said, “come on!”

“What?” I asked.

“Eli just announced our toast” responded my husband as he pushed out his chair and stood up. Oh shit, I had zoned out completely and missed our que. I stood up and we walked the few seats over to stand behind the small tabletop podium, we had decided to toast them together.

“Hi” I started and Izzy responded ‘Hi, Zeff’ getting a big laugh (god I loved that little shit). “I’m Seth, Eli’s little brother and now his brother in-law” the crowd gave me a little chuckle.

Then Zach spoke up, “And I’m Zach” Again, Izzy responded ‘Hi Sach’ as if we were at home and he just walked into the room, then she went back to her dinner after getting another laugh (and yes, I believe that was the moment we became known as Zeff and Sach to almost everyone around us). “Riley’s big brother and now her brother in-law” the crowd let out another chuckle.

I continued, “Often when people step up to a podium, they’re there to talk about firsts. We’re here to talk about a second.”

Zach took over again, “Tonight is the second time a crowd has gathered at this Country Club to celebrate a Westin-Hall wedding. The first was three years ago when my husband Seth and I celebrated our wedding in this vary room.”

Then back to me, “we had no clue that my big brother and Zach’s little sister would make a connection that night that would lead them to the altar” Zach interrupted.

“No freaking clue at all” he said shaking his head getting another laugh.

I continued, “but here we are. Sans the lone protester on the lawn” there… I got my first real laugh as most of the crowd knew what I was referring to. “And we couldn’t be freaking happier. Who the hell knew that Zach’s baby sister, the little sixteen year old pain in the butt I met when I spent my first Christmas Eve with The Halls’, and my big brother, my confidante and protector through my formative years would be such a perfect fit?”

“Hell, I never saw it coming” Zach said. “And I’ve never seen my sister happier either.”

“Or my brother” I chimed in.

“He’s whipped” Zach added for another laugh as the happy couple exchanged smiles and a tiny peck. I noticed Eli and Riley had been holding hands all through dinner. We went back and forth talking about Eli and Riley, their life in North Carolina, and our excitement to be living so close to them.

Zach lifted his glass, “Please raise your glass in celebration of the love shared by two of my favorite people in the world, my brother in-law, my brother in-law, my sister, and my sister in-law” the crowd chuckled.

“To the second Westin-Hall marriage, may it be as happy as the first” I added, then he and I clinked our glasses as the rest of the room held theirs in the air. After that, Nathan got up and made a speech and said some wonderful things about my family and what an incredible extension they had become of his own. Brad also made a toast, but not my dad. Eli let him walk him down the aisle and light the candle for my mother, but that’s as far as his involvement went… baby steps. Dad was still a bit of an outsider; it would take more time. After the toasts Eli and Riley made the rounds going table to table talking to everyone with huge smiles on their faces. After we finished eating, Zach and I walked over to the table where his parents were sitting with my dad, Best, and the kids. It was amazingly under control. Izzy was still stuffing her face and Freddy was coloring in a book grandma Kelly brought for him. The rest of the kids sat with their parents at the tables surrounding our family. When our kids finished dinner, they went off to play with the other kids. The adults continued to mingle until the DJ started the party. First Riley and Eli had their “first dance” then the parents joined them… it was cute, Nathan and Kelly, Brad and Scotty, and even Dad and Best. Then the wedding party joined in, then the stupid traditional crap like throwing the garter, the dollar dance, etc.

Then they took a break to cut the cake. Oh my god, Freddy! He had never seen a cake like that in his entire life and would not believe that it was real. When Eli and Riley cut into it together, Freddy was sitting between me and Zach and whispered loudly “It’s real. It’s real. It’s really cake! Can we have some? Huh? Seth, Seth, Can we have some?”  We were dying at his excitement. He sat there patiently waiting until it was his turn to get a piece of the cake, then he devoured it with so much excitement. The kids had been with us about six month and I kept forgetting how little of life they had experienced. The entire weekend was new to them, a big wedding, family, friends, a night at grandma and grandpas, later that night they’d experience their first hotel stay.

After cake, Zach and I hit the dance floor dragging the kids with us. The DJ was playing a lot of 80’s and 90’s music while we were shaking our money makers with our family and friends (and their kids). Suddenly, we heard the familiar rift of The Romantics, “What I Like About You.”

Izzy went nuts!!! “Zeff, Zeff, like about you, Zeff!” and then she hit the first ‘HEY!’ right on note. Again, our friends started laughing at our little goofball.

I looked at Brad who was dancing near us and said, “You’re the one who made me love 90’s music, she gets it from you.”

Brad Laughed and said, “I got it from them” motioning to Kev, and Scotty who were also shaking their groove things nearby.

“We got it from him” Kev said motioning to Pop Nicholls who was out there with the rest of us.

Pop looked down with a smile at Izzy who was spinning and dancing like a manwoman and said, “and twenty years from now she’ll pass it down to the next generation.” I realized as we were all dancing what a huge influence all those people had been in my life, and now we’ll pass it on.

Meanwhile, Freddy was tearing up the dancefloor. I mean tearing it up! Yeah, Izzy danced and spun like any other almost-three year old would, the other kids gyrated to the music, but Freddy… Freddy had the moves. The soon-to-be six year old had all eyes on him as he did everything from the moonwalk to the Dougie with fluid perfection. I have no clue where he learned how to dance, maybe he was just a natural and picking it up as he went, maybe he learned it on TV, I have no clue, but it was hilarious and cute as hell. The crowd moved in around Freddy and copied his moves, he loved the attention all the adults. After a while, I needed a break, so did Zach, so we left the kids on the dancefloor with our friends and sat down at a table off to the side to take a break. We were talking with the Arizona guys when Izzy came running to the table in tears. “Zeff, Dat guy push me” she cried as she put her arms out to be picked up and held (a rarity for her). I stood and lifted her into my arms, she sobbed, heartbroken into my shoulder wiping her nose on my tux as she did.

“What happened, sweetie?” I asked. Zach was no standing next to me stroking her hair as the sobs got louder and more uncontrollable. My own heart was breaking.

“Dat” she said between sobs and sniffles, “dat guy is mean! While I was trying to figure out what happened my Sexy, blonde, jock of a husband went into poppa bear mode. His haunches were up, his nostrils were flared, and his eyes scanned the room for the guy who dare be mean to his daughter (not foster, not soon-to-be-adopted, just daughter… THAT’S who she was). Goddammit, Zach was so fucking sexy at that moment.

Suddenly, Freddy came running up to us and I asked him what happened, “That guy pushed Izzy and told her to get off the dancefloor” he said.

“What guy?!” Zach asked scanning the crowd and ready to kill.

“DAT guy” Izzy said pointing at the figure making his way towards us. Zach was still looking for the guy when I started to chuckle, then kissed Izzy’s head as it laid on my shoulder.

“Zach, look” I said pointing. The “guy” was about four years old and was walking towards us holding the hand of a woman I assumed was his mother. The kid just looked like a bully. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be mean to a little kid, but he was kind of porky as he burst out of his disheveled clothes with the devil in his eye, you could just tell he was an instigator.

The woman walked up to us and said to Zach, “Oh Zachy, is this little one with you? I heard through the family grapevine that you were fostering, or adopting, or some such thing… I don’t know, for some reason I just pictured them as oriental” she said in the most condescending, bitchy tone. ‘Who the fuck is this bitch?’ I thought to myself.

“Hi Mitzi” Zach said through gritted teeth then introduced us, “This is my husband, Seth. Seth, this is my second cousin, Mitzi.” 

The woman held her arm straight out to shake my hand, I reluctantly did. “And THIS…” she said in a proud sing-songy voice, “is my boy Rupert.”

‘Rupert?” Who the fuck looks at a sweet baby, fresh into the world and says to themselves, “he looks like a Rupert?”’ I thought to myself. I didn’t recognize her from our wedding. I found out later from Kelly that she and her hen-pecked husband were Evangelical Christians and just couldn’t bring themselves to accept an invitation to a “homosexual-event.” Kelly hid it from us at the time because she felt we had enough to deal with. She almost didn’t invite her to Riley’s wedding, but felt the family backlash would be worse than dealing with the homophobic, bigoted bitch. “This is Izzy” I offered.

“Oh, such an ethnic name” she said in the same condescending tone she’d been using since her arrival. God, I just wanted to punch the bitch.

“So, what happened?” Zach asked.

“Well, your little ‘friend’ was taking up so much space on the dancefloor with her silly spinning that little Rupert had nowhere to dance” she said. “He gets a little, well rambunctious sometimes and he must’ve accidentally pushed her.”

“He’s vewy mean” Izzy sobbed with and angry yell into my shoulder. Seriously, she was hurt, sad, and pissed as hell all at the same time. I did my best not to laugh at her anger, but watching that tiny thing filled with such venom was comical.

“Say you’re sorry, Rupert” Mitzi insisted still using that annoying sing-songy voice.

“Sorry” the little turd said while he looked around the room, obviously not meaning the words or giving a shit about Izzy’s feelings. And yes! I just called a four year old a turd. But he was a turd, and his mother was a bitch, and I… I… I’m sorry, but damn these people annoyed me.

“Such a good boy” Mitzi said praising her son’s apology (Ugh, “Mitzi” even her name annoyed me). “Now, Ee-see” she said pronouncing her name with an accent to make it more ‘ethnic.’ Yes, our kids had Hispanic heritage, but we never really thought about it, we just thought of them as kids… god this woman pissed me off. She continued, “it’s YOUR turn to apologize to Rupert.” ‘WHAT?! Oh, fuck no!’ I thought as I shot daggers at Zach letting him know my thoughts, he nodded in agreement.

“No, she’s good. It was nice to meet you Mitzi” I said as I pushed Izzy’s face into my should, kissed her head, turned, and walked her away from that bitch. There was no way in hell I was going to teach my kids to apologize to bullies. No. Way. In. Hell. I walked to the corner of the room where Gina was subtly breastfeeding DJ and sat down at her table.

Her maternal instincts kicked in and a juice box seemed to magically appear out of nowhere as she handed it to my crying baby and asked, “What happened sweetie?” in a sympathetic tone.

“Dat guy was mean” was all Izzy could muster while gratefully accepting the juice box. I learned that day that my sweet little girl could hold a grudge with the best of them. I just shook my head and rolled my eyes at Gina signaling I’d tell her later. Izzy sucked the juice box dry, I wiped her tears off with a napkin, then she thanked Gina, and ran to the dancefloor to rejoin the others. Once she was gone, I told Gina the story of Izzy and her first bully, which led to the story of Mitzi the bitch. While we were talking Zach joined us, then Max, Brody, Scotty, Randy, Kev, and Brad all joined the conversation. The guys all shared stories about being gay parents and dealing with other parents, bullies, etc. Max told about when a parent tried to get him fired from his teaching job, Brad told about a parent trying to ban them from chaperoning field trips, Scotty brought the time that a kid bullied Brooklyn for having two dads, Randy and Kev talked about an issue they had with the PTA which led to Kevin running for (and winning) a seat on the school board. All of them had faced adversity as they simply attempted to raise their families, and all of them fought back and rose above it. Zach and I definitely had more challenges ahead, but it was comforting to know that we had so many others around us who understood them. With the drama of the evening behind us, we spent the rest of the night mingling with friends, dancing, and spending time with the kids. It was an incredible evening and an amazing start to Eli and Riley’s married life.

After we said goodbye to everyone, we traded vehicles with the Hall’s and took the rented SUV with the car seats, the kids, and their luggage back to the hotel where we would spend one more night. We were staying until Monday but planned on spending Sunday night with the Halls at their home, Kelly insisted. By the time we reached the hotel, Izzy and Freddy were PASSED OUT. They didn’t even stir when we carried them to our room, or got them out of their wedding clothes and into their pajamas. We laid them in the queen bed next to ours and the two angels continued to sleep. Zach and I got into our boxers and T-shirts and made ourselves comfortable in the other bed. We lay on our sides and talked quietly about our weekend, seeing all our friends, how excited the kids were, how different our life together was now compared to three years ago.

“I didn’t think it was possible on our wedding night,” Zach whispered, “but I love you even more today.” Romantic as hell, but corny as fuck. I chuckled a little and playfully punched him in the arm.

“I feel the same way you cornball” I whispered back making him grin. He kissed me on the lips and we started to make out with the two littles in the bed just mere feet away. Their snores ensured us we were in no danger of getting caught. Zach reached under the covers and grabbed my flaccid manhood through my boxers, it grew hard as our kiss turned more and more passionate. As he pushed his body against me and ground his growing piece against mine, he grabbed my ass and pulled me tighter against him. We were groaning quietly into each other’s mouths; our playful pillow talk was now moving toward an out and out sex romp. With my hips pushing against his, my tongue exploring his hot, wet oral cavern, and desire pulsing through me, I was getting lost in the sheer lust of it all. Suddenly, Zach pulled away and disappeared under the covers and between my legs. I lifted the covers and look down at his, his eyes were gazing up at mine and sparkling through the darkness. “What are you doing?” I asked with an approving scoff.

“Paying you back for the pre-wedding blow job” Zach said with a mischievous grin.

“But the kids are in the next bed” I whispered getting only a smirk in reply. I put the covers down and looked over at the other bed to make sure everyone was still sleeping. With my eyes closed and my ears open I laid back and enjoyed Zach’s attention. His expert mouth licking from my balls to the tip, his tongue bathing and warming my cockhead while his hand massaged and coaxed my seed sac, encouraging my swimmers to leave it’s safety.

Pleasure had taken me over and apparently cut off my senses since I didn’t notice that Freddy’s snoring had stopped until his tiny voice whispered in my ear, “Seth, I’m thirsty.”

Zach stopped moving under the covers in hopes of not getting caught. I turned my head to look at the cute, innocent, unassuming little guy standing next to the bed. Coming to my senses I responded, “There’s water in that little refrigerator over there” to the barely awake Freddy as I pointed through the darkness to the camouflaged mini fridge that blended artfully into the design of the dresser.

“I don’t see it, come with me” Freddy said barely awake, “please?” I felt Zach pulling up my boxers with tiny movements that were almost indistinguishable under the covers. With my boxers back in their proper place, I pulled myself out from under the covers making sure not to expose Zach. I walked Freddy to the fridge and got him a drink of water, then waited while he went to the bathroom. It took about five minutes or so to get him back to bed and tucked in, but as soon as that tiny head hit the pillow he was out like a light. I quietly and gently shimmied my way back under the bedcovers.

I lifted the linens and looked under them to see Zach staring up at me “The coast is clear” I whispered with a quiet laugh.

Zach Was smiling and suppressing his laughter, “okay, back at it then” he said as he pulled down my boxers again and brought by flaccid cock back to life. He went from tip to taint and back, several times before I brought my knees to my chest and gave him access to my undoubtedly musky hole. After a night of dancing, I’m sure the musk of my hole mixed with just a hint of my cologne was permeating his perfect nostrils. He grunted and slurped as he probed his warm tongue deep into me, oh go it was otherworldly! I was transported out of that bed and into a world of raw pleasure… however, I DID keep my ears open this time; I wasn’t ready for another bout of child interruptus.

I started to stroke myself. My hand glided up and down my manhood, faster and faster it moved as Zach ate my ass and played with the full balls tightening up against me. Zach knew my body well and timed his movements perfectly as his tongue blazed a trail from my hole, over my balls, up my shaft until he reached the tip and his mouth engulfed me completely. He went down on me and took my entire cock down his throat. His nose was buried in my perfectly trimmed bush as I shot wad after wad of my silky essence into his gullet. My body shuddered with pleasure as it push the seed out of me and into the mouth of my deserving husband. He swallowed, licked, and lapped every drop, savoring it. When I was spent, he cleaned my cock of any and all stragglers, pulled my boxers back up, then came out from under the covers for our customary post BJ cum-kiss.

After a few goodnight kisses, I turned my back to my husband and became his little spoon. I slept until Izzy jumped into bed with us in the morning waking me up.

We got the kids ready for the post-wedding brunch at the Halls (a sendoff for the out of town guests, really). Then we packed our bags and prepared to vacate the hotel. It was early in the morning, and the lobby was still quiet as the kids and I stood at the front desk checking out, meanwhile Zach packed up the SUV. The ride to the Hall’s was loud as the kids sang in the back of the rented vehicle. When we pulled into the drive of the old, perfectly kept brick Colonial, Kelly ran out the front door to greet us with Nathan walking behind her. They unbuckled the kids while Zach and I unpacked the bags and brought them to the second floor of the old house getting the four of us settled in the empty bedrooms for a night at Grandma and Grandpa’s before heading back home to North Carolina.

When we finished settling in, I helped Kelly get ready before the guests arrived. There was a huge, elegantly decorated tent set up in the backyard. There were buffet tables in the middle aisle covered with mounds and mounds of catered food, a Bloody Mary bar in one corner, a coffee bar in another corner and several round tables set up in and out of the tent. In the side yard there were bocce ball courts and a game of croquet set up to keep the guests entertained. Kelly had thought of everything and frankly between her organizational prowess and the help of the caterers… she had it all under control and didn’t need much help from me.

About an hour after we arrived the guests started to funnel in, and within an hour the house and yard were full of friends and family eating, drinking, dancing, playing games, and enjoying a last hurrah before concluding an amazing weekend of celebration in my brother and sister in-laws honor.

It was shortly past noon when we all stood in front of the old house and waved goodbye to Eli and Riley as Nathan chauffeured them to the airport to catch a flight to Miami where they’d board a cruise ship for their honeymoon voyage. Shortly after they departed, the other guests started to leave the party.

When the house had emptied it was just Me, Zach, The Halls, and the kids. We spent the rest of our trip enjoying time as a family… a happy family. Man, things had changed so much in the three short years since we married. And in such a wonderful way.

 

To be continued…