The Village

Seth’s Perspective

The next month was action packed with Kelly and Nathan preparing to close on their new place, the guys at BroMax working on buying the church and managing their big growth spurt, the usual insanity of The Village, and of course Freddy, Teddy, and Sammy settling in as first graders.

I was helping in the classroom with another parent on the Friday afternoon that Brody made his art teaching debut at the school. The kids frigging loved him! He was a quiet guy who talked to them like people, not kids, and at 5’4” he wasn’t all that much taller than they were so he was basically one of them. All the kids loved Mr. Brody. “Hey y’all” he said to the kids after they had moved their desks into clusters and taken their places. “Mr. Pringle tells me yer goin’ on a field trip to the Aquarium next week. So, I thought we could turn that wall over there into an aquarium” He said pointing to the big wall in the back of the room. The kids eyes were wide as they listened to Mr. Brody. He had come into the classroom while they were all at lunch and taped some stuff on the wall to help turn it into an aquarium. He had made coral, seaweed, a treasure chest, and other nautical stuff out of construction paper to set the stage and inspire them. He showed the children a couple of examples he had made and then instructed them on how to make fish out of paper plates and construction paper… the fish would fill their aquarium.

Me, Mr. Pringle, and the Miss Wendy (the other parent in the classroom) were passing out art supplies while Brody was showing the kids what to do, giving them ideas, and answering their questions. While the four of us were tending to our duties, guess who showed up. Yup, Carrie Anne Sloop. She took off her coat (exposing her apron), hung it on a hook in the corner of the room then came over and stood by me… ready to babysit the gay parents in the room. “So, what are we working on today kids?” She asked the class loudly, interrupting Mr. Brody, but the class was enthralled by him and ignored her completely.

The kids were shouting out anwers to Brody’s question of “what lives in the ocean?” They threw out all the typical answers like fish, sharks, whales, clams, crabs, shipwrecks, lobsters, octopi, shrimp, seaweed, etc. Teddy and Freddy both yelled out ‘Pirates’ in perfect sync and Brody answered “Well, maybe that’s who left the treasure chest” referring to the construction paper treasure chest he had taped to the wall earlier. His eyes kept looking over at me standing next to Carrie Anne with this look of ‘who the hail is that?’  He wasn’t at the meeting so he hadn’t met her yet. I mouthed ‘Carrie Anne’ and motioned towards her when she wasn’t looking. Brody got my drift and nodded while he rolled his eyes. “What else lives in the ocean?” He asked the classroom.

The answers kept coming until one kid yelled, “Ursula the Sea Witch!” making the rest of the class laugh.

“I like that answer” Brody said, then added, “that gives me an idea” and he stepped behind Mr. Pringle’s desk and pulled out some gray construction paper and made a spikey Ursula head piece, then cut out a couple of tentacles from purple construction paper. He moved fast and was so creative, it barely took him a minute, then he said, “Ms. Carrie Anne, why don’t y’all come up here.”

She looked around the room, pointed to herself and asked “Me?” Brody smiled and nodded, then she made her way to the head of the class with a smile of smug pride on her face, eager to be the center of attention.

When she got to the front of the room, Brody put the Ursula headpiece on her, taped the tentacles to her apron, and said, “when y’all are done making yer fish, you can give ‘em to Ursula The Sea Witch here and she’ll put ‘em up on the aquarium wall” Then instructed her to stand in the back of the classroom by the aquarium wall and wait. The kids laughed and cheered her on. I held back my laughter, so did Miss Wendy (I had just met her that day, but she was at the classroom meeting at the beginning of the semester and witnessed Carrie Anne in action… she was very supportive of us as were most parents), even Mr. Pringle shot me a grin of satisfaction. Brody had effectively relegated Carrie Anne to the back of the room and out of our way while at the same time making her a star in front of the kids so she really couldn’t say much about it, she had no choice but to play along. Brody had grown up around redneck bigots and had no problem handling them. He had this southern charm and patient manner about him that had always impressed me. I had only lived in the south a little over a year, but that was long enough to learn that Southerners were pros at saying wonderful things that were meant to wound; ‘like bless your heart’ which is the sweet, southern equivalent to ‘go fuck yourself’ but sounds so much nicer… Brody was fluent in Biting Southern Politeness and it was fun to watch him in action.

Besides being the redneck bigot whisperer, he was also the first-grader whisperer. He had those kids working hard and loving every minute of it. First, he had them paint a paper plate blue to use as a background. Next, he had each child cut out a fish (he had pre-drawn a bunch of fish on craft board) then had them glue the fish to the plate and decorate them with paints, construction paper, beads, and a million other things Brody had brought with him and set out around the room.  The final step was to hand their masterpieces to Miss Carrie Anne The Sea Witch and she would tape them up on the wall as part of the aquarium. The parents and Mr. Pringle walked around the room assisting the kids with whatever they needed (I spent most my time cutting out fish). The kids were so engaged in the project and proud of their work. Frankly, once Carrie Anne was out of the way it was a lot of fun.

I kept an eye on Freddy just observing how he interacted with the other kids. I couldn’t help but notice that at one point or another, almost every kid in that classroom came up to where he, Teddy, and Sammy were diligently working together. It was like the other kids were drawn to them. I also noticed how kind my son was, he had a smile and something nice to say every time someone showed him their work or asked about his. I would have liked to take credit for that but he only been with us a short time. Despite her mistakes and issues, it was clear that Karen managed to instill a good foundation of values in the kids, and for that I would be forever grateful. I got to see him in action that afternoon and made a mental note to tell Karen about it on our next visit. At the end of the day, Mr. Brody had helped the kids create a spectacular aquarium wall for the classroom that they were all very proud of. 

With his students on an art-high, Mr. Pringle did his best to get the kids ready to go home and finish out his week. Meanwhile, Miss Wendy and I helped Mr. Brody load his supplies into the Gladiator. While we were loading the truck Carrie Anne exited the building, “Excuse me, y’all” Brody said and ran towards here shouting her name. The two of them stood by her minivan talking for a few minutes.

“What do you think he’s saying to her?” Wendy asked.

“I have no clue, but I’m sure it’s polite as hell and bites like a shark” I responded with a chuckle.

“Oh, he’s a southern gentleman like my husband” Wendy responded with a laugh.

I shot back “bless his heart” making us both laughed. The two of us talked and loaded up the truck until Carrie Anne’s minivan pulled out of the lot and Brody rejoined us. “What did you say to her?” Wendy asked him as soon as walked up.

Brody had a grin on his face as he answered, “I just thanked for helping out today, then I said , ‘I know you aint used to families like ours, but let me tell ya’… we all love our kids and want them to do well in school and have the same opportunities as the other kids, we aint goin’ nowhere, so we might as well get along, there aint no need for you to come down and babysit us every time we’re in the classroom’, and she just gave me this sickly, embarrassed, pissed-off kinda smile” he paused then added with a smirk, “oh, then I said, ‘besides, who knows… our boys might get married someday and then we’ll be family. Thanksgivin’ will be a heck of a lot nicer if we all just get along.’”

“You did not say that!” I said laughing, my eyes wide open with disbelief. Brody just smiled and shrugged making Wendy and I break into uproarious laughter. Brody had defused Carrie Anne, at least for the time being. We were still laughing when our three boys and Sammy came running out of the building all excited about their day in school. Pizza night was at our place, so Sammy rode home with us since Ronda and Suzanne would be by later to join us. We invited Wendy and her family to Pizza night, unfortunately they had other plans but she asked for a raincheck before she loaded her son into the car and went on her way. I loved that the other parents at the school seemed to accept us for the most part. With Teddy buckled into the Gladiator, me, Freddy, and Sammy got into the Atlas and set off to pick up Izzy who was overjoyed to have a new “fwend” to bug the hell out of on the ride home. It was so cute! Sammy and Freddy were in the third seat talking about whatever while Izzy sat in the middle row all by herself talking to Sammy who seemed to have no clue she even existed, but she didn’t care. She just yammered on about being a princess, and something about Maggie and their babies, etc.… that was our Izzy. She was just happy to have an audience, she didn’t care if they paid attention or not (she was in her own little Izzy world and happy as hell to be there).

Pizza night at our place was fun (as always). Suzanne and Ronda were becoming part of our village and seemed to love hanging out on Pizza night, they even agreed to host the next one. Of course, the conversation that night revolved around our day in the classroom, and Brody’s polite discussion with Carrie Anne. “I can’t believe she just showed up today” Ronda said (Ronda and Carrie Anne were co-room parents), “That bitch lectured me for like an hour about ‘y’all need to butt out and let the other parents do their fair share.’” She said while doing her best Carrie Anne impression making the rest of us laugh.

“You should’ve seen the look on her face when Brody turned her into a sea witch” I added with a laugh.

“I can’t believe she just showed up like that” Brody said still a little pissed. “We’re gotdamn adults, parents even, we don’t need a gotdamn babysitter.” Brody was mild mannered and it was kind of fun watching him get pissed over something. “We got enough shit on our plates already without havin’ to worry about if Miss Carrie Anne Room Mother From Hail approves of us or not.” Quiet little anti-social Brody ranted on a little longer before the subject changed (man, he was PISSED).

The next topic was the new home of BroMax Candle Company. The guys had an accepted offer on the church, an approved loan, and a renovation plan. Bubba (Brody’s cousin) and Eli were handling the renovation and were ready to apply for permits as soon as the deal went through. The space was empty, and since the main area was open there wasn’t much demolition necessary. They were going to pull up the carpet and stain the cement floors, other than that, most of the renovations would center around ventilation, equipment installation, and fire codes. Max had ordered a couple of more commercial wax melters, and a bunch of other equipment. “The nice thing about this space is that it still leaves us room for future expansion” Max said. “We will be more than able to handle the current workload, and have room to add more equipment and people if we need to down the road, and honestly, the way Stella (his sales rep) is going we might need to expand again in the next six months.” I could hear both the excitement and panic in Max’s voice.

“Well, Marilee, the Chamber, and the other downtown businesses are excited for you guys to move in” I said. There had been a buzz building about it ever since they made the offer on the building.

“Yeah, we hired Chip’s firm to do PR” Max said. Chip was a family friend (Scotty’s old college roommate, and our former St Louis landlord) who had built a name for himself by doing PR for LGBTQ owned businesses (including The Resort, and some pro bono work for The Village). “I also hired some part time HR help. With all the new employees coming on we need policies and shit like that.”

Gina piped in with, “Yeah you did! You hired the best” and we all laughed. It was her… she had a minor in communications and was great at organizing so he brought her on part time to help get things more “corporatized.” Max’s little hobby had turned into a thriving business and was on the grow again (we were damn lucky he had given us a couple of shares in the business to be on the board back when the company wasn’t worth shit).

Things broke up early that night and people started to head home. Max and Brody stayed behind to help us clean up. Brody and Zach were hanging in the living room with the kids and Max and I were in the kitchen doing dishes. “Hey, I wanted to talk to you” Max said. “With everything going on with BroMax, I can’t dedicate much of anything to The Village right now. I’m going to stay on as Board Chair, but decided to give the CEO title to you.” He stopped there and waited for my reaction.

I was stunned, he totally blindsided me. “So, what exactly does that mean?” I asked.

“Well, a promotion that includes a raise… we have the funds. On top of that you will pretty much do what you’ve been doing with more autonomy. You won’t need my approval or board approval on much of anything” Max said. “I’ll head up board meetings and that’s about it. Let’s face it, you’ve been running the place anyway, Seth. I’m just a figure head, you’re the brains and the engine.”

“Well… um, thank you for the confidence” I said still caught a bit off guard.

“Seth, seriously. You helped me set the place up with the endowment from my grandfather, then you ran with it. The only reason I’m not making you Chairman of the Board and CEO is the optics… trust me, I’ve thought about it, it would be legal for you to hold both titles, but it could raise some eyebrows and might be misconstrued as a conflict of interest should anything happen” Max said. He had obviously thought this through. “I am going to make the official announcement to the board in a ZOOM meeting this week, they’ll have to approve the move which I doubt will be an issue since they all love you, then, I’ll send you the details of your promotion and have Chip send a press release out once it’s official.”

I was in shock, but couldn’t help but smile. I loved my job and was proud that Max trusted me. “Max, this is amazing, I won’t let you down” was all I could think to say.

“Shit, Seth. This whole thing has been all you from the onset. You’ve earned this, I appreciate the hell out of you.” Max said, then we hugged. He wasn’t doing this as a friend, he was doing this as my boss… I truly felt like I had earned it.

After the Harrington-James clan went home and we put the kids to bed, Zach and I were sitting alone on the patio enjoying the 60F degree early October chill with a glass of wine and some good R&B in the background when I told him my big news. “Are you fucking serious? CEO!?” was his response. “AWESOME!” he yelled into the darkness, “you’ve earned this, Seth. Thirty percent of all nonprofits fail, but you have turned that place into a financially stable organization that never fails a client. I am so fucking proud of you” he said before taking my head in his hands, pulling my face to his and giving me the best fucking kiss! “Shit, can you believe we’ve only been here a little over a year? So much shit has happened.”

“I know, right?!” I answered. “Damn, it just flew by! Our careers, the house, the kids, my mother’s death, my father coming out and being part of our lives again, the accident, Eli and Riley’s wedding, your parents getting a place here… so much has happened.”

“Damn, you make our lives sound like a fucking soap opera” Zach laughed.

“Or a Netflix original” I added.

“I’d binge-watch us!” he laughed.

“Oh my god, Izzy and Freddy would be mugging for the camera” I joked.

“And the sex scenes would be off the chain with a shitload of male, frontal nudity” he added. We laughed and joked about what the streaming version of our lives would look like.

After a few minutes, Zach’s tone turned serious, “But seriously, I am so proud of you, and all you’ve done.” Then he looked me in the eyes and said, “I admire you Seth Westin-Hall” and kissed me again. What the hell could I do but kiss him back. God, his lips were so incredibly soft and sensual, and his warm tongue just felt like an extension of my own as it entered my mouth. It felt so good to just sit on the patio loveseat out in the quiet darkness and enjoy each other. That night, I was the aggressor as I squeezed and massaged his meaty cock and balls through his faded jeans, god I wanted him right then and there. Our breathing got heavier and our kissing turned passionate. Meanwhile, back at his crotch, my hand was fumbling with his belt, button, and zipper. He moaned into my mouth as his manliness was introduced to the cool night air. It was exposed for less than a second before I wrapped it snuggly in my warm hand. It grew with my touch and excited the living fuck out of me! I pulled out of our kiss, leaned over, and went down on his semi-hard slab of man steak. The cold air on his body and my warm mouth on his cock made Zach squirm and whimper. “fuck yeah, suck me” he begged as his hands pushed my head down on his lap; his long, thick, hardening cock hit the back of my throat gagging me. I sputtered as my flehm and saliva lubed his glory pole. I bobbed up and down on him with my hand twisting and turning stimulating every nerve. Zach’s head was thrown back and his eyes were looking to the stars in the night sky as he held my head steady and thrust his hips upwards giving me a helping hand.

I had him right there where I wanted him, on the edge. I could feel his scrotum getting tighter and his moans taking over the quiet night when I pulled myself off him and stood. I kicked off my shoes and yanked off my pants and underwear off, right there under the Carolina moon. I straddled his lap and dropped onto him; my ass was dry but his cock was slick with my saliva. I pushed myself down hard and wouldn’t stop until his blonde pubes tickled my cold, white ass. We were face-to-face when he grunted “You are so goddamn tight” while pulling my Tee shirt over my head and tossing it aside. I was buck naked (unless you count socks) in our backyard bouncing up and down on Zach’s lap with my arms tightly wrapped around his neck. The cold air made my nipples hard as little pebbles and I smashed Zach’s beautiful face into my chest and made him bite them… FUCK! The cold night air on my ass, the pain of his teeth biting my nipples, and his steel hard cock up my ass had my head reeling. I was resting my chin on top of Zach’s head with my arms wrapped around it as I bounced and wailed in pleasure, my primal screams echoed through the dark countryside. With his face smashed against my torso Zach Whispered loudly, “You’re gonna wake the kids… hell you’re gonna wake Max and Brody” (who lived about a quarter mile or so down the quiet). I did my best to stifle my animalistic howls, but it was an impossible task. Goddammit!!! It felt so flipping amazing.

Zach contorted himself until he was sucking my cock while I sat on his lap getting fucked… Oh my god, I could not believe the pure euphoric pleasure of it all. “Yeah, keep sucking it, Fuck yes!!! Suck my cock, Zach” I yelled in the throes of passion. I bounced several more times; when I would drop onto Zach’s cock my ass would tingle with pleasure, and when I lifted my ass, my cock would throb with delight at the warmth of his mouth. I never felt anything like it before, it was like having two men work me at once… but they were all Zach (two Zach’s? DAMN! Now there was a thought that put me over the edge). “I’m close, Zach, fuck me harder” I Huffed as I rode him like the wild stallion that he was, bouncing up and down and wiggling my ass in a circular motion to get every fucking centimeter of his girth and width.

“Cum in my mouth” he begged as he shoved his cock deep inside me, then went back down on my cock. Back and forth we went for several strokes until I shot my load in his mouth with a primal grunt. My sphincter grabbed his exploring pole as I shot my load down his gulping throat. “Fuuuuuck” he groaned around my cock as he shot his batter deep inside me. It was one of the most intense orgasms I had ever experienced with his cock up my ass and mine in his mouth… I didn’t think it would be possible for Zach to fuck me and suck me off at the same time but there we were. We discovered the position purely by accident, but I swore it wouldn’t be the last time. When we were both finally spent, we engaged in our traditional cum-kiss.

After a few seconds of basking in the afterglow, I suddenly realized I was outside and completely naked, with the kids just inside the house (Freddy’s window was right above us)!!!! In a panic, I scrambled to find my clothes while Zach pulled his pants up. I dressed in the darkness and then we moved into the house and made our way up to our bedroom. We got into bed and lay on our sides facing each other, “I can’t believe we frigging did that!” I said with a laugh of embarrassment.

“Shit, I didn’t think it was possible” Zach replied, “but damn it was hot. We are totally doing that again!” I’ve heard people say that their sex life suffered once they had kids. I got that; I mean we didn’t have sex as frequently as we used to because there were so many nights that we were just too damn tired. However, when we DID have sex, it was amazing.  We seemed to get more and more creative and more and more adventurous. I had zero complaints!

We fell asleep face to face until the alarm woke us up at 5:30AM and we got up to check on the kids. We both peeked into Izzy’s room first where she was fast asleep in the bottom bunk. Then we check on Freddy who was fast asleep in his room on the top bunk. Thanks to Mrs. J, both rooms were now furnished with bunk beds giving us extra beds for sleepovers and future kids (foster and permanent if that’s where life led us). With both kids still in bed we took a quick shower together and got ready for a quiet Saturday at home. By 7AM that plan was completely foiled.

“HIIIIIIII EVERYONE!” my mother in-law yelled as she and my father in-law came barging through the backdoor interrupting our breakfast.

“GWAMMA, GWAMPA!” Izzy screamed with excitement as Freddy jumped out of his chair and ran to hug them.

“What the fu…. Heck are doing here?!” Zach asked stopping himself from dropping a F-bomb in front of the kids just in time. “I thought you didn’t close on the villa until next week.”

“We close on Friday” Kelly said, “but I wanted to get here early so we could go shopping and get everything ready to be delivered as soon as we closed.” My mother in-law was on a mission to get settled in their new vacation home, and I had yet to see her fail a single mission.

Nathan just smiled and whispered to us, “I sent you a text last night to warn you.” We both checked our phones… yup, there was Nathan’s 2AM warning text; we both missed it.

“Where are you staying?” Zach asked his mother with trepidation in his voice.

“Well, Eli and Riley have the spare room, but I was hoping to spend some time with my grandbabies” she said sheepishly while looking from me to Zach and back again. Zach just shrugged; I returned the gesture.

“Freddy” Zach said to our son. “After breakfast go upstairs and move your stuff into Izzy’s room. You can take the top bunk and me and Daddy Seth will stay in your room.” To my surprise, Freddy was excited by the idea. Then Zach looked at his parents and said, “We’ll move you into our room after breakfast. You guys hungry?” The Halls took a seat at the table and I added some eggs, sausage, and pancakes to the stove.

I had always wanted a home full of family… Well, I got it!

 

To be continued…