One day, p.10
One Day, page 10
The beach was nearly deserted, which Gabe knew it would be at this time of day. When they reached the meeting point he’d chosen, Gabe stopped and pulled on Cam’s hand.
Cam halted in his tracks and turned to look at him quizzically. “What is it?”
Gabe took Cam’s other hand in his own. He looked down at the matching rings gleaming against their tanned skin and inhaled shakily.
This is it.
Gabe looked up and met Cam’s curious gaze unblinkingly. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you. Something I’ve been hiding from you for the last two months.”
Cam’s eyes darkened. “Finally,” he muttered. “You know, you really had me worried—” He stiffened suddenly, his gaze locking on something behind Gabe. He glanced at Gabe with a bemused expression. “If this was your surprise, you really didn’t need to hide it from me.”
Gabe twisted on his heels. His jaw dropped when he saw the three figures heading toward them from the resort grounds.
“Umm,” he mumbled between numb lips. He glanced at Cam, shock reverberating through him. “No, this isn’t—”
“Hi, Gabe,” Melissa Anderson said with a small smile as she stopped a few feet from where they stood. She hesitated before coming up to Gabe and rising on her tip toes to kiss his cheek.
Gabe’s parents stopped just behind her.
Gabe stared at his family. “I—what—” He swallowed nervously. “I don’t understand. What are you doing here?”
“We’re here for your wedding, of course,” Cathy said adamantly. She strode over to Gabe and hugged him tightly. “I’m sorry, Gabe. For everything.” Her voice shook as she buried her face in Gabe’s chest.
Gabe wrapped his arms around his mother, his heart thudding wildly against his chest. Never in a million years had he imagined that his family would turn up to his and Cam’s wedding. He met his father’s slightly aloof stare over his mother’s head.
“Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials,” George said stiffly.
Melissa sighed. “Dad,” she said in a warning tone. “We practiced this.”
George frowned before huffing out a heavy sigh. “Alright, alright. I’m sorry for being a stubborn asshole. You boys are welcome to visit anytime you want. After all, you’re family now.” He directed the latter words at Cam. “As long as you don’t tell us about your sex life, I will agree to keep an open mind about—” He waved a hand vaguely at them.
“Practically had to pry his skull open with a crowbar,” Melissa said to Gabe and Cam in a theatrical whisper that made Gabe smile.
Cam cocked his head to the side and studied his future father-in-law with an amused expression. “It’s a deal. And we’ll hide the vibrator when you come visit us in Tokyo.”
Gabe groaned while his sister and mother laughed.
“Relax, George,” Cathy said at her husband’s flabbergasted expression. “It’s not as if he’s proposing to stick it up your ass.”
A bark of laughter left Cam’s lips. Gabe and Melissa gaped at their mother.
Cathy shrugged at her children. “What? I’ve been reading up on things. So, how exactly does one find a man’s prostate?”
“Mom!” Gabe gasped.
Melissa and Cam were doubled over at the waist and howling with laughter while George stared open-mouthed at his wife.
That was when Gabe saw the person he’d agreed to meet up with at this very spot. His pulse accelerated as she came down the beach toward them, a yellow summer dress billowing around her large figure, her face rosy from the heat.
“Mom, Dad, Mel?” Gabe mumbled, glancing at his family. “Can we catch up with you in a while? I have to stay with Cam for this.”
Melissa and Gabe’s parents looked curiously at the grandmotherly figure who stopped a few feet from them. The older woman’s eyes were bright with an unnamed emotion as she stared unblinkingly at Cam.
“Sure, Gabe.” Cathy smiled at the newcomer and led her husband and daughter back up to the resort.
The woman in the yellow dress came up to Gabe and pressed her lips to his cheek. “My, you are even more handsome in person than on that computer of mine. The screen really did not do you justice.”
Gabe flashed a wobbly smile at her. “I’m so glad you made it.”
“Gabe?” Cam said, puzzled. He looked from the stranger to Gabe and back again.
Gabe took a deep breath and turned to Cam. “Okay, here goes. That secret I was just telling you about? It wasn’t my parents coming to our wedding, Cam.” He lifted a hand and caressed Cam’s face gently. “Two months ago, Ethan approached me with a wild idea. One that he’d already put into motion before we went to the States to meet my family. You see, Ethan and I hired a detective agency to look into your past and Joe’s.”
Cam stiffened. He felt the blood drain from his face as he stared at Gabe. “What?” he mumbled hoarsely.
“It was a crazy plan,” Gabe continued. “A stab in the dark, really. After all, the authorities should have made every attempt to find out if you and Joe had any living relatives before the two of you ended up in that children’s home. But Ethan still wanted to know. He wanted to be completely certain, for himself and for Joe’s sake. And I did too, for you. So we engaged the best agency money could buy. The guys we hired are pros, all former cops and military. If anyone was going to have a chance of unearthing something about your past and Joe’s, it was going to be these men and women.”
A wave of emotions crashed through Cam as he digested Gabe’s words, each stronger than the previous. Fear. Shock. And, most unexpected of all, hope. Such wild hope his knees almost gave out beneath him then.
Gabe’s eyes welled up with tears where he stood opposite Cam and his fingers trembled against Cam’s skin, as if he too could feel what Cam was experiencing in that moment.
“Cam, this is Sofia Lucciano,” Gabe said tremulously. He stepped back, took the hand of the elderly woman watching them, and placed it in Cam’s. “She’s your grandmother, on your mother’s side.”
Cam felt his world tilt dizzyingly as he beheld the woman before him.
“Hello, Cameron.” Sofia Lucciano squeezed Cam’s fingers gently. “Like Gabe said, I’m your grandmother. Your nonna.” She sniffed and wiped a tear from her cheek. “Imagine that. Being seventy years old and not knowing I had another grandson in this world.” She studied Cameron with a shaky smile. “I can see my Isabella in you. My wild, unpredictable Isabella. You have her eyes.” She raised a finger to trace a gentle line down Cam’s face. “And that serious expression she always wore.” A heavy sigh left her lips then and sadness darkened her features. “I didn’t know what happened to her all these years. Not after she vanished that night after she turned sixteen. We looked for her, filed a report with the police and everything. Even hired detectives for a few years. But my Isabella was determined not to be found. I blamed myself for not knowing about the drugs. It was only afterward that I found out she’d fallen in with the wrong crowd at her school. Not that they were even attending school.”
Cam swallowed convulsively. His grandmother’s eyes were a darker shade of gray than his and the dimples in her wizened face matched the ones in his own cheeks. “So—so my family name is Lucciano?”
Sofia smiled. “It is. But I quite like Sorvino. It was my own grandmother’s maiden name after all.” Her face crunched up all of a sudden. “Oh darn it to heck! I told them I wouldn’t do this but I can’t help it! Come here, mio bellissimo bambino!” With that, she hauled Cam into her arms, planted a big, fat, wet smooch on his lips, and hugged him so tightly he thought she’d break a rib.
Cam’s heart thundered wildly in his chest as he looked over her head at Gabe. “I have a nonna,” he said dazedly.
Gabe chuckled and wiped tears from his eyes.
Something his newfound grandmother had just said finally registered on Cam’s radar. He pulled back slightly, a corner of his heart already filling with love for the woman in his arms. “Sofia? What did you mean when you said ‘them’?”
“Oh.” Sofia blinked. “I kinda forgot about them.” She sniffed again and rolled her eyes. “Although God knows how, considering how rowdy they all are.” She turned and waved an arm toward a row of palm trees some fifty feet away. “You can come out now!” she shouted.
A lightheaded feeling swept over Cam when a horde of twenty or so people suddenly appeared from behind the trees and headed across the beach toward them.
Gabe covered his mouth with one hand, a choked sound bubbling out of him. “Oh my God, the whole family came?!” he asked Sofia, his blue eyes dancing with laughter.
Sofia grimaced. “Well, not all of them could make it. And some of them had a stick up their butt about you two being gay and all.” She winked at Cam and Gabe. “Stick up their butt? Get it?”
Cam chuckled. “I think that rock over there got it.”
Sofia beamed at him. “Anyhow, we’d all been saving up for a family holiday. And we couldn’t miss our first gay wedding.” She paused and dropped her voice to a whisper, her eyes full of mischief. “Although I suspect we have another gay in the family.”
And with that, Cam’s new family were upon them.
“Momma, when are we eating?” a little boy with dark hair and gray eyes whined as he pulled on a woman’s skirt.
“In a while, my sweet,” the woman said, a tremulous smile on her lips as she stared at Cam.
Cam’s pulse jumped as he stared back at her. She looked like his mother the way he remembered her on the rare days when she hadn’t been high on drugs.
“But I’m starving!” the little boy wailed. He proceeded to stamp his sandaled feet in a way that made Sofia grumble something acerbic under her breath about her family being full of drama queens.
“Emergency sandwich coming up,” a man who was evidently the boy’s father muttered. He slipped a plastic bag from the rear pocket of his chinos, handed the contents to his son, and watched him gobble it down. “I swear there’s a black hole in your stomach, kid.”
Two teenage girls dressed in shorts and crop tops giggled behind the man. “OMG! They are both SO hot!” one of them hissed to the other. Their eyes were wide with excitement and ill-concealed admiration as they gaped at Cam and Gabe like fangirls who’d just seen their favorite pop stars.
An older boy in a black T-shirt, knee-length shorts, and black kohl eyeliner looked at the girls with a disgusted expression. “You know they’re gay, right? As in, they like dick and not pussy?”
The woman standing next to the boy narrowed her eyes and tapped him sharply on the back of the head. “Robert Matteo Lucciano! What did we say about using rude words?”
“Sorry, Mom,” the boy mumbled, his cheeks flushing as he glanced at Gabe. “You said we should use the correct terms.”
The light that darted in the boy’s eyes told Cam he’d just developed a massive crush for Gabe. Cam knew instinctively it was him Sofia had hinted was the other gay in the family.
The boy turned to the girls with a serious expression. “They like penis and not vaginas, ‘kay?”
The pot-bellied man beside the boy’s mother sighed and rolled his eyes at Cam and Gabe, his resigned expression indicating he’d heard it all before.
“What’s a penis?” the little boy with the hunger-induced temper tantrum asked with a wide-eyed expression.
Chapter 23
“What?” Joe whispered, his heart slamming painfully against his ribs. He glanced at the couple and the little girl standing in the shade of a row of trees to the right before staring at Ethan once more.
They were on a deserted stretch of beach close to the resort’s pier. To the left, the sun headed steadily toward the horizon, setting the water ablaze with light. The fiery glow washed across Ethan’s flushed face and glittering green eyes where he stood opposite Joe, his fingers lightly squeezing Joe’s hands. “Her name is Kelly. She is your second cousin on your father’s side.” Ethan took a shallow breath. “Your parents didn’t know they had family when they died in that car crash when you were eight, Joe. Their own parents had cut ties with their relatives a long time back, which is why the authorities couldn’t trace anyone who could have taken you in at the time. The private investigators Gabe and I hired didn’t manage to find any connections on your mother’s side.” Ethan smiled tremulously. “But they did on your father’s side.”
A giddy feeling swept over Joe as the words Ethan had said sunk in. That Ethan and Gabe had hired one of the best detective agencies in the U.S. to look into his and Cam’s pasts was shocking enough in its own right. But that the former cops and soldiers had actually come up with a lead not just for one of them, but both, was a goddamn miracle.
Ethan worried his lower lip with his teeth, his expression suddenly uncertain. “Are—are you mad at me?”
Joe shook his head slowly, still too stunned to speak.
Relief flooded Ethan’s face. He glanced at the couple and the little girl waiting patiently dozens of feet away. “Do you want to meet them?”
Joe swallowed and dipped his chin.
Ethan turned and waved the three figures over.
“Hi, Ethan,” the woman said when she stopped in front of them. She kissed Ethan on the cheek and offered her hand to Joe. “I’m Kelly. This is my husband Brian and our daughter Madison.”
The man smiled and murmured a greeting to Joe. The little girl hid her face in the folds of her mother’s dress with a shy expression that won Joe’s heart over in an instant.
Joe took his cousin’s hand. “Hi,” he managed in a wobbly voice.
Kelly squinted at him, a thin film of tears shimmering in her eyes. “Umm, is it okay if I hug you?”
Heat flooded Joe’s face at the emotions her request stirred inside him. He nodded, still not trusting himself to speak. She closed her arms around his waist gingerly.
Joe shuddered and wrapped her in a tight embrace. “I can’t believe this is happening,” he whispered against her hair, his chest full to bursting. “I can’t believe—I can’t believe I had someone out there I could have called family all these years!”
“Neither can I,” Kelly said, her voice breaking slightly while her tears soaked in Joe’s shirt. “I thought I was all alone too, for a long time.” She paused and sniffed. “Well, bar our Irish cousins, that is.”
Joe stiffened, his pulse stuttering in his veins. He pulled back slightly and stared at Kelly. “What do you mean, Irish cousins?” he mumbled.
Ethan was beaming at him from behind Kelly, his face so full of joy he positively glowed.
Kelly wiped her eyes and smiled up at Joe. “It’s not just the two of us. We have a bunch of second and third cousins in Ireland. I found out about them a few years ago.” She glanced at her husband. “Brian, Madison, and I visited them for the first time last summer.” She grinned at Joe. “I think they’re gonna love you.”
A babble of voices rose further along the beach.
They turned and beheld a large crowd of men, women, teenagers, and children approaching them. In the midst of them, smiling and laughing, were Gabe and Cam.
Another burst of happiness flooded Joe’s heart as he studied the unfettered joy on his best friend’s face. “Is that—”
“Cam’s family,” Ethan said with a chuckle. “I always knew that bastard had Sicilian blood in him. So, who’s ready for food?”
In the end, they moved the wedding rehearsal dinner from a private suite to one of the resort’s restaurants to accommodate Gabe’s, Cam’s, and Joe’s families. And long after the wine had flowed and the echoes of laughter as their friends and families got to know one another had died down, Joe and Ethan finally made their way back to their villa under a starlit sky.
Joe slowed when they came abreast of the pier, the idea that had taken shape inside him since even before they arrived at the island now an irrevocable conviction buzzing through his veins. He tugged on Ethan’s hand and guided him silently up the wooden steps. They headed all the way to the end of the jetty. Joe pulled Ethan down next to him so they both sat on the edge of the pier with their feet dangling over the water.
He took Ethan’s left hand in his own and absent-mindedly stroked his lover’s warm skin, his heart and mind still reeling from all that had passed. “So, today’s been full of surprises, huh?” he finally murmured.
Ethan grinned at him, faint laughter lines wrinkling the corners of his eyes. “It sure has.”
Joe took a deep breath and gathered his nerves for what he was about to do. “I don’t want you to think this is because of everything you and Gabe did, or because we’re in Hawaii for Cam and Gabe’s wedding. This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while and I think—”
“Yes,” Ethan said, his expression suddenly serious as he studied Joe, his green eyes glittering brightly under the starlight.
“What?” Joe mumbled. “But I haven’t—”
“I’ll marry you.”
Joe blinked, stunned all over again. “How did—how did you know I was going to ask you to marry me?!” he stammered.
The sweetest smile curved Ethan’s lips. “Because this, right here—,” he indicated their surroundings and the dazzling heavens above them, “— is the perfect moment. And if you hadn’t asked me first, I would have asked you.”
Joe raised shaky fingers to Ethan’s face. He traced his beautiful features gently before dropping his forehead against Ethan’s. “Do you know how much I love you?” he whispered, his vision blurring.
Ethan shuddered and grasped Joe’s hand where it lay against his hot skin. He turned his head and pressed a heated kiss to Joe’s palm. “About as much as I love you, I think.” Wetness stained Joe’s hand from the tears coursing down Ethan’s cheeks.
Joe closed his arms around Ethan, his own tears of happiness flowing freely as they held each other in the balmy darkness, the sea singing at their feet while the stars sparkled above them, blessing them in all their brightness.
