Will You Marry Them? Page 2

“Everyone else is okay,” Rocco said. “They may have done worse, had you not stepped in between them.”

  “Morons. She’s not even gay. She just likes rainbows.” Whereas Adam eventually looked the others in the eye, Kick never would.

  “You okay…really?” Ridley asked him.

  “Yeah. I should just get to work…if you’re done asking questions.”

  “Why don’t you relax another minute or two? Tell me about your music. How long have you been playing?”

  “Since I was little.” He smiled then, finally. “This was my dad’s.” Kick kept the guitar by his side at all times, as if it were a service pet. “He died when I was little.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Thanks. I had to teach myself, but I’m not bad.”

  “You’re great,” Adam told him. “Kick works two other jobs and he’s going to college.”

  “I take a class.”

  “One at time…you’ll get there.”

  “What about your mom?” Ridley asked. Family meant a lot to Ridley, he wanted everyone else to have the same support system.

  “She’s…she tries.”

  “His mom loves him.” Adam seemed to be Kick’s mouthpiece. “But she’s got trouble…drugs…”

  Rocco felt a knot in his gut. He’d been there as a child himself.

  “Same ones that killed my dad.” Kick hugged the neck of the guitar. “They’re not bad people. Neither one, but it got them.”

  “Kick and his brothers and sisters practically raised themselves. They all finished high school and got into college. Every one of them clean and on the honor roll.”

  “Stop,” Kick complained.

  “I’m proud as shit of you, Boo. Gonna tell anyone who’ll listen.”

  Rocco smiled. It was a rare occurrence, but he did it.

  “I started a Go Fund Me,” Adam said. “Took our Florida money. Amy’s going to be out a while. She’s got kids,” he told Rocco. “They need it more than us.”

  “Of course.” Kick took his boyfriend’s hand. “We’ll get there someday.”

  “Give us the information.” Rocco handed over his phone. “We’d both like to donate.”

  * * * *

  Ridley was helping Rocco with his bowtie, back in their room, several hours later, when a knock came on the door. “It’s Sawyer Ettinger.”

  Rocco let him in.

  “I…uh…wanted to talk to you about what happened outside this morning.”

  “It seems more like you can’t look at me because of what happened last night.” Rocco glanced toward Bart. He averted his eyes as well.

  “We’re pretty straight laced,” Sawyer said with a bit of a smirk. “That was pretty risqué for us and kind of fun.”

  “Yeah it was,” Ridley said.

  “Anyway.” Sawyer looked at him finally. “I got wind of the whole thing and I want to help. I have money, so…”

  “Sawyer.”

  He turned to Bart. “Was that crass? I do. And I like to share it with people who need it.”

  “That’s very generous. The woman who was hurt, she has four kids. Odd thing is, she’s not even gay. I guess her choice of attire set one of them off. Those kids…Adam and his boyfriend…they didn’t give her sexuality a second thought. The two ponied up their trip money to help her out, just because it was the right thing to do.”

  “That’s what makes a hero, really.” Ridley took Rocco’s hand. “Sometimes it’s just doing the right thing when other people don’t.”

  “You’re so smart.” Rocco had to kiss him. “You know what we should do…?”

  * * * *

  The four of them entered the banquet hall for the ceremony forty minutes later. The affair was black tie, but two of them wore street clothes. Right after Ridley had helped Rocco put on his tie, he’d actually taken it off of him.

  Sawyer started things off, when his turn to speak came. “We want to change up the program a little. I’d like to invite Rocco Maroni and Ridley Cumberland to join me up here now.” He waited for a smattering of applause to fade from the obviously confused crowd. “They’re calling me a hero—for writing checks, basically. I found a way to take a little money and make it a lot. I give back. Why wouldn’t I?” Sawyer shrugged. “My father was killed in the line of duty during a hostage situation. These two…” He nodded toward Rocco and Ridley, who had joined him on the small stage. “When I found out what they did last Christmas, it made me want to turn this whole thing down. I can’t live up to that. But someone said something to me recently that makes me proud to accept your accolades now.”

  Ridley took over next. “I hope none of you ever need or have to be the kind of hero who carries someone from a burning building or out of some sort of horrific nightmare shooting scene. The world we’re living in, some might claim that to be inevitable. Though I thank God those selfless men and women, those kinds of heroes exist, and please, let’s take a moment to cheer for them and then a brief moment to remember those who couldn’t be saved.”

  A standing ovation erupted, followed by a moment so quiet Rocco could hear the clock tick up on the wall.

  “My dad once put on rainbow leg warmers and danced to ‘Maniac’ from Flashdance right beside me.” Ridley waited for the laughter to subside. “He’ll always be my hero for that. I met a couple of kids…heroes in their own way, and the four of us, including Bart down there, too shy to join us, want to give up our time for them. One is living open and proud and not thinking twice before helping someone who needs it. The other has beaten all kinds of odds to have a better life than anyone would have predicted knowing his circumstances. Despite his anxieties, he ran toward chaos just this morning, not away. Someone needed him. He was there. That’s a hero. Let me ask you all something. By any chance, has someone here been ordained over the past year or so in order to officiate at gay weddings?”

  Fifteen hands shot up.

  “Why am I not surprised? Bart…you want to go find the kids?”

  Adam and Kick came out a few minutes later, squat Adam in Rocco’s tux, Kick wearing Bart’s. Despite how thin Bart was, it still hung loose.

  “It’s not a beach in Florida,” Sawyer said. “But how would you two like to get married right here? We’ve arranged for a day off. Your boss is awesome…on fleek. Is that a cool phrase for it?”

  “Probably not coming from one of us,” Ridley teased.

  “You’re probably right. Nonetheless,” Sawyer said, as the two young men stood there gawking. “We’re turning this into a celebration of love and pride, a celebration of you. What do you say?”

  The ceremony was short. Kick and Adam held hands. Rocco and Ridley and Sawyer and Bart held candles from which the officiant had the couple light one of their own. At the end, Kick got his guitar, and he and Adam sang to each other, the song they’d created together.

  “My favorite part was the rap section,” Ridley said afterward. “‘You can’t choose my iden-ti-ty. Judgin’ is for Ju-dy.’” He recited the catchy lyrics. “Nice.”

  Sawyer offered the pair a week in Hawaii, during the reception that followed. “You can do this all over again, if you’d like.”

  “We can’t accept…”

  “Yeah, you can,” Bart told Kick. “He’s going to pout. It’ll be a whole thing. Take it. Enjoy.”

  “And I’d like to help you both out with school…jobs…any way I can.”

  “You’ve been way too generous already, Mr. Ettinger. All of you, and Miss. Frankie, too.”

  “She’ll give you the week off, she said. This seems to be a great place to work.”

  “It is.” Kick smiled. “Like family.”

  “There you go. We’d like to be a part of your extended family, too,” Ridley told him. “Family comes in all forms. Our work family…the LGBTQ community…We’re one big gay group of mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and cousins when time comes to celebrate or comfort one another.”

  “Thank you, sir.” Kick almost looked one of them in the ey
e.

  “Thank you, too.” Rocco was stunned and nearly knocked over when Adam threw his arms around him.

  “I didn’t do anything,” he told him. “It was mostly Rid and Sawyer.”

  “Naw. I know it was all your idea. You come off as some tough jerk, but you’re a romantic deep down.”

  “That he is,” Ridley said.

  “Who asked you?”

  “Kiss him.” Adam put Ridley’s hand in Rocco’s.

  “Uh…no.”

  “Come on. You know you want to. If not here, in the safety of your big, gay family, when?”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “It’s complicated back where you work. This is here.”

  “Some of our fellow officers are in the audience.”

  “And you don’t think they know?” The kid was persistent. “Especially the ones who would attend something like this? Besides, I know you think you’re all that, but no one is even looking at you.”

  “At least fifty people are looking at me.”

  “So they are. That makes it even better. Kiss him.” Adam kissed Kick. Sawyer kissed Bart.

  “Damned peer pressure.” Rocco kissed Ridley, a quick peck, but then something more meaningful, something natural, in a way he just felt.

  “There you go.”

  “Happy? Now get out of here. You don’t need to spend your wedding day with old people.”

  Kick shook everyone’s hand. Adam hugged them, and then they were gone.

  “I guess it’s time to head back to the real world,” Ridley said. “I won’t lie. It hurt a little bit when Kick called me sir and you called us old, Roc.”

  “Five, six, eight years between us and them…” Sawyer chuckled. “Should I keep going? How come suddenly it feels like we’re all a hundred?”

  “Well, it was nice meeting you both.” Bart offered his hand.

  “You know what? No. We’re still young.” Sawyer stomped his foot, like maybe he was thirty-something going on eight. “We don’t have to be out of here for a few more hours. Remember last night? Why not come up to our room for a drink and…whatever?”

  “Whatever?” Rocco asked, both brows about as high as he could raise them.

  “What happens in Vegas…”

  “Ettinger…we’re in New York.”

  “I could fly us to Vegas.” Sawyer seemed quite serious. “Double wedding?”

  “Or we could just take the elevator upstairs…for now. Come on.” Rocco led the way.

  THE END

  ABOUT DAVID CONNOR

  David has always wanted to be a daytime drama writer. His books are like soap operas in print, filled with intrigue, romance, comedy, and drama. His imagination refuses to shut off even when he sleeps. Many of David’s plots and ideas come from nightly dreams and nightmares. He lives in upstate New York with a kitty cat named Molly and the spirits of several doggies and kitties who have passed on. David enjoys writing (of course), puttering in the garden, and naps for new story ideas.

  ABOUT E.F. MULDER

  E.F. and her writing partner, David Connor, have always been soap opera fans. Living in a small New York town, they both turned their love of the genre to books and short stories with romantic, soap opera-ish themes. Nothing beats a cliffhanger, a twist, a good mystery, and maybe an evil twin.

  ABOUT JMS BOOKS LLC

  JMS Books LLC is a small queer press with competitive royalty rates publishing LGBT romance, erotic romance, and young adult fiction. Visit jms-books.com for our latest releases and submission guidelines!