Belonging (42 page)

All those people, thousands of them,
were listening to the words and they were making the song theirs,
taking it into their hearts. Two women in their forties kissed
tenderly on screen, and a straight couple in their thirties
embraced as they swayed to the music. A group of five friends had
their arms around each other’s shoulders, and a young gay man of
about twenty kissed his date on the cheek shyly. I turned away from
the screens and looked out over the crowd.

The song was bigger than Zan and me.
It was out in the world now, and it would have meaning for so many.
Music had such power to bring people together, and that was exactly
what happened as Zan and I and the audience shared the moment. Love
was all around us, and it was the most beautiful thing I could
possibly imagine.

When the song ended, I hugged him and
said, “Thank you, Alexzander.”

He kissed me and then whispered in my
ear, “Be mine forever, Gianni.”

“I already am,” I whispered
back.

We left the stage hand-in-hand, to a
standing ovation and thunderous applause. Our friends and family
enveloped us with hugs when we got back stage. “That was
brilliant,” Yosh exclaimed. “Absolutely brilliant!”

Christian grabbed his father in a hug
and said, “I’m so glad I got to see you perform. You were
phenomenal! The audience loved every minute of it. I’m so proud of
you, Dad.”

Zan grinned at Christian and reached
up to cup his face in his hand. “I love you, boyo. You know that,
right?”

Christian smiled and said, “I do know
that, and I love you, too.”

A lot of people approached Zan as our
group headed through the back stage area. He shook hands with the
head of the charity that had hosted the concert, graciously
accepting her thanks and posing for a photo with her. We kept
moving after that, our friends and family politely but firmly
deflecting the agents and press and concert promoters that all
wanted a piece of Zan. Nana was slightly less polite, offering to
kick one particularly pushy reporter in the nuts if he didn’t back
off. Fortunately, he heeded her warning.

We finally reached the back of the
huge building, where a car was waiting for Zan and me. There were
hugs and kisses all around as we said goodbye. Yosh grabbed me in a
bear hug and said, “I’m going to miss you Gi.”

“I’ll be back to visit before you know
it,” I promised, “and I hear you might have the lead singer of a
popular rock band to keep you entertained while I’m
away.”

Yosh smiled at that as he let go of
me. “For now, I have a phone number. We’ll see what
happens.”

Nana pulled me down to her height and
kissed my cheek. “Remember, you promised a call a week. If I don’t
get that, I’m sending out the Coast Guard. Don’t think I’m
kidding!”

“I’ll call, Nana, I swear. Have a
great time in Italy. You too, Nico and Jessie.” All three of them
hugged me.

Chance had been hanging back shyly,
and I pulled him close and kissed his cheek. “Good luck in
Wyoming,” I said. “I really hope it works out for you.”

“Thanks,” he said with a little smile.
“Take care, Gi. Be safe.”

After all the goodbyes, Zan and I got
in the backseat of the car. “The San Pedro Marina, please,” I told
the driver. The car rolled forward as Zan and I settled
in.

*****

The Mariposa gleamed in the moonlight.
The forty-two foot wooden sailboat was sleek and elegant, built in
the nineteen-twenties by craftsmen who took pride in their work.
She’d been updated and retrofitted over the decades, but retained
all of her original charm.

Zan and I climbed onboard and
deposited our bags in the main cabin. I unzipped my suitcase and
carefully arranged a few photos of my friends and family on one of
the shelves, then placed my prized possession, the antique brass
sextant, with them. It looked like it had finally come
home.

We went up on deck and Zan helped me
cast off. I started the engine and used it to pilot us out of the
harbor. He leaned against the railing and asked, “Will you think
less of me if I become violently seasick?”

“Nope. This is a judgement-free
vessel,” I said as I guided us to the mouth of the harbor. Zan’s
next concert was happening in three months, in Vancouver, British
Columbia. Before and after, we planned to meander wherever the mood
and the wind took us.

After much discussion, we’d realized
this was the perfect balance between hiding out and still getting
to travel and explore and experience all that life had to offer.
We’d kept the house in Marin, because we knew we’d always want a
home base in the Bay Area. All of our friends and family were
there, after all, and we’d be returning frequently to visit. But
this was going to be home now, for as long as it made us both
happy.

We’d owned the boat for a month and
had taken her on a few jaunts along the coast to try her out, but
this was our first real voyage. As soon as we cleared the harbor, I
cut the engine and unfurled the mainsail. I’d been teaching Zan,
who had very little boating experience, and he helped me tie it
off. He was learning quickly, and was more than happy to follow
orders and act as first mate.

I took the wheel again. The wind
caught our sail and the Mariposa surged forward, slicing through
the inky black ocean. She was bigger than I’d been used to, but I
was learning to handle her and building my confidence.

A light spray christened us as she
crested a wave, the full moon lighting our way and drawing a path
before us on the water. I’d never felt more alive and I laughed out
loud, just from the sheer joy of it all. Zan beamed at
me.

“Come here,” I told him. When he
reached me, I had him hold the right side of the big mahogany wheel
while I held the left, and he put his free arm around my waist. I
kissed him and asked, “Do you think you’ll like living on a
boat?”

“This is perfection,” he told me. “I
feel so free. I never thought I’d feel like this. Most importantly,
I’m with you, and that makes me the happiest man alive.”

I smiled at him and pointed the boat
at the horizon and at our future.

The End

###

Looking Ahead

The Firsts & Forever
series will continue in late summer, 2015 with Coming Home. Join
Chance as he travels to Wyoming to try to find the stranger who
fathered him. He hasn’t been back to his home state since he ran
away at age fourteen, and confronting the demons of his past are
almost more than he can bear. Help comes from the last person he’d
expect. This man is everything he could want and then some, but
Chance knows he’s way too damaged for things to work out between
him and his guardian angel. That’s the stuff of fairy tales, and
Chance stopped believing in those a long, long time ago.

After Coming Home, the
series will take us to Italy, where Nico Dombruso joins the
irrepressible Nana on a whirlwind vacation. Badly burned by his
last relationship, Nico has no interest in trusting anyone ever
again. He begins a casual summer fling just as a way to burn off
steam. But the handsome stranger wants more and Nico finds himself
tempted, until a secret is revealed that shakes him to his core and
threatens to tear his family apart.

Nico’s story will be
available at the end of 2015.

The Firsts & Forever
series will continue into 2016.

Thank you to all my readers
who keep asking for more!

For information about Alexa
Land and her books, please visit

http://alexalandwrites.blogspot.com/

Find Alexa on Facebook
at

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008216261875

And on Twitter
@AlexaLandWrites

Books by Alexa Land
Include:

Feral

The Tinder Chronicles

And the Firsts and Forever
Series:

Way Off Plan

All In

In Pieces

Gathering Storm

Salvation

Skye Blue

Against the Wall

Belonging