Cherish & Blessed (12 page)

He fell asleep with a feeling of contentment.

A
SCATTER
of knocking gave Evan about ten seconds to pull the covers over him and a still-sleeping Matt before the knob turned.

“My eyes are closed! Mostly!” Helena called, poking her head in.

“Hey,” Evan whispered, going up on his elbows to greet his partner.

“Breakfast is ready in about ten minutes.” She leaned against the door, casual as he’d seen her in a while, in NYPD sweats and a big smile.

“Thanks.” Evan looked at her in the dim light of the room.
“What’s up with you?”

Helena couldn’t contain her happiness. It threatened to explode off her face at this rate. Her eyes shone with a light that seemed to be coming from the inside.

“Good shopping trip?”

Then she giggled, and Evan almost fell off the bed. “What?”

More shocking than the giggle was a bounce, followed by a handclap. “Ten minutes, breakfast. Hurry, hurry!”

And with that she was gone, slamming the door behind her. Matt twitched hard, then woke up with a start. “Whu?” he grumbled, rolling over to grab at Evan’s middle.

“Breakfast. And Helena is being weird.”

“Bad weird?”

“Good weird.”

“Thank God.”

They skipped morning showers and just crowded into the bathroom to brush their teeth. Evan assumed everyone would be in sweats, but the thought of it made him itchy—and Matt would tease him if he wore “real clothes”—so he settled for old jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt.

Matt opted to go with a pair of shorts he wore running and a hoodie he’d recently worn to paint the garage. Evan gave him the stink-eye when he came out of the bathroom.

“Really?”

Matt responded with a huge yawn, and then Evan got a good view of his back, leaving the bedroom.

Downstairs, the dining room was bustling and the smell was fantastic. Everyone was in one place, no one was pouting, and Evan felt a tentative peace rumble in his chest.

Or that might be hunger.

“How’d the shopping go?” Evan asked as he sat down between Miranda and Katie.

“Really well. We picked up some stuff for friends and a few other people who shall remain nameless,” Miranda said, passing him the carafe of coffee.

“She got me Uggs!” Elizabeth said from across the table.

Matt scowled as he dropped into a chair next to Shane. “What color?”

“Black.”

“Okay, then.”

“Wooo! I’m getting two pairs!”

Matt reached behind Helena to pull Elizabeth’s ponytail playfully. “Or Santa will bring you coal. He hasn’t decided yet.”

“Santa loooooves me,” she said, batting her eyelashes at him dramatically.

He sighed, reaching for the plate of bacon. “How many pairs do you want?”

The twelve-year-old lifted her hands over her head in victory.

Evan couldn’t help himself. He looked at Miranda while the little banter between Elizabeth and Matt was going on. And when he saw the longing behind the slight smile, he thought about reaching under the table to squeeze her hand.

And then he saw Kent doing just that.

The boy was seated on the other side of her, clearly comforting his girlfriend, perhaps for the same reason Evan thought about doing it.

It shocked him. Saddened him, a little. His daughter was growing up. Starting adult relationships and finding her own way. He could promise to help ease her pain over her mother’s death, but ultimately, this was the point where she started figuring it out on her own.

The true measure of adulthood.

“Could we get through the weekend before we talk about Christmas?” Evan mock growled. He took his hand back and busied it with collecting some pancakes.

“Dad, we’ve been talking about Christmas since Halloween,” Danny pointed out.

“Maybe you can come up and see us around the holidays,” Cornelia said, breaking into the conversation with a slight quaver to her voice. “We decorate the nursery and have some carolers come in.”

“Uh, sure. That would be nice,” Evan said politely. “I get a few days off.”

He and Cornelia shared a moment. He realized she wasn’t as angry and that, strangely enough, neither was he. When she turned to smile at Matt, he realized that Matt had once again smoothed over a drama he’d started.

He’d be pissed if he wasn’t so fucking grateful.

Breakfast continued, conversations varied and flying fast, the noise level increasing. In between an offering from Miranda about her upcoming class schedule being screwed up and a hilarious retelling of the “drunk naked guy in the fountain” story from Katie, Evan noticed Shane and Helena across the table. They were staring at each other like no one else existed, shy smiles and goofy moments where they couldn’t seem to stem quiet laughter.

He narrowed his eyes. He checked both her hands, but no ring. She was pounding back coffee like rationing started tomorrow, so he assumed no pregnancy. What the heck was her deal?

As things wound down and everyone else took turns proclaiming their inability to eat another thing—except Danny, who mentioned more pie—Helena suddenly stood up, that excited little bounce starting up again. Shane stood up and moved to stand next to her, taking her hand in his.

Matt twisted in his chair as they took up residence behind him.

“Soooo, we wanted you guys to be the second—et cetera—to hear the news—”

“We called Vic and Serena earlier,” Shane piped in.

“Last night, after we got back….” Helena took a deep breath. “I asked Shane to marry me, and he said yes.”

The table erupted into celebratory noises. Matt got to hug them both first, a crushing group thing that made Evan smile. He made his way around the table to the happy couple, waiting for the line of people to die down a bit.

“So that’s a surprise,” Evan murmured as he wrapped his arms around Helena.

“Yeah, right? I just… the words came out before I could overthink them,” she whispered, hugging him back tightly.

“In the middle of chaos, you come up with this being a good idea?” he teased.

“Well, yeah.” Helena pulled back to smile at him. “I realized that worrying and waiting wasn’t being honest with him. I told him how I felt, what I wanted, and he… wanted the same thing.”

“Chaos.” Evan kissed her cheek.

“Yeah. I expect pointers.”

“Drink in moderation, hit your head on padded walls, and have a Matt.”

Helena giggled.

Not long after, the party started to break up. Helena and Shane clearly required a quiet spot to celebrate their engagement—one that didn’t include friends, recent strangers, and teenagers. They left, immediately followed by Blake and Cornelia gathering their things and making noises about doing the same.

Evan asked Kent to step outside with him for a moment, much to Miranda’s horror.

They stood on the walkway, the air filled with scents of wood burning and rain or snow at some point in the near future. Evan let the silence go on just long enough and tried not to think of it as an interrogation.

“So you and Miranda had a talk about things.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes, sir. We had a really good talk, actually, like almost the whole night.” He cleared his throat nervously. “I think we both understand each other a little better now. And I want to be there for her, you know—about her mom and stuff.”

“Good.” Evan rocked back on his heels. “When do you get back into the city?”

“Uh, Sunday.”

“Okay. So how about we have dinner—you, me, and Miranda. My treat.”

“Oh. Wow. Thank you. That would be nice.” Kent paused, scuffing his shoe on the pavers. “What about your uh… Matt?”

Evan paused. “Let me check with Miranda, see what she wants,” he said honestly.

Kent looked genuinely relieved and something more. Approving of the response? “I think that’s a really great idea.”

A knock from inside the house caught their attention. They turned to see Miranda waving nervously through the screen door.

Evan gestured for her to come out.

“Sorry.” Miranda came down the stairs slowly, wrapped in a throw from the couch. “Your mom and dad are packed. They’re ready to go.”

“Are you staying, then?”

“Yeah, Dad, if that’s okay.” She looked between them, clearly dying to ask what they’d talked about.

“Don’t even have to ask. I’ll drive you back whenever you want.”

“Thanks.” She and Kent clinked together like magnets, shoulder to shoulder, and shared a meaningful look.

“Your dad invited us out to dinner on Sunday.”

“Oh. Sure. The three of us?” Miranda half smiled.

“If you want,” Evan said, and almost immediately Miranda seemed to realize what she’d said.

“Well, if it’s an interrogation, Matt probably won’t want to come,” she said, breezy and casual. “But if we’re just eating….”

“See, I’d call it just the opposite,” Evan teased, and the nervous laughter that followed was almost natural.

“Let me go help my parents,” Kent excused himself. He gave Miranda the most basic and least passionate kiss on the cheek he could manage, as if to remove all question of sexual contact from the equation, and suddenly Evan added more to the list of stuff he just didn’t want to know was going on. Because acting like you weren’t having sex meant you were absolutely having sex.

Once Kent was in the house, Miranda stayed where she was, gaze locked on the hibernating bushes that lined the walkway.

“I’ve apologized to everyone,” she said finally. “Kent’s parents. The kids. Um….”

“Okay.” Evan was neutral. There was a name missing from the list, and they both knew it.

“So I’m saying sorry to you. Again. For my behavior. I am really, really so sorry for making Thanksgiving so uncomfortable. And I’m sorry for making you feel bad about… things.”

“I don’t feel bad, Miranda,” he said gently. “It worries me that you are so upset. That’s what bothers me. Matt and I are… not the issue, at least for me.”

That froze her words for a few minutes, but she nodded, tightening the blanket around her.

“I know. And that’s maybe part of my problem.” She sighed, loud and dramatic. “But I also know it’s my problem. And I have to deal with it.”

Evan bit his tongue, because yes, she had to. And it wasn’t his place to fix it. Even though he wanted the magic formula to make it so.

“Soooo….” Miranda kept talking. “You should ask him to come to dinner with us. The four of us. It would be rude for you to intimidate Kent all by yourself.”

A little smile bloomed on her face. It was suddenly infectious.

Evan agreed. “He would be sad to miss that.”

They saw Kent and his parents off. Evan and Cornelia shook hands politely, but Matt got a brief hug.

Evan refused to be jealous.

Matt took him by the hand after they pulled down the road, and led him into the house. The kids began a debate about which movie to watch, Danny mentioned food again, and then an argument broke out over who got to use the washing machine first, Katie or Miranda.

“So we’ve got Christmas, New Year’s, the captain’s exam, the renovation of Bennett and Daisy’s house and the birth of their child….” Matt drifted over to the couch, claiming the prime real estate before the kids could descend. He pulled Evan down onto him, a hug masquerading as a sprawl. “Helena planning a wedding—please God let her elope.”

“Sunday we’re having dinner with Kent and Miranda so we can more thoroughly interrogate him.” Evan grabbed a pillow. He used Matt’s hip as a bolster, settling down with a nap in mind.

“Wow. At least that’s a fun thing to add to the list.”

Evan felt a bit of tension in his boyfriend’s body.

“Miranda okay with that?”

“Sort of. She’s trying.”

“Duly noted. I will do the same.”

Cabinets slammed in the next room, and the argument grew in volume.

“You break it, it’s coming out of your allowance,” Matt yelled.

The quiet was instantaneous. And lasted for about thirty seconds before starting up again.

Evan laughed, content for a moment in the madness.