Page 73 of A Small Town Spring

I crack after five seconds.“You just want to draw your own personal pornography.Pervert,” I add affectionately.

“I didn’t say I’d take pictures.Or video.Though I could.It could be a multimedia record of the gloriousness that is Kingston James.”

“I’m beginning to get the feeling that you only love me for my body.”

“Not true,” Toby says, wriggling out of his chair and dropping onto my lap.He kisses me square on the mouth.I’ll never not be amazed that this beautiful creature wants to kiss me.“I love you for your mind an equal amount.”

“Uh-huh.Very convincing.”

“I do,” he protests.“You’re the whole package, Kingston James.”He squeezes me through my sweats.“I just happen to be hung up on your actual package at the moment.”

I’m not exactly mad about it.“I’d be honored if you drew me.Not sure about the erect part.You might have to help me out in that department.Fluff me up.”

“I will be the best fluffer ever,” he promises.He kisses me again and hops off my lap.“Thank you.This is going to be amazing.”

“Wait—where are you going?”

“To get dressed.Don’t we have to leave for the wedding soon?”

Shit.The wedding.I jump to my feet, jostling my coffee and spilling it on the table.I ignore the mess and pick up my phone to check the time.“Holy shit.We have to get dressed right now.”Beck and Van are getting married today.And I’m marrying them.

Toby grins.“Better get a move on.”

The sky is an almostcorny robin’s egg blue dotted by cartoonishly perfect scudding fluffy clouds.A breeze stirs the bright new green leaves of the trees in Jack and Pete’s backyard.It’s the perfect day for a wedding.

I look over the assembled group and smile, forgetting to be nervous when I see everyone’s shining, happy faces gazing back at me.There are Meadow and Melissa, contrasting in black and white outfits.Beck’s parents are here—the senator and his wife, who are rather stiff-backed, but smiling—sitting next to Jack’s parents, who I’ve met several times before and who appear animated and excited.Van’s parents and sister and her crew are there, the little ones squirming but behaving.Beck’s employees at the Cookie Counter sit behind friends from the Art Center.And the Rosedale contingent is out in full force—all the nice, handsome gays Jack’s managed to talk into staying and making Rosedale even more fabulous than it already was—Charlie and Drew, Shay and Connor.And of course, Jack and Pete, standing up proudly, Pete on Van’s side, and Jack on Beck’s.Beck and Van are both wearing summer-weight suits.Beck’s is dark blue, with a light blue tie; Van’s is light blue with a dark blue tie.They complement each other in every way, including Beck’s light hair to Van’s dark.I’ve chosen my suit carefully, light gray with purple accents.It’s a small wedding party, but a meaningful one.I’ve never officiated a wedding before, but nearly everyone I see is a friend, so I don’t take long to find my voice.

Besides, the only person I care about impressing is beaming at me from the front row.Toby’s wearing the outfit I helped him pick out—gray trousers, purple trainers, as he insists on calling his sneakers, and a purple blazer over a gray T-shirt.He looks arty and hot, and the way he’s smiling at me now has my heart going all pitter-patter when I should be focusing on my task.Our interrupted morning foreplay has me aching to get him somewhere private, but that’ll keep for now.I give him a brief wink, look at my notes.The music—a selection from Vivaldi’s “Spring”—comes to a close, and I begin.

“When Donovan and Beck told me they were getting married, they also told me they wanted to do it here.”I gesture to the backyard.“This is the place where they fell in love.Two summers ago, they were both here ostensibly to take care of Cleo.”Jack and Pete’s dog barks when she hears her name and the crowd laughs.“But they were really, each in a different way, hiding out from the world for a while.”Beck and Donovan smile shyly at each other, and I can already see tears gathering in Beck’s eyes.Dammit.I need to get through this without crying myself.

I take a deep breath and keep going.“While they were hiding, they found something else—someone else.Someone who they didn’t have to hide around, someone they could be themselves with.Someone to laugh with, and cry with, and play poker with.”More laughter.Okay, maybe I can do this.

“It isn’t always easy to admit when you’ve found something special.The stakes suddenly become high, they become real.It can be scary to fall in love.”I glance at Toby, whose face is alight with so much love I nearly choke up, but somehow I manage to keep going without losing my shit.“I’m proud to say I played a small role in preventing these two from giving in to the fear and encouraging them to go after the good stuff—because what I do know, from personal experience, is it’s worth it to not let the fear of losing something good keep you from having something great.”

For a second, my soul freezes at the thought of what today would be like if I hadn’t told Toby how I feel about him—if we were attending this wedding as friends instead of lovers.It would have been okay.Good, even.But this is better.This is truly amazing.

“Anyone who knows them knows that Beck and Donovan have something great.Over the past two years, they’ve built a business, restored a home, found their own dog to take care of— yes, I’m talking about you, Molly.”Their rescue pup wags her tail where she’s chilling in the grass next to Jack.“They’ve built a life together, a life they’ll walk through together as husbands from this day on.I’m grateful to know them, I’m honored to be a part of this beautiful ceremony on this glorious day, and I know everyone here loves you two as much as I do, which means you’ve got an ocean of love behind you to set you on this path to the future.Beck and Donovan, are you ready to get married?”

Beck blows his nose on a vintage white cotton handkerchief and nods.Van, a bit red-eyed, but with a clear voice booms, “Hell yes!”

The rest of the ceremony is filled with more laughter and tears and romantic words from two people who are very much in love.I have no idea if Toby and I will be standing where Beck and Donovan are one day, but I know that right now, today, I’m the happiest man in Rosedale.Well, if we don’t count the actual grooms.

When I pronounce them husbands and invite them to kiss, the entire audience whoops and hollers, and a storm of white rose petals rains down on the kissing couple from the folks sitting in the front row.Shay clearly armed them in advance.

As music plays, a photographer whisks Beck and Donovan away for couple’s pictures while a uniformed server appears with glasses of bubbly.Toby bounds over to me with a glass in hand and wraps his arms around me.“You were incredible.There wasn’t a dry eye in the yard!”

I laugh and keep my arm around his waist while taking a grateful sip of champagne.Now that the deed is done, I feel a little shaky.“Really?Did I do right by them?”

“You killed it,” Pete says, hugging me around the neck.“And now you get to relax.”

“Whew.”I wipe imaginary sweat from my brow, only to find actual sweat there.“Damn.That was stressful.”

“You did amazing,” Jack echoes, handing me a napkin, which I use to dab my head.“I mean, our wedding was pretty awesome, but this one was exactly the same amount of awesome.”

“Not that it’s a competition, right, babe?”Pete says pointedly.

“No, of course not.This is totally different.This is a spring wedding, for one thing,” Jack says hastily.

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