Page 83 of After Midnight

Thankfully, Miss Rita had the foresight to get Alli and Olivia ready well beforehand. Both my dads flew in for the occasion, too, and they were ongranddad duty, as they called it, in keeping an eye on the girls as they played hostesses to the wedding guests.

When Alli dashed into the room and announced the wedding planner was ready and we needed to come downstairs, I watched as Ashton paled.

I couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped my mouth. “Getting cold feet, old man?” I teased.

“Zip it, kid. Respect your elders,” he said and turned toward the door. “Okay, I can do this.”

“You can, and you know you want to.”

Ashton nodded, and we filed out of the room after Alli and Miss Rita. I escorted him down the hallway to a waiting Jeffrey at the top of the stairs, which opened up into the main living area where all the guests stood waiting for the groomsmen to descend.

Ashton and Jeffrey walked down the stairs first, followed by Dominic and I, and then the girls. When we were all in view, the crowd clapped as we walked the rest of the way to the altar.

I struggled to keep my emotions under control watching Jeffrey and Ashton declare their love for one another. So did nearly everyone else in the room, including Dominic and Miss Rita, judging by their sniffles. Ironically, Ashton and Jeffrey managed not to cry, and I didn’t think I’d ever seen either man look so happy.

After the ceremony, the two grooms led the wedding guests down the sidewalk to an old church a block from the house that’dbeen converted into a community center. It proved to be the perfect reception venue, and we all danced the evening away.

“They seem so happy,” Dominic said as we slow danced to some eighties power ballad. Ashton and Jeffrey had chosen every song on the playlist, saying each selection was meaningful to them in some way. I wondered if Dominic and I would have our own personal soundtrack like them some day.

“I think they are,” I replied. “They sure look it.” We both glanced across the dance floor at the grooms. Jeffrey had his arms draped around Ashton’s neck, head rested on his shoulder, while his new husband’s hands drifted dangerously low on Jeffrey’s back.

“I’m glad they finally got together. It’s so sad it took this long.”

“I like Jeffrey’s take on it,” I said to him. “It just happened when it was supposed to happen.”

I spun Dominic to the music, and when he came back into my arms, he said, “Of course, now they have a huge family with two young girls to raise. That’ll settle anyone down, let me tell you. I know from experience!”

“Do you think you’d ever want to do all this? Wedding, white picket fence, all of that?” I asked and he smiled.

“One day, maybe, but not yet. I like living life without responsibilities, or at least not as many. Now Jeffrey and Ashton are officially the girls’ guardians, it’s sort of freeing not to have to worry about them so much.” Dominic looked at me shyly, almost apologetically. “That sounded selfish, didn’t it?”

I leaned in and kissed him slowly, in time with the music. “No, it sounds healthy, and I agree. Someday I want you to make me an honest man.”

“Pfft,” Dominic blurted. “Like you can make a comedian honest.”

The two newlyweds left the following morning for their honeymoon. We agreed to watch the girls while they were gone,which meant Dominic would be doing most of the looking after due to my intense work schedule. I’d been recruited to audition forSaturday Night Live, and the improv school was working overtime to prepare me for it.

Surprisingly, Alli and Olivia had adjusted to this new life seamlessly. They enrolled in the public school down the street from the house, and both were doing well in all of their classes. They also had active social lives and had already made several new friends, who tended to show up at our house most afternoons after school.

A few weeks after Jeffrey and Ashton got home from their honeymoon, Jeffrey was putting the finishing touches on dinner, so we all gathered on the patio to chat while we waited.

Most weeks, we had at least one big family dinner at the house, and now Miss Rita had stopped fighting Jeffrey for control of the kitchen, he’d taken over as the family chef. Secretly, I sometimes missed Miss Rita’s more down-home cooking. Of course, beggars couldn’t be choosers, and I had zero complaints.

I didn’t know how it was possible, but I’d never been this happy.

Chapter forty-one

Dominic

Thanks to summer school, I graduated a full semester earlier than I thought I would. Having my family in the audience when I walked across the graduation stage to collect my college diploma, and them acting like fools when my name was called, marked one of the happiest and proudest moments of my life.

I didn’t often think about how bad my life had been before. Partly because rehashing those memories stirred up thoughts and emotions best left to my therapist’s office or the comfort and safety of Dillon’s arms when I needed to unload. And partly because for every bad memory, I’d replaced it with a dozen good ones. My life was that much better now.

Olivia and Alli had thrived since our big move, academically and socially, and most of it had to do with being in a stable and loving family. They’d not really had that since their biological parent’s death, and the effect was profound. They’d even become closer sisters and better friends to each other, though they still got in the typical sisterly squabbles from time to time.

After Jolie gave me a glowing recommendation, I’d been hired as a bartender at Third County’s Chicago club. Mr. Foremandidn’t really intimidate me like he did everyone else, and I liked to cut-up with him when he’d come in and sit at the bar while I was working. As time went on, we became pretty close, and I now considered him a friend.

When Mr. Foreman heard I was about to graduate with a business degree, he immediately asked if I’d become his apprentice.

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