Page 46 of Hello Goodbye Amore

“I will always be your daddy. Your mommy was my sister, and she wanted me to take care of you, and I always will, no matter what. I’ll be your daddy, and you’ll be my Ricky for always.” Damn it all, he thought he had been so careful when talking about all this. He held Ricky tighter. “Okay?”

“You promise?” Ricky asked.

“I do. I promise forever.” He closed his eyes and just breathed as normally and deeply as he could. “Now, how about I make some dinner and you play with your Legos for a while? After that, you can have a bath and get ready for bed.” He had to keep to the schedule no matter how frazzled he was becoming.

“Okay.” Ricky slid down and ran to the living room, where he dumped his Legos onto the rug. Chase got some pork out of the small refrigerator and began making dinner. He was trying to think about the cooking and not everything else when his phone dinged to indicate a new email. He expected it to be from Dewey with another question. They had been going on all week, and Chase was so tired of answering things that his boss could easily see for himself if he simply looked at the project documents.

He pulled out his phone and stared at the indicator. There were results. Chase turned off the heat and sat staring at the “test results complete” email. After a deep breath, he messaged Tio that results had been posted.

Did you look?Tio sent in response.

No. This affects you as much as me. I thought we should see them together, he responded, and Tio said that he was on his way. Chase turned the heat on for the potatoes and got them cooking once more. Ricky had asked for mashed potatoes, so that was what he was making to go with the pork cutlets.

“Mr. Nello is coming over,” Chase told Ricky, who nodded and continued building some sort of tower. He wished he could be as calm, but then, there were advantages to being six years old. He finished making dinner and called Ricky to the table as Tio knocked on the door. Chase let him in and then got Tio a glass of wine before sitting down.

“Would you like a plate?”

“No. I ate at the house.” Tio sipped the wine and looked around, probably for some sort of clue. Chase shrugged and set his phone on the table. “Any answers?”

“Not until Ricky goes to bed,” Chase answered. “And once he’s done eating, it’s bath time and then a story before night-night.” He smiled at Ricky and returned to his dinner, refilling his own glass and Tio’s. Once they were done, he cleared the table. “I’ll go run your bath, and you need to get out your jammies to put on.” Ricky hurried away. “Just let me get him into bed. I don’t want to talk about it in front of him. He’s already heard bits and asked me if I was going to still be his daddy.” Chase bit his lower lip, because damn, that had hurt.

“Did you tell him that you always would be?” Tio asked, and Chase nodded. “Then you gave him the right answer.”

Chase went to run the bath, and Ricky climbed into the tub. Bathtime was usually happy, but Ricky didn’t seem to feel it any more than he did, and after washing, he got out of the tub and into his dino jammies.

“Story?”

“Of course.” Chase took Ricky to bed and read to him about Curious George before Ricky rolled over and fell asleep. Chase kissed him gently and left the room, feeling strange and like he was doing things for the last time.

He returned to where Tio waited and pulled out his laptop, then sat at the table with another glass of wine. He opened themessage and followed the link to the results. His own were no surprise, coming back as most likely Ricky’s uncle.

“What about Ricky?” Tio asked, and Chase opened it, read through the results, and then nodded at the conclusion. “Well?”

“You are his father,” Chase said, nearly unable to say the words. “Elaine is his mother, and you are Ricky’s biological father.” He stood and wandered away, staring out the window onto the street through watery eyes.

“I have a son,” Tio said from behind him. “I have a son.”

“Yes, you do. But what do we tell him, and how do we tell your parents? Where in the hell do we go from here? Up until now, everything has been hypothetical, but now it’s really here.” He expected everything to change.

“I’ve given this a lot of thought,” Tio told him. “I want Ricky to stay here. I want to be able to get to know him, to be part of his life.” This was exactly what Chase had been afraid of. “And I want you to marry me.”

Chase gasped. “What about your family? Your parents? Aren’t they going to flip out?” A million thoughts raced through his mind all at once. “What am I supposed to do for a living? How?”

“Chase. All those things can be worked out. My parents will come to understand and love both you and Ricky. You’ll be able to stay in the country. Ricky will be able to grow up here… with both of us. And I’ll get to stay with the person I love most in the world.”

Chase didn’t know how to answer. This was such a surprise. “You want me to marry you because it’s convenient? Because then Ricky would stay?”

“No. I want you to marry me because then we could build a life together. But if that isn’t what you want….” Tio suddenly seemed rejected, and Chase didn’t want that either.

“I didn’t say no. I’m just a little surprised. Give me some time to think things over.” That sounded tooDownton Abbeyfor words, but getting married hadn’t been on his radar. And as thrilled as he was that Tio had asked him, he still needed a chance to think and make the right decision.

“If that’s what you want.”

Chase tugged Tio into a hug. “I just need to wrap my head around it, that’s all. This is a lot to deal with.”

“It’s not like we need to get married in the next few months. In fact, my family tends to have long engagements. My mother will insist on that so she can plan the proper celebration. Italy doesn’t have same-sex marriage, but they do have a civil equivalent, so that isn’t an issue.” Tio had clearly thought about this.

“Can I ask… would you be proposing if Ricky’s test had come back differently?”

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