Page 13 of A Cure for Recovery

“Ooh, what’s the category?” Tommy asks, not having to fake interest. Lawson’s teased him about it – sweetly, fondly – but he’s gotten hooked on his father-in-law’s game show habit.

Tommy opens both waters, and then the pretzels, and they pass them back and forth through two episodes before Bill turns to give him a pointed look.

“Are you…okay?” he asks.

Really, Tommy should have expected this. Hedidwake them up last night. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

Bill frowns, one side of his mouth tugging down harder than the other.

“Law and I, um.” He doesn’t know how much he wants to tell his husband’s father. “We’re good,” he says in a hurry, when Bill’s frown deepens. “My new doctor and I talked about some things. I need to bring Lawson into my therapy a little more. I’m sorry I woke you guys up. I was. Um. Well. We’re okay. But I…”

Bill nods, and he’s grateful for the chance to trail off.

Then Bill reaches between them, hand slow and clumsy, and Tommy takes it on instinct. “We love you,” he says with careful pronunciation.

Tommy blinks, and sniffs, and squeezes his hand hard, as he had Dana’s earlier. “I know. I love you guys, too.”

He’s had far too many emotional milestones in the past twenty-four hours. Thankfully, he and Bill lock intoFamily Feud, and are laughing over the familiar, stupid dick answers when Lisa and Lawson get home.

“Hi, baby.” Lawson leans over the back of the couch to kiss the top of his head, and Tommy reaches up to catch his face and hold him close before he pulls away.

“Hi.”

“Good day?”

“Yeah. I had lunch with Dana.”

That earns him another kiss, smacked into his hair. “Good.”

“Stroganoff okay?” Lisa calls from the kitchen.

“Yeah, Mom, I’ll come help,” Lawson says.

Before he pulls away, Tommy grips Lawson’s sleeve, and says, “Can I help?”

Lawson pauses. “You want to?” he says in a careful voice.

“Yeah. Let your mom sit down and have a break. I can chop stuff.”

There’s a beat, and Lawson swallows thickly, and then he says, “Okay.”

Lisa takes some convincing. “Oh, honey, it’s fine, I don’t mind.” But Tommy persists, sweetly, he hopes, and finally she agrees to pour herself a glass of wine and go into the living room with Bill.

Tommy gets a cutting board, knife, and onion, and sits down at the table to do his chopping.

Lawson stands at the stove, warming the skillet with olive oil, and glances over his shoulder as he tilts the pan. “You, uh…you good?” His expression is cautious.

Tommy tamps down his initial snarky response, because Lawson is his husband, and loves him, and worries about him, and he’s been far too cold and dismissive with him. “Yeah, sweetheart.” He smiles until Lawson smiles back. “I’m good. I just…your mom does so much for us…”

“Yeah. I know. You done with those?”

“Yep.”

Lawson comes to get them, and then Tommy accepts his duty of buttering and spreading garlic on bread while Lawson gets things hissing in the skillet. Heistired; his legs are weak. But he’s still helping.

Once the meat is browned and Lawson’s turned down the heat and added the sour cream and put the pasta on to boil, he pours them both a glass and moves to the table.

Tommy perks up and says, “Thanks, honey,” and has the pleasure of watching Lawson perk up in turn.

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