Page 2 of Creed
I wouldn’t have known how to explain even if the dog could ask.
The dawn eventually came, but still neither Brody nor Magnus appeared.
I didn’t see another living soul until nearly nine in the morning.
“Nice to see you among the living,” I said when Brody stepped downstairs.
His hair was still mussed from sleep, and his shirt wasn’t buttoned, so it hung open. Red marks covered his chest. They blended in with his equally red chest hair, so they were hard to see, but they definitely hadn’t been there the day before.
I turned my gaze away from the marks, trying to ignore where they must have come from.
Brody didn’t even hesitate as he made himself a drink from the coffee machine. “This is a perfectly normal time to wake up. Your perception is just skewed because you’re too used to military time.”
I pretended to take a sip from my empty coffee mug to make it look like I hadn’t been sitting there that long.
“It wasn’t that long ago that you were living on military time as well. It’s been less than a year since you retired. Do old habits really die so quickly?”
Brody raised an eyebrow at me over the rim of his mug as he took a sip of his own fresh coffee.
“Are you really judging me for living like a civilian?” he asked as he started preparing breakfast.
With a pang of guilt, I realized that was exactly what I was doing. Some part of me had expected everything to stay the same, even after we retired. Same morning routine, same division of labor, same strict schedule.
It was a foolish thought. I should have realized that leaving the military behind meant more than just a change of location.
My guilt intensified as I watched Brody cook. I’d already been awake for hours. I could have prepared food for everyone, but the thought hadn’t even crossed my mind.
There was no helping it now. I’d just have to find another way to make myself useful.
“What’s the plan for today?” I asked when it seemed like Brody was almost done cooking.
“There’s some things we need to take care of,” he said without looking away from whatever he was stirring in a skillet. “But let’s wait for the others to get here to discuss it.”
The fact that he’d said “others” instead of “Magnus” was just dawning on me when someone descended the stairs.
The man that stepped into view was a stranger.
Brody had introduced him to me. I knew his name was Ellis Beckham and that he apparently lived here now, but in my mind he was still just a stranger that I didn’t know.
At almost the same time, the front door opened, and Magnus entered the house with an enthusiastic greeting. Another stranger walked at his side as well. A man named Trent, who I didn’t know any more than I knew Ellis.
Right. Brody and Magnus had partners now.
That was... going to take some getting used to.
I’d always known that Brody and Magnus were gay. Technically, I was as well, but it was a fact that I’d never been comfortable enough to look at very closely.
‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ may have ended years ago but I was quite comfortable keeping such things out of sight and out of mind. It was just one more complication that I didn’t need.
Now, however, reality was blatantly staring me in the face as I was invited to the breakfast table.
Conversation passed between the four of them easily. For Magnus and Brody this wasn’t surprising, but the new additions—Ellis and Trent—also joined in easily. They seemed as comfortable as if they were in their own home.
Because they were home.
Somehow, while being introduced to these other two men, I’d completely glossed over the fact that they lived here.
At least, I think that was the case. I remembered Magnus saying something about Trent having his own place in town, but that might have been a business and not a home. So much had been thrown at me at once when I arrived, I’d missed some of the explanation.
