Page 52 of Touch of Innocence
EPILOGUE
Sam
“Hey, Sam! Sammy? Where’s Gunner?”
Sam looked up from Shadow, who was doing his best to take a rope chew toy right out of Sam’s hand, and gazed up at his brother. He had to admit, Ben pulled off the barbequing dad look pretty well, a metal spatula in his hand, an apron covering his jeans and t-shirt.
It was the middle of September, and school had been going for a few weeks already. Ruby was settling in nicely, and she wasn’t the only one, either.
“He’s just at work,” Sam bellowed back, his hands still occupied in wrestling with his enormous dog, trying to keep the toy away from him even as he spoke with his brother. “Mike said he’s going to drop by, too.”
It was Gunner’s full-time job now, and he, surprisingly, was one of the people who had started school at the beginning of the month. He was doing a part-time course to get certified as a mechanic, and Sam had really never seen him so satisfied, even if Gunner was so busy that they didn’t get to see each other nearly as much anymore.
It wouldn’t be forever, though. Gunner would finish his program, and then he and Mike were already talking about expanding their business. Sam had been more than happy to step aside, to let them take over fully, which was sort of funny when he thought about how freaked out he had once been that Gunner would take his job.
Sometimes, he mused to himself, the things which seemed the scariest were actually the ones that were the best. Gunner was happy, and Sam was happy, and even Mike seemed to be happy, though it was sort of hard to tell with him.
Ruby ran over, her best friend Marcy hot on her heels, as usual. Marcy was a quiet little girl, totally content to be in Ruby’s shadow, but she also seemed to have a little bit of a calming effect on Ruby which was, Sam had to admit, much needed.
“Beeeennnn,” Ruby whined, bouncing around Ben as he tried to cook. “I want a hot dog. Can I have a hot dog? Marcy wants a hot dog, too.”
Ben shook his head and laughed, flipping burgers and smokies, amused tolerance on his face. Isaac wrapped his arm around his little sister’s shoulder, leading her away, which was probably a good thing considering the open fire that was involved.
“No,” Isaac told her. “Not until Gunner and Mike are here. We’re going to wait for them, but we’ll eat as soon as they get here.”
Ruby pouted, but she accepted that readily enough. Another sign, Sam rather suspected, of Marcy’s good influence on her behavior.
“When is he going to be here?” Ruby demanded, and Sam’s stomach did flips and his heart clenched in anticipation as he heard a voice that was achingly familiar to him, which, even now, made him shiver with delight.
“Right now,” Gunner growled, swooping in, looking tired but clean, and happy. He locked his arm around Ruby’s shoulders and gave her a quick hug, sort of wrestling with her at the same time, which made her howl with delight.
Shadow gave a bark of welcome and walked over to frisk happily around Mike, who was actually smiling, for once, and Gunner, who was playing with the girls. Shadow, apparently, wanted in on some of that action, and for a few, frantic moments, the wrestling, the play-fighting, was mostly what was going on in the little group.
Sam shook his head, pasting a superior smirk on his lips as he put his hands on his hips and looked down at the mass of people, and, of course, dog, all tumbled together. He shook his head in mock disbelief as though disgusted, but he had the distinct idea that none of them took it all that seriously.
“Come on, guys. Grow up,” Sam scolded, and then he felt two hands on him, Gunner’s on his left ankle, Ruby’s on his right. Within the course of a few short, breathless seconds, he found himself pinned to the ground, just as much a part of the frolicking pack as the rest of them.
It was undignified. It was the sort of thing that, even a few months ago, Sam would have turned his nose up at. But it was sort of nice, he’d discovered, to be included. All this time, he had had the best family in the world on his side, and he’d been too busy being snooty and superior to realize it.
“Okay, okay,” Ben finally called, while Isaac was setting out paper plates on the picnic tables that they’d set up beside the house. It was sort of nice, this late in the day the shadow of the house stretched protectively over them, giving them some shade, because even in September it wasn’t cool enough that the shadow wasn’t welcome. “Grub time. Come eat.”
That broke up the impromptu wrestling match pretty quickly, and Sam brushed himself off, shot a grin at Gunner, and then wrapped an arm around his boyfriend’s waist as they went off to feed themselves, and each other.
* * *
The sun had gone down, and they had all split off into little groups. Isaac sat with Ben, both of them chattering with Mike, who was almost mellow with a couple of beers and quite a few hamburgers in him. Ruby and Marcy were playing some sort of handclapping game, one which the rules eluded Sam but which he was sure they would happily teach him if he wanted. Amanda was cleaning up in a slow, almost idle way, helped by Isaac’s mother.
The whole family was here, split off now into groups, and Sam and Gunner were, for the moment, mercifully alone. There was more than enough room on the property that, even though they were still a part of the picnic, it was also just them, and Sam lay on his back with Gunner by his side, holding hands as they looked up at the stars.
Who would have thought that there would be so much contentment in so simple an act?
“See that one that looks sort of like a floppy, lopsided triangle?” Sam explained, pointing up at the section of the sky, at the arrangement of stars, right over their head. He glanced over at Gunner, who was squinting up at the sky, and couldn’t help but grin when he saw the look of pleasure dawning on Gunner’s face.
“Yeah. Which one is that?” Gunner asked, while Sam leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to the other man’s cheek.
“Capricorn. It’s supposed to be a goat,” Sam told him, grinning as he anticipated Gunner’s response to that. And Gunner didn’t disappoint him, turning to look at Sam with an expression of complete disbelief on his handsome face.
“A goat? That floppy triangle is a goat?” Gunner scoffed, and Sam let his grin widen as he nodded.
