I glide my fingers along his cheek. "Jarvis, I?—"
"Dad?"
The sudden voice makes us both jolt, and we turn. Two of my sons and their partners have materialized out of thin air.
"Dunlop, Robbie, Bremmer, Kelsey," I greet them in turn.
Dunlop manages a quiet hello, Bremmer cocks his head, confused, and Robbie and Kelsey exchange a brief look and a small grin. I knew my sons also visited Adam on his birthday,but it's usually either before or after work, not in the middle of the day. I hadn't counted on them being here.
I may have been fine telling Jarvis I loved him here, but this is definitely not the right place for the explaining we're going to have to do to our families.
"Are you all free to grab a bite after we're done here?" I ask them.
"Yeah, of course, Dad," Dunlop says, since Bremmer has been stunned into silence.
We pay our respects to Adam then head back to our cars, two by two, with Jarvis and me out in front. Since they're all going to find out the truth soon enough anyway, I take Jarvis's hand in mine. A gasp that is probably Bremmer and a subdued squeal that I can tell is Robbie bursts through the air.
Jarvis looks up at me and gives my hand a good squeeze, his eyes saying, 'Don't worry. We got this.'
He's absolutely right.
We do.
16
Jarvis
The six of us are seated in the privacy of the VIP section of one of the fanciest restaurants in the entire country. After we all pulled up at about the same time, I made a beeline for Robbie and Kelsey. Part of that was to give Anson a moment alone with his sons on what is a very difficult day for them all, and part of it was to urgently whisper to them to please be cool.
I shouldn't have worried.
They're cool with it.
A littletoo coolbecause after ordering our meals and running through a number of garden-variety topics, the inevitable finally comes up.
"So…" Andof courseit's my baby brother leading the charge, his eyes darting between Anson and me. "I didn't realize today was a training day."
Anson steeples his fingers. "Bold of you to assume we haven'ttrainedtoday."
Bremmer chokes on his whiskey, Dunlop wide-eyes us both, and Robbie and Kelsey high-five.
I clock it and ask, "What was that for?"
"As you've probably figured out already," Robbie answers. "I may have stretched the truth a little to set this whole thing up."
"We have," I say. "The question is, why?"
Robbie shrugs. "I thought it'd be good for you guys to meet, you know, make a new friend. I hoped you'd get along, but Kels…"
"Kels correctly thought one hot guy plus another hot guy equals hand gestures that are so obscene I won't make them because we're out in public," Kelsey says, grinning smugly in a way a person who refers to themselves in third person has no right to.
"We made a bet," Robbie explains to the table, but mainly to me and Anson.
Dunlop blinks hard, confusion creasing his forehead. "You did?"
"Yeah. I didn't want to tell you because it's your dad and no one wants to think of their dad doing stuff that even Kelsey won't do hand gestures in public for. I bet they'd just be friends. Kels thought they'd be…more."
"Are you more, Dad?"