No Sacrifice Read online

  Chance veered from his path to the cabinets over to the sink instead.

  “Aww, Chancie forgot to wash his hands.”

  Chance paused for a moment, closing his eyes and counting to ten. Then he turned around to face his brother at the table, annoyed with himself that he hadn’t noticed the asshole when he came in. “Gareth. I didn’t know you’d be here this soon.”

  “Sorry to disappoint, little bro.” Gareth turned pointedly toward Patrick. “Who’s this?”

  “Gareth, this is Patrick Tearney, my boyfriend. Patrick… my brother, Gareth.” Chance didn’t miss the minor scowl on Gareth’s face at the mention of Patrick’s role, but with Mama right there, Chance knew Gareth wouldn’t dare say anything. He also noticed that, though Patrick held his hand out to shake, Gareth ignored it.

  “Yo,” he said, turning back to Chance. “When’d you get in?”

  Chance met Patrick’s eyes, apology in them, but Patrick just shook his head and smiled. With a sigh, Chance ignored the question for the moment and turned back to the sink to finally wash his hands. When Patrick joined him, Chance took a deep breath and muttered, “Sorry.”

  “Gareth Lee Dillon, all four legs belong on the floor! I’d’ve thought you were too old to be told that by now,” Violet scolded, making Patrick and Chance smile, then grin when they heard the thump.

  Chance finished washing, then picked up the towel to dry, feeling like he could face his brother better. “Just a little while ago. I didn’t hear you get here. You stayin’?”

  Gareth threw a nasty look at Patrick, but Chance noted Patrick just smiled wider. He had a horrible suspicion Patrick was just storing it all up and very likely would happily throw a punch or three when they were all alone.

  Gareth turned back to Chance. “Yeah, till Sunday. Going back home then. You?”

  “Same. We’ve got a flight in the afternoon.” The most wicked urge hit Chance then, and he took Patrick’s hand. He couldn’t resist the grin that spread across his face when Gareth’s expression turned even more sour. Chance glanced at Patrick, who was grinning just as widely. “Better get going. Mama doesn’t like slackers.”

  “You know I don’t, Chance Marshall. Now go. Gareth, you get the Cokes out of the fridge on the porch and call your sister and the kids in.”

  With a humph, Gareth stood up and threw another glare at Chance and Patrick before heading to the back door.

  Chance turned back to the cabinets when he heard Patrick’s voice in his ear.

  “Chance Marshall?”

  His face twisted into a pained expression. “I’m not a fan of my middle name. It belonged to a grandfather somewhere that I never knew.”

  Patrick chuckled and kissed his cheek, then turned and started pulling out the plates Chance pointed to. “It’s not too bad. I’m not really happy with mine, either ’cause it’s spelled weird.”

  Chance glanced over and raised his eyebrows.

  “Aeden, but with an e instead of an i so people keep getting it wrong. Irish, you know.” He shrugged. “I don’t know many people who like their middle names.”

  Chance nodded. “Anyway, just wait. You’ll hear all sorts of name stories this weekend. Mama loves to tell them.”

  “I can’t wait,” Patrick said, sounding very unenthusiastic, making Chance laugh again.

  Dinner turned out to be less tense than Chance thought it would be. He had half expected Gareth to be a complete ass the whole way through dinner, but either he was on his best behavior or he didn’t get the opportunity. Violet and Vannah kept Patrick busy answering questions about acting, the show, and Avery.

  Avery sat next to Chance, currently covered from hairline to collar—and probably beyond—in barbecue. He’d lost the bun after the first bite and apparently decided it was just easier to eat the meat straight with his hands. Chance gave him a spoon, which he tried to use but gave up after a short while. When Chance and Patrick tried to fight him over it, Mama just waved a hand and told them to let him be a little boy.

  Chance was not looking forward to the bath they’d have to give him. His only comfort was that three-year-old Zach and four-year-old Rory were both as messy as Avery was. He imagined the bathtub was likely to be dyed red after they finished with it.

  Inevitably, the conversation turned to Chance’s childhood. He’d been bracing for it, but the stories his mama insisted on telling Patrick made him blush redder than the ketchup Gareth drowned his barbecue in.

  “You’re kidding?” Patrick asked, grinning, and Chance could tell he was holding in full laughter.

  “No, I couldn’t make up anything this good. So, when we finally caught up to him and Gareth got the towel around him, we thought we had him. But no. He was a wiry little thing, and in a few moves, he slithered out of the towel and took off again. Down the stairs, through the house, and out into the backyard, buck naked.”

  Chance buried his hot face in his hands. He felt Patrick’s hand on his leg.

  “Naked?” Patrick asked, and Chance let a groan out at the suppressed laughter that seemed further and further from being contained.

  “Oh, yes. Not a stitch. Wet as can be. As soon as I stepped onto the back porch, he bolted for the front yard. Luckily, I was a lot younger then and jumped over the railing and caught him. He still squirmed, but eventually, after threatening to actually sit on him, he stood still.”

  “What was in that bathtub?” Patrick asked him.

  “Water,” Chance said into his hands. “I don’t know. I just really did not want a bath.”

  Patrick finally lost it and laughed. “Too funny, a ghrá.”

  Chance groaned. “I’m never looking at you again,” Chance mumbled, making Patrick laugh even harder.

  A few seconds later, though, he felt his boyfriend’s lips on the side of his face. “It’s adorable. And if you ever meet my mother, you’ll hear even worse. I promise.”

  Chance peeked out from behind his hands. “You think so?”

  Patrick, still grinning, nodded. “Oh, yes. My own mama loves to tell the worst stories. And she embellishes.”

  Chance smiled. “Good.” He met Patrick’s lips in another kiss, then turned back to the table.

  Mama and Vannah had huge smiles on their faces.

  Gareth glowered.

  Chance kissed Patrick again.

  “Okay, enough about me. So—”

  “Oh no, not yet,” Violet said, holding a hand up. “Darcy’s not here yet, so we’ll save the embarrassing stories about Vannah for tomorrow. And Gareth doesn’t have anyone to embarrass him in front of.” She smiled wickedly.

  Chance shook his head. “Not fair.”

  “Hey, you didn’t have to bring your boyfriend home!” Vannah said. “You do know this is a first for him, Patrick?” she asked.

  Chance sighed.

  “Oh?” Patrick asked.

  Vannah nodded. “Yup.”

  Patrick looked at Chance, and Chance met his gaze. “Really?”

  Chance gave a small nod. “Never had anyone… well, you know. A friend, but not….”

  Patrick’s smile was huge. He leaned in and gave Chance another kiss. “That’s… really cool. Really cool.”

  Chance started to relax a bit more. “So, uh….”

  “So I guess Chance never told you about his name.”

  Patrick raised his eyebrows and turned back toward Mama. “No, he hasn’t.”

  “Well…. Chance wasn’t supposed to be born. Or, well… he wasn’t supposed to live.” Mama reached over and put a hand on Chance’s. It was one of the few stories Chance didn’t mind hearing.

  “Oh?” Patrick asked, glancing at Avery.

  Chance made a mental note to ask him about that later.

  “Nope. He was early—by nearly six weeks. And while that wasn’t too bad in ’89, it was scary enough. Labor was horrible, but I won’t bore you with that part. Let’s just say it lasted a long time, and by the time I’d managed to give birth, well… I was exhausted. But not too exhaus
ted to look at my baby, and what I saw nearly tore me up. He was blue. He wasn’t breathing, they couldn’t seem to get him to take oxygen, and he wasn’t moving. I nearly lost it. I started crying, and the doctor wanted to have him taken away.”

  She paused and took a sip of the water in front of her, then set it aside and took a long draw off her wine instead. “Even now, I’ll never forget that feeling.” She took a deep breath. “So, I asked the doctor if I could hold him, just for a little while, before they took him away. And the doc hesitated, but one of the nurses convinced him to let me hold him. So they wrapped him up in a blue blanket and handed him over to me.”

  She shook her head, eyes unfocused, obviously in the past. “He was cold, but he didn’t feel as cold as I thought a… well, if he was really gone, as I thought he should be. So, I unwrapped him and held him closer. I just really wanted to feel him against my skin. I don’t know how long I sat there like that. They’d cleaned me up and put everything back, you know, but I didn’t pay any attention to it. I was too busy looking down at this boy who just looked perfect to me… except for the slightly blue color. Until I realized the color wasn’t as bad as it’d been when they gave him to me.”

  She smiled here, her eyes going back to Chance. “And when I shifted him, he opened his mouth and yawned. I thought maybe I’d imagined it. I was a little afraid to hope, so I put a finger on his chest over his tiny heart, and sure enough… I felt the beat.” Her smile was huge now. “So I had to name him Chance ’cause he’d been given a second chance at life. And even when he ran away from me naked, I was grateful for every day.”

  “I guess I will be too, then,” Patrick said, and Chance’s head whipped around, eyebrows up. Patrick smiled and nodded.

  “Well. Let’s clean up dinner. Then we can have eggnog in the living room.”

  “Patrick,” Violet called after dishes were washed and put away, along with the food. They’d stopped long enough to bathe the kids, leaving a red bathtub behind, and wrestled them into pajamas. “Come sit next to me.” She patted the spot next to her on the sofa, and after exchanging looks with Chance, Patrick moved over from his place on the floor next to Chance. He glanced at Gareth, who seemed engrossed in a silent something or other on ESPN, ignoring them, then at Vannah, who sat on the floor with the kids.

  He turned his attention back to Violet. She held a book Patrick realized was a photo album. He grinned and glanced at Chance, who’d followed him, taking the last spot on the couch, on Patrick’s other side. Chance groaned, obviously realizing what Violet held. Patrick grinned even wider.

  “Now, I must have about fifty of these around the house, filled with pictures of all of them from over the years. I hung the professional ones on the wall in the hallway.” She pointed vaguely toward the doorway.

  “I saw them. Chance was kind of scrawny back in high school.” Patrick chuckled when Chance gave him a halfhearted punch. He kissed his boyfriend quickly before turning back to Violet.

  “But these, these are my favorite pictures, really. The moments that mean the most, you know?” She glanced over at Avery, who was sitting with Rory, putting together a puzzle.

  Patrick nodded.

  She opened the album and turned a couple of pages. Patrick heard Chance groan, and he grinned. Chance, who looked roughly two, sat in a small wooden rocking chair with a book in his lap, stark naked. “This was after a bath one night. When he got out and I dried him off, he insisted on not getting dressed right away. Since he was mostly potty-trained, I didn’t mind too much. He was not quite three here.”

  Patrick chuckled, remembering a similar instance with Avery. The next picture was Chance in a tiny set of swim trunks, soaking wet in the backyard. There was one of him stretched out on the floor, face resting on his fists, watching television. Another of him and Gareth playing something in the backyard. Violet described each one, giving a little anecdote about the scene before moving on.

  As they paged through the pictures, Patrick found himself wondering what Chance’s child would look like. He imagined a girl who looked a lot like Vannah did and a boy who was almost a miniature of Chance. And the idea of a child of Chance’s, a brother or sister for Avery, planted itself firmly in Patrick’s mind. He knew Chance loved Avery, liked kids, but he wondered if his boyfriend would want one of his own too. Patrick glanced over at Chance and saw him watching Avery, Rory, and Zach playing, and Patrick couldn’t help but think Avery would certainly like having a sibling.

  Chance looked over, and their eyes met and held for a long moment. Patrick had the distinct impression Chance might have been thinking something similar. When he considered the look in Chance’s eye, he thought he saw a bit of longing there. Patrick finally tore his gaze away to look at more pictures.

  Violet kept that going long enough for Patrick to completely lose track of time. A respectable stack of photo albums on the floor at her feet paid tribute to the time passage, but Patrick couldn’t really care. He’d loved seeing the bits and pieces of Chance’s childhood. He had a feeling if he could work out the plan he’d been forming, Chance would be treated to the same thing in just about a month’s time.

  Finally, Vannah got up and stretched her back. “I better get these two to bed.” She hid a yawn behind her hands. “Chance, come help me.”

  Patrick stood up too and crossed the room.

  “Leave Avery for the moment,” Violet called.

  So Patrick picked up the sleeping Zach, who was obviously a replica of his father. His dark hair was a shaggy mop that stuck out in all directions from his bath. His olive skin gave him an exotic look, but the chubby baby-fat cheeks only turned exotic into adorable. Patrick followed Chance up the stairs to a room that had obviously once been Gareth’s. Shelves with toy trucks and baseball trophies filled the walls. A double bed sat under the single window, covered in a quilt much like Chance’s bed. The ceiling fan had a baseball chain-pull, but the walls were mostly empty. Patrick guessed Violet had pulled down the posters she considered inappropriate for guests. They settled Zach and Rory into the bed, and Vannah covered them and then left kisses on each cheek.

  Out in the hall, they said their good nights to Chance’s sister, then went back down to retrieve Avery.

  “Hey, Mama,” Chance began as they got back into the living room. “Where do you want Patrick to sleep?”

  Violet blinked at them. “What do you mean?”

  “Uh, well….” Chance glanced uncomfortably at Patrick. “I didn’t know if he was supposed to sleep on the couch or what….”

  “Why on Earth would he sleep on the couch?” She looked genuinely perplexed.

  Patrick noted Chance’s cheeks were turning red. “Uh… err….” He glanced at Patrick, looking as confused as Violet did.

  Finally, it seemed like Violet figured out what was wrong. She chuckled. “I just assumed he’d sleep with you.”

  Patrick tried valiantly to keep from laughing at just how red Chance’s face was.

  “But… uh….”

  “Unless you don’t want to sleep with him?” Violet asked.

  That only seemed to make it worse. “Of course I do!” Chance said, then, if possible, turned even redder.

  “Well, then… y’all are partners, aren’t you?”

  Chance looked at him, and Patrick finally figured out the deeper problem here. While they’d committed to being boyfriends, they’d never completely moved in together, so they weren’t officially living together. And, as such, they hadn’t labeled themselves “partners,” which was a different step for Chance—and, Patrick guessed, his mother. Patrick reached out and took Chance’s hand. He raised his eyebrows in question, and Chance’s eyes widened. After a couple of stunned blinks, Chance gave a minute nod. Patrick turned back to Violet. “Yes, we are.”

  “Well, there you go. Avery can sleep with me. Now, we should get going so Gareth can get some sleep if he wants. He’s sleeping on the couch since the little ones are in his old bed.”

  Patrick was grate
ful for the distraction of settling Avery, who’d awakened long enough to agree to sleep next to his new gramma, but only if he had “Froggy.” Chance retrieved the stuffed frog, and within a couple of minutes, Avery was asleep again.

  Once they were alone in Chance’s old room, however, they stopped to look at each other in silence for a long moment. “So, uh…,” Chance started, and Patrick couldn’t have heard the hesitation and questions more clearly if Chance had shouted about them.

  “Is it okay? What I told your mom?”

  Chance nodded. “Yeah, I just… I….” He blew out a breath and looked around the room. “I just never expected it.”

  Patrick shrugged. “We’re pretty much living together now as it is. I-I didn’t… I don’t….” Patrick paused, suddenly worried he’d overstepped or assumed. “Is that a, um… problem?”

  “No! No, it’s not,” Chance said, turning back around.

  “I don’t… I haven’t wanted anyone else. I’ve loved being with you. I just never—well, I hesitated to say anything. Make it more… I don’t know, official?” He made a face. “That sounds like something from high school.”

  Chance chuckled. “Yeah, well, we haven’t even put it on Facebook yet.”

  Patrick laughed.

  “You know, though… I think I was just maybe a little afraid to believe it was real.”

  “Well, I think it is. So… is that what we are? Partners?” Patrick couldn’t quite look at Chance. He was as nervous as he’d been the night he’d asked Chance out the first time, which was ridiculous.

  “Well, we already told Mama we were. So we better be,” Chance said.

  Patrick looked up to see Chance’s smile and grinned. “Okay, then.” He leaned in, reaching up and threaded his fingers through Chance’s hair. Within seconds Chance’s arms were around him, their lips fused and bodies tight against each other. When they broke apart, Patrick panting hard for air, he scrambled around for the ability to speak. “I think something like this deserves a little celebration. Think we can keep quiet enough to not disturb them downstairs?”