My mind swirled as he pointed to everyone, as if I’d be able to keep them straight in my mind. The support Drew had unknowingly been able to garner in one afternoon warmed something deep inside of me. I looked around the room and felt something I hadn’t felt since before Pa died. Family. Unconditional love. True acceptance.
I spotted Cody sitting off to the side, looking as overwhelmed as I felt. He offered me a weak smile and tried to focus on the textbook in his lap. That wouldn’t work. I could barely hear myself think over the women who were already plotting fundraisers and trying to con Cam into telling them if they could tout a Bon Vivant Network star as the chef for whatever it was they had up their sleeves. To his credit, he was getting much better at not giving away too much about his success or failure on the show. The bastard. After the last episode, I felt confident that he’d done well, but I wanted confirmation.
I left them to their scheming and made my way over to Cody. “Hey, did Drew show you your room?” He nodded. “So why aren’t you there? It might be easier to work without all the noise. And I thought you’d appreciate the privacy.”
“Oh, I do,” Cody assured me. “It’s nice knowing it’s there if I want it. Just having the ability to close a door behind me and know no one will bother me means more than you’ll ever know. But right now, this is nice.” He shrugged. “It probably sounds stupid, but it reminds me of when my family used to get together. I miss the chaos sometimes, too.”
“That doesn’t sound stupid,” I promised him. “Crazy, yes. But not stupid. Well, I’ll leave you to the noise. Just remember, tomorrow’s a school day and finals are coming up.”
“Yes, Dad,” Cody teased. Those words stopped me dead in my tracks. I knew he didn’t see me as a father figure, but it made me wonder if that might be another piece of my future. Then, it just made me feel old.
“Don’t start that shit, kid,” I chided. “I may be retired, but I’m still not old enough to be your dad.”
Cody laughed and pulled out his laptop. He turned it toward me and I saw my headshot staring back at me. “Actually, this says you’re thirty-six. That means that if you had me when you were my age, you are old enough to be my father.”
Fuck, the kid knew how to cut deep. Luckily, I knew how to fire back. “True, but when I was your age, I was busy trying to find guys who didn’t mind sucking my dick and staying quiet about it after the fact. What’ve you done lately?”
I seriously needed to quit hanging around Drew so much. His immaturity and horrible timing were rubbing off on me, as evidenced by the gasp from one of the mothers and the giggles from one of Drew’s sisters.
“That’s just harsh.” Cody slammed his textbook closed, gathered his stuff and smirked at me as he walked by. “Remember, I know where you sleep. Paybacks are a bitch.”
It seemed I wasn’t the only one being corrupted by Drew. I gave Cody a friendly pat on the back and told him I’d knock on his door when dinner was ready.
And now that my mind was able to take in everything going on around me, it looked as though that wouldn’t be too much longer. With Cam and Drew’s mom in the kitchen, I turned my attention to the brainstorming in the living room. If they wanted to help, I wasn’t about to turn them away because as excited as I was, there was still part of me terrified that we wouldn’t be able to make this abstract dream a reality.
Chapter 27
My mother used to tell me that the start of a new year was something to celebrate because it was a chance to start over. I had no clue how the guys had managed to pull it off, but we were certainly ringing in the New Year with style.
By the time I’d sublet my apartment in Portland and picked through what I wanted to bring back to Wisconsin with me, Drew and Eric had been well on their way to opening a newer, better center to replace Pot of Gold, which had only stayed open twelve days after my meeting with Mike Borgwardt. The minute he heard that there was a contingency plan in place, he’d sent someone over to lock the doors.
With input from Cody, Jacob, and some of the other guys who were either current or past residents at Pot of Gold, they’d leased the first two floors of a multi-use property. The first floor would eventually be a community center of sorts and the second would be converted into dorm style apartments, where the residents could have a bit of privacy, but there would be rules in place and staff on hand around the clock to make sure no one took advantage of their taste of freedom. All of that would take more time, but that didn’t stop anyone from celebrating tonight.
“I still don’t get how you pulled this off,” I admitted to Eric when he returned from schmoozing with some potential investors. As it turned out, Eric’s grandfather had been well connected and Eric knew exactly how to pull on both their heartstrings and purse strings. He was determined to find a way for the new, yet to be named, center to not only survive but thrive.
I reached up and smoothed the lapels of the tuxedo he’d bitched about having to wear. This may be my only chance to see both of them dressed up with their hair slicked back, so I hadn’t budged when he’d tried arguing that his suit would be dressy enough. I couldn’t wait until the crowd thinned so I could take them both home and rip them out of their tuxes.
That thought made me realize I hadn’t seen Drew in a while. He’d excused himself to check on something toward the end of dinner and hadn’t returned. As much as I tried, I couldn’t stave the building panic. Granted, everyone here had paid handsomely for the opportunity to have a meal prepared by the four semi-finalists of A Cut Above, which thankfully included Cam, but that didn’t mean his attacker didn’t have the means to buy his way into one of the few places where Drew’s guard was down.
Feedback screeched through the room, drawing all eyes to the dais at the front. I breathed a sigh of relief when Drew caught my attention and flashed a wicked smile. Next to him, Cody fidgeted with the cuffs of his button-down shirt. “Ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention for a moment.”
The entire room fell silent. I looked to Eric, but he seemed just as confused as I was by what was unfolding in front of us.
“First, I would like to thank you all for coming tonight,” he began. This wasn’t the same goofy, somewhat self-centered man I’d met a few months ago. This version of Drew commanded the undivided attention of everyone within earshot. At the side of the room, I noticed Cam and his fellow semi-finalists step into the room and lean against the wall. “I know I speak on behalf of both Eric Sapp and Bryce Shaw when I say the support you’ve all shown over the past few weeks has been incomprehensible.
“When Eric first mentioned opening a new and improved center to help Milwaukee’s homeless LGBT population, I think we were all worried about how it would be received,” he admitted. That drew more than a few murmurs, both of agreement and dissent. “While it’s true that Eric and I have both faced challenges in our lives and have hid at the back of the closet so we could have what we wanted most, the past two months have taught both of us just how easy we’ve had it.
“Rather than sit here and tell you why your donations mean so much and try to express my appreciation that you all came together with such short notice, I’d like to introduce another man who’s become very important in our lives. To me, he’s the little brother I always begged my parents for and never got.” The crowd bustled with laughter and quickly quieted again. “But he’s more than that. In a way, Cody Marshall is the reason you’re all gathered here tonight. You see, when I was recovering from everything that happened to me last fall, Bryce and Eric shoved me out of the house. Bryce told me about this student athlete who’d have an amazing future, if only he had someone to push him to succeed.”