“It’s beautiful here,” he said.

“We like it,” I said.

“We’re the only ones up?” he asked.

“Looks like it.  That was pretty incredible last night,” I said.

“To say the least.  It was great listening to Jordan.   Braden said I would like his family but I didn’t expect to like you so much so soon,” he said, laughing softly. “Especially Jason,” he added. “Braden said he might take a little time getting used to.”

“He is pretty straight forward. The boys used to call him gruff,” I said.  “I don’t know what Braden was thinking, checking you into a motel.”

Will laughed.  “He was a little worried.”

“About your skin color?”

“Yes.”

“That’s what I don’t understand.  He knew it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.”

“Well, we’re past that hurdle,” he said with a big smile. “Listen, I’m pretty handy in the kitchen.”

“I expect you’re pretty handy in any room in the house.”

We went back inside and set about peeling potatoes and I enjoyed watching the muscles in Will’s forearm.  When the potatoes were in the big stock pot I pulled the turkey out of the refrigerator. 

“My grandmother taught me how to cook a turkey,” Will said.

“Be my guest,” I said. “We’re going to have a wide variety of meat—wild game--but Jason insisted on a turkey. So what do you need for it?”

“Just salt and pepper and butter.”

“Jason got personal last night, asking about Luke and you. I hope you didn’t mind.”

“I didn’t take it as personal,” he said.

“Then perhaps you won’t mind me asking……”

“I know what you’re going to ask, but go ahead,” he said with a smile.

“What am I going to ask?”

“About Luke and me.  And Luke and Aaron, and Luke and Braden….our family situation in general.”

“Alright, consider it asked.”

“I see ours as normal a household as any, with the obvious twist. What you’re asking about is between Braden and me, and between Luke and Aaron.  We’ve never crossed that line.”

"Do you think that might ever change? Between you and Luke, I mean.” I was watching the man’s arm as he rubbed the butter and salt and pepper all around the inside of the bird.

"That will be up to Luke," he answered without hesitation. "We've had that talk, and he knows I would never reject him but I’ve gently discouraged anything till he’s eighteen.   Right now we are all very happy the way things are.  What about your family?   You and Jason, and Kyle and Devon, I mean.”

“We’ve crossed that bridge,” I said.

“That’s wonderful. Could I ask something else?”

“Certainly.  We hardly have any secrets.”

“Braden’s told me about your extended family. Will anything else like what happened with us be happening while we’re all here?”

I smiled.  “I learned a long time ago not to second guess our boys, so I’m not making any predictions.”

“But there’s nothing to be concerned about, I mean with Luke and the older guys.”

“No, not unless Luke pursues it, and I don’t think even then.”

“What are you doing to that poor turkey!” Jason blurted from behind us.

“Nothing I didn’t already do to you and Brad,” Will said.

I was tearing the bread I’d laid out for dressing when Jason came up and kissed me on the neck.

“I’ve got a great idea for the dressing,” he whispered, loud enough for Will to hear.

“Do I wanta hear it?” I asked.

He didn’t answer but turned to Will. “Do you wanta give me a hand with the dressing?”

“My grandmother didn’t teach me how to make dressing,” Will said.

“Brad will make it, I just wanta add the finishing touch,” Jason said as he boldly groped the front of Will’s jeans. “Forget giving me a hand, give me your cock.” Without waiting he undid Will’s jeans and shoved them down off his hips along with his shorts.  Will’s huge, black cock swung out majestically. “Godd, that is a beautiful cock,” Jason said as he pulled on it. He squatted down and took it in his mouth.

Will gaped down at him with a look of shock.  “What if the boys come down?”

I shrugged.  Jason couldn’t say anything, he had his mouth full. I noticed he was pretty good at deep-throating him and I wondered if he’d gotten in some practice that I didn’t know about.

“Don’t try to hold off, I need your load,” he told Will, pausing to stroke his slick cock.

I suddenly realized what he was going to do.

When Will was in the final throes Jason got off his cock, his hand out.

“Give me the dressing pan.”

I handed it to him, with some reservations to be sure. He got back on Will’s cock and the black stallion fucked his throat, anxious and straining to work up his cum. At the end, Jason got off the burgeoning cock and jacked it, aimed at the dressing pan.  Groaning and hips jerking, Will shot ten or twelve ropes of thick, creamy cum all over the bread. It was a huge load and I wished I could’ve had it in my mouth, but it was now part of Thanksgiving dinner.

“I hope we haven’t ruined the dressing,” I said.

“Nonsense. It’ll be the best fuckin’ dressing you’ve ever made.”

I looked at Will, doubtful.

“I would try it,” he said. “If it tastes different, just say it’s oyster dressing.”

Will went upstairs to wake up the boys. Jason paused from his preparations of the table and walked over and looked out the kitchen window again. 

"Watching and pacing isn't going to get them here any sooner," I said.

"I just hope everyone shows up."  He looked around at me.  "Do you realize this will be the first time we've had the whole crew together at one time?" 

"Yes, and there'll be extras.  Do you think this is going to be enough of everything?”

"Brad, we've got enough food to feed an army."

"I just hope it goes over well.  It's not exactly your traditional Thanksgiving dinner."

"We wanted to make it special," Jason reminded me with a chuckle.  "But you really didn't need to have the table and chairs custom made to seat the whole crew."

"I don't know how special they'll think it is when you tell them what all is on the table."

"Oh, I almost forgot, I bought these food ID tags to stick in everything," Jason said as he went to the cabinet.  "I better get to work on them."

"You're actually going to identify everything?  There's liable to be a mass exodus to McDonalds," I said, laughing.  "Do you want more coffee?"

"No, I think I'll switch to Bailey's."

"Good idea," I said. I poured two brandies of Bailey's Irish Crème and sat down with Jason at the table to help letter the buffet tags.  "It's hard to believe how everyone has spread out into their own lives," I said.

"It's hard to believe how our lives spread out to encompass so many other lives," Jason said.  "Geezuss, Brad, we've got grandkids! And a priest!  My God, the worst of the lot and he turns out to be a priest.”

"And essentially nine kids of our own," I added.   

"Yeah, I wasn't that surprised when Braden asked if he could bring his boyfriend, but letting his fourteen year old son bring his boyfriend?  That gave me a bit of a jolt."

"I think that says something about the way we raised them, that they can be so open about it," I said.  I chuckled.  "If Braden and Colby only knew how close you came back then to not taking them in. Did you ever wonder how we impacted their lives?  What might have become of them if we hadn’t been there to intervene?”

“Maybe a lot better off,” he scoffed.  "Ever wonder how it happened that Jacob and his brother Petey are the only ones who turned out to be straight.  Well, Little George maybe, but the jury's still out on him."

“We raised them to be who they are and happy in their skin. So they didn't have that fight going on.   We did a good job, Jason."

"Yes, but I can't help wondering about all those other kids out there, if somebody's taking them in."

"We can't go there, Jason," I said sternly.

"I know.  But if we'd started earlier we could've done more."

I laughed. “Yeah, you should’ve said no to Judge Thompson a lot sooner,” I joked.

We had both stood up from the table and Jason came around to my chair. "We needed some of those years for ourselves. And they've been good ones, haven't they?"  He clasped his hands around my shoulder and held me at arms' length for a moment then pulled me into a hard, manly kiss.  "Fuck, you still make me tingle," he whispered.

"Ah-Humm!"
"You guys need to get a room."

We hadn't heard the door open.  There was Adam and Jordan.

"Better get that under control before Jacob gets here with his wife and kids," said Jordan.

"Jacob’s wife knows we're in a man-relationship," Jason said.

"Yes, but they haven't seen you in that relationship," Adam put in.  “And I’m sure they don’t want to have to explain it to their kids.” 

I remembered when Jordan was sixteen, he had a part time job at the lumber yard and he decided he would quit school. He announced it at supper one evening.

“Listen, I’ve decided I’m not going back to school,” he said in his best grownup voice, and talking fast before he lost his nerve. “I’ve got a part time job at the lumber yard and I’m sure I can get on full time as soon as I show ‘em what I can do.”

I could see that Jason was ready to jump on it but I beat him to it.

“We’re going to miss you, Jordan,” I said.

He looked surprised.  “No, I’m not leaving.  I’m just going full time, and I can help out more with things around here.”

“Things are going fine around here,” Jason said.

“If you’re old enough to quit school, Jordan, you’re old enough to be on your own,” I said.

His confident look turned to horror.  “But I can’t…..”

“And you won’t have a vehicle to drive,” I cut in.

“But how am I going to get to work?  And I can’t be totally on my own.” Suddenly he turned angry.  “Dammit, you always do this! It always has to be your way. You never let us make our own decisions.”

“You made the decision to quit school all on your own,” I pointed out.

He was so angry I thought he was going to cry, and I didn’t want to push him that far.

“Jordan, I admire the courage it took to make that decision, but did you really think we would make it easy for you to carry it out?”

“I didn’t think you would kick me out,” he said.

“We’re not kicking you out,” Jason said.  “Whether you leave is up to you. And the reason Brad’s not cutting you any slack is because we’ve kinda gotten used to having you around and we want you to stay.”

“I don’t want you to leave, Jordan,” Adam said, his tiny voice quivering.

 Jordan’s anger seemed to flow out of him when he saw Adam’s lip quivering. When he started to tear up Jordan got up out of his chair and went around to the younger boy.  Jordan was tearing up too.

“Okay, I won’t leave,” he said as he squatted down and wrapped his arms around Adam. “I’ll wait till I can take you with me.”

Jordan not only finished high school, he went on to college to become a teacher and coach. He was a frequent visitor, home from college.

All too sadly, Adam had a hard time accepting that his mother never came back for him but he gradually began to get over being abandoned and he stopped speaking of her. Part of his being able to get over it, we attributed to Jordan, who eventually took Adam as his younger lover.  It was the appropriate time and we were all happy about that. 

We went to Jordan’s graduation which was a few days before Adam’s graduation from high school.  As people were milling around offering congratulations, Jordan came up to Jason and me.  It was hard to believe he’d grown into such a man.

“I’ve made another decision,” Jordan said, with a tight grin but a determination in his voice.  “Adam won’t be going home with you tonight. He’s coming home with me.”

I glanced at Jason.  “Home?” he asked, with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, sir.”  His stance was one that said he would not be backed down. “We decided we want to stay together. He can go to school here.”

“You’re your own man, Jordan. As long as Adam’s in full agreement.  He had another college in mind didn’t he?”

“He’ll go to school here.”  He looked down at his feet then back up at us.  “His mother never came back for him.  That’s not going to happen to him again, not ever in his life.” He paused to keep his composure.  “Dad…..”  he looked at each of us when he said it.  “I love him and I’m going to be there for him.”

Jason fought his own emotions. “You know Adam was always special to us,” he said. 

“To me, too,” Jordan said.  Then he gave a shrill whistle through his teeth that brought Adam through the crowd. Adam had matured but he still had a boyish look about him.  “They wanta hear it from you,” Jordan said.

 “I’m going with Jordan,” he said simply.

I pulled them both into a tight hug. “Good.  Take care of each other.”

Adam didn’t go to college.  He stuck with his summer job as a warehouseman and worked his way up to foreman.