“I believe so,” I said with a smirk.
Chris interjected. “Listen, if it’s flexibility on the date you need… or if you have certain demands of the setup…”
“Are you serious?” Felix asked him with a louder exasperation than before. “What in the world makes you think we’d want to be interviewed by a conservative talk show host on a bigoted network?”
Jackie sucked in a breath. “Felix! You will speak to Chris with respect!”
“Come here, baby,” I said to Felix with a grin. “Come sit a little closer. I think we should consider it.”
Felix looked at me like I was crazy before quickly catching on.
“But, Lio,” he whined while moving over to perch on my lap. I couldn’t miss the look of disgust on Chris’s face. “I only want to do the interview if I can sit on your lap and snuggle you.”
After dropping a kiss on his nose, I turned to Chris. “Surely Chris wouldn’t mind a little PDA on camera. Would you?”
Chris cleared his throat but couldn’t bring himself to respond.
I ran my hand up the side of Felix’s neck and into his hair. “I love you.”
Felix shifted until he was straddling me on the barstool. His arms were wrapped loosely around my neck, and his eyes were twinkling.
“I love you too.”
We leaned toward each other and kissed slowly, taking our time to nip and tease before going in for the good stuff. By the time we pulled back, Doc and Grandpa were holding up scores scribbled on the back of envelopes.
“Perfect ten!” Doc cried. “Encore!”
Grandpa just giggled and waved the envelope around gaily.
Chris Corbin’s face was purple, Jackie’s was resigned, and Felix’s was enraptured.
I turned to the talk show host. “If you think there isn’t a network on this earth who wouldn’t offer us the world for an exclusive sit-down interview with our choice of reporters,” I explained calmly, “then you’re mistaken.”
Jackie sighed and looked at her fiancé. “I told you Felix doesn’t like reporters.”
Felix climbed down off my lap and kissed his mother’s cheek.
“That’s not it. I’m actually looking forward to Lio’s and my first interview on television. I want the world to know how lucky I am that he’s mine. But it’s not going to be done with someone who can’t stand the sight of us together. And the fact that you’re tying yourself with someone like that for the rest of your life speaks volumes to how you feel about me. We’re done here, Jackie. I won’t let you claim me as your son anymore.”
He gestured to Grandpa and Doc. “I’m their son, and have been for twenty years. Thank you for giving birth to me, Jackie. More than that, thank you for gifting me with the two best dads I could have ever asked for. But please understand that I’m done being Jacqueline Wilde’s son. I thought maybe when you showed up here, you wanted to see me. But you just wanted to use me, yet again. It’s about what’s best for Jacqueline Wilde. Well, from now on, I’m all about what’s best for me. And you’re definitely not part of that.”
Felix turned to Chris Corbin. “And you’re so far from what’s best for me, I can’t even believe you’re standing here. Do you have any idea how many gay people are at this ranch right now? There’s the four of us and a good six or seven of my cousins still asleep in the bunkhouse out back. All gay. So unless you want to be associated with the queerest family in Texas, you should probably take this opportunity to skedaddle.”
Jackie mumbled something about coming back another time when peoples’ “dander” wasn’t up. After she pulled her bigoted partner out of the house, I turned to Felix and lifted a brow.
“Skedaddle?”
The corner of Felix’s mouth twitched up. “I’m from Texas, sugar lips. Get used to it.”
“You keep talking like that, and you’re fixing to rile me up right quick,” I said with an exaggerated drawl.
Felix wrapped his arms around me and kissed me full on the mouth.
“Next time try not pronouncing the g sound at the end of those words, hotshot,” he teased against my mouth. “Or I’ll have to find one of Grandpa’s old lassos and teach you a lesson.”
Epilogue
Felix - the following December
“I’m sitting here with King Lior and his partner, American stained glass artisan Felix Wilde,” Valerie said into the camera.
We were sitting in the Great Room at Gadleigh in front of a blazing fire in the enormous stone fireplace. It was the closest we could come to recreating the feel of the treasury room without letting anyone into our most private sanctuary. Lio had been adamant that I feel comfortable for our first in-depth interview on camera.
“I’m going to stop you right there, Valerie,” Lio interjected with a sheepish grin. “I believe instead of partner, you’ll want to refer to him as king consort from now on.”