Our Love Story

“I just don’t understand why you told him,” she hisses on the back porch after she got clued into the fact that Leo knew of her condition.

“He is my father. I love him. He loves me; therefore, he loves you.”

“You don’t understand,” she says, exasperated. “It’s our story to tell, not just yours.”

“Is this how it’s always going to be?” he asks, exasperated. “You getting pissed at me for making my own decisions?”

I raise my eyebrows and step back into the house, letting those two quarrel in paradise without me.

What I need is some fun; I want to celebrate. This news is a fucking miracle. Our Chloe is having our baby. It’s the best scenario I never imagined for myself. A father.

Damn, it’s so fucking great.

“What are you so happy about?” Noah asks, scowling as he pours himself some coffee. Apparently our high from the orgy the other night wore off. Noah is all doom and gloom, joining Ethan in the corner for the lonely-hearts club. Only this one is of their own making and no one is asking them to stay. Apparently, they are under the impression that they have an all-access pass.

“What’s your deal? I’m tired of you moping around here like you got some bad news.”

Noah scoffs. “You don’t get it. You’re apparently all ready to daddy-up, but I don’t know, man, I’ve never changed a diaper. What do I know about all this?”

I lift an eyebrow, royally pissed. “You are so fucking far from the mark,” I tell him. “And I’m smiling because today is the doctor appointment. We get to hear the heartbeat. That is something to smile about.”

Ethan comes into the kitchen. Catching my last few words.

“What do you think the doctor is gonna think about all four of us coming in with Chloe?”

I shake my head, having had enough. “You guys are such fucking pansies, you know that? This is Chloe. Our Chloe, and you’re wondering what some asshole doctor thinks? Why should we care about that stranger when Chloe is halfway to her breaking point at any goddamn second?”

I storm from the kitchen, not waiting for a goddamn response. Not like I’d get one that would satisfy me anyway.

Outside I find Leo. He’s got a beach chair and a paperback thriller. He’s got the right fucking idea.

“How did you do it?” I ask him.

“Handle what, exactly?”

“Handle relationships. You were married for over twenty years, right?” I remember Enzo’s mom. She died a long time ago, but damn that woman could make a mean meatloaf and always remembered birthdays. She wasn’t the sort of woman a kid would ever forget.

“Yep, twenty-six, to be exact. And having Enzo was our whole world. But that was different than what you boys are playing at.”

I resent him for calling us boys, but I get where he’s coming from. However old school it might be, because this love for Chloe is the exact opposite. It is divided into quarters, but also one whole. It’s complicated as hell, and even though the math works out in my head, I know it doesn’t work for everyone else.

“I’m scared, man,” I admit. “Scared that the woman I love and my oldest, dearest friends aren’t gonna be able to pull through on the other side with this,” I remember the stony silence that enveloped the living room the other night when Chloe told us the news.

It rocked all our worlds.

But not everything survives a storm.

“You can’t be scared. I may have only had one partner and one son, but I know a lot about love. You can’t give up on it, and you’ve always gotta operate on the belief that we’re all doing the best we can.”

His words choke me up, like I’m a goddamn sucker. But hell, they’re pretty damn sweet to consider.

“You talk to Enzo like this?”

Leo raises his shoulders, gives me the Italian hems and haws and I ask what that means exactly. “It means, Enzo doesn’t ask about this, because it is engraved on the marrow of his bones, Mason. It’s who he is. Sure, he may fight with Chloe or be mad over things that don’t really matter at the end of the day but he isn’t out here asking philosophical questions because he already knows the answer.”

“And what’s that again?” I ask, wanting so badly to follow.

“It means Enzo already knows what he is fighting for, there is no doubt. He’s all in. When you get to that place, there is no reasoning. He isn’t asking my permission or acceptance because how I feel doesn’t make a lick of a difference to him. He knows who he loves and he doesn’t need to make sure I’m okay with that.”

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little jealous.”

Leo nods. “Look, son, at the end of the day, only one of you boys is the father but if you love Chloe, what difference does that make?”