Truth Behind the Lies

A/N: I don't know, it's been a minute (I'm getting busier the closer I get to college graduation) so you may need to reread the previous chapter or so.... :-Z


Chapter Thirty

4 weeks later.

Very early Sunday morning…..


wailing

“Ok, buddy. Daddy hears you. You’re hungry, I get it.” Randy said softly to Jayden then yawned. It was early. Too early in Randy’s opinion but he’d been getting up at multiple times in one night since the twins had been born so he should be used to this………..he should.

He had just reached the bottom of the stairs when he heard Shay call out for him from their bedroom. “Yeah, babe?!”

“Fix another bottle, please!”

“For what?!”

“Kaylie just woke up!”

The blonde looked down at his son who’s lazy neck was rested on his father’s shoulder. “See? You woke your sister, kiddo.”

wail

“I figured you wouldn’t care.”

Randy reached the kitchen and warmed two bottles in a pot of boiling water. When it was warm enough, he immediately started feeding Jayden and carried the extra bottle back to the bedroom for Shay to take.

“Thanks, babe.” Shay placed the bottle to his daughter’s lips and she immediately latched on to it. Shay finally sighed. “Silence.”

Randy smiled as he sat on the bed next to his lover. He looked to the clock that was sitting on the nightstand and shook his head. “It’s only eight-thirty in the morning but it feels like we’ve been up forever.”

“That’s cause we have been up forever. If it wasn’t a bottle, it was a dirty diaper. If it wasn’t a dirty diaper, it was just because they felt like wakin’ up.”

“Four weeks. This has been going on for four weeks and I’m going insane already. How’d you do this the first time?”

Shay opened his mouth to respond, but he paused cause he really didn’t have an answer. “I……I don’t know.” He smiled. “It’s just barely tolerable with one baby, but when you have multiples……it’s twice the chaos.” He looked down at Kaylie and watched as she fed from the bottle—her little cheeks were going to town on the bottle she was nursing. Her brown eyes glanced up at Shay and he melted. “But it gets better.” He kissed her forehead and when he sat up he looked at Randy………who was dozing off.

Poor thing. “Randy?” The blonde’s head kept dropping lower and lower. Shay slapped his shoulder. “Randy!”

Randy jerked awake. “How many diapers?” Shay laughed as he kissed his lover's jaw.

***

Later that morning…


Richie was gone. Gone in a quagmire of ecstasy and lust, fueled by the thick cock that he’d grown to adore over the passed few weeks. It was comforting. It was strong. It had brought him to more orgasms than James ever did during their marriage.

Richie was on his hands and knees as Dante kneeled behind him—one hand planted gently on his lover’s waist and the other firmly placed on his shoulder. Dante plowed into him, stimulated by the wails of pleasure and pleads for more he received from the smaller man. He reveled at how good he felt around him. Hot and always tight.

The forceful thrusts and hard girth of his partner left Richie’s upper body too weak to hold himself. His arms began to slide from under him and he found himself clutching a pillow to his chest and even biting the feather stuffed fabric as he was fucked incessantly.

Feeling the urge to tease him a bit, Dante slowly dragged his tongue up Richie’s back to his neck where he began to bite and suck. When a red patch grew to his liking, he reached both hands to Richie’s shoulders, getting a firm grip.

Dante’s hips connected with Richie’s ass but instead of pulling back immediately, he ground into him, pulling Richie further in by his shoulders.

“Ugggh!”

He did it again.

“Daanntee.” Richie reached behind him and grabbed hold of his lover’s ass.

He did it again but ground even harder.

“Ugh! Fuck!” Richie responded, his voice getting higher as his climax drew nearer. Dante smiled.

***

Dante was holding Richie close to his chest as they both slept in his bed that morning. Leaves on the trees outside the window were turning shades of orange, brown, and yellow. He could hear the sound of the wind whistling, flipping the leaves about. Even detaching a few. It was obvious fall was coming in full force and the cold air was rushing in, but inside, Richie had never felt so warm as he did with Dante that moment. His arms were secure and unyielding around him. Lean muscles lay solid under his body. Mocha skin so smooth, Richie found himself lost in it.

But James did this too. James held him…..so why was this so different? Was it the thrill of having an affair with another man? Or was there really a difference? Sure, James held him before but was it just an arm over the shoulder or was it gentle hands stroking his arms and back, tickling the hairs at the base of his neck? Was it just a simple pressing of bodies together or was it chests pressed together so tightly they shared the same heartbeat? Their legs woven together like vines….

Something was happening to Richie. He couldn’t really pinpoint where his feelings were going yet but he knew his heart was softening for Dante…….and he didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Ever since they met in the hospital, they’ve seen or spoken to each other every night. Meetings always gravitated to the bedroom, but their passion was just as strong as their first time together. But here is where the problems lie—they’ve never dated, there was never a night where sex wasn’t involved, and the big problem…Dante doesn’t know he has kids.

Richie’s cellphone began playing a tune and vibrating on the nightstand. When he moved to grab it, Dante pinned him under himself. “Tell them you’re busy.” He kissed the other man’s lips. “Better yet, just don’t answer it.” Richie smiled as lips kissed his neck and caressed his sides.

“It’s not a phone call. It’s my alarm clock.”

Dante pulled back and looked Richie in his eyes. “Am I keeping you from somethin’?

“Well, no. I just have somewhere I need to be at noon.”

Dante looked crestfallen. “…..Oh.”

“Lo siento. I—“

“No, no. Esta bien. It’s okay.” He moved off Richie and they both sat up in the bed. “I’ll call you later or somethin’. Perhaps we could meet up and go to the Fall Festival that’s in town today.”

Richie's body stiffened. “Umm…..well….”

“We could get funnel cakes. Rootbeer floats….”

I’ll have the kids by then. Should I agree, take my children with me, and risk losin’ Dante? He’s been such a savior in gettin’ my mind off of my divorce with James. But I can’t keep hidin’ that I’m a parent. He needs to know and if he doesn’t like it, then this wasn’t meant to be anyway.

“Ok. I’ll meet you there.”

Dante smiled and gave Richie a kiss. “Great. How’s two o’clock for you?”

“Two is excellent.” I’ma have to dress the kids up fast.

***

Early afternoon…


“Hello again, Mr. Gibson,” An older woman sitting behind the welcome desk at Garden Haven said with a warm smile. “You come bearin’ more gifts?”

Larry looked down at the white bag and paper tray holding two drinks he had in his hand. “You could say that. Just a little food, really. Did I come at a good time? He’s not sleepin’ like yesterday is he?”

“We just had room checks maybe ten minutes ago so he should still be awake. Head on through, I’ll buzz you in.”

“Thanks.” When Larry heard the door buzz then click, he opened the door that led to the resident’s rooms. He walked down the hall—nodding his head in greeting to a few of the workers—looking for room 14A. When he found it the door was open but no one was in the room. He touched the shoulder of a male nurse as he was walking by. “Excuse me. I’m lookin’ for Bryant Gibson.”

“Oh, he and a few of the other residents are outside relaxing in the garden.”

“Is it okay if I go see him?”

“Sure. Come on, I’ll show you the way.”

Together, Larry and the red head male nurse dressed in pristinely white scrubs walked through the large, clean, and comfortably decorated institution to the back where they walked through the white french doors into the beautiful garden area. Cobblestones paved a path through trimmed bushes, flower patches, two water fountains and a man-made pond. Larry spotted a number of residents strolling the paths, sitting on the benches, and watching the coy fish swim in the pond, but he couldn’t spot a certain dark haired beauty.

“I don’t see’em.”

“There he is.” The nurse pointed. “Over at the gazebo.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”

Larry followed the cobblestone path towards the whitewashed gazebo. There sat Bryant—adorning a black fleece jacket and black stocking cap—cross-legged on a patio chair writing in his notebook. He was oblivious that he had company, so he was startled when Larry called out his name.

“Larry. I didn’t know you were there.”

“I’m not interruptin’ you, am I?”

“No, no.” He closed his notebook and placed it and his pen on the table before him. “Just doin’ a little self-therapy. Have a seat.” Larry took him up on his offer and sat in a chair next to him. “Smells like food in there.” Bryant said, his eyes pointing to the white bag.

“I got cheeseburgers. I know you’re a burger lover, so I knew I couldn’t go wrong with that…” He pulled out a wrapped sandwich and handed it to Bry. “Extra mustard just like you like it.”

Bryant smiled. So he has paid a little attention after all these years. “Thank you.”

Larry held up the two drinks. “Sweet tea or lemonade?”

“Sweet tea.” He grabbed the offered beverage and took a quick sip before speaking. “I received your gift yesterday—the flowers.”

“Yeah, I was hopin’ to give them to you in person but the nurses said you were sleepin’.”

“Yesterday was a pretty rough day for me. I stayed in bed most of the time.”

Larry peeled back the paper from his burger. “You have another episode?” He asked before taking a bite of his food.

Bryant nodded. “Yeah.”

The strong man looked into the face of his estranged spouse and could see the despair in his brown eyes. He saw the forlorn dip in the corners of his mouth. Bryant was tired of being sick. Larry knew this. You couldn’t fight hallucinations and headaches for nearly twenty years and NOT be. He also looked in his face and saw all the years he’d wasted where he could’ve been there for Bryant. Perhaps saved him from some of the disasters his illness brought into his life—reclusiveness, gossipers, lack of self worth, institution after institution. It made him more determined to make things right with them.

He startled his lover when he reached over and grabbed his hand. Bryant’s eyes bucked out slightly and he stared at Larry’s sincere face before looking down at their joined hands, watching Larry give him a comforting squeeze.

“I have paranoid schizophrenia……..my therapist finally diagnosed me.”

“Why did it take so long for someone to tell you what was wrong?”

Bryant shrugged. “I was told that based on the symptoms I have, my form of paranoid schizophrenia was rare and therefore more hard to diagnose.”

Larry nodded. “And how do you feel now that you have a name for your illness?”

“I feel like someone has given me life in prison, tossed me into a cell, locked the door and threw away the key. My fate has been sealed, Lar. I’ll be battlin’ this demon for the rest of my life.”

“Maybe it won’t be so bad. I mean, here lately your episodes have been few and far inbetween…”

“I see my hallucinations everyday. They’re in my room, in the office where I see my therapist, where I shower, and even now I see them starin’ at me from over by the fish pond. The medication only helps me not to interact with them. The days people see my episodes are those days when I’m fed up with seein’ them……I don’t want to get used to this, Larry. I want them gone.” Tears began to well up in Bryant’s eyes. It was then that Larry set down both their burgers and he moved to sit next to the smaller man, wrapping his arms around him.

“Well, the only way I think we could possibly fix that would be to keep you busy. I can come by and we could walk around the gardens here and talk. Or we can go out and enjoy ourselves at a movie or a restaurant…”

Bryant sniffled. “Like a bunch of teenagers?”

“Exactly like a bunch of teenagers. Anythin’ you wanna do, we’ll do it and I guarantee you our times together will do you better than any amount of medication they could give you.”

The tears stopped and Bryant wiped his eyes slowly. He couldn’t help but smile a little at the thought at spending time with his husband again like when they were first married or during their dating days. He missed it and was so desperate for a positive change in his life that he was willing to take this chance with Larry.

“Do you promise?”

“I promise.”



More to come...