Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to real people or events is coincidental. It contains descriptions of sex between teenage boys and between adult men. If you are offended by this type of material, or if you are forbidden by law to read it, please exit the story now. E-mail comments are gratefully accepted at brew_drinker23@yahoo.com.

Tim

Chapter 14

"I guess all those prayers we've been saying have paid off," I said after we finished the phone call.

"Yeah. I guess," Tim said rather halfheartedly.

"Aren't you excited about your dad coming home," Kyle asked.

"I know I should be, and I feel like a shit because I'm not, but I'm really not. I'm happy he's okay and all, but I don't want this to end. The time I've lived here has been the happiest time of my life, and now it's almost over."

I sort of felt the same way Tim did, and I didn't have to ask Rick how he felt about it to know he was even more distressed than Tim.

We moved over to our usual places: Rick and I at either end of the sofa and the two boys on the floor in front of us, facing us.

"What's going to happen now, Kevin," Tim asked.

"I don't know, buddy, but we'll still be here," I said.

"Yeah, but will I?"

"Well, no. You'll be next door with your dad, Tim. You know that," I said.

"Will I," he asked.

"Sure. Why wouldn't you be," Rick asked. "And you better be getting your scrawny little ass over here a lot, too, mister."

Kyle chuckled, but nobody else reacted.

"We won't be transferred," he asked. Implicit in the question was that George would be transferred.

"Excuse me," Rick choked out. He got up to go to our room.

"Come back, Rick. Don't leave me," Tim said in the most forlorn voice I'd heard from him yet.

Rick came back when Tim said that, but he was squalling. Tim got up and sat in his lap, trying to comfort him.

"It's all right, Rick," he said.

"Goddamn it! No, it's not," Rick said in an angry voice. He grabbed Tim tight and sobbed.

Rick started a chain reaction, and within seconds Tim, Kyle, and I had broken down. Kyle got into my lap after I had moved next to Rick, and the four of us released our fears and frustrations through our tears. We settled down in a few minutes, though.

"I'm sorry, Tim," Rick said. "I had no right to do that."

"Yeah, you did. You love me," Tim said.

Those words set Rick off a second time, but he pulled himself together almost immediately. Then the phone rang. Kyle got up to answer it.

"No, sir. This is Kyle."

Pause.

"Yes, sir. Everybody's here."

Pause.

"Okay. Tim, it's your dad again," Kyle said.

Tim got up from Rick's lap rather reluctantly to speak to his dad. George must have told him to turn on the speaker because that's what Tim did.

"Sorry I couldn't talk longer before, guys," he said. "I got back in line, though, so I get another few minutes. You'd think there would be more than one phone for us to use."

Nobody responded.

"Tim, I wanted to call again because I have something I want to tell you and the guys. I probably should have waited to talk with you about this, Tim, but I've decided to get out of the Navy. I'm going to see if Dr. Kelly still wants me as an associate. If he does, great. If he doesn't, I'm going to open my own oral surgery practice on the beach."

"We're not going to move," Tim asked in disbelief.

"No, Son, and I'm not going to risk any more sea duty, either. It's just not worth it to me anymore."

"Oh, Dad. That makes me so happy."

"It makes us happy, too, George," I said.

"This is something I should have done a year ago, Kevin," George said. "I got some incredible experience in the last five months, but I can't be away from Tim this long ever again. You guys are fabulous, but I miss my boy."

Everybody was crying again at our end, and George heard us.

"Who's crying," he asked.

"We all are, George," Rick said. "But we're crying happy tears."

"Thank God," he said. "And thank you all."

We had a major group hug when we got off the phone, and everybody was genuinely happy again.

"Can that still be our room," Kyle asked.

"For as long as you want it to be," I replied.

George's plane was right on time Saturday afternoon, and we were all there to meet it. Tim said his dad had met Kyle once, but he probably didn't remember him. Despite that fact, there was much hugging and crying and carrying on, and Kyle was a part of all of it.

At some point, Rick and I had decided to have the power, phone, cable TV, and water turned off at George's house. We had called all the different companies to have it turned on again the day after George called us to say he was coming home, but the power company hadn't been able to get to it that day. That meant George had to spend the rest of the weekend with us or in his own house without power. He was eager to get home and to sleep in his own bed, but, for other reasons, it was better that he stay with us.

We had a grand homecoming party for George Saturday night. It was just the five of us, but Rick outdid himself in cooking a wonderful meal. We talked non-stop through dinner, and, after dinner, Rick sent Tim and Kyle off to a movie.

"I'm glad you did that, Rick," George said. "We definitely need to talk."

We had had wine with dinner, and George and I had polished off a good portion of the bottle. Rick had drunk water, as usual, and the kids had drunk coke, but Rick joined us in a glass of wine when the boys had left.

"I can't believe the change in him in five months, guys," George said.

"Did you notice how much he's grown," Rick asked.

"Did I? Wow. I almost didn't recognize him. And he's really filled out, too. He's not a little boy anymore, is he?"

"No, he's not," I said. "He shaves every day now, George. He's got his own razor and everything."

"Oh, shit! What?"

"Yeah," I said. "It's blond, so you don't really notice it, but we just came back from three days on a boat on the Gulf, and he didn't shave the whole time we were gone. He's got a man's beard."

"Speaking of blond, his hair seems so much lighter, like when he was little," George said.

"That's bleach and sun," Rick said. "Kyle's hair, too."

"Speaking of Kyle, tell me about him."

"Kyle's our second son, George, after Tim. He is an absolutely great kid, and we love him," Rick said.

"And he and Tim are in love, George. I don't mean just a crush. I mean they're really in love. Kyle could very well be your son-in-law," I said.

"Whoa! That kind of blows me away," he said. "What kind of family does he come from?"

"Very affluent," I said. "They own several motels here and in Destin and Ft. Walton, too, and several gift shops. Kyle and Tim are both working at one of the motels now."

"What kind of values, though," George asked.

"We've only met Kyle's mom once," Rick said, "but we've been around his dad several times. It's kind of hard to tell, but the dad is sort of an educated `good ole boy' type. He is totally accepting of the fact that Kyle is gay, and he reminds me of the kind of guy who expects his sons to be men of honor. Kyle certainly is."

"Those are some magic words, Rick," George said. "And you guys say you like him?"

"No, George. We love Kyle, almost as much as we love Tim," I said. "If he and Tim end up together for life, you won't be disappointed. He does smoke, though."

"Yeah. I remember that from before I left. But so what, you know? Smokers can be good people, too." He put his hand on mine when he said that, and he smiled at me.

"Did you know Tim finished his Eagle requirements," Rick asked.

"No. That's wonderful. Do tell," George said.

"Well, I pretty much ordered him to do it. I told them about how homophobic the scouts are, and I encouraged Tim to defy them by making Eagle. Kyle's an Eagle, and so are their best friends, Philip and Ryan, also a gay couple."

"Wow! Has he gotten it yet?"

"No. He waited for you to get home," Rick said.

George bit his bottom lip when Rick said that, and his eyes filled up with tears.

"Yeah," Rick said. George nodded.

It took a few moments for George to get full control. Then we continued.

"How can I ever thank you guys for what you've done," George asked.

"You already have," Rick said.

"How's that," George asked.

"By deciding to get out of the Navy and stay here, that's how," Rick said.

"George, the four of us pretty much went to pieces last Thursday night when you called. At first, we were elated that you were coming home. Then Tim said you would probably be reassigned and would have to move. That's when we lost it. When you called the second time, Tim was on Rick's lap and Kyle was on mine, and we were basket cases."

"Tim was right, Kevin. I would have been transferred. We would have moved, and he would have had to reestablish himself all over again. I figured you guys probably meant the world to him. Maybe even more than I did. I couldn't do that to him. And I didn't even really know about Kyle then."

"So who's this Doctor Kelly," Rick asked.

"He's Tim Kelly, actually. Quite a coincidence, don't you think?"

"Yeah. Should we know him," I asked.

"Not really. But he's an oral surgeon out here on the beach, and he has an enormous practice. People have to sometimes wait months for an appointment. I spoke to him yesterday, and he wants me to start as soon as possible. Kelly and Murphy. Quite a pair of Micks, don't you think?"

"That's great," I said.

"Yeah, it is," George said. "I'll make four times what I make in the Navy, but the reason I'm doing it is Tim."

"We know that," I said. "What role do you see for us with Tim?"

George took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I've thought about that, and I don't think there's any turning back now. Did the `big brothers' role work out for you guys?"

Rick just about grinned his mouth off his face when George said that.

"All right," Rick said. "Oh, yeaaaah."

Tim and Kyle worked at the motel that summer, and they both got deep, dark tans. They kept their hair light blond for the duration of their "beach boy" days, and they kept getting cuter and cuter, and better and better looking. By the end of the summer, they both looked like men. They both grew taller that summer. They started working out at work with weights that Kyle's dad provided for his guests. We thought it odd that his "least nice" motel would have the best weight equipment he could buy, but Kyle let us know he had had a voice in making that happen.

Tim had his Eagle Court of Honor in late June, and all of his family—three queers and his dad—were there to celebrate with him. Kyle got an invitation to join the Order of the Arrow, and we all went to his induction, too.

The boys basically lived in three houses, George's, Kyle's, and ours. A couple of mornings we were a bit surprised to find Philip and Ryan in Tim's bedroom, and that was okay, too. We adopted Philip and Ryan as our own.

Our friendship with Monte and Terry deepened greatly during the summer, and Rick and I knew we'd never have better friends than those two guys and George. Sam the scoutmaster and Fred, Mont's brother, actually hit it off, and they became a couple. Sam thought he should give up the scouts, but Rick talked (shouted) him out of that decision one Saturday night around the Goodsons' pool. George helped a lot with that, too. It turned out my man was a pretty persuasive guy. The four boys and Fred applauded when Sam said he would stay with the troop.

The war in Afghanistan, which was what had started our whole adventure with Tim and the boys, continued at summer's end. Rick and I listened to, watched, and read about what was going on there on an almost-daily basis, and we continued to thank God it didn't affect us. Yeah, right!

The End

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