There’s No Place Like Home


Chapter 3





“Oh my God, oh my God!” Emmett kept repeating. He stared at his two friends, one in a sling, the other laid out on a chaise with an injured ankle. Bree was holding a small canvas for her injured father. “Oh my God,” Emmett said again clutching at his throat.

“God isn’t going to help us,” Brian snarked.

“But, but, but…what happened?” Emmett tried to formulate a sentence. Tears had welled up in his eyes.

“It’s okay, Auntie Emm,” Bree said gently as she set down the canvas she and her father were working on. She walked over to Emmett and gently patted his arm. “My daddies are okay. It’ll be all right.”

Emmett looked down at the small nurse and drew in a big breath. “You, you two … went on your honeymoon. What the fuck did you do to each other?” he asked the two men.

“We didn’t do anything to each other,” Justin said wondering what Emmett was implying.

“I … I just can’t believe you’re injured. Does it hurt a lot?” Emmett asked Justin.

“What about me?” Brian demanded. “I’m injured too.”

“Oh, pshaw,” Emmett responded. “What’s wrong with your arm?” He redirected his attention to Justin.

“I dislocated my shoulder,” Justin explained.

“Did he have you hanging from a chandelier?” Emmett looked meaningfully at Brian who glared back at him.

“Daddy is going to be fine,” Bree piped up. She didn’t like to see her Auntie Emm upset, and her daddies had told her they were going to be all right.

“What about me?” Brian asked again. He was being totally ignored except in the blame department.

“Shush,” Emmett responded to Brian. “How did you dislocate your shoulder?” he asked Justin being very solicitous as he sat down on the edge of Justin’s chaise. He took Justin’s good hand in his while he perused the sling and Justin’s shoulder.

“I fell off a horse.”

“You were having s-e-x on a horse?” Emmett asked with his eyes wide, while spelling the word sex.

“We most certainly were not,” Brian retorted.

“No,” Justin said, “the horse bolted on me.”

“Was this before or after you had s-e-x?” Emmett asked.

“Why is Auntie Emm spelling sex, Dada?” Bree asked.

“Because he’s ignoring me,” Brian replied to his daughter.

Bree frowned. That answer didn’t make much sense.

“So, other than falling off this horse, did he have you doing other kinky things?”

“No,” Justin said confused.

“But I bet you had lots of raunchy s-e-x,” Emmett continued.

“We had enough,” Justin answered.

“More than enough,” Brian contributed with a smirk.

“And I’m sure your insatiable appetite is why this sweet thing is injured,” Emmett said as he leaned over to give Justin a careful hug.

Brian winced at Emmett’s criticism. It was a little too close to how he felt about all their mishaps in Hawaii. They were all his fault. “But I’m injured too,” he said weakly.

“I’ll take care of you, Dada,” Bree stated.

“I know you will, Squirt.”

“What’s insatiable, Dada?”

“It’s … cop-a-clated,” Brian said using Bree’s familiar word.

“Oh,” Bree said not sure what that meant in terms of her question.

“Anyway, sweetie, are you going to be able to do this barbecue tomorrow?” Emmett asked Justin.

“We’re fine with the barbecue. John says you guys have everything under control,” Justin said. “We won’t be able to help much.”

“You won’t be helping at all,” Emmett declared. “We’ll do everything. You can just lounge lazily here on your chaise and tell us all about how you hurt yourself.”

“Hey, what about me?” Brian asked. He was getting exasperated with Emmett.

“I just can’t believe that you got injured on your honeymoon,” Emmett said clutching at the neck of his shirt. He wiped a tear from his eye, completely ignoring Brian. “Does it hurt awfully?”

“It hurts sometimes. Mostly I just have to be careful not to use it or turn it the wrong way,” Justin explained.

“Ya know, my fuckin’ ankle hurts,” Brian interjected.

“I’ll get some more ice for it, Dada,” Bree said before she scampered off to the kitchen.

“It’s okay…” Brian started to tell her, but she was already gone.

“I guess I should talk to John and Bobby about what we’re going to do tomorrow,” Emmett said. “I see they’re setting up outside.”

“Yeah, they’ve been great,” Justin replied.

“We’ll miss your barbecuing tomorrow,” Emmett said, finally turning his attention to Brian.

“Well, it’s good to know that I’m useful for something,” Brian said sarcastically.

“You are the master of the grill.”

Brian scowled. “I’m a master of a lot of things.”

“Yes, and look where that got poor Justin.”

“What?” Brian demanded taken aback.

“You don’t think your ankle will be well enough by tomorrow for you to barbecue, do you?” Emmett asked as he studied Brian’s wrapped ankle.

“No, I do not think it will be well enough. It’s sprained.”

“But you can often stand on a sprain,” Emmett observed.

“It’s badly sprained,” Brian said through clenched teeth. What did you have to do around here to get some fucking sympathy? Obviously a badly sprained ankle wasn’t enough.

“Too bad,” Emmett said shaking his head.

“Here’s some ice, Dada,” Bree called as she hurried back in from the kitchen. She carefully placed the gel pack across Brian’s injured ankle.

“Thank you, Squirt,” Brian told her. “At least someone cares that I’m on death’s door.”

“You’re not going to die, are you, Dada?” Bree asked horrified by Brian’s words.

“No, Squirt, it’s just a figure of speech.” Brian quickly backtracked.

“You should be more careful with ankles and … things,” Emmett admonished Brian, before he turned and hurried out of the sun porch to go talk to John and Bobby.

Bree picked up the canvas she and her father had been working on before Emmett’s arrival. Justin added a few bits of color, but he was really watching Brian. Brian was staring at his laptop screen, but he wasn’t using any of the keys. Justin knew his husband was seething just below the surface. Emmett’s words had hurt him.

“Um, Bree, I think I’d like some more iced tea,” Justin said draining his glass. “Do you think you could carry the pitcher of iced tea from the fridge for me?”

“Sure, Daddy,” Bree replied putting the small canvas on the table beside her father.

“It may be heavy, so be very careful and go slow,” Justin admonished her.

“I can do it.”

“I know you can, sweetheart, just take your time.”

“’Kay, Daddy.” She skipped off happily to the kitchen.

“Brian,” Justin said as soon as she was gone.

“What?” Brian snapped.

“Don’t let Emmett upset you. None of this was your fault.”

“Yes it was. I should have brought us back home right after you got sunburned.”

“I didn’t want to come home. I had a great time in spite of everything.”

“How could you? Look at us.”

“I love you. I want to take Bree to Hawaii some time and stay in that same place. Angelica and Henry would be happy to have us. Maybe Gus and Ray could come, and John and Bobby and Patrick too.”

“Then you wouldn’t have to spend much time with me. Then you wouldn’t be all beat up when you came home.” Brian was as close to pouting as he allowed himself to get.

“You are incorrigible,” Justin chastised. “What happened to us was all accidental. It will never happen again.”

Brian raised an eyebrow. “Never again?” he asked skeptically.

“I can almost guarantee it. Our accidents were flukes, and they certainly weren’t anybody’s fault, especially not yours.” Brian shook his head. “I mean it, Brian.”

“Okay,” Brian gave in, but Justin could see that he wasn’t convinced.

Bree came through the doorway from the house carrying the big plastic pitcher of iced tea. “See, Daddy, I can do it,” she announced.

“Yes you can,” Justin agreed taking the pitcher from her with his good arm. He filled his glass and Brian’s too. “Can you carry it back?”

“Yep,” Bree said confidently.

Emmett chose that moment to come back into the sun porch from talking to Bobby and John. “Bobby tells me that you do have rather a bad sprain, Mr. Kinney, and that you got it by tripping over a tree root.”

“I’d rather have gotten it from sky diving,” Brian said sarcastically. “Or not at all!”

“I’m sorry I was so hard on you,” Emmett apologized.

“Sorry’s bullshit.”

“Well, you may think so,” Emmett replied, “but I do apologize. We have worked everything out, so there will be no need for you to barbecue, even though we will miss your grilling expertise.”

“Is that a fact?” Brian asked not prepared to be gracious just yet.

“Most definitely. I’m going home right now to whip up a big batch of popovers specially for you.”

“Are you now?” Brian asked raising an eyebrow, but his face softened.

“You need to rest and get better,” Emmett said approaching Brian and holding out his arms for a hug.

“I intend to, Honeycutt,” Brian replied.

“And don’t call me Honeycutt.”

Brian smiled as Emmett gave him a quick hug, and then hurried off to make the popovers.



*****



Emmett, knowing that no one would be eating ‘light’ at the barbecue, decided to take charge of dinner. He whipped up several types of salads that were filling but not overly heavy. Even though he had made peace with Brian, Emmett knew Brian was still upset regarding Emmett’s accusations. Just after dinner Brian excused himself, and tucking his crutches under his arms, he limped out of the house.

“Okay, what really happened in Hawaii?” Emmett demanded of Justin as the adults sat in the kitchen sipping coffee. Richie had taken the kids outside to play.

“Babe, let it go,” Drew warned.

“I need to know,” Emmett replied as he stood with his hands on his hips looking at Justin. Justin took a deep breath then began to explain about the worst of it.

“Emm, he saved me.”

“What do you mean?” Emmett asked as he sat on a stool.

“After all the stuff that happened to us we decided to stay on the grounds of the estate for the last few days of our vacation. We figured it was the safest thing.”

“And?”

“When I realized there were stables on the grounds, I suggested we go riding. Brian said no but I insisted. My horse was an old mare, we all thought she was safe and she was until I twisted around in my saddle to, to...”

“What, honey,” Emmett encouraged Justin to go on. The boys were listening intently.

“To smile at Brian, he just said something to me that was so sweet and loving that I...anyway, the horse bolted and I lost control. She headed back to the barn at full gallop.”

The boys gasped.

“Justin, were the doors open?” John asked. Living with horses for most of his life, he got the whole picture before anyone else did.

“No, they weren’t. I was just trying to stay in the saddle, holding onto the, the...”

“The horn?” John supplied.

“Yeah. Brian was just behind me and he saw that the doors were closed but the horse wasn’t stopping. He told me to jump.”

“Why? I don’t understand,” Emmett wasn’t very experienced when it came to horses.

Drew understood. “Babe, he means that if the horse crashed through the barn doors, Justin would have probably slammed into the wall above the doors,” Drew explained gently.

“Oh my God!”

“I jumped off, kinda rolled off and landed on the sandy ground. I think I was protecting my head with my arms when I landed on my shoulder.”

“Oh honey,” Emmett said as he jumped down from the stool to sit by Justin.

“But that’s not the worst of it,” Justin mumbled.

“What do you mean, baby?”

“We, I almost lost him,” Justin said holding back a cry.

“How?”

“He got caught in a riptide. Emmett, he was all alone. I got sunburned the day before and he insisted that I rest in the shade by the pool. He went for a walk on the beach and went swimming. He got caught in a riptide and nearly drowned.”

The boys gasped at the significance.

“If he didn’t fight to get out of the water he would have...” Justin couldn’t finish the sentence.

“But he did fight and he made it out,” John said.

“Yeah, he did but they don’t have sand on their beach. It’s all pumice, his skin was shredded,” Justin explained. “He was hurting worse than me for days.”

“Poor baby,” Emmett said sincerely. “And his ankle?”

“He really did trip over a tree root, a very big root. The doctor said it would have been better if he had broken his leg instead.”

“But how can a sprain be worse than a break?”

“I’ve seen it happen all the time,” Drew said. Bobby nodded in agreement.

“A clean break will heal in about six weeks and you’ll be good as new. It takes longer for the muscles and tendons to repair themselves. He’ll be on crutches for most of the summer and probably need a cane for weeks after that. He’ll be a bitch to live with,” Bobby teased trying to lighten up the moment.

“An injury like that would knock a player out for the season,” Drew stated.

“And I accused him of...some friend I am,” Emmett said. Emmett got up from his seat, filled a thermos with coffee then doctored it up the way Brian liked it. He then grabbed a basket from the shelf over the sink and filled it with popovers and fruit.

“Please excuse me,” he announced to the boys then marched out of the cottage.

He found Brian perched on the large rock near the stream. The stream was still swollen with the winter melt.

“I come bearing gifts,” Emm said with a toothy grin holding the basket in one hand and waving the thermos in the other. “May I sit?”

“It’s a free country,” Brian quipped.

“Ah, but this is your kingdom, my liege,” Emmett made a bow. “I am only your lowly subject.”

Brian arched his brow, shifted over on the rock then made a royal wave with his hand.

“Thank you, sire,” Emmett said as he scrambled onto the rock. “May I tempt you with coffee and some treats?” Emmett opened the thermos and poured some coffee into the cup. Brian took the offering, savoring the rich aroma.

“Thanks,” Brian said in between sips.

“You’re very welcome.”

They sat in silence for some time.

“Does it hurt a lot?”

“I’ll live.”

“Brian, Justin told me about the horse and the beach. I’m really sorry that I accused you of, well you know.”

“Yeah.”

Emmett could see a multitude of emotions run across Brian’s stoic face. It was easy to spot after all these years.

“Brian, if the barbecue is too much, I can cancel it.”

“No, I think I need for things to be normal. Normal for us. Having the family trampling my garden is normal.”

“We don’t trample but I know what you mean. Was it all awful?”

“The vacation? Not all of it. There were some very pleasant moments,” Brian said giving Emmett a waggle of his eyebrows.

“That goes without saying. More?” Emmett held up the thermos. Brian nodded so Emm topped off his cup.

“Thanks. What’s in the basket?”

“Popovers and some fruit. You didn’t eat much at dinner.” Brian shrugged then took a popover. The buttery muffin practically melted in his mouth. “Brian, I...”

“Emmett, shut up! You’re forgiven.”

“But what I said to you was inexcusable.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve been known to jump to the wrong conclusions on occasion. We’re good.”

Brian reached into the basket to take out a bunch of cherries. He began to pop one after the other into his mouth then spit out the pit towards the stream. A few went sailing into the middle of the rapidly running water.

“Huh,” Emmett mumbled as he took out his own bunch of cherries. Soon the two men were competing to see who could spit the pit the farthest.

“Careful you don’t choke, Honeycutt. I’m not adding the Heimlich to my rescue skills.”
The boys laughed then Brian got serious. “I could have lost him,” Brian whispered. Emmett shimmied closer to his friend. “If he didn’t get off that horse, he would have slammed into the stable. I can’t live without him,” Brian murmured. Emmett wrapped his arms around his friend and waited in silence until the storm passed.

“So is the whole world descending onto my lane tomorrow?” Brian asked after a while. Emmett moved out of Brian’s personal space knowing that the moment was over and big bad Brian was back.

“Most of it.”

“Shit. That means Debbie will take one look at her Sunshine and start screaming like a banshee. Michael will have his nose out of joint thinking that Justin was trying to bump me off for my insurance. And Jennifer will glare at me all afternoon. Please don’t tell me that Craig is coming.”

“Not that I know of, but we did invite him and Susan.”

“Great. Just put another nail in my coffin.”

“Do you want me to warn them?” Emmett offered.

“No, that’ll just make them all jump in their cars tonight. I need the quiet for one more night. As it is, none of them will leave tomorrow.”

“Then we’ll just have to make the best of it and change all the sheets on every spare bed in the lane,” Emmett said with a shrug. “They will bombard you with questions.”

“I know. And I’ve prepared a little entertainment for them. This way I won’t have to repeat myself a hundred times.”

“Very good, Mr. Kinney. And what sort of entertainment is it?” Emmett asked with a knowing smile.

“One worthy of Mikey and his not so dear, old Dr. Dave.”

“Oooooo, I like it already. Just say the word and I’ll be happy to help.”

“Thanks, I have it under control.”

“Nevertheless, your loyal subject is here to do your bidding. Just command me.”

“Right now, my only command is to get me off this fucking rock!”

“Immediately, your majesty.” Emmett hopped down from the rock, put the thermos back into the basket then helped Brian down. Handing the crutches to his friend, they slowly made their way back to the cottage.