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When You Least Expect By Josh Blake
Chapter 46
Since coming to live with Dorothy and Rose as essentially a ward of the state, Asher had become withdrawn. The poor kid looked sad and depressed most of the time and spent a great deal of time alone in his room. Dorothy and Rose were very kind to him and treated him like a grandson. Asher confided in me one day that having both of them around all the time was nice because he had never had a grandmother.
Getting Asher transferred into our custody was a challenge. Taking custody of Lucas had been a fairly easy process. I had some connections to a social worker who helped us out. In Asher's case, however, there were no such connections. We were looked at as a homosexual couple from out of state. In the eyes of the court, how could we possibly have Asher's best interest in mind? We had plenty of character references, including David and Robert and the social worker and attorneys who helped us with Lucas's case. But we still ran up against challenges. It looked like Asher would be staying with Dorothy and Rose for a while. Braden and I made the drive up to Chattanooga almost every weekend to spend time with Asher. We knew it was important to keep his mind occupied and keep him busy.
With all the hearty meals Rose prepared, Asher had put on a few pounds. With school starting in a couple weeks, Braden and I decided to take him shopping for new clothes.
We ended up at the same mall where we first met Asher and his family. Neither Braden nor I really thought about it until we got there. Braden was driving and he just headed in that direction naturally as it was the largest mall in the area.
"Umm, is this okay?" Braden asked after parking. I was reaching for the door handle and paused, looking at Braden quizzically.
"Why wouldn't it be?" I asked. Then it hit me. "Oh," I said.
"It's fine," Asher said from the back seat. Braden shrugged, so we got out of the truck and headed inside.
Asher was more alive than I had seen him in several weeks. He enjoyed trying on various shirts, shorts, and pants and then coming out of the dressing room to model them for Braden and me. He seemed to have the type of body where he looked good in almost anything.
"Is that all you want?" I asked, as Asher returned all but two pairs of pants, two pairs of shorts, and a couple shirts to the rack outside the dressing room.
"Well, I don't want to be too much of a burden," he said. "You guys are being so nice to me. I don't want to use too much of your money."
"Asher," I said. "Do not worry about the money. I'm not bragging, and I don't like when people talk about how much money they have, but I'm doing okay. Braden works too and makes good money. We can afford it."
"Josh is right," Braden said. "Now I want you to take all those clothes and anything else in this store you want. You're going to be the sharpest dressed kid in your school if I have anything to do with it! Besides, how are you going to land yourself a boyfriend without looking sharp?"
"Oh stop," I said, laughing. "Asher isn't interested in all that, are you?"
"Well," he said, then paused. He was grinning.
"Is there someone you like?" Braden asked
"Maybe," he said coyly, still grinning.
"We can discuss that later," I said, making a mental note to talk to Asher before Braden and I headed back home. "For now, let's get you some nice clothes!"
Asher went on a shopping spree then, picking out multiple shirts, pants, shorts, and socks. In the underwear department, he picked up a pack of bikini briefs and held them up.
"Would I look sexy in these?" he asked. I was standing a few feet away, but Braden was closer to him.
"You're a few years away from needing to think about things like that," Braden said. "But if you want them, you can have them."
"I do want them," he said. "Mom would never let me wear anything like this. It always had to be plain old boxers."
"There's nothing wrong with plain old boxers," I said.
"Josh, maybe we should get you some of these," Braden said, holding up a package of the bikini briefs in my size. I'll get some, too."
Asher ended up getting some new underwear, including the bikini briefs. Much to my disapproval, Braden bought us some as well. Mine were blue and his were red. I was sure he'd be modeling them for me soon.
Our next stop was at the shoe store in the mall to get Asher some new shoes. After trying on several pair, he settled on a couple that he liked. With that taken care of, we decided to go to the food court for lunch. Braden had Chinese, Asher got pizza, and I got a chicken sandwich and waffle fries from everyone's favorite chicken restaurant. I'm sure you know the one. We were enjoying our food when I sensed someone walking up behind me.
"Hi Asher," a female voice spoke before I could turn around.
"Hi Mom," Asher said, looking like he wanted to cry suddenly.
"Celia," Braden spoke before I could, "I'm not sure this is the best place for this or if you should be talking to Asher or not."
"It's okay," Asher said. "Mom didn't do anything wrong."
"Can I sit down?" she asked. I nodded affirmatively.
The first thing I noticed about Celia was how much weight she had lost. She already didn't have much extra weight, but she had lost most of what she had. She was pale and had dark circles under her eyes. I knew the signs of an abused wife when I saw one.
"I guess you have a lot of questions," Celia said. "Go ahead. I know you want to ask."
Braden and I were silent, waiting on Asher to speak first. Finally, he spoke up.
"I guess all I want to know is why," he said. "Why won't you just leave him?"
"It's complicated, baby," she said. "You wouldn't understand."
"Try me," he said. "I used to think it was normal and that everyone's dad acted that way. Then I got older, and I saw that isn't true. Look at Josh and Braden. They've been more like dads to me than my own dad ever was, and they haven't even known me that long."
Celia was silent, looking down.
"Are you hungry?" I asked. I heard her tummy rumble.
"I haven't been eating much. Ryan lost his job and it's been hard to keep food in the house," she said.
"I bet there's plenty of beer," Asher spoke, hatefully.
"Asher." Braden said, giving him a look.
"No, it's fine," Celia said. "Yeah, Ryan always has his beer."
"Let's get you something to eat," I said. She argued, but I insisted. Finally, she followed me to the chicken restaurant where I bought her a meal. While we were waiting, I looked at her and just stared into his eyes.
"Celia, why won't you leave him? You obviously love Asher, and he loves you. Let us help you."
"I can't," she said. "He said if I leave, he'll hunt me down. And I believe him. He doesn't care that Asher's gone. He took all his pictures and burned them. He said he won't have a queer for a son."
"We can help," I said. "You can come back to Alabama with us. We'll find you a job and a place to live. He won't find you there."
"I wish I believed that," she said. Her order came up and we headed back toward the table with her tray of food.
We returned to the table where we all finished eating. We didn't talk much. No one had much to say. When we finished eating, I told Braden to take Asher to the cookie kiosk and buy him anything he wanted. I told him to say goodbye to his mom, and he did.
"How did you know we'd be here?" I asked.
"I didn't," she said. "I just got lucky. I come here and walk around during the day a lot. I've been putting in some job applications hoping I'll get lucky there, too."
"I meant what I said," I said. "We can help you. But you have to want it."
"I appreciate that," she said. "I'm surprised you haven't taken Asher back to live with you yet."
"We would, but we are having some legal issues since we live out of state," I said.
"Oh," was all she said to that. "I have to go."
"Remember what I said. Let us know if we can help." She walked away and I went to find Braden and Asher.
The ride home was pretty quiet. We talked to Asher about school and what classes he was going to be taking. He was nervous about being a freshman because it was the official first step of high school and for him, that meant going to a school with about 2,000 students. Asher mentioned that he was nervous about being in a school with that many other kids.
"Just more boys for you to choose from!" Braden said, causing us to laugh and Asher to blush.
When we got back to the bed and breakfast, Asher showed Dorothy and Rose all his new clothes and shoes. Then he ran upstairs to his room to put everything away.
"Let's go out back, Josh," Dorothy said after dinner. That was her way of saying she wanted to talk. Rose had made another one of her spectacular meals. This time we had chicken pot pie with strawberry cake for dessert!
Dorothy and I went outside and sat in the gazebo, neither of us saying much to start with. It was hot. Although the sun was mostly down by now, it was still humid and hot.
"What's bothering you, Josh?" Dorothy asked.
"Why do you think something's bothering me?"
"I can tell," she said. "You always get this far off look in your eyes and you don't say much."
"I'm just worried about Asher," I said. We had told Dorothy and Rose about running into Asher's mom. Now that we were out here alone, I filled her in on the parts I didn't mention about Celia and her fear of leaving.
"I've seen it before," Dorothy said. "She's afraid he'll kill her if she leaves. And the sad part is, he might."
"I just don't know how she can leave her son like that," I said. "I could never leave Jackson. Or Lucas, for that matter."
"That's just it," Dorothy said. "She thinks she's done the best thing for him. By bringing him here, she got him away from the monster. He's safe. All she has to worry about is keeping herself alive now that she's protected her baby."
"I just wish we could do more to help her," I said.
"I know you do," Dorothy said, patting me on the knee. "But you can't save her if she doesn't want to be saved. She has to decide when she's ready to be saved. We just have to hope it's not too late when she does."
We headed back inside and watched TV with Dorothy and Rose before heading up to bed. As I predicted, Braden came out of the bathroom wearing his red bikini underwear. Anticipating his move, I was wearing my blue ones. I must admit that Braden did look hot in them. Seeing his pubes sticking out from under the pouch hiding his jewels was really hot. They accentuated his ass nicely as well. Of course, it wasn't long before I had pulled them down, revealing Braden's hot, hairy ass. As I loved to do, I spread his cheeks and inhaled his scent. He had just showered so it was clean, but the scent was unmistakably Braden. I buried my face between his cheeks and toyed with his opening with my tongue. His hard cock was dripping precum. I pulled my own underwear down and kicked them off my feet. Braden handed me the lube from the nightstand, and I greased up my cock and his hole. I lined my cock up with his hole and applied pressure. It popped right in. Braden's ass fit my cock like a glove.
We had passionate sex, even if it was in the doggy position. After a few minutes, sweat was dripping down my nose and onto Braden's back. I pulled out and had him flip over. I picked his legs up and entered him again. Both of us were moaning in pleasure.
"Fuck me, Josh!" Braden begged. I was holding his ankles and driving my cock into him as far as it could go.
After several minutes of fucking Braden's ass, I felt my orgasm approaching.
"I'm about to cum!" I said. Braden just moaned. I fucked my cock into him three or four more times, then I came, flooding his rectum with my cum. Braden was feverishly pumping his cock with his fist. As soon as my orgasm subsided, I pulled out of Braden's well-fucked hole and put my lips around his leaking cock. I swirled my tongue around his head. With a deep, guttural moan, Braden came, shooting his copious load into my mouth. I swallowed it greedily. I spit out his deflating cock and moved on top of him, kissing him passionately.
We were both a sweaty mess and the room smelled like pure sex. We went to take a shower, then we returned to the bedroom. We quickly changed the sheets with the extra set that Rose had left us. I guess she anticipated such a situation. I put on my sleep shorts and threw Braden's to him.
"Why do we need these?" Braden asked. "Can't we just sleep naked like always?"
"I just think we should wear them tonight," I said. "If we wake up in the morning and want to fuck, they'll come right off."
"I'm too tired to argue," Braden said. "Goodnight, babe." Braden slipped into his shorts and then got under the covers on his side of the bed. I did the same and soon we were asleep.
We were awoken a little while later by faint tapping on the door. I looked at the clock and saw it was almost midnight. The door was locked, so I got up to open it. I found Asher standing there.
"What's wrong, buddy?" I asked.
"Can I sleep with you guys?" Asher said. "I don't want to be by myself tonight. I had a bad dream about my dad."
"Sure, buddy," I said, putting my hand on his back and leading him into the room. He got in between Braden and me, and soon we were all asleep again.
I woke up with someone snuggled against me. At first, I thought it was Braden. I could feel morning wood pressing into my ass, but it didn't feel like Braden. Slowly, I turned over and then remembered Asher was in bed with us. I quietly got up then. Braden was already up.
"Good call on wearing shorts to bed," Braden said quietly from the chair he was sitting in.
"Yeah, I felt like this could happen," I said.
"I don't even remember him coming in," Braden said. "I must have been out cold."
"You were. He had a bad dream about his dad. We should probably check into some counseling for him."
We headed downstairs, leaving Asher to sleep. Rose was already cooking breakfast. I could smell sausage cooking as we made our way downstairs.
Asher made his way down a little while later, rubbing sleep from his eyes. We congregated in the dining room where Rose served us homemade scrambled eggs, sausage, cantaloupe, and homemade biscuits with tomato gravy. I know you're probably thinking that tomato gravy sounds awful, but it's a southern delicacy. It's just regular gravy made with sausage drippings, flour, and milk, but then you add fresh tomatoes. It tastes amazing.
After filling our bellies, Braden and I went upstairs to pack our things to get ready to go home. I decided before I left, I should have a conversation with Dorothy about getting some counseling for Asher. I filled her in on him coming into our room the previous night and saying he had a bad dream about his dad. Dorothy agreed that counseling wouldn't be a bad thing and said that she would look into it. Braden and I said our goodbyes, gave Asher a hug and told him we'd be back the following weekend, then took off toward home. I hated leaving him like that, but we both had to work, and Jackson needed us as well.
As we were driving home, Braden's phone and my phone both pinged at the same time. Braden checked it since I was driving.
"You have to be kidding me," Braden said.
"What?" I asked.
"This is from Andy. You're never going to guess where Jacob turned up."
"Where?" I asked.
"He flew to New York! Andy said he just wanted us to know that Jacob is safe. Didn't Jacob say his boyfriend is in New York City?"
"Yeah, he did," I said.
"I guess he went to be with him. I'm glad he's okay. Andy said John is gone to get him."
"That's good," I said. "I'm glad they found him. I was a little worried about it, especially with Austin and Lucas doing what they did with him the night before."
"Yeah. I was, too," Braden said.
An hour or so later, we made it home. It was still early in the day, so Braden and I decided to spend some time with Jackson. We ended up going to a new water park that had opened nearby. We had a lot of fun and got some sun at the same time! Jackson loved playing in the water, and there was quite a bit of eye candy for Braden and me to check out as well with all the shirtless young dads running around chasing their kids.
We were surprised to see another young gay couple with a boy about Jackson's age. The two men appeared to be in their late twenties. One was blonde while the other had brown hair. The blonde had a smooth chest while the brunette had some body hair, but not too much. They were both in good shape and were frankly really hot. Braden and I sat on lounge chairs quietly discussing whether they were a couple. We speculated that they could be brothers or even just friends. After hearing their kid call them both `Daddy' at different times, we knew they were like us.
A little while later, one of them got up and followed his kid over to where Jackson was playing in the water. He then made his way over to where Braden and I were sitting.
"It's a great day to be in the water!" he exclaimed as he neared. It was the blonde guy. I could now see that he had some hair on his chest and around his nipples, but it was very light. He had fair skin. I hoped he had applied ample sunscreen!
"It sure is," I said. "I'm Josh, and this is my husband, Braden." I offered my hand for him to shake, and he took it. Braden did the same.
"I'm Jamie," he said. "And that's my husband Aaron over there." He motioned toward the brunette, who threw his hand up at us. He then came over to where we were. They took the two chairs closest to Braden and me so we could keep an eye on the kids.
"How old is yours?" Aaron asked after we'd been introduced to him.
"Jackson is five and a half," I said. "He'll be six in December."
"Charlie will be six in October," Jamie said. "You don't see that many gay dads around here."
"We actually don't know any others," Braden said. "I know there are some, but we don't know them."
"Do you guys have many gay friends?" Aaron asked.
"Only if you count an old lesbian couple and an old gay couple," I said. "No one our age."
"Damn, us either," Jamie said. "It's so hard to be gay around here. There're no good clubs or anything. I'm from LA originally, and there's so much more there. I'd go back, but Aaron's job is here and it's hard to just pick up and move."
"How did you guys get your son?" Jamie asked.
"We adopted," Braden answered. He told them the story about our old neighbor who had some connections and got us connected to the family.
"Charlie is actually my sister's son," Aaron said. "I'm his uncle. But she passed away and the bio dad can't stay out of jail long enough to do anything good. The only good thing he did was make Charlie. So, when my sister died when Charlie was a year old, I got him. Then I met Jamie, and it completed our family." Aaron put an arm around Jamie's shoulder. They really made a cute couple.
We found out that Aaron worked as a chemical engineer at a major company in the area and Jamie was in medical school. Jamie had no family in the area, but Aaron had some cousins and an aunt in the area who helped them out with Charlie whenever they needed it. His parents were both deceased. We had a great conversation and enjoyed getting to know them and their story.
"Daddy, can Charlie come to our house and play?" Jackson asked, running up with Charlie in tow.
"Maybe sometime, buddy," I said.
"We should probably get going," I said. "But we would like to hang out with you guys sometime, if you're interested?"
"Yes!" Jamie and Aaron both exclaimed.
"Sorry," Jamie said. "We don't want to sound desperate. But having some gay friends would be great. And Charlie could use some more play dates."
We exchanged contact information with them and found each other on social media. Then we took Jackson to the changing area to get him dried off and out of his swimsuit before we could head home.
We got back home just as Mom was putting dinner on the table. Mark and Bonnie were joining us for dinner. Savanna was home, so she got to join us as well.
"Mrs. P, this is some of the best cooking I've ever had," Savanna said as she helped herself to seconds of Mom's homemade macaroni and cheese. "You should really run a restaurant."
"Oh, I'm not that good," Mom said. "And I'm way too old for that kind of thing! But you're not, dear. Don't give up on your dream of culinary school."
"I'm not. After the baby comes, that's where I'm going. But I've been thinking about something," she said. I looked over at Braden. I was convinced she had decided she wanted to keep the baby.
"I know you guys will give this baby a great home and a great life." She looked up and saw our faces. "Don't worry, I'm not backing out. I know I can't take care of a baby. It's not in my nature, I don't think. I'm just not cut out to be a mother. At least not right now. But I still want to be in his or her life. If that's not too much to ask. I want him or her to know who I am and that I only want what's best."
"Savanna," I said. "Braden and I want you to be around as much as you want to be. You're family. The baby will know that you are its mom. So, you don't have to worry about any of that."
We enjoyed just sitting and talking the rest of the evening. Savanna returned downstairs to go to bed and Mom went to her room shortly after Mark and Bonnie went home. Braden and I were sitting outside on the patio when Braden got a text.
"Well guess who this is," he said.
"I don't have a clue. Who?"
"It's Hunter."
"We haven't heard from him in several years," I said. "Jack was just a baby the last time he was around."
"I called him when his grandmother passed away. Remember, we couldn't go to her funeral because you had that work retreat and your mom had knee surgery, so I had to take care of Jackson."
"That's right. What's he saying?"
"He's going to be in town next month and he wants to know if he can come visit. He's met someone and he says it's pretty serious!"
"Who did he meet?" I asked.
"I'm asking that now," Braden said. "He's a college professor at the college where Hunter works. You know that Hunter just stayed there and ended up working on the marketing team for the school after he graduated."
"Well, that sounds great," I said. "Tell him he's welcome anytime. I'm going to bed. You coming?"
"Yep. I'm tired. And horny."
"Well, isn't that romantic," I said.
"Who needs romance when you have an ass like mine?" Braden said, squeezing his own cheeks as he headed inside. I locked the door behind me as I followed him in. I couldn't disagree with him. Braden does have a great ass.
That's it for this chapter of "When You Least Expect." The next chapter will be published as soon as possible.
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