Spark (41 page)

“I’m not suggesting you tell your kids this weekend. That’s too soon, which is why I want to figure this out,” Hugo clarified with wide eyes.

“I know. I know. But you know how kids are about secrets. I can’t risk them finding out some other way and then find out they spilled the beans to half their class at school next week. ‘Hi, my name is Finn, and my dad has a boyfriend named Hugo.’ Can you imagine how that would go over?”

“Which brings me back to my original thought. I should just sleep in the guest room tonight. It’s too much to risk,” Hugo said as he started moving.

“No. No, Hugo. I want you here with me.”

Hugo stopped himself from leaving the bed and turned back to Kevin, looking at him with pleading in his eyes.

“You’ve always had a hard time sleeping in new places, right?” Kevin smirked.

“Yeah. Do you really think that excuse is going to float with your kids?”

“It might. Maybe set the alarm for seven instead.”

As it turned out, there was nothing to be concerned with. The kids slept until nine, and Kevin and Hugo were both showered and dressed, and the bed was made before Brooke or Finn even made a peep. When they did wake, they complained about how their mom was often so grumpy.

“She’s got a lot on her plate,” Hugo explained as he thought about her new job, her move, not to mention the upcoming divorce. “There’s a lot she has to do before you guys move, she had a headache, and sometimes when adults are stressed about things, they seem not so nice and can get a bit cranky. That can be confusing to kids.”

“We should make her a ‘don’t worry’ card and draw pictures of our new house on it,” Finn suggested with a carefree smile on his face, and Brooke readily agreed.

“Sounds like an excellent idea,” Hugo said. “Brooke, can you help me pull some of the craft supplies out of the closet?”

She chattered away, telling him all about the things she’d done at her grandparents’, while they gathered supplies and put them in an empty tote to drag downstairs. He set the kids up at the dining room table and left them to make their mom a myriad of cards while he went to seek out Kevin.

Hugo found Kevin outside sawing a fallen tree limb into manageable pieces to burn later on the beach. “The kids are making ‘don’t worry’ cards for Erin,” Hugo shared.

Kevin chuckled. “That’s nice. She’ll appreciate that.”

“Are migraines common for her?” he asked.

“From time to time. I’ve only had one in my life, and it was hell. I don’t know how she manages. I’m glad she brought the kids here because sometimes they stick with her a few days. It’ll give her time to recover, and this is probably the last weekend they can be up here until after the divorce.”

“Are you nervous?”

“About what? Them moving?” Kevin asked, obviously not following Hugo’s scattered train of thought.

“Court?”

“No. I think Erin and I are on the same page. I feel good about it.”

“So are you going to change your Facebook status to
divorced
before you even leave the courtroom or wait a few weeks?” Hugo asked the question as if it were a joke. He was anxious for the divorce to be final, for Kevin to be one hundred percent his boyfriend. Although he knew he wasn’t really sharing, it would feel good to know this chapter was over. It would feel even better to finally share their relationship with the world, but a lot of secrets had to be revealed before that happened. Hugo knew he needed to be patient.

“Probably not right in the courtroom because I think that might be frowned upon to use cell phones in there, but I’ll do it that day. Excited to have me all to yourself?”

“Fuck. Am I really that transparent? And here I thought I was a decent actor.”

“Not with your real emotions, Hugh. You can’t hide the real thing nearly as well as you can conjure the fake.”

“Well,
now
someone tells me.” Hugo scoffed. “I could’ve used this information fifteen years ago, you realize.”

Kevin laughed and shook his head, sawing at the limb again. Hugo retreated back into the house to check on the kids. At least
they
didn’t know him better than he knew himself.

N
EARLY
all of Labor Day was spent outside, and Hugo finally got up on skis, after several attempts where he kept being pulled back into the lake by the heavy drag of water on his chest and stomach, spluttering like a fool who hadn’t known how to swim since he was four years old. The kids and Kevin cheered him from the boat until he somehow figured out how to gradually stand and glide over the water. It was heavenly, and they all made numerous runs as the day wore on.

The kids would be with Kevin for at least the next week—Kevin described it as a
hell week
because school would be starting the next day. Kevin had asked Hugo if he’d be willing to help him with the kids for a few days as they got through the transition because he’d never done it on his own. Hugo readily agreed. If he was as serious about Kevin as he felt, he may as well really see what being with Kevin and the kids would be like on more than just relaxing weekends. Now he’d have a chance to see if they made a good team.

Finn crashed on the car ride home long before the sun set, but Brooke was wide-awake and talkative. Hugo drove and listened as Kevin and Brooke talked in a way they rarely did, or at least in a way Hugo rarely heard them interact. It may have been because Finn was asleep and not interrupting with questions he had to get out before he forgot them, or maybe it was because Brooke was more comfortable around Hugo now, so she felt she could talk about things more openly in front of him. Either way, it was good to hear them bonding and getting deep into conversation rather than just hitting the highlights.

“Mom went on a couple of dates.”

“Oh? What do you think about that?” Kevin was being overly cautious with his tone, and Hugo suspected it was not only to make sure he didn’t betray surprise but also to see how Brooke might someday react to finding out he and Kevin were together.

“He was weird,” Brooke said, and Hugo glanced in the mirror to see her looking out the window into the darkening night.

Kevin turned more toward the back of the car and asked, “Is the guy weird, or is it just weird seeing your mom with someone besides me?”

Hugo kept to himself, trying to will his physical presence down to nothing so this conversation wouldn’t stop because of him being there. Brooke glanced at him in the rearview mirror, but Hugo quickly looked away.

“I suppose he’s not really
that
weird. He was actually pretty nice. Maybe a bit awkward.”

“Awkward?”

“Yeah. He was different than you. Sorta nerdy and stuff. But he helped Mom set up the new Wii and DVD player for us.”

“That’s good. Did you just get that?”

“No. It was in her room for about a month.”

“I’m glad he helped her with that.”

Kevin was so sincere. He really meant what he said. That was one thing Hugo admired so much about him. He didn’t harbor any ill will toward Erin at all. He respected her decision to move, even if he didn’t like the thought of being farther from his kids, and he was supportive of any changes she was making in her life whether they be career related or dating. There was nothing Kevin wanted for Erin more than her happiness.

Brooke broke the silence. “I guess it’s just different to see them together. It’s not the same as when I see you and Hugo holding hands or when you sneak a kiss from him.”

Hugo
felt
Kevin freeze except for his gaze, which darted to Hugo and quickly back to Brooke. What had she seen?

“For some reason it’s not weird seeing you guys kiss at all. That’s cool because you guys love each other. It was really awkward seeing Mom and this guy kiss ’cause they don’t belong together at all.”

“Hmm. Interesting.” Kevin managed to squeak out, but just barely.

What they thought they’d hidden so well was out there in the open and accepted as something
cool
by one of the most important people in Kevin’s life.

Kevin reached for Hugo’s hand right there.

He hoped Kevin would never let go.

Crust:

2 cups flour

1 cup butter

½ cup powdered sugar

Mix together and then press into a jelly roll pan.

Bake 325º F for 20 minutes.

Filling:

4 beaten eggs

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups sugar

4 Tablespoons flour

4 Tablespoons lemon juice (I use frozen from concentrate)

Pour filling over the crust and bake for 25 minutes at 325ºF.

Allow to cool and then sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Warning: this is not healthy food. This is comfort food.

Use a 1½-quart casserole dish to feed 4-6 or double the recipe for 2½-quart casserole to feed 8-12.

3
/
4
pound of ground beef

1
/
4
pound of mild ground pork sausage

1 small to medium yellow onion

Brown onion, beef, and sausage. Drain excess fat before placing meat into casserole dish. Mix in:

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup

2-3 oz. shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

If desired, cover with another 2-3 oz. of cheese.

Top the hotdish with frozen Tater Tots and bake at 350º F for 45-30 minutes. The hotdish will get bubbly and the Tater Tots will be golden brown when done. Serve with ketchup and steamed veggies. If you’d like a one-pot meal, you can also mix frozen veggies right in with the meat.

P
OSY
R
OBERTS
lives in the land of ten thousand lakes (plus a few thousand more). But even with more shoreline than California, Florida, and Hawaii combined, Minnesota has snow—lots of it—and the six months of winter makes us “hearty folk,” or so the locals say. The rest of the year is heat and humidity, with a little bit of cool weather we call spring, and autumn, which lasts about a week.

She loves a clean house, even if she can’t keep up with her daughter’s messes, and prefers foods that are enriched with meat, noodles, and cheese, or as we call it in Minnesota, hotdish. She also loves people, even though she has to spend considerable amounts of time away from them after helping to solve their interpersonal problems at her day job.

Posy is married to a wonderful man who makes sure she eats while she documents the lives of her characters. She also has a remarkable daughter who helps her come up with character names. When she’s not writing, she enjoys karaoke, hiking, and singing spontaneously about the mundane, just to make normal seem more interesting.

Read more at http://posyroberts.com

or e-mail her at [email protected].

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