An hour later, Sonny with his dad on the rear veranda while Adrienne--who'd all but insisted--makes sandwiches.

The worst of his hangover has vanished. Sonny's almost positive whatever was in that thing Will made him drink was to thank--as is the pleasure of seeing him in the same room as his parents.

God, he misses them, he thinks. He honestly had no idea how much until they'd shown up.

"So," he said after a beat. "You gonna tell me what you think or not?"

"Yes." But Justin just sits and keeps looking out over the gardens. "It's a bit warm, huh? Pretty early to be warm."

"Actually it's cooler. If you'd been here a couple days ago. You could've fried an egg on the sidewalk."

Justin can hear the way he says it, with pride. "You never liked the cold. Even when we went skiing, you preferred staying in the lodge over being on the slopes."

"They literally just invented skiing to make snow look good."

"Then don't expect an invite to Vermont." But Justin moves his hand over to squeeze Sonny's shoulder. "The place is amazing, Sonny. Even the parts you haven't touched are amazing, in their own way. Your mom thought you messing around with tools was such a neat hobby. That's what she preferred to think. As long as you were the CEO of Titan Industries, it was more likely you'd stay in Chicago. You'd be close. She hated seeing you leave, so she made a stink about it. She's not gonna apologize, either. You're her pride and joy."

"I don't have to be in Chicago to be close."

Justin shakes his head. "You don't stop by at the spur of the moment. We don't bump into you at a restaurant, or parties, or even the theater. That's hard for her, something I'm sure you'll be able to understand when you have the two promised kids."

"I don't want to make Mom sad."

"Of course she's sad. Don't be silly. She loves you, you know?"

"So she says." Sonny jokes.

Justin looks at him, eyes on eyes. "Lucky for us both, I love you enough to say what she can't yet. You found a home here. I won't lie, she's still hoping you didn't, but I know you have, and I'm proud of you."

"Thank you." Sonny leans in to hug his dad.

"Now, as for him…"

"Will."

"I know his name, Sonny." Justin says dryly. "As potential in-laws, I think we're both entitled to call him "him" until we really get to know him. As for him, he's absolutely nothing like the guy either of us pictured you winding up with. Not when we pictured you thriving as CEO, buying a house close to ours, with easy access to the country club. Paul fitted those requirements as son-in-law pretty well in that case. A good, challenging partner who knows how to hold his own and knows how to reach people."

"Then why don't you just adopt him?"

"Shut up, Sonny." Justin's voice is mild. Will would've known that tone immediately. "I'm not done. Paul, however well suited for us we might've thought, was obviously not the one for you. You weren't happy, not really, and even I'd started to see it and worry about it right when it ended. I tried to convince myself it was just the struggle of Paul not wanting to come out, but deep down I knew the truth."

"You couldn't have told me that sooner, spared everyone the heartache?"

"I could've, but your mom was annoyed with you."

"Tell me about it."

"Don't go getting all smart-ass with me, especially when I'm about to say a bunch of nice things. You were always a happy kid. Bright, clever, even a little smart assed, but we both respected that. You had, how do they say, a pep in your step. And you suddenly didn't have it anymore. But I can see now you got it back. I could see it in your eyes when you looked at Will."

Sonny takes Justin's shoulder, squeezing back. "You called him Will."

"For now. I may be getting there, but your mom definitely hasn't made up her mind. And trust me when I say he hasn't made up his mind about us either. Best thing you can do is stay out of it and let us work on that."

Justin stretches his legs. "Adrienne? Did you kill the pig yourself for those sandwiches?"

Sonny grins, "I love you guys."

"We love you too." Justin gives Sonny's shoulder one more hard squeeze, then lets go. "Wish we knew why."