Chapter 8

Suddenly an alarm went off on Kevin's phone, "Oh shit, I gotta finish supper, can we move this inquisition into the kitchen so I can put the finishing touches to our supper?"

"Language Daddy" said the boys

"Language Kevin" said Double Dee at the same time

Kevin looked at all three and grinned, then headed into the kitchen to put away his groceries and add last minutes ingredients to the crock pot.

Double Dee looked at the boys and said, "Where did you pick up that saying?"

"Daddy uses that when we say something we shouldn't" answered the younger Kevin. And smirked just like his father.

"Well the jock did learn something after all. He got that saying from me. I used to tell him that all the time." Dee laughed, as they headed into the kitchen to join Kevin.

"Hey Dee, you wanna stay for supper? I made your favorite pasta dish." Grinned Kevin, stirring the food in the crock pot.

"Since that's I what I was going to make, I will if you are sure you will have enough."

Kevin winked at Dee and said, "You know I always make plenty when I cook. Especially if there's a dork around to eat it."

"Have you guys been friends forever?" asked the raven haired twin.

"We met when I moved to the cul-de-sac when I was five years old. Kevin was actually the first kid I met in the neighborhood." Dee smiled as he remember the young red head. "We were getting to be good friends. Then something caused us to drift apart."

"It was when you started running with the dork clan, and mostly it was Eddy, I would get angry with the way he used you to his advantage. I'm sorry I was such an bully back then Double Dweeb."

"You apologized long ago Kevin and I know it was mostly from Eddy's scams that caused you to bully us."

"Then later in high school, I needed help in some classes and got Double Dee to tutor me, and we got close again. You boys should be glad he's one of your teachers in school. If you pay attention in class he will open up wonders for you. He made learing seem fun and that's how I got my college scholarship. I knew in college I needed to keep my grades up to keep my scholarship and Dee wasn't there to tutor me so I buckled down and did really well in all my classes.

Kevin looked over at Dee and saw that he was blushing. "Well you did make learning fun for me Dee, in more ways than you know." and he winked at Dee.

Double Dee smiled at Kevin showing the gap in his teeth which caused the redhead to smile back with even a glimmer in his green eyes. The boys looked at their father smiling, then they looked at each other like they were sharing an unspoken idea between. Both started to get up, then Kevie took off and ran up the stairs.

When he came back downstairs he saw that his father had turned back to his cooking and slipped up behind him and placed the red cap that had been hanging on the headboard of his bed on the older red's head.

"Gentlemen, let me introduce Kevin Barr the star Jork!" Said Kevie laughing as Kevin reached up to see what was on his head. The man turned around blusing.

"Jork? Whats a jork?" He said laughing.

"It's a Jock who is also a dork." Kevie said laughing with his father. "I just wanted to see you smiling with your hat on your head."

Kevin reached up and turned his hat around backwards. "I actually wore it like this. What you think Dee?"

"I think we may be getting closer to finding that lost Kevin you are looking for."

The older red head grinned and served the dinner. As they ate their dinner the two older men reminisced about their teen age years to the boys delight. Both boys were overjoyed to see their father smiling and laughing with an old friend

Kevin looked up at Double Dee and said, "Dee do you remember the first time you came to one of my games? I was glad to see you there, I was trying to impress you, I kept looking into the stands to see if you approved."

"I saw you when you first looked at me, you smiled and then you frowned. I figured you were looking for someone else and saw me then frowned."

"Nah, I frowned because the thought of how cute you were popped into my head, and I wasn't sure about how I felt about that. For months I had been trying to get you to notice me. Why did you think I took off my shirt in the window every night. I did it just for you."

"I just figured you were an egotistical jerk, tho I wasn't complaining about the view that's for sure. However I was afraid that if you caught me looking you would pound me. The night I went to that first game I went because I realized I had feelings for you and that I could look all I wanted to and nobody would notice."

"I knew you like to look at me Dee, and I thought you were cute too. But at that time I was so confused and conflicted I didn't know what to do."

Kevin got up and started collecting the dishes and walked over to the kitchen sink with them. Dee grabbed some of the dishes and said. "Since you made dinner and I inadvertently invited myself to dinner I'll help you do the dishes."

The dark haired twin looked at his brother and said "C'mon Kevie I think the geezers are gonna get boring lets go finish our homework then go down to the media room and watch a movie."

"Ok, see ya in a bit dad. Enjoyed visiting with you Mr. Vincent." Kevie said as he ran up the stairs after his brother.

"I hope they won't be too much trouble in your class Dee, I've tried to raise them right. But they both are like me when I was younger."

"They seem to be nice and respectful and do pay attention in class, unlike their father used to do."

"Well maybe they don't have an adorkable friend to distract them."

"Oh hush you." said Double Dee grinning.

"Dee, I want us to be friends again, and maybe more if you want to. After all that happened, I am so afraid to face the future. I only came back to Peach Creek because I had no else to go. I have so much baggage I don't think you will want to even be friends with me."

"Kevin, stop right there. A true friend doesn't desert a friend when they are down. They put out their hand and help them up and let them lean on them till they can go on their own. I do love you Kevin even after all that happened I still loved you and still do."

After they finished washing the dishes and put the leftovers in the fridge and the kitchen was spotless. Kevin poured them both some after dinner coffee and they sat at the kitchen table.

"I don't know what happened at your house that day Dee, but my mother was crying and praying for me and then my dad got home he starting hitting me and telling me he didn't want his son to be a fag. And that he didn't want me to be around you anymore. That's when he announced that I was being sent away to a military school. He then told me to get out of his sight and sent me to my room. I ran up the stairs crying, you know back then I never let anybody see me cry. When I got to my room I looked out the window at your house and my heart shattered. I felt so helpless, then I fell on the bed crying and begging for you to forgive me, mother came into the room and she told me to beg for forgiveness. The only thing I felt I needed forgiveness for was causing you all this pain. I was grounded and couldn't leave my room except to use the bathroom. They took my phone and he hit it with a hammer and busted it. I felt that my world had ended just as it had really begun."

Then when we were leaving that Monday, I saw you walk out of your house standing so tall and looking so brave, when I felt so lost and dejected, I couldn't hardly face you, but when I looked up and our eyes me I felt a jolt of lightening in my heart. On the way east my mother told me that she was praying the gay away for me and I told her to pray for herself and leave me out of it. My dad backhanded me and told me to respect my mother. Whatever is the last thing I ever said to either parent."

Kevin looked up when Dee laughed, "Sorry Kevin, I was laughing because I basically told my mother the same thing about praying for herself."

"I got back into football to keep myself busy so that my thoughts didn't drive me crazy. I planned to graduate and get a full scholarship into college. I buckled down to my studying and paying attention in class like you always told me I needed to do. I wanted to badly to tell you how well I was doing in school. I actually made the honor roll, you would have been so proud of me. But I didn't know how to contact you. Then when I started college I met her and she started pursuing me. I finally asked her out an we dated for awhile. Then one drunken night, yes I had started to drink, to dull the heartache in my life. We had sex, after we had I felt like I had cheated on you and that felt so wrong. When she said she was pregnant and I had to marry her. So I did, I later she figured I was going places in football and wanted to ride my fame to the top. After we were married she dropped all pretense of even liking me, but we stayed married for the boys. Three years after the boys, she had a daughter by another man. She always made sure to tell me that she wasn't mine. Something I already knew because we never had sex but that one time. When the boys were born she never showed interest in them. I won the argument over naming them. She wanted to name them after her father. I stood my ground and named them."

"I am so honored that you named one of your sons after me, Kevin." Dee said with tears in his eyes.

"After my football career got cut short, I went to work for my father-in-law at his car dealership. I had gotten a good payoff from the NFL, so we had plenty money, which I had invested in a good portfolio. See I did learn something from you Dee. After the girl was born she went on a spending spree and didn't stop till we ran completely out of money. A few months back, when my car was repossed, my house was foreclosed on I was down to my last penny and had a week to clear out of our house with no where for me and boys to go. She had filed for divorce and my father-in-law fired me from the dealership and made sure I could not find any kind of job that would have paid off all those bills I felt so lost."

"What about your friends?"

"She made sure the only friends I had were approved of by her and her father. I had lost touch with everybody here in Peach Creek. Her approved friends deserted me when I was down. She and her father had worked so hard to make me feel like I was an utter failure. Then one night I was sitting on my bed looking at all the bills that she had run up trying to figure out how I was going to pay them off, I decided to get stinking drunk. The boys were away with some of their school friends at a mountain cabin for a week. I felt so alone, as I sat on my bed surrounded by bills. I begin to think what a loser I was, that nobody wanted me or needed me. That even though I love you, you didn't want or need me in your life. I pulled my pistol from my bedside drawer, checked to make sure it was loaded. I then placed it to my temple. I sat like that for a few moments trying to build up the courage to pull the trigger, when my phone chimed with a text message from the boys. They were smiling and told me that they loved me. How they knew to send that message just at that moment, I don't know, but I am glad they did. It saved me. I knew I had to be strong for my boys. That night, I pulled out my junior year book and looked at all the pictures. I never realized just how many I was in. I had the thought that it paid to have your boyfriend chair of the album committee. When I woke up the next morning I saw that I had cried all over one of your pictures. Then when I pulled myself back together I put the pistol away and opened a letter from some lawyers that told me that mother had passed away and left me her whole estate. It was enough money to pay the debts off and come here to live." Kevin looked at Dee with very sad eyes and whispered. "So Dee, I will understand if you decide that you don't want anything to do with me."

Dee had sat through the whole speech with tears rolling down his cheeks. He stood up and walked over to where Kevin was sitting and knelt beside the sad green eyed man. "Kevin, if I had know your life was so lonely I would have moved heaven and earth to come to you. I didn't want to intrude on what seemed a happy life from all reports that I saw. Please, let me be there, if as nothing more than a friend that you can call upon anytime you need me."

"You really mean that Dee? Even with all my baggage, you want to be friends."

"Yes, I'll be whatever kind of friend you want me to be. I have never stopped loving you and will always love you till I take my last breath. Now lets work hard to get the old Kevin back."

Kevin smiled and let a few lights show in his eyes. "Thanks Dee, that means a lot to me."

"You know Kevin, I thought about it on the way west that when we were leaving and I saw you looking so broken. I felt that by being so brave in my own life I had stolen your confidence. So, we will have to work extra hard to get that cocky Kevin back." Dee moved forward and kissed Kevin fully on the lips.

"Awww, came from the doorway leading into the living room." Both men sprang apart and looked sheepishly at the twins standing there. "Don't mind us said Kevie, we were just going to watch a movie, but this is so much better than any move we could watch." Laughed the red headed twin.

The dark haired twin, in a voice like a little child asked, "Is Mr. Vincent going to be my new mommy?" and ran laughing after his brother down the basement stairs to the media room. Kevin blushed and called after the boys, "Don't rush things all he said is that we are friends again."

Kevin sat for a few moments, then jumped up and said, "I'll be right back Dee, don't leave yet, pwease." Double Dee laughed at the old pwease, Kevin knew that Dee would give into anything when he said pwease.

Kevin ran up the stairs, changed into some different clothes and ran back down the stairs. Dee looked up and saw that he was wearing an old green long sleeved hoodie and some black jeans. "Has the old Kevin come to visit us tonight?"

The red head laughed and said, "Come, I want you to take a picture for me." He then led Dee out to the garage and jumped on the motorcycle. "I want you to take a pic of me on my bike" Dee snapped the picture and then told Kevin not to move, as he jumped on the back of the bike. He place his head next to Kevin's and took another picture. When he looked down he saw that he had smiled and shown the gap in his teeth and he also saw that Kevin was smiling from ear to ear and the lights in his eyes were burning bright. "I knew it, the old Kevin has come back for a visit, now lets keep him here." Dee grinned showing the picture to the green eyed man.

Kevin leaned in and captured Dee's lips with his own, licking his bottom lip for entrance. The kissed for a long time. Kevin had ran his hands down Double Dee's back sending shivers down his spine. Dee had placed his arms around Kevin's neck. After awhile they broke the kiss and Kevin said. "We'd better stop right there, we haven't went on our date yet, and I know how you hate to be late for school. I don't think either of us would get any sleep tonight if we went any further."

Dee smiled and kissed Kevin again. "Ok, we will not go any further, but I don't have to be home for a few more minutes, so how about another kiss."

The lost all track of time in their hunger for each other kisses, until they heard "Dad? Oh excuse me. No Kevie, dad said he didn't want to watch a movie, and that since it was a school night we needed to get to bed so that we could get up early." said the dark haired boy as he raced towards the stairs. Then the red headed twin ran up the stairs behind him giggling. "Did you see, Eddie, Daddy looked so happy."

"Well Dee, we seem to have been busted again." The red head laughed, with lights shining in his eyes.

"But this time, we aren't being torn apart, they seem to have gone upstairs to leave us alone." giggled Dee. "I never told you about the conversation I had with my mother one the way west, She started telling me of how wrong I was in loving you. I told her that I would love you for ever no matter what and that I would converse with her on any subject other than my being gay and my love for you. I see it's getting late so I'd better toddle off, come see the principle about the coaching position tomorrow."

"I just might, if you will help me find myself again. Come over for supper again tomorrow night Dee."

"Well... since I always enjoy your cooking, I shall, but I will need to grade some papers, so I may have to leave early."

"Nah, bring your old papers and grade them here, so that I can steal a kiss or three from my favorite dork."

"Good night Kevin." Dee said kissing the red head again. "Walk me out to my car."

"Choice! That way I can get another good night kiss." They walked out to Dee's car and kissed some more, then Dee got into his called and said "Good night Kevin, sweet dreams."

"Hey wait, Dee, let me give you my number, so you can call me if you need to cancel for tomorrow night."

Dee unlocked his phone and handed it to Kevin, He blushed when he realized what his background was."

Kevin looked at the phone and grinned, "Nice wallpaper Dee." as he saw a picture of himself in his baseball uniform from high-school. Keven typed in his number, quickly called himself and then handed the phone back to the raven haired man. He leaned in the window and kissed Dee one more time. "Night dork." Then he watched as the car drove away smiling the whole time.