“I’m Karen.”
Robert’s genuine happiness curved his lips as he bent to accept the hug. His uncle came walking out the door next, patting Robert’s shoulder while coming toward Landon. When his uncle reached for one of the bags, he saw a commiserating look in his eyes before he was enveloped in a tight hug.
“You look great.”
Landon took the intended comfort from the compliment and the hug and let out a shaky sigh.
“I’m nervous,” he admitted. His uncle Michael reared back and stared at him.
“What? You’re always so self-assured. Too sure. Cocky, even. What’s happened?” The genuine concern on his uncle’s face somehow helped ease his heart.
“I’m just trying to hang on to him,” Landon confessed, tilting his head past his uncle toward Robert, to see his sister Lori, and his niece and nephew, Presley and Parker, being introduced to Robert. “I think he’s going through PTSD.”
The joke fell short. His uncle looked confused as he turned back to Robert, lost at why Landon would say such a thing. Maybe it was for the best that his uncle didn’t understand Landon’s worry. He loved his family and didn’t want to contribute to any hurt feelings, and he was throwing shade all over them. “Why PTSD?”
“You’ll see.” He didn’t say more, nodding toward Robert, and started that way.
“Uncle Lan,” Parker said, extending a fist for a knuckle bump. He fist-bumped the kid who wasn’t necessarily a child any longer. Parker had grown several inches since the last time he’d seen him, his fifteenth birthday was a few months away. Presley came in for a sweet side hug. Her sixteenth birthday had happened the day he left Germany for DC. Usually, these two held all his attention, because again, he had to remind himself, he did love his family, but instead, he watched his father amble through the front door.
“The air conditioner’s on. Why’re we doing this out here?” His father’s hard-edged tone didn’t go unnoticed.
“Honey, meet Robert. Robert, this is Antonio,” his mother said as if his father’s comment had actually been something kind and inviting.
His father came out past the threshold a step or two, his voice loud and gruff as he offered his hand to Robert. “Call me Tony. I hear you’re Paulie’s grandson.” Those words had Landon narrowing his eyes, glancing between his boyfriend and his father. When had that information exchange happened? His family must have searched the internet on Robert before they arrived. His stomach roiled again, the sensation turning into a constant companion in his life. Why had he never considered the idea they may have googled Robert? What else had they learned?
“Yes, sir, I am.” Robert grinned, completely at ease with all the attention and gruffness hitting him at once.
“He’s a legend where I come from. I hear he taught you his secrets?” His father looked and acted like Robert may have been privy to highly classified information and proud that he had discovered the knowledge as he crossed his arms over his chest. That same chest swelled with speculation.
“Pop…” Landon started, trying to stop wherever this was headed.
“He did, sir. I’m not half the chef he was, but I’ve recently been working to fine tune my skill in the kitchen. It’s coming back to me.”
His dad reached out, circling Robert’s shoulders. “Then you come with me. I’ll show you what good tastes like.” He tugged Robert forward into the house without even acknowledging Landon’s return home for the first time in two years.
“Pop, let him get acclimated…” Landon called out. He had mentally prepared for Robert to hear every ailment his family could come up with, but he’d never considered his father trying to one-up Paulie in the kitchen.
“Pop, Pop. What is there, a parakeet around here?” His father threw the words back over his shoulder, looking at Landon with a giant grin on his face like he’d told the funniest joke in the world. Then he did something Landon had never seen before, he winked. “Get in the house. I’m not air conditioning the whole neighborhood.”
His father and Robert were gone, Robert only casting a playful smile over his shoulder as they turned away from the entrance and out of sight.
“He’s been cooking all day,” his mother said, reaching up for Landon, giving him a hug and a kiss.
“He’s been planning this since he found out who you were bringing home,” Lori added, hip-bumping him before moving past them into the house.
“He’s been talking to his mom and her friends, getting a good recipe for dinner. It’s been sweet,” his mother said, a smile lighting her face.
Landon gave a humorless laugh at his father ever being considered sweet and followed the rest of his family inside, still analyzing what that wink from his father had meant. Landon cocked his head toward the kitchen, listening to his father bragging about the fresh ingredients he’d used to make his gravy from scratch.
“Honey, go put your stuff in your bedroom. You two are staying in there tonight. Parker and your uncle are sleeping on the pullout sofa.”
He immediately shook his head, knowing firsthand how uncomfortable the old sofa sleeper was. “We planned to get a hotel room. It’s already reserved.”
“No, sir,” she said, instantly looking hurt and offended. “You two are staying here. We never get to see you anymore, and it’s only for one night.”
“Mom…” He started to protest again, but Robert’s voice stopped him.
“We can stay here, babe. Let your uncle and nephew have the hotel room tonight,” Robert suggested, sticking his head around the kitchen door. “It’s the closest Hilton to here. I reserved a small suite with room
