“We have.”
His watch beeped. “Oh, that’s the timer on my experiment. Thanks for the kiss. I liked it. A lot!” Off he ran to tend to his experiment, whatever that was. Probably trying to open up a black hole in my music room. Wouldn’t have surprised me. It would go well with the sweat lodge behind the pool house. Thinking of that rough, uncoordinated kiss had me grinning all the way to the arena.
Ten days later I was still grinning. Not over that kiss, although it had been a turning point for Joe and me, but over the fact that we’d whipped the yee-haw out of Dallas and were moving on to face Winnipeg in the Western Conference Finals. We’d blown away the bookies in Vegas by clawing our way this far and we were primed to push past a really tough team to reach the Cup finals.
Tonight though, we were celebrating our victory at my place as I was the king of all things party for the Raptors. Walking through the guests, I did have to say that this was a majorly low-key event compared to most of my other celebrations. No booze, no dope, no half-naked groupies, no emus, or other wildlife. Boring, but incredibly grown-up.
I nodded at Coyote, who was one third of my grandmother’s new poly throuple as I circled the pool. The older Mexican man waved back. Alchemy and Myron, a black man of ninety who could still do a hundred jumping jacks, must have been off doing something kinky. I’d never seen three people who’d jelled so perfectly. And Simon had said they were good men, both Vietnam veterans who’d retired and moved out to a small cabin a mile or so from my property right after the war. So yeah, they’d all jelled instantly. Like Joe and me, but ours was a different kind of jelling. Ours was still kind of platonic, aside from kisses which he was now willing to instigate—like anytime we were in the same vicinity. I loved that he was now reaching out to me. And yeah, I wanted more, but I was cool waiting for him. I had a hand and knew how to use it.
“Can we ask you something?” Ryker said, tugging his fiancé along behind him.
I nodded and turned to face them. If ever there were a couple whom I’d have liked to throuple with it was those two, but they were fully committed to each other and I had this wild, blushing spaceman slowly filling my heart, but man we’d have made a hot threesome.
“Go for it,” I said, folding my arms over my new flowing purply and gold kimono. I’d paired it with black jeans and a purple dye job on my hair.
“Music for the wedding. Would you make us up a playlist?” Ryker blurted out.
“My dudes, I would be honored.” I waved my hands at the sweet sounds of Aerosmith wafting out of the house. “I will craft you a playlist hammered from the forges of the mighty gods of metal!”
“Uhm, can we have some Blake Shelton?” Jacob asked. I stared at him. “He’s a country singer.”
“Oh! Country and Western. Sure, righteous. I’ll make sure to include some of them there types of songs.”
Jacob grinned, Ryker clapped my shoulder, and they merged into the rest of the team milling around. There were no kids here, just adults. Not that I didn’t like kids because I loved my Maddie Boo, but the spouses wanted one night with their significant others without the offspring. So, being the generous man that I was, I readily agreed too. Also, it was the perfect time to meld my two families. I saw Buick first, then Tee Bone, and then Dominic coming around the side of the house.
I ran over to my brothers in rock and we hugged it out. Tee Bone, aka Billie Lark, was a lanky bass player from South Side Chicago, long dark hair, kind of nondescript rocker dude to many but man, could he play. Dominic Varelli was our lead guitarist and played balls to the walls while carrying some pretty hefty vocals himself.
“Colorado, my man, when is this hockey gig going to end?” Dom asked after we had mingled among the Raptors.
The looks that we got from Vlad as we socialized were funny as hell. Always so worried, our captain. The guys had been told weeks ago that the rock and roll lifestyle was now over here at Casa Penn. I had a little human who depended on me to be her everything. I had to show her right from wrong and be with her always. Kind of the opposite of Liberty who had tried to get rid of me several ways. When drinking himself into a grave didn’t work he’d tried a rope. When that hadn’t worked he’d simply left the country and a very confused little kid behind. But fuck that noise. I was a grown man now, well over that abandonment. My child would never know that kind of pain. Not as long as I sucked air.
“I know, man, it’s dragging on but we’re playing really well,” I said, leading them into the music room so we could talk, just us Furballs. They splayed themselves over the couches, all long hair, denim, black leather, and tats. My brothers in metal. I loved them all. And I loved my brothers in ice out in the warm Arizona night. “We’re four games away from the finals. I mean, this is epic big for the franchise.”
“Yeah we know, bruh, but we have an album to make and we can’t do that without our lead singer,” Tee pointed out. I nodded. I was aware. “The record company is going to get shitty soon if we don’t get into the recording studio.”
“I know, I know, and I’m sorry. Look, why don’t we just keep focusing on the songs. The more we get written and ready the faster
