“He gave me a job when nobody else would hire me,” said Kieran.
“Okay,” said Adrian, raising an eyebrow. “That’s not quite the way Lenny tells it.”
“Out of interest—I mean, you two click so well—what is it you see in him?” asked Kieran.
Nobody had ever asked that question before, and Adrian had to think it through. How on earth did he even begin to talk about all of Lenny’s outstanding traits?
“I suppose, for me, it’s simple,” said Adrian, before smiling and peering across the room to where the pair’s twin boys clambered around a laughing Lenny, who lowered a tray piled with food onto the coffee table.
As Lenny met his gaze and winked, a sudden thought came to him. Were they too old to be thinking about starting a family? Or maybe adopting a child?
“And?” prompted Kieran.
“You said it’s simple for you,” said Kennedy, nudging Adrian’s arm.
“It’s the exact opposite of what your friend on the cruise said. Any day I get to share with Lenny makes me realise how lucky I am.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Lockdown, two years on
Maybe everything was fated.
After all, Leonard knew Adrian was not a fan of surprises. And COVID-19 social-distancing measures across the UK had effectively scuppered all plans for Leonard’s huge second-anniversary surprise party, two years after they had finally gotten it together in Wales. He had wanted to invite all their friends and family to his—totheir—newly refurbished semi in Balham.
Instead they would be having an intimate dinner party at home with Toni and Jack.
And, of course, Tommy.
“Can I at least get out the Christmas lights? Hang them up above the table?” asked Tommy, hand on hip, head tilted to one side. Late afternoon and he’d already showered and donned his makeup, and now dressed as a New Romantic wannabe, like a member of Duran Duran in their heyday. Not that fourteen-year-old Tommy would get the pop reference.
“It’s almost June, Tom,” said Leonard, trying to find his mobile phone.
“They’re just lights, Len. Your squad’ll love ‘em. Haziq at school says his mum uses them all through Ramadan. Praveen has them at their temple all year long. And I know for a fact Patrick has tons strung up in the Barbie boudoir he calls a bedroom. They’re just lights.”
Leonard finally found his phone beneath Tommy’s discarded schoolbook, left open on the kitchen counter despite Leonard’s request for him to take his study-from-home video call classes into their actual study. After placing a bookmark inside, he closed and set the book onto a sideboard, clearing the work surface. They would need space for Jack.
“Patrick’sboudoir, huh? And how exactly do you know all this?”
Leonard noticed a message from Jack to say they were almost there and would arrive around five-thirty. As usual, the man had everything prepped and ready to go, but also left instructions about getting pots and pans and cooking oil prepared for his arrival.
“Oh, come on. I’m not the only gayster who’s been invited into the travesty that is Princess Paddy’s Plastic Palace. Talk about environmentally unfriendly tackarama.”
Leonard couldn’t help chuckling. Tommy had not always been so open and relaxed. He had been in numerous foster homes during the five years before Leonard and Adrian had lucked upon him. Tommy’s mother had died from pneumonia when Tommy was seven. His father had put him straight into care, essentially washing his hands of the boy, before returning to his native Poland. Even now Adrian got angry every time he raked over the injustice of Tommy’s past.
But these days straight-faced Tommy had a habit of making everyone laugh, even when Leonard wanted to have a serious chat with him. He had been their first ever attempt at long-term foster care, eighteen months ago, and had transformed their lives. Twelve back then, he would be theirsuntil he turned eighteen, or for as long as he was happy living with them. The choice was down to him and the social workers who regularly came to check up on him. Being unashamedly gay had meant him being subdued in the past, often placed in homes with other kids who either ridiculed or shunned him, ones that stifled his more creative side. Not so with Leonard and Adrian. When the opportunity to foster him had arisen, they had jumped at the chance.
“Are you being serious?”
“No cap, Len.”
Adrian was better at Gen-Z speak than Leonard, but he knew the words ‘your squad’ and ‘no cap’ meant something like ‘your friends’ and ‘I’m totally serious’ respectively.
“Fish them out, then. The lights. And be careful putting them up. The last thing I need is you falling off the table or electrocuting yourself tonight before we’ve even eaten a thing.”
Leonard peered over to see Tommy already rummaging through the cupboard on one side of the table just as the phone rang in his hand. Adrian’s name popped up on the display.
“Hey, babe. What’s your ETA?” asked Leonard.
