Still, Joshua had always wanted to meet his old friend’s new lover, and so he was excited by the fact Paul and Fisher would be coming up to Scottsville this time. He didn’t even know what Fisher looked like since Paul wasn’t on social media, and neither was Joshua, really. Lee was on Facebook, though, and posted tons of pictures and videos of them online, but Joshua only updated the Stouder Lumber account when there was news to impart, and clicked ‘like’ on things Lee told him he should. So he was curious about the man who’d stolen his old friend’s heart.
Over the phone, Paul told him, “I’ve been wanting to show Fisher around Scottsville and Bowling Green anyway. I’m grateful Grandma’s still alive. I’ve told Fisher about how she and Gramps took me in when I really needed a home after Dad kicked me out. Fisher wants to thank her.”
Joshua had always admired the blasé attitude Paul’s grandparents had taken when he’d jumped out of the closet by making out with the town’s hotshot quarterback when he was fifteen. Eric, the quarterback, hadn’t fared as well, being cast out of his parents’ house, too, and then bullied by his own team until he finally left for college the next year. Eric had stayed with his former girlfriend’s family in the time between. It’d been a cold, awkward, scary time for every young queer in town. But Paul’s grandparents had been steadfast. Evidence that there could be warmth even in a blizzard of fear.
In the end, Joshua’s own folks had been surprisingly chill about his coming out, too. Maybe because he’d been so devastated by grief at the time that his homosexuality was the least of their concerns. Besides, they said, they’d suspected when he’d moved in with Paul after leaving for school, since Paul was out already. Though they’d hoped since he was attending a religious school, he’d keep it to himself.
And he had kept it to himself. Until he hadn’t.
Seeing Paul again, after all that Joshua had been through, after all the changes in his life—well, he was kind of nervous. What if Paul didn’t like Lee? What if Joshua didn’t like Fisher? What if Paul wanted to talk about Neil and Magic? And what if that was more than Joshua could handle in front of a stranger?
Lee, though, was relaxed, saying, “He knew Neil, and you knew Neil. That’s a blessing, isn’t it, babe? Were there any other people who really knew him?”
“Not really. Just Chris, but he’s…” Joshua raised a shoulder and let it fall. “He’s Chris.”
Most people in Scottsville knew Chris from his job at the nearby resort, and also as the swishiest queer in town, but only a few really knew about Chris’s background in Nashville.
“Chris at Barren River?” Lee asked, surprised.
“Yeah.”
“Knew Neil?”
“They were friends.”
Lee blinked. “There’s a story there. I can’t believe we’ve been together almost four years now and I haven’t heard it.”
Joshua laughed. “I don’t know why I never told you about it. I guess there isn’t much to say. If you know Chris, then you know he’s friends with everyone who doesn’t treat him badly because of his, you know, everything.”
Chris was…Chris. He’d been a drag performer in Nashville, and a pal of Neil’s from the years when Neil had hung out at gay bars—a pastime he’d given up as ‘boring and stupid’ by the time he’d met Joshua. But Chris he’d never given up. They’d been friends until the end.
“I still remember the first time I met Chris,” Joshua said, a smile on his lips. “He was hanging out at Neil’s place, Magic on his lap, and a big old plastic cup in his hand. It was full of rum with a dash of some kind of juice so he could call it a cocktail.”
“Sounds right.”
“He didn’t stand up when I came in. He just put out his hand, and said, ‘I’m Chris. And who are you, sugar-tits?’”
“Sugar-tits!” Lee laughed. “I can see him saying that.”
“Yeah. I think when he did drag shows, he used female pronouns, but otherwise…” Joshua trailed off, remembering the ease between Neil’s snark and Chris’s sparkle. He’d been jealous at the time. Which seemed silly now that Chris had married a big, beefy Kentucky farmer and taken on a passel of stepsons. Talk about complicated.
“How did Chris end up in Scottsville?” Lee asked. “I always assumed he’d been born here and never got out.”
“No, he’s a transplant. Like you. He came up to check on me after Neil died. Stayed a few days and somehow met Dale Richards while pumping gas—I know, right? They exchanged numbers, started texting, and the rest is history.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.”
“Well, then, if it’s just you, Paul, and Chris in the world who really knew Neil, then we should be grateful for this visit,” Lee said again. “I’d like to hear Paul’s take on the guy who loved you so well.”
Joshua kissed Lee then, grateful and sad all at once. He loved that Lee didn’t want him to forget Neil, and that he never suggested Joshua should ‘move on’ or ‘get over it.’ His patience was beautiful. But sometimes he felt like Neil’s humanity, the reality of him, got lost in Lee’s near-hero worship of the man who’d donated his skin, and the ideal that Joshua had loved. The reality was that Neil could be a pill, and sometimes it weighed on Joshua that he let Lee believe in Neil’s purity.
A week later, when Paul stepped out of the giant, white SUV and onto the fresh green, rolling field that extended out from Joshua and Lee’s small, white farmhouse, Joshua couldn’t stop smiling. Paul looked the same as he ever did: big, tall, and like he lived on a bench press. His tanned skin and blond hair glimmered in the Kentucky sunshine.
“This your new place?” Paul asked, nodding toward the house Lee and Joshua had moved into not long before, taking over the only empty place already built on the Stouder family property—the others were already spoken for by aunts, uncles, cousins, and Joshua’s parents. “No wonder I could never lure you back to Nashville if you had this waiting for you.” He grinned and gave Joshua a big hug.
Fisher followed right behind him, and his steely, firm gaze met Joshua’s. “Glad to meet you,” he said, putting out his hand.
