Nate followed after Dallas' car to the Carpenters’ house and they arrived to a ‘Welcome Home Nate!’ banner in the front yard.

“Sorry Dallas, we wanted it to be a surprise for you,” Rob explained when they got into the house. “Nate reached out to me a couple weeks ago and asked if he could stay with us, and we decided to make an event out of it.”

“I’m not angry,” Dallas said; he hadn’t let go of Nate’s hand once, not even when Rosalie handed Rezzi to him so the toddler would stop sticking her fingers into the frosting bowl while Rosalie frosted Nate’s cake. There was a huge spread of food loaded onto the table for all the guests that had been invited to Nate’s homecoming party; Rosalie’s sister and her husband were supposed to arrive soon, Avery and his family were going to show up, and both Kari Danivers and Deputy Nelson had said they were coming.

“Dallas, why don’t you show Nate the backyard?” Rosalie suggested. “The other guests won’t be here for a little while yet.”

“I already showed Nate the backyard…” Rico said, but Rob grabbed him and said it was about time for Rico and Rezzi to learn how to shave.

Dallas understood his parents were giving them a moment to talk privately and he hurried Nate into the wide backyard. The Carpenters’ house backed onto the woods and the couple slipped into the trees until they found a fallen log to sit on. They were silent for a while, simply enjoying one another’s company after their years apart. Dallas marveled at how comfortable he felt despite the quiet…he’d worry that it would be awkward to start over after being separated for so long, but right now he felt as if it was only yesterday they’d been cuddling in his bed!

“I’m sorry I interrupted you at work,” Nate said finally. “But I just got into town and couldn’t wait to see you any longer…”

“No, no – I’m glad you came,” Dallas said, squeezing his hand. “I’m REALLY glad. You…you look good.”

Nate blushed. “Yeah, you look good too. Like, really good.”

“Oh?” Dallas raised a teasing eyebrow and bumped Nate’s shoulder with his own. “Does the mechanic outfit do it for you?”

Nate’s blush grew darker and he put a hand over his face, but he was smiling.

“Fuck Dallas, you know you’re hot!” he said. 

Dallas kissed him. “No, I didn’t know. You’re going to have to remind me whenever I forget.”

Nate giggled, but after a minute he calmed down and fixed Dallas with a loving gaze.

“I really missed you,” he said softly. “I was tempted to call you so many times, but I didn’t want you to get sucked into all the fallout from my parents’ trials. It was pretty unpleasant, even from far away.”

Dallas nodded. He’d followed the Westersons’ trial in the local news. Both of Dallas’ parents had pleaded guilty to child endangerment, but they’d refused the charges of child abuse. The Reverend maintained that what he’d done was for the benefit of his son who was being misled by people outside his faith. No one pointed fingers *directly* at the Carpenters, but it was understood that they were the problem. The Reverend ended up serving a one-year jail sentence while Mrs. Westerson only had to pay a fine. As Rob predicted, the Reverend claimed he was a changed man after his jail time and they were still involved with the New Life Church in Cooper’s Creek. Dallas squeezed Nate’s hand again.

“Have you talked to them since?” he asked quietly.

Nate shook his head.

“They both wrote me letters before the trial, which Avery gave me,” he said. “They apologized and said they’d only done what they thought was best for me. I expect their lawyer made them do it so they could tell the judge they had. I threw both letters out after I read them. I pity my parents, but I never want to talk to either of my them again. Or at least, that’s how I feel right now. My therapist said I need to acknowledge my anger and it’s OK to explore it before I do anything like forgive my parents.”

Dallas rubbed his thumb against Nate’s hand and Nate smiled at him.

“It’s OK,” Nate said. “I’m actually doing a lot better than I thought I would be. It helped that I had my grandmother and my cousins. That side of my family is really close to one another and they were very supportive of me, even though I was a near stranger to them. Avery was also great – he's more like a favorite uncle now than my lawyer! I definitely understand why he’s friends with Rob. He helped me get a damages settlement from my parents out of court, so that I have some money now. I suspect your dad helped, but he’ll never admit to it.”

“Were you able to finish high school?” Dallas asked.

“Yeah,” Nate used his foot to nudge a nearby mushroom. “But it took me a little longer because I was homeschooled for about a year. Just the thought of a locker gave me a panic attack for the longest time. But I enrolled into the same high school as one of my cousins a year later and received my diploma at the same time as her. I was all set to return to you then, but my grandmother got really sick shortly after my graduation and she needed full-time care for a while. I worked with the rest of the cousins to help her out, but now she’s living with one of them and I was free to come home.”

He glanced shyly at Dallas with these words.

“Because you’re my home, Dallas,” Nate said earnestly. “I’ve always thought that, even back when we were only sharing lunch together. You are my safe place, the one person who makes me free to be myself. I never want to be apart from you again, Dallas!”

Dallas pulled him into an embrace.

“Me too!” he breathed. “I love you so much, Nate! I want you to move in with me as soon as possible – I’ve been saving money since I started working and I think I could support us both if I manage to get a raise next year. Do you still want to study to be a teacher?”

Nate shrugged. “I don’t think so – it was so hard to be in a high school building after everything that happened to me. But I do want to do something with kids…especially ones who might be in situations like mine and need help. Kari Danivers said that she thought I’d make a great social worker one day and I think I agree with her. I…I think it will help me deal with everything if I can make a difference in other people’s lives and turn all my bad experiences into something good. You know?”

Dallas kissed his hand. “I understand. And for the record, you made a different in MY life.”

Nate smiled that beautiful smile at him.

“You’re the reason that I feel brave enough to try,” he said, kissing Dallas’ cheek. “So maybe I can use some of my settlement money to enroll in the local community college and get started on my degree, and in the meantime Rosalie said she’d talk to someone at the senior center about a job for me there, since I have some experience taking care of the elderly now. I probably wouldn’t make a lot of money, but it would be enough to cover our bills if we worked together. Would you be OK with that?”

“I’m MORE than OK with that,” Dallas said, beaming at him. “How about this: you stay with my parents while you get started with classes and work, and once I get my raise we can move in together? That way I’ll be sure to have enough to cover rent and most of our expenses. I’m pretty sure Rosalie will still be feeding us, even from afar…I rarely buy groceries because she’s always giving me leftovers!”

Nate laughed.

“That sounds just about perfect!” he replied. “I love the idea of working together with you, Dallas. I love you, period!”

They held each other and kissed for a while, until the afternoon started to fade and they heard Rico calling their names.

“We should head back,” Dallas said reluctantly. “Otherwise he’ll come looking for us.”

They left their log and walked back through the trees, holding hands the whole way.

“You do realize that Rico is the one who keeps bringing us together, right?” Nate said as they strolled across the backyard. “I might never have gotten the opportunity to say anything to you until the day I met him in the parking lot. He’s also the one who told me that you loved me, and he’s the one who convinced me to meet you early today. I really owe him!”

“God, don’t tell him that!” Dallas groaned. “He’s already got a big head. He’ll be insufferable if he finds out!”

“If I find out what?” Rico called from the backdoor. 

“Nothing!” Nate called back, but Dallas rolled his eyes. He knew Rico was going to charm the information out of his boyfriend later that evening and Rico was probably going to claim victory for adding even more people to their family.

“Because that’s what we are now,” Dallas thought, with Nate’s hand safely in his. “Family.”

THE END.