Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2011 10:39:56 -0700 (PDT)
From: Henry Brooks <hankster1430@bellsouth.net>
Subject: The Unexpected Guardian  Short Story

The Unexpected Guardian
Part One

Don and Bill had known each other all their lives.  They were next door
neighbors and their parents were good friends.  They were born on the same
day at Regional Baptist Hospital in Jacksonville, FL.  As kids growing up
they did everything together, and that included school, summer camp, and
playing on the same sport's teams.  It is no wonder that they learned about
and explored their sexual selves by themselves.  Neither set of parents was
of a mind to talk about the dirty subject of sex.  In truth, neither mother
had ever felt her husband's cock or seen it.  Entry was done sneakily, with
no foreplay, and only after the wife was in bed under the covers and the
lights were out.  It was as if they were hiding their sins from Jesus.

Both boys began to have wet dreams at age twelve.  Each confided in the
other about the upsetting event.  Don admitted that he had soiled his
pajamas, and Bill confessed to a similar aberration with his briefs.  There
was no one to talk to about all this, certainly not their parents.  They
might have looked it up in some book, but they didn't know how to describe
the topic or how to research it.

Shortly after his third wet dream, Don was talking to a bunch of classmates
in the school yard.  One of them started to talk about his wet dreams, and
Don realized that was what he was experiencing also.  That day after
school, he confided his knowledge to Bill.

"Pete says it's called nocturnal emissions, and it's a natural thing," Don
said.  "It's the beginning of puberty."  They both knew what puberty was,
and they both felt better about their nocturnal emissions.

The next day Don looked for Pete in the schoolyard.  He took him aside and
admitted that he had nocturnal emissions also.  He wanted to know what Pete
did to avoid the mess.  Pete looked around conspiratorially and said, "I
don't have them anymore since I started whacking off."

What does that mean, Don wondered.

"What does that mean?" he then wondered out loud, so Pete explained the
process.  Even though Don had no visual sense of the act, he found himself
getting an erection.  Knowledge sought, knowledge gained.

This time, maybe for the first time, he kept his new found information from
Bill.  He wanted to try it out before saying anything to his BFF.  He ran
home and was glad that his mother was out and his dad was at work.  He ran
upstairs and into the bathroom.  He locked the door behind him, dropped his
pants, sat on the toilet seat and began to stroke his cock as Pete had
instructed.  At first nothing much happened.  He got a semi erection and it
felt pleasant enough, but nothing like the joy Pete had described.

Don was about to give up when his body began to feel strange.  He got hard,
harder than he ever had before.  His whole body began to tingle, but
especially his balls.  His breath shortened, and all his muscles tensed.
He was scared and wanted to stop, but he was unable to.  Suddenly he felt
something coursing from his balls through his penis, and his body
convulsed.  The sensation was something akin to his wet dreams only a
hundred times better.  He also emitted the same sticky translucent
substance, but now he was able to clean it up without dirtying his pajamas.
It would be a while yet before he would ejaculate a full load of creamy,
succulent jism.

He cleaned up, caught his breath and ran next door.  He pulled Bill into
his bedroom and told him of the miraculous event which he had just
experienced.  Unfortunately, due to their puritanical upbringing, it never
occurred to them to experiment together.  After all, sex is dirty and
frowned upon by Jesus, or so they were told.  Bill practically kicked Don
out of the house so he could go to the bathroom and try it out for himself.

A few years later, when they were fifteen and just about to start their
sophomore year in high school, the dam finally burst.  Their parents signed
up for a church retreat over the Labor Day weekend and both boys were told
they could stay together in one house for company.  They decided on Bill's
house because he had better video games.

On Friday afternoon, just before the two couples departed, Bill's mom
showed Don into the guest room.  Frankly he never thought of sleeping
anywhere else.  Human nature had other ideas.

Their parents drove to the retreat in Don's father's car.  As soon as the
car turned the corner at the end of the street, Bill grabbed Don's arm and
said, "Quick, come upstairs.  I have something to show you."  He ran into
his bedroom, and although they were alone in the house, he instinctively
closed the door.  He retrieved his back pack from under the bed and pulled
out a videotape.  "Pete let me borrow this," he said, and he showed Don the
cover jacket.

Don gave out a low whistle.  The cover featured a handsome young naked man
and two equally naked females.  One of the females was kissing the man and
the other had his cock in her mouth.  The scene was so far out of their
range of knowledge that neither quite knew what to make of it.  As far as
they knew cocks only went into vaginas.

"Let's watch it on the big screen TV in the den," Bill said, and off they
went.  They sat down side by side on the sofa and began to watch.  The film
simply overwhelmed both of them.  For the first time in their lives, they
witnessed wild and abandoned sex.  They saw things they could never have
conceived without this visual presentation.  Men's very erect cocks
penetrated women in their asses, mouths and vaginas.  Women even ate out
each other's pussies.  It was almost too much for the innocent pair.  If
this was filthy stuff why did they both get whopper erections?

They had seen each other naked often enough, but only in the school locker
room.  That was the only safe and permissible place for two boys (young men
actually) to safely allow themselves to be naked together.  They were
totally alike in physical appearance except that Don wore heavy, horn
rimmed glasses.  They had both reached a height just short of six feet.
Both boys were blond and blue eyed, muscular and lean, thanks to their
athletics.  Their cocks did not escape each other's attention.  Both were a
little over four inches flaccid, and one could only wonder at the final
growth dimensions.  Neither was circumcised, but they did not have excess
foreskin.  Both their piss slits extended slightly beyond the sheathe.

They knew about homosexuality of course.  Their minister railed regularly
against these lustful and sinful people who were an abomination in the eyes
of God.  As far as the boys were concerned it had nothing to do with either
of them.  The innocents could not possibly recognize their own feelings.
Whenever they saw each other naked, they had to think of something
disgusting to prevent their cocks from rising.  As if that were not enough,
whenever they whacked off, they each dreamed of doing it to the other.
Now, viewing the film each of the boys fantasized sucking the other's cock
and entering the other's love canal.  They even lusted for the other to
enter him in every conceivable place.  They were in love, but could not
conceive of two men loving each other carnally.

The film got hotter and hotter.  Don was bursting out of his pants.  He
couldn't stand it any longer.  He whipped out his rod and began to stroke
hard and with great lust.  Bill could not believe the size of his friend's
cock.  He was sure that it had grown to at least eight, well rounded,
inches.  He longed to taste it like the lucky girls in the film.  He too
whipped out his cock and started to whack off.

Suddenly Don yelled, "Wait.  Let me do that for you."  He let go of his own
cock and grabbed Bill's.  He started whacking Bill off so Bill grabbed
Don's abandoned member and began to stroke him.  The two young men got
themselves off in a screeching finale.

"Wow that was something else," Don said.

Tentatively, almost in a whisper, Bill asked.  "Would you want to try some
of that other stuff?"

I thought you'd never ask," Don answered.  "Let's shower and hit my bed,"
Bill suggested.  Still shy, they took separate showers.  Perhaps it wasn't
shyness.  Perhaps it was the innate puritanical ethos of their upbringing.

For the first hour that they lay naked in bed together, they didn't do
anything.  They just discussed what they should do and whether or not they
should do it.  The guilt and reticence was overwhelming both of them.  They
both wanted to make love badly, but were afraid of going to hell.

It was too much for Don.  He started to cry.  "What's wrong?" Bill asked.

"I love you," Don sobbed.  "All I want to do is hold you tight and make
love to you like in the movie.  Am I going to go to hell?"

"If you go to hell," Bill answered, "I'm going there with you.  I can't
tell you how much I love you too."  He leaned over Bill and began to kiss
him.  Bill kissed back.  Their lips parted and the tips of their tongues
tickled each other.  After about fifteen minutes they came up for air and
smiled at each other.

"I want to suck your cock," Don said.

"And then I'll suck yours," Bill promised.

Before the weekend was over they tried everything that they had seen in the
film.  They used their asses for vaginas, and after initial discomfort they
both enjoyed it thoroughly.  For the next three years they carried on a
clandestine love affair.  They researched everything they could about
homosexuality and decided that the shoe fit them and so they would wear it.
They promised to share a dorm room at college and after college they
promised each other that they would share their lives.  They had it all
figured out except for getting caught by their parents.

They had been away at college for less than two months.  Thanksgiving
holiday was less than a month away.  Bill's father had a business
appointment not far from the university.  It ended earlier than he reckoned
and he decided to surprise the boys at school and take them out to dinner.
Surprise indeed!!  He threw open their door and yelled, "Surprise," just as
Don was fucking his son.

Their fathers took grave measures to "fix" them.  Don was transferred to a
military school in Atlanta and Bill was shipped to another university out
west.  They were not informed of the other's whereabouts.  In the end, as
much as they loved each other and missed each other, they both felt that
maybe it was best for all concerned if they didn't try to find each other.
As a result they completely lost track of each other.

Part Two

During the next twenty years Bill and Don led parallel lives.  They both
returned to Jacksonville to begin their lives after college.  Neither knew
that the other was in Jacksonville, and if they did they probably wouldn't
have sought each other out.  Each got married out of a sense of duty and
obligation to his parents.  Each had a son rather quickly, but neither had
much interest in sex with their wives, and both marriages ended in divorce.
Both fathers stayed close to their sons, and shared equal custody.  Neither
ever married again, but they both had covert, casual, occasional sex with
other men.  Finally, they shared one other common attribute.  They wanted
desperately to reunite with the other, but they didn't dare.  Besides, for
all they knew they were a continent apart.  A quick peek at the phone book
would have shown how wrong they were, but the foolish men didn't want to
know, or were afraid of the truth of their love.  The fear generated by
society, and by their parents' prejudice, ironically kept them apart.

Bill and Don were thirty-eight now and their sons were fifteen, the same
age they were when they began to make love to each other.  Bill's son
Darrin lived full time with him now.  Darrin's mother had married a Brit
when he was thirteen, and gone to live in London.  Neither she nor her
husband objected when Darrin expressed a desire to live with his father.
She was already pregnant and anxious to put her old life behind her and
start a new one in England.

Don's son, Mark, no longer split his time between his father and his
mother.  He preferred to stay with his father because his mother had
remarried and he could not stand the noise generated by his four younger
half brothers and sisters.  One day, he packed a couple of suitcases and
much to the delight of his mother, father, and step father, he announced
that he was going to live with Don full time.

What of Darrin and Mark?  Each had exceeded his father's height by one
inch.  Like their fathers they were blue eyed blonds.  They were both
athletes and worked out a lot so they were lean and hard.  They could
easily have passed as brothers themselves, so how would you distinguish
them?  Darrin wore thick glasses like his father, but had only recently
traded them for contact lenses.  So much for a distinguishing difference.

Recently, Bill could hardly drag himself out of bed every day to go to
work.  He didn't think much about it.  He had been very stressed at work
lately and he attributed his fatigue to work related problems.  But the
fatigue did not go away, and in fact it got worse.  He began to spend long
periods of time in bed.  Finally when he could hardly do his work, he left
the denial stage and went to see a doctor.

The doctor ran every test he could manage to schedule, and finally Bill was
diagnosed with liver cancer.  He was so far gone that the doctors said that
he was inoperable.  His greatest worry was what would happen to Darrin.
Darrin was equally devastated.  He had no relatives on his mother's side
and his grandparents were his only living relatives on his father's side.
He hated them and their holier than thou attitude that they expressed to
everyone they met.  They were particularly cruel to his father, and they
were the last people on earth he wanted to live with.  He was afraid that
he would have to move to London where he knew he was not welcome.

Several weeks before Bill died, he and Darrin were sitting on their
veranda.  Darrin was full of the fears of a fifteen year old, who had no
clue what lay ahead of him.  He decided to ask Bill a question that had
always disturbed him.  "Why do grandma and grandpa hate you so much?" he
asked out of the blue.  He thought if he had to go live with them, it might
be easier if he understood the rift between his grandparents and his
father.

Attitudes about homosexuality had changed a lot since Bill was fifteen and
he decided to tell Darrin the truth about his relationship with Don.  He
spoke for hours relating every detail of his years with Don going back as
far as he could remember up to the day his father caught the two young men
making love.  He braced himself for what was going to come.  He thought
perhaps that Darrin would reject him and declare that his grandparents were
right to hate him.  He was not expecting what happened next.

Darrin began to cry.  "Daddy," he said.  "How awful it must have been for
you and Don.  I wish there was something I could do."

"There's nothing really," Bill said.  "It's a long time over.  Why don't we
just go to bed?  I'm so tired."

As soon as Darrin gave Bill his meds and got him as comfortable as possible
in bed, he ran to his computer and googled his father's friend Donald
Moirer.  He started searching in Atlanta.  Bill had told Darrin that he had
heard through the grapevine that Don had gone to school there.  His search
did not show any likely candidates.  Don shared a birthday with his father,
and everyone who showed up was either too old or too young.  Then he
searched Florida thinking that maybe Don came home after graduation.  He
came upon several candidates, but one of the two most promising lived right
here in Jacksonville.  He was his father's age and lived with another
person, Mark Moirer.  Mark had to be a brother or a son.  Bill said that
Don had no siblings so it must be a son.

Darrin didn't want to pay any extra fees so at this point he went to the
local phone book and found Don in a jiffy.  He started to shake.  He wanted
to call, but he was frightened.  Finally, because he wanted to make his dad
happy before he died, he started to punch in the number.  His fingers began
to quiver and he had to try several times until at last he heard the phone
ringing on the other end.

Part Three

A hoarse voice said, "Hello."  Then Darrin heard someone clearing his
throat.  "Excuse me," the voice said clearly.  "Sorry about that."

"Is this Don Moirer?" Darrin asked timidly.

"You've got the right party," the friendly voice answered.  "Who is this?"

Ignoring the question, Darrin continued.  "Did you grow up with someone
named Bill Peters?"

There was a very long silence at the other end.  Finally there was an
answer.  The hoarse voice returned.  "My God," Don said.  "Yes.  Who is
this?"

"I'm his son, Darrin Peters.  Do you think that I could see you real soon?"

"Yes, of course.  Where are you?  Why are you calling now?"

"We live in Jacksonville, but on the other end of town from you.  My dad is
ill and I don't like leaving him alone at night.  School ends for the
summer tomorrow.  Do you think I could meet you for lunch near where you
work the day after that?"

"Yes, of course," Don said.  He told Darrin where he worked and arranged to
meet him at a nearby coffee shop.

"Why can't you leave your dad alone?  What's wrong with him?" Don asked.

"I'll tell you tomorrow," Darrin said, and hung up the phone.

Darrin couldn't sleep all night thinking about his meeting with Don.  He
wondered if he could confide in the man.  He couldn't tell his dying father
that he was gay, but maybe he could tell his father's former lover.  He
decided to just wait and see how it all played out.

The next morning before he went to school, Darrin called his mother.  It
was late morning in London and this was the time that he usually called
her.  He told her tearfully that Bill had very little time left, and he
didn't know what was to become of him.

"Well, you know that as much as I would love to have you, you can't come
here," his mother said.  "We have a tiny flat and there's hardly room for
your stepfather, me and your two sisters."

Darrin swallowed the bile that immediately invaded his mouth.  "It's quite
all right Mother," he said.  "I have no intention of moving to England."
He hung up the phone and cried bitterly.

The next day when Darrin walked into the coffee shop to meet his father's
one time lover, Don knew who he was immediately.  He was a clone of his
father.  Don was transported twenty years back in time, but something
wasn't quite right.  Oh yes, Darrin wasn't wearing ugly glasses like his
father used to wear.  That didn't mean that he was handsomer than his
father.  Glasses or no glasses, father and son were just as good looking.

The man and his friend's teen age son shook hands.  "You look just like
your father and you resemble my own son a good deal," Don informed Darrin.
Darrin remained silent.  They ordered tuna fish salad sandwiches and while
they were eating, Don asked the fatal question once more.  Darrin told him
about his father's cancer and how little time he had left.

Don began to cry.  "How did you know about me?" he asked.

"My father told me all about you, and how much he loved you.  I knew that
he would want to see you before he died.  Would you be willing to see him?"

"My God yes," Don answered.  "Why did you seek me out and want to reunite
me with your father?  Don't you hate both of us?"

"Hardly," the boy answered.  "I'm gay myself, but please don't tell my dad.
He doesn't know."  Before Don could react to Darrin's confession, Darrin
began to shake and cry.  "I've got to take out these contacts," he
declared.  He removed them, put them in a case and pulled out a pair of
heavy, horn rimmed glasses from his jacket.  Don almost fainted.  Sitting
in front of him was the only person he had ever loved.

They ordered pie and milk for dessert.  Darrin had lost his appetite and
couldn't eat the pie.  He started jabbing the ill fated dessert with his
fork and now it was Don's turn to cry.

"What's wrong?" Darrin asked.

"Nothing," the older man said. "It's just that your father did the same
thing.  He always jabbed at food with his fork if he didn't like it or
didn't want to eat it.  You are so like him that I find it more than I can
bear."

"Will you come to see him?" Darin asked.

"Of course I will.  Would tonight be too soon?"

Darin answered the door that evening and was surprised to see a young teen
ager with Don.  "This is my son Mark, "Don said.  "When you told me that
Bill had confided in you, I felt the need to confide in Mark.  He has been
most understanding.  I wanted you two to meet."  The two boys shook hands
and smiled at each other.  They could not believe how much they resembled
one another.

Darrin showed Don the door to Bill's bedroom.  "He doesn't get out of bed
much anymore.  At the same time he sleeps very little so why don't you go
right in.  He's expecting you.  Come with me, Mark.  Let's give our dads
some alone time."  Mark nodded and followed Darrin into the living room.

When Don entered Bill's room, he discreetly closed the door behind him.
"Don," Bill managed to raise his voice above a whisper, "come over here at
once."  Don came over and threw his arms around Bill.  They kissed
passionately but without tongue.  Obviously Bill was too tired and week.
Besides that he was crying softly.

"What fools we've been," he noted.

"Damn big fools," Don agreed.  "Why did we let our parents dictate our
lives?  They ruined mine, except for Mark's existence."

"Yes, you are so right.  Darrin is my reward for wasting my life so
foolishly."  They held each other tightly and Bill added, "You've come too
late, you know.  I only have a short time left, and I want to ask you for a
favor, a big one."

"Anything, dear heart, anything," Don answered.  "What is it?"

"I want to appoint you to be Darrin's guardian when I am gone.  The only
relatives he has are my tyrannical parents, and I suspect he's gay.  You
know what they would do to him, don't you?"

"You know then?" Don asked.  "He confided that knowledge to me, but asked
that I not tell you.  How ironic!"

"Will you do it and make a dying man happy?"

"Of course, I will.  Have you discussed it with Darrin?"

"I will if you say yes."

Bill died three weeks later.  Immediately, Darrin went to live with Mark
and Don.  Don helped Darrin sell his house, and the proceeds were set up as
a college fund for Darrin.  Darrin and Mark shared a bedroom.  Mark knew
that Darrin and his father were gay, but it didn't disturb him in the
least.  He loved his father and he was growing to love Darrin as a brother.
Like their fathers before them, the two young men even shared a room
together at the university they attended after high school graduation.
They both looked forward to school breaks and holidays so that they could
go home and spend the time with Don.

In their junior college year, Mark began to see a young woman, and there
were many nights he didn't sleep in their dorm room.  Darrin was glad for
him.  He had met and enjoyed a few other gay men, but that one special guy
still eluded him, and he envied Mark.  Mark got engaged shortly before
Christmas vacation.  He timidly told Darrin that he was spending the
Christmas break with Amanda and his future in-laws.  He felt awful for his
father and asked Darrin to help him break the news.

That evening Darrin called Don and told him that he was coming home alone
for Christmas.  He told his guardian how badly Mark felt about it.

"Let me talk to him," Don said.  Darrin handed Mark the phone.  "Look son,"
Don said.  You're all grown up, and you must do what's appropriate.  I knew
that someday we would have to cut the umbilical cord.  I just didn't know
where or when.  It's right that you be with your future wife and her
parents.  Please give them my love and best wishes."

"Thanks Dad," Mark sobbed a little.  "I love you."

Part Four

From the moment Darrin laid eyes on Mark he was smitten.  He fell in love
with this beautiful boy, but he suppressed how he felt.  He was content to
be loved as a brother, knowing full well that he and Mark could never,
would never, be physical lovers.

This was the first time that he and Don would be the only family around at
Christmas.  In a strange way it drew them closer together.  In his prayers
Don thanked Bill for handing over Darrin as his legacy, and Darrin thanked
Bill for providing him with a substitute family.

Don announced that he was going to prepare a Christmas feast, even if it
was just for the two of them.  Darrin insisted that he was going to help.
He removed his contact lenses and put on his glasses.  He always found the
contacts difficult to manage when he was occupied in some task or other.
When he walked into the kitchen with the ugly glasses framing his face, Don
had to grab the counter top to keep from passing out.  The boy was the
image of his father, even though he was older than Bill was when they last
saw each other as young boys.  Usually Don had a paternal feeling for
Darrin, but for the moment, his feeling was anything but paternal, and he
felt it in his groin.

Don felt Darrin's eyes piercing into him.  "What?" He asked.

"I was just thinking that Mark will look just like you in twenty years or
so.  I never saw such a strong resemblance."

"The resemblance between you and your dad is equally as astonishing.  It
brings to mind many old memories and too many old desires."  Don realized
that he had revealed too much and tried to change the subject.

"There are two onions over there.  Why don't you chop them up for the
stuffing?" he instructed Darrin.  Darrin could not move.  His guardian had
just confessed that he had feelings for him.  Well, maybe not for him, but
for his father.  But his father was dead, so it must be he who Don wanted.
A flurry of feelings invaded Darrin's body as he tried to digest this
spontaneous confession from Don.  Darrin had to admit that he had similar
homoerotic passions just now for Don, but he was sane enough to realize
that the attraction to Don was really for Don's unattainable son, who
looked just like him.

The room was filled with the electricity of sexual tension and each man
felt it acutely.  They both turned to their separate tasks and managed to
complete a gourmet dinner for two.  They made a traditional Christmas
dinner, but substituted two Cornish hens for turkey or goose.  During the
meal the horny young Darrin began to consider the possibility of seducing
his guardian and protector.  He wanted it badly but it was absurd.  He lost
his appetite and started jabbing at his food with his fork.  That was Don's
breaking point.  He began to think of Bill and started to sob
uncontrollably.

Darrin ran over to him and enveloped him in his arms. "Don, Don, what's
wrong?" he wanted to know.

Don hugged him tighter.  "Bill, my love," he cried, "I want you so badly."

"Then take me my sweetheart.  I want you also," Darrin encouraged Don.  He
knew that Don was fantasizing that he was his father, but he didn't care.
He wanted to give himself to Don, hoping that Don would believe that he was
making love to his father.  He led him upstairs to Don's bedroom.  All the
while they were kissing passionately.  In the bedroom they undressed as
speedily as possible.

When Don saw Darrin's naked body, he declared, "Your cock is as beautiful
as I remember it, my darling."  He fell to his knees and took Darrin's hard
tool into his mouth.  Darrin pulled away from him and lay down on the bed
on his back.  Don threw himself on top of Darrin.  Their cocks rubbed
together as they kissed passionately.

Don slithered down Darrin's body.  His tongue licked wherever his mouth
touched his ward's inviting body until at last he reached the cock so
recently and cruelly torn from his mouth.  He resumed suckling it.  Darrin
tried to delay his orgasm but it was too late.  He wanted to warn Don, but
he had lost his voice, and his rich and creamy juice gushed into Don's
gullet.

When all Darrin's jism was downed, Don said, "Oh darling.  You taste just
as I remember you did."  He turned and lay beside Darrin.  They kissed and
groped each other's bodies, but Darrin made no attempt to reciprocate.  If
truth be told, he was too scared.

As they held each other tighter, Don asked, "Darrin, do you think that what
we did was wrong?"  Don was finally out of his dream world.  He called
Darrin by his name and admitted that he knew whose cock had been in his
mouth.  Darrin was glad.

"How could it be wrong to make love to someone you adore and want to spend
eternity with?"  Darrin answered.

"Eternity is a very long time," Don said.

"It's not too long a time if I spend it with you.  But what will Mark say?"

"He'll have to deal with it all by himself.  I wasted twenty five years
worrying about other people's feelings, their prejudices, shames and
embarrassments.  I'm not going to be foolish enough to fall into the same
trap.  I want my life back, and I want to spend it with you.  I hope Mark
will give us his blessing, but if he doesn't, so be it."

When Mark and Darrin returned to school, Darrin revealed to Mark his new
relationship with his father.  Mark had nothing to say, which just about
drove Darrin crazy.

"For God's sake say something," Darrin begged.

"Will you be my best man at my wedding?" Mark responded.

"What?"

"I asked you to be my best man."

"Thanks, but that's not good enough.  Your dad and I need your blessing,"
Darrin insisted.

"Look," Mark said.  "Aside from Amanda I love you and my father more than
any other people in the world.  I want you both to be happy.  My father has
never really been happy his whole life.  You make him happy, so I give you
my blessing even though you don't need it.  You'll do whatever you please
anyway.  Now you tell me; will you be my best man?"

"I'd be honored," Darrin said.  "Now do me a favor and call your dad.  He's
dying to know what your reaction is."

"Just one thing before I call him," Mark said.  "Don't ever for one minute
think that I'll call you daddy."  He broke out in gales of laughter and
hugged his friend with all his might.