Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 10:08:45 -0500
From: Jeff Allen <jeff_allen15@hotmail.com>
Subject: "Love of a Lifetime" Chapter 36

This is a fictional story dealing with love and consensual sexual
activities between males.  If you are not of legal age, reside in an area
where viewing such material is illegal, or are offended by homosexuality
and/or homosexual themes, leave this site now.

The author retains all rights to this story.  No reproductions or links to
other sites are allowed without the permission of the author.

Note: I owe a special thanks to Robb for doing the final proofreading and
catching all those silly little errors that I missed.

LOVE OF A LIFETIME


PART 36

     The news that he had a child had clearly stunned Andy.  I had to admit
I hadn't taken the news real lightly either.

     "I'm a father?"  Andy whispered as he starred at Mr. Beach.

     "Yes.  His name is Gregory Andrew Hatcher.  We call him Greg.  He's
five years old.  Would you like to see some pictures?"

     "Yes."  Again Andy's voice was barely audible.

     Mr. Beach pulled a thick envelope from his jacket pocket and handed it
to Andy.  It was full of photos of one of the cutest little boys I'd ever
seen.  My first reaction following the shock of hearing that my lover and
partner had a child was that Andy's ex-wife had gotten pregnant after she
was out in California and just blamed Andy for convenience sake, but once I
got a look at the photos there was no doubt.  Clearly this was Andy's son!
He looked just like I imagined Andy would have looked at that age.  Big
dark eyes, beautiful smile, cute little nose in a face framed by curly dark
brown hair.  He was the spitting image of Andrew Robert Hatcher!

     Andy finally found his voice.  "C.Z., would you see if we have any
scotch.  I think I need a drink.  Tom, would you like one?"

     Mr. Beach nodded.

     I found the booze, filled three glasses with ice and returned to the
couch.  I set the glasses down on the coffee table and poured a generous
portion of scotch into each.  Andy and I took a big gulp of ours.
Mr. Beach just sipped his.

     "Andy, I know that finding out about Andrea and Greg is a shock, but
the shock isn't over yet."

     "What do you mean?"

     "After Andrea was killed, Jane and I continued to raise the boy.
Hell, we were the ones doing the raising anyway.  Andrea was too busy with
her damned career to pay as much attention to Greg as she should have.

     "We were doing a good job of raising Greg, but last January Jane
suddenly had a stroke and died."

     "Oh, Tom, I'm so sorry."

     Tom wiped away a tear before continuing, "Thank you.  It's okay.  I
miss her terribly, but I'll be joining her soon.  You see, I have
pancreatic cancer.  It's inoperable and growing fast.  The doctors tell me
that at best I have a couple of months.  I've come to see if you'll take
your son."

     He looked at both of us, and his voice grew stronger.  "Andy and C.Z.,
I have to admit I was shocked to find out that you're gay.  My first
thought was to leave without telling you about Greg, but then I saw the way
both of you interacted with that neighbor boy.  I knew right then that you
would be a good father...that both of you would be good fathers to my
grandson."

     Andy drained the remaining scotch from his glass.  I followed suit.
Tom Beach continued to sip slowly at his.

     "Tom, this is so sudden.  I think I'm stunned.  Of course I want to
meet my son.  I...I just have so many questions.  C.Z. and I are both
students right now.  I need to discuss this with him before I can make any
commitment."

     Mr. Beach nodded his head.  "I understand."

     I put my hand on Andy's arm.  "Andy, we don't have a choice.  Your son
needs to know his father.  My father abandoned mom and me when things got
tough.  Your parents died when you were little so you never even knew your
father.  We can't let that happen to your son."

     I thought both Mr. Beach and Andy were going to cry for a second.

     Andy put his hand over mine.  "You're right.  There really isn't a
choice in this."

     He turned to Tom Beach.  "When can I meet my son?"

     "Come back to San Francisco with me.  I've got a flight out of
Charlotte the day after tomorrow."

     Andy looked at me, and I nodded.  He turned to Mr. Beach and said,
"I'm taking a summer school course.  I need to check with my professor.
Finals for the first summer term are next week.  Maybe he'll let me take
the exam early or give me an incomplete for the course.  One way or the
other, I'll be going to California with you on that flight."

     The relief was evident on Mr. Beach's face.  Suddenly his body sagged.
"I need to get back to the hotel.  This has been a very tiring day for me."

     He rose slowly from the chair.  Andy and I stood as he rose and helped
him get to his feet.

     Andy helped Tom out the door and down the stairs of the apartment.
  I took our empty glasses into the kitchen.  I put Tom's glass in the
sink, put more ice in mine and Andy's, returned to the couch, and poured
another round of scotch for both of us.

     Gary Williams and Larsen came bounding up the stairs.  Larsen came
over to greet me with a wet doggie kiss.  I got a hug and a kiss on the
cheek from Gary.

     "Hey, Tiger.  It's getting late.  Why don't you take your shower and
get ready for bed."

     "Can I stay up just a little longer?"

     I cocked an eyebrow at him.

     "Okay, okay, but if I go to bed early, I'll get up early."

     "Tiger, you ALWAYS get up early.  Now hit the shower."

     "Okay, can Larsen sleep with me?"

     "Doesn't he usually sleep with you?"

     "Yeah."  He gave me another hug and started shedding clothes as he
headed toward the bathroom.

     Andy came back in while Gary was in the shower.  I simply raised his
glass of scotch to him as I headed into the bathroom to check on Gary.
Andy took his glass and settled into the chair.

     Gary was drying himself with a big towel when I walked in.  I don't
know when kids start being able to take showers without getting water all
over the bathroom, but Gary wasn't at that stage yet.  There were big
puddles of water on the floor.

     Since little Gary stayed over at our place so often, we had an
established routine for the pre-bed shower.  After drying himself with the
towel, I would check to be sure he had all of the shampoo rinsed out of his
hair and do a quick inspection to see that there weren't any obvious
patches of dirt still left on his body.  Gary would squirm and giggle some
as I checked behind his ears and on his neck.  When I was done with the
inspection, he would pull his foreskin back to show me that he had cleaned
the head of his dick as well as the rest of his body.  At that point I
usually tickled him in the ribs or playfully swatted his behind which was
his signal to brush his teeth with the extra toothbrush that we kept just
for him.

     After brushing and rinsing, he would pee before trying to leave the
bathroom.  I always caught him at that point and reminded him to wipe up
the floor and fold the towel over the rack.  Clean up completed, he would
streak naked through the apartment into Justin's bed.  Kathy used to send
over pajamas with him, but she had finally admitted defeat since the
pajamas always went back unused.  Gary had made his point about sleeping in
the nude like the "big guys".

     That night I tucked him into Justin's bed and got a goodnight kiss.
Larsen settled down on the floor next to the bed.  I knew he would be up in
the bed with Gary as soon as I left the room.  I turned off the light, and
went back into the living room to talk with "daddy" Andy.

     I sat on the couch opposite Andy who was still in the chair.  I raised
my glass of scotch and said, "Here's a toast to fatherhood."

     I could tell from the look on Andy's face that he was still trying to
process the information about being a father.  I had to laugh.

     "I guess there is some humor in this."

     "Humor is the only way to handle this, Andy."

     "You've got that right!"

     We went to bed and talked for another two hours or so.  Andy had
planned on taking another course toward his MBA in the second summer
session, but we decided that he should go out to California with Tom Beach
and stay there for the rest of the summer so he and his new found son could
become familiar with one another.  We figured that if Andy took the laptop
computer with him, he could continue to do most of the bookkeeping for
Jamal's business from there almost as well as he had from our apartment.

     We also talked about the changes that would have to occur in our lives
because of the unforeseen parental responsibilities.  Both of us knew we
didn't have any choice in the matter, but we couldn't escape being
apprehensive.

     When our conversation began winding down, I slid my head under the
sheets and took Andy's soft dick into my mouth.  I rolled his fleshy tube
around in my mouth and enjoyed the sensation of feeling it grow harder,
thicker, and longer as I worked on it.  Andy's hands were playing in my
hair.

     My cock hardened along with Andy's.  When he was completely hard, I
moved in between his legs and began rolling his balls around with my tongue
as I slowly jacked his saliva-slick erection.  Andy spread his legs and I
moved my oral attentions from his balls to his asshole.  I licked around
his pucker, playing with the hairs surrounding his rosebud and then began
probing his hole with my tongue as I continued to jack his cock.  I
straddled one of Andy's legs as I ate out his ass.  He moved his leg so
that his big toe moved up and down over my own asshole.  I slowly humped
his hairy shin.

     Neither of us said anything.  There was a lot of moaning from both of
us, but no words were spoken.  I was really "in" to giving him pleasure.

     I sensed his approaching climax in a growing tension in the muscles of
his legs and in the fact that his balls were now drawn tightly up against
the base of his pole and were no longer moving up and down as I manipulated
his dick.

     His whole body tensed, and his asshole clenched around my tongue.  I
felt his cum spurting out the end of his cock.  I had my own climax against
his hairy shin as he was spewed the last of his cum onto his stomach.

     I moved up his body licking his cum from around the head of his
softening dick and cleaning the pools of cum on his stomach and chest.
When my head was level with his again, I leaned in and kissed him sharing
the last of his cream with him.

     He pulled me against him, and we fell asleep with my head in the crook
of his arm and his still erect nipple pressed into my cheek.

                       **********

     The next day was a whirlwind of preparation for Andy's trip to meet
his son.  We talked over the situation with Kevin, Kathy, Doc, and Matt who
were all as supportive as humanly possible.  Andy felt badly that he
wouldn't be keeping up his part of the bargain to help with the renovations
on the house, but Kevin told him not to worry about it and that we were way
ahead of schedule as it was.  We wouldn't miss his help.  Gary Williams
heard us all talking and was excited about having a little "brother" next
door.

     Jamal was also supportive about Andy's trip even though it would mean
some additional work for him in managing the financial aspects of his
businesses.  Andy's professor in the summer school course wasn't very
pleased with the idea of Andy leaving class before the end.  He gave Andy a
hard time at first, but then finally consented to giving Andy an incomplete
for the course as long as Andy took the final exam before the start of the
fall semester.

     Andy talked with Tom Beach a number of times by phone during the day,
and we met him for dinner that evening.  Tom was obviously very tired, and
I noticed he didn't eat very much of his dinner.

                      ***********

     I dropped Andy off at Tom Beach's hotel the next morning.  Andy would
be driving Tom and his rental car down to the airport for the trip to
California.  As I drove back to the apartment I wondered just how
parenthood was going to affect our lives.  Was I up to the challenge?  Was
Andy?

                       **********

     Over the next couple of weeks Andy and I talked on the phone every
night (early evening California time).  Andy and his son seemed to be
bonding well.  They went to a couple of ball games and the zoo as they got
to know one another.  Andy made sure that I talked to Greg each time also.
He started calling me "Uncle C.Z."

     Tom Beach's condition worsened rapidly.  Both Andy and I thought he
had held himself together just long enough to make the arrangements for his
grandson.  Having taken care of that duty, Tom was able to face his death
with a sense of acceptance.

                       **********

     The renovations on the house were finished in the middle of July which
was almost two weeks ahead of our original schedule.  The Williamses, Doc,
and Matt helped me move all of our things over to the new downstairs
apartment.  Kevin wanted to repaint the garage apartment before Justin and
Megan moved in on the first of August.  Cory and Jason went ahead and moved
their things into the third floor apartment a couple of days later.

     Brian, Sergei, Stephen, and Mike weren't scheduled to move in until
August so there was an empty apartment between my new bedroom and Cory and
Jason.  That was a good thing.  Jason told me that he and Cory had
"inaugurated" their new digs by having sex in every room.  Previously they
had been living with two straight roommates in Jason's old apartment so
their lovemaking had been confined to the bedroom.  They seemed to enjoy
the new freedom to screw each other whenever and wherever they wanted!
Cory told me it was what he imagined a honeymoon was like.  I laughed.

     Two days after moving in, I had Jason, Cory, Ron Kestler, and DeShuan
McMillan over for burgers, potato salad, and strawberry shortcake.  It had
been almost a year since Ron told me he was gay on the same night that
Jason showed up on my doorstep after being thrown out by his father when
the old bastard found out Jason was gay.  Cory had arrived in our lives
later that summer after fleeing his family and Greensboro.  Sadly, neither
Jason nor Cory had any contact with their parents since being kicked out.
I couldn't understand how any parent could just cut a child out of their
life like Jason's and Cory's parents had done.

     Ron had finally come out to his parents after they kept asking why he
was spending so much time with DeShuan.  They'd had a rough time with the
idea at first, but they seemed to be coming around to an acceptance of both
Ron's sexuality and his love for a big black State Trooper.  They'd even
had Dee over to the house for Sunday supper a couple of times.  Ron and Dee
were making plans to move in together in the fall.

     The "party" broke up around eleven that night.  Cory and Jason climbed
the stairs to their apartment discussing which room to "play" in before
going to bed.  Dee and Ron were a little tipsy from the beers (so was I for
that matter), and they didn't want to chance a drive back to Dee's
apartment so I made up the spare bed for them to spend the night.

     It was just barely getting light the next morning when I felt a small
body getting under the sheets with me.  Gary Williams was still in the
habit of staying over most nights during the summer and having breakfast
with me.  He'd stayed at his house the previous night because I was having
guests, but now he was snuggling into bed with me.

     "Good morning, Tiger.  This is early even for you."

     "I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep.  I was thinking about Andy
then I thought you might be thinking about him too."

     "Yeah, I miss him."

     "I miss him too."  I felt Gary's naked little body press up against
mine.

     "Did you come over here naked like that?"

     He giggled.  "No.  I put some p.j. bottoms on before I came over.  I
took them off before I got in bed with you."

     "I'm glad you didn't streak over here in the buff.  That would have
given the neighbors a real shock."

     He giggled again and settled in under my arm and hugged me.  "I can go
back to sleep now."

     "Good.  See you in the morning."

     We slept for another couple of hours before the phone rang.  I glanced
at the clock before answering.  It read 6:30 a.m.  I knew who had to be
calling.

     "Andy?"

     "Hi, babe.  How'd you know it was me?"

     "Who else would be calling now.  It must still be the middle of the
night out there.  What's wrong?"

     "Tom died about an hour ago."

     "I'm sorry, Andy.  How's Greg?"

     "He doesn't know yet.  I'll tell him when he wakes up.  Tom went
quietly in his sleep.  The Hospice nurse and I were sitting with him when
he stopped breathing.  He was in a lot of pain the last couple of days, but
yesterday he seemed better.  He talked with Greg and me for a couple of
hours in the afternoon before going to sleep."

     "What can I do?"

     "Get out here as soon as you can.  There aren't any relatives.  Tom's
going to be cremated like Jane was, but I think there should be more at his
service than just the minister, Greg, and me."

     "I'll call the airlines right now.  Let you know as soon as I can."

     "Thanks.  I love you, C.Z.  Looks like we're really parents now."

     "You always were a parent.  You just didn't know it until this summer.
I love you too.  I'll be there as soon as I can."

     I hung up the phone and felt Gary hugging my back.

     "Is Mr. Beach dead?"

     "Yes."

     "Are you going out to California?"

     "Yes."

     "When will you and Andy be bringing Greg back here?"

     "I don't know yet, Tiger.  Probably in a couple of weeks or so."

     "C.Z.?"

     "Yeah, Tiger?"

     "I'll try to be a good 'big brother' for Greg.  You know, show him all
the stuff to do here like the park and school and all."

     I hugged him closer.  "I think Greg's going to be a very lucky kid to
have you looking out for him."

     He smiled.  "Thanks.  Do you have any Fruit Loops for breakfast?"

     "I sure do."  I gave his bare behind a light pop with my hand.  "Now
get your butt back into your pajama bottoms so we can have breakfast.  I
have to find out about planes out to California."

(To be continued)