All About Justin
 

Chapter 6

 

“Do you intend to pursue this land thing?” Bobby asked Justin as they loaded up the dishwasher with the dinner dishes.

After dinner, John and Patrick retreated up to John’s office to go over Patrick’s homework and to talk about the progress John was making in his thesis. Brian and Bree went back to their side to clean up the kitchen. That left Justin and Bobby alone to discuss the Kinney promissory notes.

“Of course, I intend to pursue them.”

“To what end?”

“What do you mean? You already know that I won’t evict anyone.”

“I know. Do you intend to have the guys sign the deeds over to whoever is living on the property?”

“Yes. And if the property is a wreck, we’ll clean it up.”

“Okay, just checking. Sidney emailed me the copies of the notes he found. He’s right about it being a large tract of land. Kinney apparently was trying to prevent his community from being ruined. He probably would have succeeded if he didn’t eventually have other pursuits that took precedent.”

“You mean Patrick.”

“Yes. I’m having an investigator track down each parcel of land and the current owners.”

“But I thought...”

“Justin, I realize that you wanted to do the investigative work yourself but do you really have the time it takes?”

“No, I really don’t. I have so many commissions to do and I really wanted to work on my sketch project.”

“Then let my investigators do their work. This is all they do and they do it well. Once we have all the facts then we can formulate a plan.”

“That sounds reasonable.”

“What also sounds reasonable is that you take some time from your painting to spend with your family. I’m giving you the same advice I gave John when he began to work on his thesis. Build in time in your day to spend with Bree and Brian. They need it. You need it.”

“Okay,” Justin said contritely then hugged his brother-in-law closely to him.

“A-hem!” John stood in the door way clearing his throat loudly.

“My sentiments exactly,” Brian said with an arch of his brow. “Looks like our twinks are conspiring,” Brian teased.

“I’m not a twink!” came the patented response then matching sunny smiles that melted the Kinney men’s hearts.

“Let’s go home, Sunshine,” Brian said as he held out his hand for Justin. Fingers entwined, Brian and Justin went back to their side of Edna’s Treasures.

“Everything all right?” John murmured into Bobby’s ear as he embraced the younger man.

“Everything’s just fine,” Bobby assured his spouse as they walked into their living room.

 

*****
 

When Brian came home from the garden center he found Justin sitting in the sun porch looking over the mock-up invitations that he and Bree had created. It was still cold outside, too cold to do any real gardening, but the March sun had warmed the soil just enough to allow a few crocus and grape hyacinths to make their appearance. Spring was in the air; Brian was ready for it.

“Whatcha doin’, Sunshine?” Brian pulled up a chair to sit next to Justin.

“Looking at the cards you made up. You did a great job.”

“If I can sell disgusting wine coolers, made by a well known homophobic bastard, to gay men, I think I can handle selling a party to a bunch of little girls,” Brian said smugly.

“Yes, you can. You can do anything you’ve set your mind to. You have so much confidence in your abilities. I’ve always admired that quality in you.”

“Justin...”

“Don’t, Brian, don’t say it. I know I’m a good artist. I wouldn’t be this successful if I wasn’t. That’s not the point.”

“What is the point?”

“Your integrity. Your honesty.”

“Justin.”

“Bri, even in the bad old days, you were always honest with me. You never lied. You told me that at the time you couldn’t say the words, even though I know that somewhere in your heart you did love me. You were straight with your tricks. And you had integrity when it came to your career.”

“I like to think I still do.”

“Yes, you do. I’m sure your clients can all attest to that.”

“What is it, Justin? You can tell me anything.”

“I did it again. I went behind your back.”

Brian bristled as he arched his brow waiting for Justin to continue. Justin took in a big gulp of air then proceeded to tell Brian of his encounter.

“So let me get this straight. This Farringer person wants to donate twenty thousand dollars to the clinic, but first he wants to apologize to me in person for stealing my ad ideas over twenty years ago?”

Justin nodded.

“Well fuck me!”

“Do you remember the guy?”

“Vaguely. Flooring you said?” Justin nodded. Brian searched his memory banks for anything about the client. “Farringer Flooring. I think the TV ad was going to show just bare feet running through a house. A mother and a father chasing their toddler through a house. Each room was going to feature a different type of flooring. Yeah, that was it. Very benign and hetero friendly. But I figured it was a young company and they needed something more mainstream to give them a good start. I was going to suggest to Ryder that when they renewed their contract that Farringer expand to include the alternative families. But we never got the chance. Farringer pulled the ad. I later saw something like it in print ads, but I don’t think they ever went with the TV ad. And now he wants to make restitution after all this time?”

“Apparently. He read Hawk’s Prey and now wants to right a wrong.”

“So why the long face, Sunshine?”

“Because I lied to you. I went to the Pitts to see Farringer, not to meet with Sidney.”

“But knowing you, you went to the gallery anyway.” Justin nodded. “A little white lie. No harm, no foul.”

“You’re not angry?”

“No. You probably thought I’d go ballistic and punch out the guy.”

“Something like that.” Justin thought that was exactly what Brian would do.

“I think I’m too old for that shit and if you ever repeat that I will have to kill you,” Brian snarked, as he snaked his arm around Justin’s shoulder. Justin chuckled with relief.

“I’ll never tell.”

“See that you don’t,” Brian said as he pulled out his cell phone.

“Who are you calling?”

“The master of social work. I want him to set up the meet. If it means more money for the center, I can play nice. And who knows, maybe this Farringer person has seen the light. Maybe he’s ready for some real advertising,” Brian said with a straight face.

Justin broke out into laughter. “Always thinking about the bottom line, aren’t you?”

“Always thinking about your bottom line, Sunshine,” Brian said as he patted Justin’s ass. “Hunter!” Brian said with enthusiasm into his phone. “How’s it hangin’?”

Justin laughed as Brian schmoozed with Hunter.

 

*****
 

“Daaady.”

“Yes, Baby Girl,” Justin said as he was preparing another canvas.

“I think I’ve decided to invite Winona to my sleepover.”

“Oh? What changed your mind?”

“Dada said that I should never underestimate people because they may surprise me and I might have a friend for life.”

Justin stopped what he was doing so that he could face Bree. “Do you know what that means?”

“I think so.”

“Tell me.”

“I think it means like what Rage says in the Diversity DVD. Never judge a person until you really get to know them, and that it's good to have all kinds of friends. And Dada said that he knew two people that turned out to be his best friends of all time. Who, Daddy?”

“I think Dada means Uncle Teddy and Auntie Emm, sweetheart.”

“Oh. But Auntie Emm and Unca Teddy are Dada’s bestest friends.”

“But they weren’t always, at least I didn’t think they were. But they turned out to be Dada’s bestest friends.”

“I’m glad they are, ‘cause I love them.”

“So do I, Baby Girl, and so does your Dada. He loves them with all his heart,” Justin said as he hugged his daughter. “How about we make up a card for Winona before I start to work on my painting.”

“Okay, Daddy. Thank you!”

“You’re welcome, Baby Girl,” Justin said giving Bree a kiss on her cheek. Father and daughter went to Bree’s art table to work on their project....together.

Up above, just out of sight Brian, working in his attic office, smiled.

 

*****
 

“Patrick, are you sure you don’t want to come to my birthday party?” Bree asked. The children were sitting at Bree’s table in the sun porch. He was helping her put some finishing touches on the invitations for her party.

“Not with all those girls … and Winona,” Patrick said emphatically.

“Winona’s a girl.”

“Not so you’d notice.”

Bree stared at her cousin. “I’d like you to come to my party,” she said sweetly, batting her blonde lashes at him.

“That’s not going to work, Bree. I’m not coming.”

Bree sighed. “Pweeze,” she couldn’t resist saying. It was worth a shot.

“Nope!”

Bree knew then that she was not going to get her way on this one. “Okay,” she said dejectedly.

“You don’t need to sound like that,” Patrick said. “You girls can play princess and giggle and talk about other girls. You don’t need me there.”

Bree frowned. “How do you know that’s what we’ll do?”

“That’s what girls always do,” Patrick replied, like it was a foregone conclusion.

“Maybe,” Bree admitted. “Patrick, if Winona is mean, can you yell at her for me?”

Patrick laughed. “I think your dads should do that.”

“Oh.”

“Winona wouldn’t listen to me anyway.”

“I listen to you.”

“I know you do. I like it when you listen to me.”

“You’re smart.”

“Thanks,” Patrick said with a big smile.

Bree grinned at one of her favorite people in the whole world.

 

*****
 

Justin stood staring at his blank easel. He knew he should be starting another one of his commissions, but something else was gnawing away inside him. He glanced from the blank canvas to his sketchbook which was propped up carefully on the table beside him. He looked at the sketch of Brian that he had remembered from so long ago.

The sketchbook was starting to disintegrate. The bottoms of all the pages were burnt. The charred, brown edges still held on some pages, but gradually they were breaking away, and there was little Justin could do to prevent its disintegration.

It was open to a sketch of Brian with a rather severe look on his face. This was one of the early sketches of Brian before he found the happiness that he now seemed to have in his family and his business and himself. The sketch spoke of a seriousness, a determination and an integrity that Justin had always seen in his husband. Not everyone else would have spotted that in Brian.

Justin realized that his talk with Brian about Farringer had caused him to dig out this old sketch. He also realized that he wanted to preserve that look and that integrity. The sketchbook was the one he had saved from his burning locker at St. James, when Chris Hobbs and his buddies had set it on fire.

Now all he had to decide was how he was going to paint this portrait of Brian. He was toying with abstracting certain aspects of Brian’s face to portray what he saw in his husband, but the more he thought about it, the less he liked the idea of abstraction. He wanted to preserve this Brian from the sketchbook. He would make it as close to the sketch as he could, and the colors would be totally realistic too. That wasn’t much like what his paintings looked like nowadays, but he somehow knew that this should be the way this particular portrait should look.

He studied the sketch a little longer. He remembered the shirt that Brian had been wearing when Justin had made the sketch. It looked dark in the sketch, but it was really the soft blue-gray one that Justin had loved on Brian. It had long ago gone to shirt heaven, but it was still one of Justin’s all time favorites on Brian.

Knowing that, Justin picked up a pencil and started to sketch the face of God on his canvas.

 

*****
 

When Brian came down the stairs from his office some time later, Justin immediately flipped a cover over his work.

“What’s up with that?” Brian asked. Little got past his observant eyes.

“What?” Justin asked in return, trying to sound totally innocent.

“You haven’t covered up your work like that for years. You’re usually happy for me to see it. I thought you valued my opinion.”

“I do,” Justin said sincerely. “You know I do.”

“Then what’s with hiding it from me?”

“It’s something I don’t want you to see until it’s finished,” Justin explained.

“But I thought you were working on one of your commissions. Why don’t you want me to see it?”

“It’s not a commission. It’s something … very personal,” Justin said, deliberately being vague.

“I’ve seen your nudes of me before.”

“It’s not a nude,” Justin chuckled.

“Am I doing something naughty?”

“It’s not a nude,” Justin repeated.

“Something nasty?”

Justin laughed out loud. “No.”

“I don’t need to be totally naked to do naughty or nasty things,” Brian reminded his husband with a waggle of his brows. “You should know that.”

“Oh I do!”

“Then let me see it.”

“Unh unh,” Justin replied.

“What is it?” Brian asked, now getting quite curious about what Justin was creating.

“Can you be patient for a couple of days until it’s finished? I think you’ll like it, but I want it to be a surprise.”

“Hm, surprises. They don’t always turn out to be what they are billed as.”

“True, but this one will.” Justin was very happy with how the painting was going so far.

“Okay, I’ll wait. I am a man of infinite patience,” Brian professed.

“Riiight,” Justin said, as Brian advanced on him and gave him a toe curler of a kiss. “No sneaking a peek while you’re kissing me,” he advised when Brian let him come up for air.

“Daddy, Dada,” Bree called as she ran into the sun porch from John and Bobby’s side. Patrick was close on her heels.

“What is it, Squirt?” Brian asked, not releasing Justin from the hug he still held him in.

“We’re hungry,” Bree said.

“Yeah, real hungry!” Patrick emphasized.

“Don’t your fathers have food over there?” Brian demanded.

“Nothing we want,” Bree said matter-of-factly.

“And just what is it you want?”

“Cookies,” both children stated.

“Cookies?” Justin asked.

“Yep, it has to be cookies. Can we bake some?” Bree asked.

Justin shook his head as Brian finally released him. “We have to teach Bobby or John Susan’s recipe for chocolate chip cookies.”

“They don’t want to learn it,” Brian said knowingly.

“I kind of thought so.”

“Have you got time?”

“I need a break,” Justin replied. “Can you get out the stuff we need, and I’ll put my painting up in the rafters.”

“Does that mean you don’t trust me not to look?” Brian asked with a smirk.

“Better not to leave temptation in your path.”

Brian nodded in agreement. “Come on, tater tots, let’s get started on those cookies.”

“We’re not tater tots, Uncle Bri,” Patrick protested.

“No, you’re a pair of cookie monsters.”

Bree and Patrick giggled as they followed Brian into the kitchen.

Justin lifted the cover on his painting. He loved the way it was coming along. He dropped the cover back down and cranked it up into the top of the sun porch. He would have lots of time when Bree was in school to work on his masterpiece.
 

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