All About Justin
 

Chapter 8

 

“Hey Justin,” Bobby said as Justin walked into Bobby’s office. “Twice in one month, I didn’t think you cared,” Bobby teased.

“Har, har. You make a much better lawyer than you do a comedian,” Justin commented as he plopped himself into a chair.

“So you’ve driven all this way into Harrisburg to insult me?” Bobby said as he began to laugh.

“No,” Justin said trying to keep a straight face. “I wanted to know if your investigators came up with anything.”

“And this couldn’t wait until I got home?”

“I needed more paint and pencils anyway.”

“You’ve been working very hard lately. Your hand okay?” Bobby asked in all seriousness. After all these years, Justin still felt the after-effects of the bashing.

“I’m fine. I’ve been switching back and forth from painting to sketching. That seems to help.”

“Good. The big guy gets himself all worked up into a snit if he thinks you’re hurting.”

“I know, nothing gets past his eyes. So, have your investigators reported back to you?”

“Actually they did. I just got the preliminary report a few minutes ago.”

“And?”

“You’re not going to believe this.”

“What?!”

“Well, we knew about Claire’s house and surrounding land which includes the farm.”

“Yeah.”

“But other deeds and notes also include most of Bridgeton and some derelict mines.”

“Mines? As in coal mines?”

“Yup, and a few more properties close to our lane.”

“Wait a minute! Did we buy back our own land?” Justin asked as he rolled his eyes in disbelief.

Bobby chuckled. “No, but you’re getting warm.”

“Not the new Muncherville! Melanie would have a cow.” Justin and Bobby cracked up.

“No, no. But there are a few small plots of land near Camp Little Flowers and the kids’ school.”

“Which plots? Are there families involved?”

“Just one, most of it is public land.”

“Who’s the family?”

“Ashley and Susanna St. John.”

“Fuck!”

“Yup.”

“So what do we do about it?”

“Go home and tell the guys. They are the rightful Kinney heirs. Truthfully, I’m more concerned about the mines.”

“You mean the danger?”

“No, the waste. The byproducts of mining can be hazardous to the environment.”

“Would we be responsible?”

“Legally? I doubt it. If the property was legally leased then it should be the responsibility of the mining company to clean up after itself. I can get an environmental agency involved to do some testing. But I’d prefer to discuss that when we’re all together.”

“Then I think we should go home.”

“Justin, before you go I want to hear it from you again. What do you intend to do about this?”

“I want to give the land over to the people who are living on it.”

“But this is not about you.”

“So we’ll talk to John and Brian.”

“And Brian will do exactly what you want him to, because he’ll hear your PSA, see those big baby blues of yours and sign on the dotted line. He may growl and grumble but he will do it. John, will listen to the facts, he’ll probably read all the reports then go out to investigate on his own. He is the rock man like Brian said. But he will do what you want as well.”

“What are you implying?”

“Justin, you know as well as I do the power you have over the Kinney men.”

“What are you saying?!”

“I’m saying that Brian Kinney looks at you and sees that beautiful naive seventeen year old full of life and champing at the bit to learn all there is to learn about being gay. He does all that’s in his power to keep that smile on your face.

“John looks at you and sees what you represent. A sort of freedom, a truth. You were the first gay man he met, out and proud and willing to talk about it.”

“But Brian...”

“Brian’s different. He’s out, but not obvious. His reserve is something John can relate too.”

“And I’m obvious.”

“Not in a bad way. He’s fascinated by your love and passion for life, and your love and passion for Brian. Before meeting you and Brian, John never knew such love.”

“But he loves you so much.”

“I know that and I love him. We complement each other; he’s the other part of me. But there’s something about you that he can’t resist.”

“But I never...”

“I know that too. I think it’s that Taylor loving Kinney gene. The Kinney men can’t help but fall in love with you.”

“John’s not in love with me.”

“No, he’s not. He has paternal feelings for you apart from his fascination for you. He believes in you and admires your perseverance. Justin, let me present the facts to both of them. They will do the right thing. You know they will. I just want them to make up their minds about it without trying to please you. Besides, you are a big flirt,” Bobby teased, trying to take the sting from his words.

“Okay. And I’m not a flirt!” Justin insisted.

“Oh bull. You were probably born with a flirt gene. I can see it now, little baby Justin, three white blond hairs on your head and big blue eyes. Bree has it and so does Taylor. It’s an innate thing and when there’s a Kinney within a hundred yards...bam! The Kinney walls come tumbling down. They don’t stand a chance.”

“Now I know why you’re such a great lawyer.”

“Why?”

“Because you were born with the bullshit gene.”

“And here I thought it was my years of study and my logical mind.”

“Nope, pure bullshit. However, I do see your point. This isn’t all about me. This is something the guys should make up their own minds about without any pressure from me. I didn’t realize how much trouble this can potentially cause. So we should go home and you can present your report logically.”

“I agree. Meet you there,” Bobby said as he began to pack up his briefcase, placing the report safely inside it. Justin nodded as he left the office for home.

Shortly after the children went to bed, Bobby gathered the men of Edna’s Treasures into the sun porch.

“I have the preliminary report from the investigators who are looking into the Kinney deeds and notes,” Bobby began as he passed copies of the report to John and Brian. “As you can see, most of the land is public and state land although according to the first survey, it looks like the school that our kids go to may sit on a piece of it.”

“Is this the camp?” John asked. He had no problem reading the survey.

“Yes,” Bobby confirmed.

“I see no problem, here,” Brian started as he looked over his copy of the report. “On Monday, we sign over the land to the school and the camp. We’ll make any necessary repairs or environmental restitutions if need be.”

John nodded in agreement. “Brian,” John said as he concentrated further into the report.

“What is it?” Brian looked up at the frown on his brother’s face.

“Bobby, did you read this?” John asked. Bobby nodded. “Do you understand what these symbols mean?” John asked as he pointed to the survey map. Bobby nodded again.

“Well, that’s nice,” Brian growled. “Mind letting me in on the secret?”

“See here and here?” John asked as he pointed to the map.

“Yeah,” Brian answered. “What does it mean?”

“It means the Kinney land turned out to be a lot richer than farmland, at least for a little while,” John started to explain.

“And what the fuck does that mean?” Brian said losing his patience.

“Mines,” John answered before anyone else could.

“Mines. As in coal mines?” Brian asked in astonishment, he had only joked about the possibility of there being a mine on the Kinney property. He knew several people whose grandfathers and great grandfathers used to work the mines. Many of them had been lost to mining accidents and black lung disease. “Are we responsible?” Brian made the same connections as Justin did when he learned of the survey results.

“No. Kinney had either forgiven the rent on the land for a specified time that his tenant lived there, or a landowner owner borrowed money from Kinney using his land as collateral. The mining was done at least a hundred years later. There wasn’t any known Kinney descendant to lay claim to the land and most of the current landowners except for Bridgeton had forgotten Kinney existed. Grandfather Aidan most likely never knew about the arrangements since his father never spoke of Kinney.”

“But that doesn’t excuse the ethical issue,” Brian immediately responded. “John, can you have someone check out the mine sites for, for...I’m not sure what I’d want them to look for.” Brian felt helpless at the moment.

Justin did too. He was beginning to understand why Bobby had questioned him about pushing the investigation in the first place.

“Brian, I already contacted an environmental agency. It’s one that John’s company uses when there’s a question of hazardous materials in a building,” Bobby assured them as he glanced at John. John smiled his approval.

“So what do we do?” Brian asked, not liking the fact he couldn’t snap his fingers and have all his answers.

“We wait for the results. But think about it, we would have heard a long time ago if the water table was contaminated or if there was an open mine shaft somewhere. Those things don’t go unnoticed for long,” Bobby said by way of assurance.

The guys took some comfort in that.

“Can we at least have the land around the camp and school checked out, for starters? I never liked that vacant lot behind the school,” Brian grumbled. He wanted to do something.

“We can do that,” Bobby said making his brother-in-law feel a whole lot better.

“Bobby,” Justin finally spoke up. His eyes gave Bobby a pleading look. It did not go unnoticed by his mate.

“You’ve been awfully quiet, Sunshine,” Brian said as he arched a brow.

“I...”

“Justin dropped in this afternoon after his shopping spree at the art supply store. I briefly showed him the report.”

“And?” Brian asked waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“It turns out that some of the land near our lane may be in question,” Justin continued.

“Please don’t tell me we bought our own land,” Brian said with exasperation.

“No,” Justin chuckled. He and Brian had come to the same conclusion.

“Not Muncherville?!” Brian asked in horror.

“No,” Bobby giggled. “Closer to the school. A small piece of land, only one house is involved.”

“Do we know them?” John asked.

“Yes,” came Bobby’s answer. Justin nodded.

“Who?” John and Brian asked in unison.

“Ashley,” came the answer from Justin and Bobby.

“Fuck!” John and Brian said, as Justin and Bobby agreed.

“Coffee,” Brian grumbled as he turned on his heels and strode into his kitchen. John, Bobby and Justin weren’t far behind.

 

*****
 

“Well, this is a fine mess we’ve gotten ourselves into,” Brian groaned as he started the coffeemaker ignoring the fact that it was after nine at night. “Sleep is highly overrated anyway,” he mumbled to himself as he reached for his coffee mug. “You want some?” Brian offered as he waved his mug in the air. Three heads nodded in agreement. Tomorrow was Saturday, they’d make up the sleep over the weekend or so they hoped.

“I’m the one who got us into this mess,” Justin said softly. He was beginning to have regrets.

“Justin, no apologies, no regrets. We get all the facts then fix what we can. Ashley and Susanna won’t be homeless,” Brian said, as he could practically see Justin’s gerbil running in overdrive in his head. “Sunshine,” Brian said as he put his mug down on the counter so that he could hug the younger man to his chest. “The minute we have all the facts, we'll call some sort of meeting. Since the school is involved I wouldn’t be surprised if the principal allowed us to meet at the school. We’ll get everyone who can potentially be affected by this discovery together and let them know our intentions. I’m sure it’ll be all right.”

“I hope so, Bri,” Justin murmured into his spouse’s chest.

“It will be,” Brian said as he gazed back and forth from John to Bobby seeking his own reassurance. When both men nodded with confidence, Brian hugged Justin a little tighter.

*****
 

“Brian, are you angry at me?” Justin asked as they locked up the house and prepared for bed.

“Why would I be angry at you?”

“For starting this whole thing.”

“Of course not. It’s not like we’re hiking through the jungle again. I just don’t like waiting for all the answers.”

“You are more of an instant gratification kind of guy,” Justin said with a leer in his eyes.

“They didn’t call me a slut for nothing,” Brian said proudly as he stripped down to his briefs.

“Mmmm,” Justin purred as he admired his spouse’s forever trim body. His eyes darkened to a sapphire blue with his increasing lust.

“What were you saying about instant gratification?” Brian said low and breathy. He could feel his erection growing, about to peep out over the waistband of his briefs.

“No more talking,” Justin demanded.

No more words were spoken for the rest of the night.

 

*****
 

“Mother, am I calling too late?”

“No, Jackie, never. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s really wrong.”

“But?”

“We found more of Kinney’s influences.”

“What do you mean by influences?”

“Apparently during times of drought or hardship, Kinney would loan money to his neighbors or waive rent on the land he owned. We recently found evidence that his holdings were a lot more vast than we had originally thought.”

“Just how vast?” Claire suspected, but she had to hear it out loud.

“He owned most of the county including some land that’s around here.”

“That’s a lot of land. Why didn’t we know of this before?”

John explained about the ledger and their intentions once the final reports and surveys came back.

“Jackie, didn’t you tell me he married a wealthy woman?”

“Yes, Martha’s father had land and since he had no sons to pass it on to, the land was entailed to Kinney at the time of their marriage. And since Martha never divorced Kinney, he and his heirs still owned the land.”

“So if Jack ever...”

“Mom, please, no what ifs. You and I had a wonderful life on the farm. I have no regrets.”

“No apologies, no regrets,” Claire parroted back the mantra she learned from Brian a long time ago.

“Yes.”

“Jackie, you’re doing the right thing. I’m very proud of you.” Claire could sense the tension leaving her son even over the phone.

“Thank you.”

“Oh honey, you’re a good man, a very responsible man. And so is Brian. I know the two of you will make it right. Now, get some sleep.”

“Yes, mother,” John said with a little mirth in his voice. “Good night, Mom.”

“Good night, Jackie. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“You feel better now?” Bobby said as he rounded the stairs to the attic office.

“How much did you hear?” John asked as he felt his neck and face turning red.

“Enough.”

“I must look spineless to you.”

“Not at all, Babe,” Bobby said as he approached his lover with open arms then embraced him tightly. “John, for forty years you and your mother were a family of two. She’s not just your mother; Claire is your best friend. Your most trusted confidante. And sometimes a guy just needs to talk to his mother.”

“So you don’t think I’m a wimp?” John asked as he hung onto Bobby, burying his nose into his fine red hair.

“You are a bona fide macho cowboy construction man and you belong to me.” Bobby felt John chuckle.

“Can this bona fide macho cowboy construction man take you to bed?”

“I was hoping you’d ask.”

John and Bobby locked up their end of the cottage then went to bed.
 

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