Winning the Lottery - 17. Chapter 17 Getting to know friends

Derrick begged me to accompany him to Savannah while he got certified to fly the G650. He was still phobic about being away from me and Cass. I agreed to go. Cass, of course, couldn’t. To ease Derrick’s fears, the security guards promised to text with Cass status updates on a regular schedule. In turn, I elicited a promise from Derrick that he’d see a counselor about his phobia when we got back to Hawaii.

Savannah has a reputation of being a beautiful city, but what was I going to do for almost two weeks while Derrick was busy ‘working?’ Don’s crew at the foundation solved that problem. They found me a locum at a family practice in suburban Savannah.

All the new airplane staff were there training as well: two pilots and two cabin attendants. Very competent, very experienced, and very charming people whom we enjoyed getting to know. The more senior pilot, Arlyss, was married with a pre-school daughter. The other pilot was a young married, gay man, Joe Martel. The cabin attendants, both gay, Alexander (married) and Winston (looking), had both worked for US major airlines as flight attendants and were really class acts. They both had that rare and admirable quality that I refer to as ‘Jackie Kennedy’—the ability to make you feel like you’re the most important person in the world when they talk to you.

The suburban clinic turned out to be a rewarding experience, and a lot of fun. Most of my patients had routine, easily diagnosable and treatable conditions. My only problem was not knowing the local ‘scene,’ so I always had to ask when I needed to refer a patient on to a specialist or for non-routine tests, but that was expected, and everyone was very patient with me.

All too soon it was time to go home, and the new G650, with Derrick at the controls, took off into the wild blue yonder (sorry, couldn’t resist that). The distance from Savannah to Honolulu was easily within the G560’s range and took about eight hours total. Derrick switched off with one of the other pilots after about four hours, and the two cabin attendants worked the galley to produce a special, utterly amazing, ‘surprise’ gourmet meal for us.

We’d arranged accommodation for the crew and their families at the Hilton Hawaiian Village for as long as they needed. We also offered to fund low rate mortgages if they wanted to buy a house or condo. Then we threw a luau at the house to introduce them to our friends and extended families. The Ka’enas and Applebaums went out of their way to make them feel welcome in Hawaii and gave them tons of advice about where to live, to shop, to play... Matchmakers all, they tried to set Winston up on at least five blind dates. Of course they all disagreed with one another on the finer details, precipitating some heated debates, but it was all in good fun, and overall, I think it was a good introduction to ‘real’ Hawaiian culture.

Thank goodness our new furniture hadn’t been delivered yet because the kids, as usual, ran amok tracking sand and leaving sticky fingerprints everywhere (not to mention a couple of puking incidents). Poor Lucy, though, now getting on in years, quietly stayed out of the way of all the commotion.

At some point, Joe, our new pilot, came up with his husband in tow. “Uh...Dr. Nichol, this is my husband Tyler Mulrainey. Tyler, this is Dr. Nichol.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Tyler, welcome to Hawaii, and please call me Gabe.”

“Um...my dad says to say hi to you,” said Joe.

“Your dad?”

“Yeah, well, my foster dad. Sam Kozitsky.”

“No! That’s amazing. And your other dad...?”

“Nick Poulos. They said you guys all met on the beach here a few years ago...”

“My God, yes! What a small world. Your dad, Sam, really helped us out not long after we’d met.”

“I kinda heard about that. That’s okay, isn’t it? You don’t mind my dad telling me?”

“No, that’s fine. It’s good background information to have in any case. It didn’t scare you off?”

“Gosh no. It was Dad who suggested I apply for this job. He said the Deacons would be great folks to work for.”

“Obviously, he knew that Derrick was looking for a pilot...”

“Yeah, Dad gets all kinds of information through his old SEAL buddies. We call it ‘The Borg,’ like from Star Trek, because they’re all so interconnected and tuned in. Um...would you mind if I phoned Dad and filled him in. He was interested in how you’d take the news.”

I thought that was a great idea. I was pretty pleased about the ‘surprise,’ and I wanted Sam to know.

“Hi, Dad......yes, I know it’s 11 o’clock there. You guys never go to bed before midnight..........Ugh, Dad! Gross! TMI! Jesus, act your age! Anyway...I was just talking to Dr. Nichol, and he wants to talk to you...uh, sure....” Joe made a face and passed the phone to me.

“Gosh, Sam, I hope we didn’t interrupt anything,” I said laughing.

“Nothing that can’t be restarted,” laughed Sam.

“Hey, great news about Joe working for us! So happy to have him and Tyler here in Hawaii.”

I called Derrick over and filled him in on who I was talking to. He suggested that I invite Sam and Nick down to Hawaii on the new jet. As it turned out, Mom and Dad Deacon were flying up to Seattle the day after next. Then the jet was picking up Gramps and Gram in San Francisco. So Derrick suggested that the jet also pick up Sam and Nick in San Diego, if they could get away.

After conferring with Nick, Sam said they’d be delighted to come to Hawaii for a couple of days. I promised Sam that I’d keep Joe out of trouble. Joe just rolled his eyes when he heard that part of the conversation.

I asked about their friends, Rob and Jerome, and was told that Rob had quit his airline job and they’d sold their place in Venice Beach and moved to Montecito where Jerome had purchased part interest in a marina and Rob had purchased a high end art gallery.

“Do you think they’d like to come down here, too?” I asked.

Apparently, the answer was ‘yes,’ so now the jet was making another stop in Santa Barbara to pick them up. Derrick was happy about all that landing and taking off. He said that was the fun part.

With Dad and Mom being away we had lots of room for them at the compound, so that worked out perfectly.

In a remarkable coincidence, Jerome’s friends, John and Paul were in Hawaii on one of their annual ‘boy’s getaways,’ and we talked them into leaving their hotel and joining the rest of us at the compound.

Just for the hell of it, Derrick arranged for the short-term lease of a Maserati GranTurismo Convertible, so that with our two Bentleys, each of the couples would have use of a ‘nice’ car to drive while they were with us.

It was a real pleasure seeing all the ‘guys’ again, and John and Paul turned out to be not only gorgeous, but very friendly as well.

Jordan and Kelly showed up for dinner, and all the guys were stunning in their own way. Talk about eye candy! Let’s see if I can remember what they all looked like...,

Derrick, of course, is perfect. Trim body, swimmer’s build.

Jerome, tall and wiry. Long hair, a day’s growth of beard. Slightly scruffy, very hot.

Rob, wide shoulders and narrow waist. Neatly trimmed hair. A model’s good looks.

John and Paul (a fireman and cop respectively) with gym-tuned bodies. They both would have looked at home on one of those firemen or cops calendars.

Sam with his big solid, muscular body was a show stopper.

Nick, tall and thin. Smoldering with his black hair and Mediterranean coloring.

Jordan with a trim body and boyish good looks. The type of guy that you just want to hug.

Kelly, with his big, solid native Hawaiian body was in the same hotness arena as Sam.

Wow!

After we got them all settled, Derrick fired up the barbeque and we cooked up some great steak and tuna, and grilled vegetables for dinner. The beer and wine were flowing liberally and the party became a little raucous with all of us having such a good time, telling jokes and ribbing each other. We were all in our bathing trunks, going in and out of the pool, horsing around...

I think what started it was Sam shouting, “What the fuck are we wearing bathing suits for? Buncha guys together should be bare assed!” as he shucked his own suit.

Off came everybody’s swimsuits. Fuck me if the hotness factor didn’t ramp up about one thousand percent!

Then Jerome swam up to Paul in the pool and wrapped his arms around him declaring, “I’ve always wanted to do this!” and proceeded to kiss him senseless.

“Hooah,” roared Sam, and suddenly everybody was kissing everybody else, and taking turns doing it. Dicks were hard as rocks and everybody was feeling and stroking.

At one point, Sam came to me for a kiss and stroke and he whispered in my ear, “You’re not that timid guy I met a few years ago. You’ve grown into an incredibly self-assured and caring man. And you’re fucking hot!”

“Thanks...you too...fucking hot!”

Derrick called out to get everyone’s attention, “Everybody ends the night with their partners!”

“Hooha!” yelled Sam again, and we all went back to kissing and stroking. Then the blowjobs started. I can’t even remember who went first, but there we all were, kissing, stroking, sucking.

Honestly, it was so fucking hot it was hard (pardon the pun) to hold off cumming. Talk about a feeding frenzy.

Then Derrick grabbed me and pulled me down onto the chaise with him. “That was hot, babe, but now I want you to myself!”

Then, one by one the couples paired off and did their own thing on the chaises. Of course, while doing the nasty we all watched and listened to each other, and it was so fucking hot it wasn’t long before groans and exclamation of pleasure were echoing throughout the yard.

Remarkably, everybody climaxed within a short time, and the eight of us lay gasping for breath.

“Hooah,” croaked Sam. “Hooah,” we all weakly echoed as we dragged ourselves off to our respective beds. Jordan and Kelly stayed the night too.

Later, as Derrick and I were cuddled in our own bed, just drifting off to sleep, he asked me, “Was that okay, babe? Not too much?”

“Not at all, hon,” I replied. “What we did just seemed natural somehow. I think it brought us all closer. Now we’re all more like brothers than friends. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, I felt that too. I’m so glad. You know, we needed some good friends, and I really trust all those guys.”

“Yeah, we gotta make an effort to keep in touch with all of them. Now that we’ve got the jet there’s no excuse for us not visiting them.”

There was no awkwardness the next morning as we and our guests gathered in the kitchen for breakfast. In fact, quite the opposite: everyone greeted everyone else with heartfelt kisses and pats on the ass. No specific mention was made of the previous night’s activities, but all of us were wearing huge smiles of delight.

Sam beckoned me to follow him to a quiet corner of the living room. “Uh...you saw my scar too, right?”

“Your gunshot wound? Yes, I saw it....”

“Well...I just wanted you to know that I’m here for you...if you ever want to talk or anything. I kinda know what you might be going through....”

“You mean like PTSD?”

“Yeah, that. I don’t know if you know or not, but a lot of the guys here have been through something similar. Maybe not getting shot, but trauma nonetheless. You can always count on us, you know.”

I was so overcome by Sam’s kindness that tears came to my eyes. I reached up and swept them away. “I don’t know how to express my gratitude to you and all the guys. Yes, I’d like to talk to you some more...maybe later. But I want you to know that Derrick and I consider all you guys family now.”

He reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “Hooah, Gabe.”

“Hooah, Sam.”

The three guest couples headed off in the cars for some exploring and beach time—with admonishments not to worry about getting sand in the cars. They were only cars, after all, and could be cleaned. Jordan and Kelly headed home. Derrick hitched a ride with the security guys to his plane, and I was driven to the clinic where I put in about four hours work. Jordan and I giggled like a couple of schoolgirls when we met up later between patients.

The tourists all arrived home in the late afternoon full of the news of their sightseeing and raving about how much they enjoyed the cars. After they’d had a brief rest we met up at the pool, again forsaking our swimsuits. There was a little horsing around in the pool, but it didn’t turn into the orgy of the previous evening. We all drank modestly and enjoyed snack food and getting to know each other.

We’d made a dinner reservation at the Royal Hawaiian, so we all dressed and headed off just as the sun began its descent into the ocean. Jordan and Kelly joined us there. We had a great table, near the window, with a lovely view of the sunset. Conversation freely and we all laughed a lot. What Derrick and I had concluded was true. We had become one big, happy family.

Afterward, we strolled the beach, hand in hand with our partners. We showed the guys where Derrick and I had fallen in love, sitting on that low wall. They all razzed us with “Awwww” and we responded by telling them to fuck themselves. All in good fun.

The next day went pretty much the same, except we had another barbeque at our place. By some tacit agreement, we all put on our swim trunks and t-shirts while we ate dinner. Afterwards, we just talked and enjoyed getting to know each other. I was amazed to learn that John and Paul were married to twin sisters and each had a child. The wives knew of their affection, and once a year their wives sent them off on an annual ‘love trip,’ but the rest of the year they were pretty much hands off each other.

We all talked out our kids, of course. Nick told us about finding Jorge, lost, on the street, and about finding Joe, their foster son, beaten and dejected at a gas station. Jerome told us of his horror seeing Rob fall five stories in front of his eyes. (They rolled their eyes at the ‘he really fell for you’ jokes—which they’d heard a million times before). Paul and John told us how their wives had ‘set them up.’ There were so many interesting stories....

What an interesting group of men!

On the last morning, Joe and Tyler joined us for breakfast remarking that we all looked happy and rested.

I found it sad to say goodbye to everyone as they headed for the airport. Derrick, Joe and crew were taking them back to the mainland then returning to HNL with an empty plane.

Nick, Sam’s husband, is an accomplished artist, and as a thank you gift to us, he let us pick a painting for our new decor. He actually suggested a painting, and it was going to be perfect with our updated Hawaii theme.

Derrick and I promised we’d come to the mainland for a visit and do some boating with each of them. That precipitated a heated debate between Sam and Jerome on the merits of sail versus power, an argument which, if you recall, I’d heard on the Ala Moana beach eight years ago. Much of the chagrin of their spouses, the two guys never gave the topic a rest.

That visit, our time together with the guys, the orgy, affected me deeply, emotionally. Yes, I’ve accomplished a lot and am surrounded by loving family, and I have unlimited financial resources.... But somehow, acquiring a group of truly simpatico friends “validated’ me in a way that I’d never been before. It kicked my life into a higher gear. I feel truly blessed.

When Derrick got back, he said the same thing. He knew that all the guys ‘had his back’ and that it gave him more confidence.

Hooah!

When Cass got home (he’d been staying at Khala’s place to allow his dads to party) the rented Maserati was still in the driveway.

“Who’s Maserati?” he asked.

“It’s just a lease that the guys used,” responded Derrick. “Why, like it?”

“Yeah, it’s cool.”

“Want it?”

“Seriously? I’d love it. You’d trust me with a hot car like that?”

“Cass, you’re the most trustworthy son a guy could want. Right, Gabe?”

“I agree,” I said. “Consider it a ‘just ‘cuz we love you gift.”

Cass withdrew a few feet and looked at us critically. “You guys have changed,” he observed. “More happy or something....”

“Blame it on your dad’s midlife crisis,” I laughed, winking at Derrick.

********

From my previous stories:

Nick and Sam: Special Forces

Jerome and Rob: The Window Washer

John and Paul: The Beatles