The Preacher's Kid: College and Beyond - 17. Life in a Quarantine

I was at Harris-Teeter to pick up groceries when a call from Matty came in. What? He never calls! It’s always a text or Facetime.

“Hey, Matty. What’s up?”

“I’m on my way down now. I have Parker with me, and I’m gonna drop him off at the airport before heading home. He’s flying back to Arizona tonight.”

“Whoah. Arizona, huh? Sounds like he’s expecting to be away more than a couple of weeks, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess so. Where are you?”

“I’m getting groceries for the lake house. Only problem is people have made a run on toilet paper. Can’t find a damned roll anywhere.”

“We kinda need that, ya know. Any ideas?”

“I just talked to Dad. They have four or five cases at the church. He said I could take a half-case with me, so I’m stopping by there on the way home. Are you coming home, or do you want to meet at the lake house?”

“If you’re ready to go, I can meet you at the lake. I have all my shit with me, so that’ll work out fine.”

“Okay, babe. With you going to the airport and me running to the church, we should both get there about the same time.”

“Sounds good. Love you, babe!”

“I love you, too. And—have a safe trip home, Parker!”

“Will do, Eddie! Take care of my boy—make sure he’s in one piece when he comes back!”

“I’ll do my best! Ciao!”

I finished my shopping and headed over to the church. I couldn’t understand why people were hoarding toilet paper. I mean, c’mon! If you get the fucking virus, your ass is not affected! Anyway, Dad gave me a whole case to take back. He said I could keep half of it to split between the two houses. He said he wanted me to give the other half to Mom.

It didn’t take all that long to get packed and out the door. Before I left, I hugged Conner and Donald. I was glad they were going to be staying at the house for this quarantine thing. I asked if they had enough toilet paper, and Conner said he had been to Costco last week and had picked up one of those ginormous packages. Good for Conner! I kept the half-case for us!

I was heading north on I-77, and the traffic sucked big time! Just as I passed the first views of the lake, Matty sent a text saying he had just gotten to the house. I told Google to text him back and say I was about fifteen minutes away.

When I got to the house, I found Matty sitting on the sofa, just staring into space. “Hi, babe. You okay?”

“Yeah. I just have a lot on my mind. We’ll talk about it after I help you unload the car.”

Something’s up. Matty didn’t say a word during the ten minutes it took us to move everything into the house. The only thing is—I could see his mind going a hundred miles an hour the whole time.

After we got all the food put away, I took my boy in my arms as we stood in the middle of the kitchen. “I can tell you’re not okay. I can see your mind going at warp-speed. Talk to me, Matty. Maybe I can help?”

He took my hand and led me to the sofa. Before he said anything, he let out a massive sigh.

“What’s got my mind going so crazy is that you’re not going to like this at all. But before I tell you what happened, you have to know that I love you as much—if not more—than I ever have. You’re my life, Eddie Hamilton. You need to know that. You need to believe that.”

Fuck. Me. Whatever this is about sounds bad—real bad. “Matty? What did you do?”

“Technically, I didn’t do anything. But that doesn’t mean nothing happened.”

“Is this about the cast party last night? Did that Joe dude try something?”

“No. No. Believe it or not, Joe was totally cool. We talked out our differences and even parted ways on good terms.”

“I guess that’s good then. So what happened that has you all fucked up?”

“Well, it was a typical cast party. There was a lot of drinking—I had at least three margaritas, I think—and Joe took us out to the back yard, and we enjoyed some of the legal pot he brought back from his Spring break in Las Vegas.”

“Tequila and pot? You’re too much of a lightweight. That’s not good.”

“Well, I wasn’t totally wasted, but too much to try to make it back to the dorm. Alex was way more trashed than I was, so Joe offered us a spare bedroom to sleep it off before we headed back to the dorm in the morning.”

I still couldn’t see where all this was going. “Okay. Well, that was pretty cool of Joe to let you guys crash at the house, I guess. Did he try something after you went to bed?”

“No, I didn’t see him again until after I woke up.”

“Go on.”

“Oh, God. You see, right before I woke up—well—I had one of those dreams you always make me have. I woke up as soon as I started to nut, and there you were—riding me. Only it wasn’t you. I just thought it was as soon as I opened my eyes.”

Fuck! “Alex??”

Matty put his face in his hands and started sobbing—while he nodded his yes to let me know my guess was right.

“That fucking bitch! What made her think she had the right to—Jesus, Matty! She fucking raped you! Some best friend!”

“I’m so sorry, Eddie! I didn’t mean to—”

“Babe. You didn’t do a damned thing. This was all her doing. Did you tell her about our morning routine? Is that why—why she—?”

“No! I never talk to her about the details of our sex life. I don’t know why she did it. I didn’t give her a chance to explain. I threw her off of me and down to the floor. Then I told her to leave and get her own way back home. The only thing I heard from her before she walked out the door was crying.”

“Does anyone else know what happened? Have you been able to talk about this to anyone before now?”

“I told Parker while we were driving down. His reaction was pretty much the same as yours. But—I don’t know—I still feel like shit about it. I feel like I cheated on you—I feel like I cheated on the one person I love more than life.”

“You didn’t cheat. Come here, baby.” I took Matty in my arms, and he continued to cry softly into my chest.

“I love you. You’re my hot-as-fuck quarterback fantasy. You’re my best friend. Hell, you just asked me to marry you. I’m sorry—so fucking sorry—that the person you considered to be a great friend took full advantage of the situation and did something to you that can never be forgotten. But—I need you to answer one question for me.”

“Anything, baby. Just ask.”

“How did it feel? I mean, did it feel better than my ass?”

Matty lifted his head and looked at me. He cocked his head to the side, and he finally smiled. “Oh my God, Eddie! It was so wet and slimy—and gross! I don’t know how straight guys can—and the smell! Oh, God! If I hadn’t been so fucking pissed off, I might have gagged.”

We both chuckled, and I maneuvered us around so that I was sitting in Matty’s lap. I rocked my hips slowly in a gentle rhythm as I leaned down and kissed my boyfriend. Our tongues did their favorite dance. When I broke the kiss, I leaned into Matty’s ear, and in the sexiest voice I could muster, “I think the only answer is to get that hard cock of yours right back where it belongs---in my hot—tight—trembling ass.”

“Yeah, just what the doctor ordered. Hot tub?”

“Hell yeah, loverboy!”

“I’ll turn on the tub while you get towels and the silicone lube, k?”

I kissed Matty once again for good measure and made my way to the bedroom to get everything. It took about fifteen minutes for the tub to heat up. Not a problem, we spent that time kissing and slowly undressing each other.

The hot, swirling jets of water helped to relax Matty. Of course, my blowjob—followed by his cock pounding my ass—certainly helped Matty relax. The jets had turned off, and we were chilling in the water when both of our stomachs growled to remind us that we still hadn’t had any dinner.

We dried off, went into the kitchen, and made a couple of ham and turkey sandwiches. We sat down in the living room and turned on the local news. Damn! The entire newscast was about this stupid virus thing. Whole countries had shut down, and while the United States seemed to be doing alright—at the time—Matty said he wouldn’t be surprised if some parts of the country might have to shut down. At the time, I thought he was being fatalistic about the whole thing. Little did I know, right?

After a week of hanging out and pretty much round-the-clock sex, we both got emails telling us that our classes were going to resume online. They also told us that we would be finishing out the semester this way. Damn. This is getting serious!

Dad called and said he had received notification from the city that the entire metropolitan area would be put on lock-down. We were to stay where we were and only leave the house to get essentials—food or medicine. Okay, this was getting a little scary now.

Dad said he was going to shelter at the church to be there if any of the members had an emergency need for food or assistance. That meant Mom and Nate would be alone at the house with Donald and Conner at our place.

Mom was particularly strict about Nate isolating himself from others since he had just been through cancer treatments, and his immune system was still not at full strength. I talked to him on the phone, and, except for missing G, he was hanging in there.

I have to say having classes online was weird, but at least it gave us something to do other than watching a shitload of Netflix and YouTube. Of course, we always found times to make love like a couple of horny rabbits.

The semester ended—online classes, at least. We’re still “sheltering” at the lake house, and Dad’s still hanging out at the church. Haley’s at her place in the mountains while Mom and Nate are hanging out at home. All I can say is thank God for Facetime. Who knew it was good for something other than getting off with Matty? Hehe.

Honestly, I can’t even begin to imagine how much more horrible all this isolation would be if it weren’t for the communication tools we have. But no matter how much Facetiming I do with people, it seems the more we see each other this way, the more I just ache for a hug. I don’t know how Mom and Dad are doing it, having been apart for over a month now.

I told Mom she should just get together for some alone time with Dad, and she said they had talked about it. The problem is that he’s been around people who have been needing help. While he’s fine and is still testing negative, they just can’t take any chance whatsoever with Nate.

Poor Nate. I talked with him the other night, and he’s going crazy—especially with not being able to see G. He asked what Matty and I would have done if we weren’t able to be together. I told him we would be spending a lot of time on Facetime—and a lot of that time would be doing Facetime sex.

Shit. I shouldn’t have said that, right? Nate made me explain what Facetime sex was, and as soon as he understood the concept, he ended our call. Gee, I wonder what he was doing after our call? Little perv!

This shelter and stay bullshit just keeps going on! It’s been six weeks now, and I guess the good thing is that Matty and I still love each other and love spending time together—especially when that time involves cocks, mouths, and asses! Next week is all about finals. I guess another good thing about this alone-time is that we definitely have time to study.

It was the last day of finals when the bottom fell out of our quarantine lives. Matty had just finished his Theatre History final exam, and we were having some lunch when his phone rang.

“Fuck. Alex.”

I looked at Matty and raised my eyebrows when he ended the call without answering. He took another bite of his sandwich when the phone rang again.

“I don’t have anything to say to her. That fucking bitch raped me in my sleep.” He ended the call again.

This time, when his phone sounded, it was a text. Matty said it was from her, but he was in no hurry to read what she had to say. We finished eating, and Matty cleaned up the dishes while I got ready for my History final.

Jesus! Can we talk about saving the hardest for last? Dr. Akins killed us on this exam. He emailed it to us and had this freaky app where you couldn’t leave it to check on your answers. It was set up that if you didn’t type in an answer in thirty seconds, your exam closed itself and got turned in for grading. I don’t know if it was bullshit or not, but I don’t think any of us were willing to try and see!

It took me nearly the entire two hours to finish the exam. Once I sent it to Dr. Akins for grading, I was beat! I walked out to the living room and saw Matty out on the deck. He seemed to be having a pretty intense phone call.

I went into the kitchen and fired up the Keurig for a much-needed cup of coffee. Once it was ready, I heard Matty yell, “Don’t lay this on me! None of this is my fault!” Fuck. It took a while, but it looks like we’re about to have our first quarantine drama.

I made a second cup of coffee and made my way out to the deck. I handed the coffee to Matty. He had finished the call and was staring out toward the lake.

“Here you go, baby. Everything okay? You wanna talk about it?”

Matty took a sip of his coffee and went back to staring at the lake. A little time passed, and in a voice I could barely hear, “She’s pregnant. Alex is pregnant, and it’s mine.”

“Oh. Fuuuuuuuuuck. What is she gonna do?”

“Her mother wants her to get rid of it. When she looked into doing that, the only clinic in her area was closed since the state said abortion is not an essential medical procedure.”

“Seems like it’s fairly essential if that’s the solution she needs to this.”

“When her dad found out, he told her that he would cut her off and throw her out if she even considered an abortion. So, she called me to get my input.”

“And your input was—”

“I told her that since I had nothing to do with her situation, she was gonna have to figure it out on her own. And then she started crying and getting all hysterical. Fuck! You know how much I hate that shit!”

“What do you want to happen?”

“I don’t have any fucking idea! I need to let this whole thing settle into my brain first. But even more, I need my family—my whole family. But then again, they have no idea what happened at that party, so I would have to admit to them how I totally fucked up by getting wasted like that. Then, I get to tell them that the boy they promised to take care of was raped in his sleep. And all that has to happen before I can even begin to ask them for some advice.”

“How about you not worry about any of that. Just relax with your coffee, and I’ll set up a Zoom thing for all of us tonight. Will that work?”

“How can you be so calm about this? It looks like I just might have a kid in a few months—and you’re so calm? What are your thoughts on this?”

“Well—a big part of me is back to being so fucking pissed at what she has done to you. Another part of me hopes she doesn’t abort the baby, but then you know that I’m pro-life and pro-choice. But my number one feeling is that I love you—unconditionally. Whatever is decided, whatever the outcome, I’m there with you—no matter how hard it might be.”

I walked over to Matty, kissed him on the top of his head. “I love you baby. Do you want me to get the Zoom meeting set up?”

Matty didn’t say a word—he just nodded his head as he continued looking out into space. I sighed and went back inside. I went into the kitchen and grabbed my phone. I called Dad first and asked him to hold on so I could get Mom on the line.

“Hi, darling! Are you finished with your exams?”

“Yeah, just finished the last one about a half-hour ago. Look—Mom—I got Dad on the call, too.”

“Hi Mags, you and Nate holding up okay?”

“Our boy is bored to tears, and we both miss our family terribly.”

“So—Mom—Dad—the reason for this call is that Matty and I—well, mostly Matty—we’re having a bit of a family crisis here and before any decisions are made, we want to have a family Zoom call to discuss it.”

“What’s wrong, darling? Are you boys okay?”

“We’re fine. I promise you Matty and I are good. But I do have to say, some of the things he’s going to tell you might be a little difficult to hear. Please don’t be hard on him. He’s completely aware of some poor judgment, and I’ve forgiven him completely. I just don’t want you to give him a hard time since we’ve worked through it already.”

“Okay. Your Mom and I have never judged you boys in the past. I don’t think we will start now. What time do you think we should get together?”

“How about 7:30? That will give us time to have dinner and clean everything up so we can take the time we need.”

They agreed to the time, and I was grateful they didn’t try to hit me up for more details—even though I know Mom is going crazy trying to figure out what is going on.

Dinner was pretty quiet. Matty was deep in his thoughts, and the last thing I wanted to do was pressure him in any way to talk about what those thoughts might be. We had some mint chocolate chip ice cream (Matty’s favorite) for dessert. I’m pretty sure I heard him let out a few pleasurable groans while he enjoyed his dessert.

Once he finished, he let out a giant belch and started to laugh, “Damn! That felt good!”

“I love you, my gross piglet! You ready to talk with Mom and Dad?”

“Yeah, but I want to run a couple of things by you first. Let’s do the dishes real fast and sit out on the deck before we get on Zoom.”

We were out on the deck in just ten minutes. Matty sat back in one of the lounge chairs, spread his legs, and pulled me down to sit in front of him.

Wrapping his arms around me, Matty said into my ear, “With all the bullshit going on right now, the one thing that keeps coming to my mind is that I have to be the luckiest boy on the face of the Earth because Eddie Hamilton has my back. But—before you say anything, can you hear me out?”

“Of course, babe. I’m here for you.”

“Okay.” He took a big sigh and continued as his thumb made lazy circles on my forearm. “About the abortion thing, I’m with you on that and don’t want it to happen. If she decides to have the baby—and I hope to God she does—she’ll probably end up putting it up for adoption. And that’s where I’m kinda torn. You see, in a few months, I’m gonna have a kid out there. Me—I’m gonna be a dad. Fuck! For the rest of my life, I’m going to be wondering where he or she is—wondering what they’re up to—what they look like—are they happy?”

He paused and rested his head against mine. “I guess what I need to know before we talk to everyone—and please—before you say anything, take the time to think about what you say. It’s probably going to be the most important thing said through this whole thing.”

I nodded and didn’t say anything. “What I’m wondering—and this is only if it’s a possibility—what if we, as a couple, raised the baby—hopefully with Mom and Dad’s support and help?”

It was my turn to sigh. I leaned back and rested my head on Matty’s shoulder. “I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that this exact thought crossed my mind more than a few times today. At this point, it doesn’t matter how all this happened. What’s important is that it has happened. All I can think is that the most important person in this entire situation is the person that’s not been born yet. Ironically, the most important person doesn’t have a voice in the decisions that will be made about him or her.”

“I don’t want to make any decisions until we talk with Mom and Dad, Matty. This decision has to be something the entire family has to be on board with—even Nate if you think about it.”

We were quiet for a few seconds when a new thought came to me. “Have you thought about school and football?”

“Yeah, if we decide to take in the baby, I’m not going back to Boone in the Fall. Football will last just a few more years. If I’m—no, if we’re going to be responsible for another life, that’s way more than a few years. And that’s way more important than some silly game.”

I looked at my watch and noticed we had just fifteen minutes before our family conference. “I think we’re pretty much in the same place, baby. I’m with you 100%. Let’s go back inside. I want to brush my teeth, change my shirt, and get the call started.”

I stood up and held my hand out to Matty. I pulled him up into my arms and held him as tight as I ever have. “I love you, Matthew Jordan.” I kissed him and walked inside. I turned around, and he was standing where I left him. He had lowered his head, and I could see he was crying. That was the moment I decided that no matter what, I was backing Matty up 110%. If that meant I was gonna be a daddy in December, then he and I together will be the best damned dads on the planet.

We certainly had perfect role models. Think about it. Pastor Clay is the perfect example of an awesome dad. On the other hand, Matty’s dad definitely showed us how not to be a father.

Matty came into the house and made his way into the bedroom. He changed his shirt, splashed some cold water on his face, brushed his teeth, and joined me at the kitchen table with his laptop. I opened the Zoom session, and he logged in right away.

“It’s gonna be okay, Matty. Mom and Dad love you and will be there for you—for us—no matter what decisions are made.”

“Yeah, I know that. I’m so fucking blessed.”

A few minutes later, Dad logged on. Mom followed right away. Nate was sitting behind her.

“Hi, boys. Nate insisted that he be a part of this since he claims to be a part of this family, too.”

“Matty? You okay if my little brother sits in?”

“Yeah, he’s cool.”

Nate grinned, and Dad piped in with, “Calm down, Nate. Just remember what we talked about earlier, okay?”

“Yep! Cuz I’m cool like that!”

Mom got her “concerned mom look” on and asked if we were okay. “Yeah. We’re fine. Eddie and I had a good talk earlier, and we’re both on the same page.”

I decided I would be the moderator for the call. I asked everyone not to say anything or ask any questions until Matty finished speaking. He explained that I had done that for him, and it seemed to be the best way to go.

“So, before we get into the current situation, Matty said he wanted to explain the background. Some of it might be hard to hear, but please, let Matty say what he needs to say. He’ll let you know when he’s ready to hear from everyone.”

Matty took a deep sigh and began.

“Okay, first things first. I’m going to tell you what happened my last night in Boone, and I promise you that I’m aware of the foolish mistakes I made. Eddie and I have talked about it, and we’ve moved past this. We’re good.

“So—” Matty sighed deeply and continued. “It was the last night at school. The show had been canceled earlier in the week, and one of the cast members announced there was going to be a cast party at his house.

“Alex, who was my best friend at school, decided we should go to the party together, and to make a long story short, we ended up getting ourselves in a condition that would have made it difficult to get back to our dorms. Joe, the host, offered us a spare room to sleep everything off, and we crawled into bed and went to sleep.

“The next morning, I woke up to—man, this is the hardest part to tell you—Alex was sitting on top of my—sitting on top of me, and by the time I realized what she had done, it was kind of too late. I threw her off the bed. She got dressed and left the house. We haven’t spoken since. I mean, as far as I was concerned, what she did was unforgivable, and our friendship had to end.

“After not speaking for nearly two months, I was pretty surprised when she called me this afternoon. I tried to ignore her calls, but she finally texted and said she needed to speak to me—that it was really important.

“So—the long and short of it is—Alex is pregnant. Alex is pregnant with my child.”

Mom gasped, Nate had some kind of goofy, gobsmacked look on his face, and Dad merely cocked his head. At least they didn’t say anything yet.

“So, I’m sure the question all of you are asking is ‘what happens now?’ Alex and her mom wanted to terminate it. Fortunately for me—not so much for them—the only clinic near her home was closed since ab—those procedures aren’t currently considered essential in North Carolina. Her father threatened to cut her off and throw her out of the house if she even considered terminating. That’s why she called me. She needed advice.

“I told her I would get back to her tomorrow after I spoke with everyone. I’ve said enough right now. Eddie, can you tell everyone what we talked about?”

“Sure. Matty and I agree that the life that matters the most in this whole thing is the baby’s. If Alex has the baby and puts it up for adoption, Matty will—no—both of us will wonder for the rest of our lives where he or she is. We will always wonder what the child is doing—how the child is doing, actually.

“So—Matty asked me if I would mind if he raised his child. I told him that we would raise this child together if that’s what it came to. I asked him about football and school up in the mountains. His answer made me realize that I’m so lucky to have this remarkable boy in my life. He said football would only be lasting a few years more. This child would last a lifetime. The choice was simple and direct for Matty. He would stay here in Charlotte with his family.”

“Thanks Eddie. So now, I need y’all to help me figure out how we can make this work. And please, if you think we’re making a big mistake, let me know that, too. I need to hear what your honest thoughts are on this.”

No one spoke for about five seconds—which felt like twenty minutes, by the way.

Dad was the first to speak up. “Wow. I never thought we’d be having this type of conversation with the two of you! No offense.”

“None, taken. Trust me. This whole situation is the last thing I thought I would ever have to bring up with Eddie or any of you.”

“So, I think I’m most proud of you both for realizing that the most important person here is the baby. With that in mind, I think we all agree that we need to do whatever we can to make sure the baby has every opportunity to live a life filled with love, support, and family. I think we can all agree that your thoughts on raising the baby would give just that. I know that you boys would be amazing parents—especially with all of us right there to help you in any way we can.”

Mom cut in on the call. “Boys, there is one person we haven’t discussed much at all. We need to think long and hard about Alex and how difficult this pregnancy could be for her. From what Matty has told us, it sounds like she’s in a home situation that seems to be filled with a lot of judgment and stress. Those are the last things an expectant mother needs to deal with. In Alex’s situation, there’s already enough stress and worry. She doesn’t need that added to from her very own parents. I think we need to consider—if you boys are serious about raising this child—that we offer her a place to stay here until she delivers the baby.”

“Well, that would be awkward, to say the least. I know that Alex doesn’t want to have anything to do with the kid after it’s born. Wouldn’t that be difficult having her around while we are making all kinds of plans?”

“Well, as far as I can see, most of the plans—things like a nursery and all—would be taking place at your house. She would be staying here in a spare room. I would imagine that we make it clear that any contact with you boys must be on your terms. I can only imagine you don’t consider her much of a friend at this time.”

“Dad?”

“Yes, Matthew?”

“Do I have a legal right to claim custody of the baby?”

“Regardless of the situation, you are the child’s father. You have the same parental rights as Alex. If she decides to deliver the baby and doesn’t want anything to do with it after birth, then you have every right in the world to raise the child. If she should change her mind about that, then some kind of joint custody arrangement will have to be drawn up. Either way, whatever is decided needs to be spelled out in a legal document and signed by the two of you. I can have our attorney take care of that for you.”

Mom was the next to speak. “Boys, I don’t want to be negative here, but have the two of you thought about what this would do to each of you? I know you have a wonderful, strong relationship—but are both of you prepared to take your relationship to a completely different level?”

“Well, funny you should mention that. I asked Eddie to marry me before I left for school.”

“I said yes, by the way.”

“And you haven’t told us yet??”

“Calm down, Mom! We weren’t planning on doing anything until we graduated. But—even though Matty and I haven’t talked about this part of things yet—I would love to be married before the baby is born—especially if it would help get custody of the baby.”

Matty looked across the table at me with his eyes filling with tears. “Really? You would do that for me—and the baby?”

“Of course I would, Matty. I told you I was with you 110%. This baby is stuck with us as his or her dads.”

I looked back at the screen. Dad was grinning from ear to ear, and Mom was dabbing tears away with a tissue. Nate still looked shocked by the whole conversation.

“Nate? What are your thoughts?”

“Does this mean I’m gonna be an uncle? And can I be in the wedding?”

I could only smile and said yes to both questions. “In fact, Nate—would you be my best man?”

“Really?? Really!! Yes!!” Nate got up and ran out of the room.

Dad was howling. “Somebody needs to tell our son what being the best man means. I’m afraid he might confuse it with best friend, and that could mean the two of you—and your child—will never have a private moment for the rest of your lives.”

“Okay, Matthew. You need to speak with Alex tomorrow and then let Clay and I know what is decided. We’ll take it from there and make sure we all do whatever we can to make this go as smoothly as possible.”

“Mom, I think Matty and I both need to have this talk with Alex. As hard as it might be to be civil with her, she has to know that both of us are in this together.”

“That’s an excellent idea, son. I’m proud of you—no, I’m proud of you both. No matter what situation you find yourselves in, you step up and do the right thing.”

“Clay, has it sunk in that we may very well be grandparents by the end of the year?”

“Yes, Mags—although neither of us is nearly old enough for that!”

We ended the Zoom call, and I walked over to Matty. “Feel better, baby?”

“We’re getting married!”

“Yeah, you good with that?”

“I’m good with anything when it comes to my sexy, beautiful, smart, loving preacher boy!”

“It’s gonna be a crazy summer, you know.”

“I think it’s gonna be a crazy life, and I’m looking forward to every minute of it!”