Lessons Learned - 5. Chapter 5

Lessons Learned

By

Andrew Todd

Chapter 5

“I’m your brother.”

Zak stood in the entryway stunned by Danny’s declaration. Dusty had his hands on Zak’s shoulders and was gently kneading the muscles he felt getting tighter and tighter.

“I don’t, I, what do you…” Zak couldn’t get a coherent sentence out.

Danny stood silently in the doorway.

Finally, CJ broke the silence. “Why don’t we all go into the living room and sit down and figure this out?”

“I think that’s an excellent idea,” came a voice from behind them. Zak’s mother Kate was standing in the kitchen doorway. She had come in through the kitchen door from the garage.

Zak ran over to his mother. “Mom, how long have you been here?”

“I just got here.” She walked over to Danny and looked at him. “Your mother is Alison, isn’t she?”

Danny nodded. “She was.”

“Was?”

“She was killed in a car accident.”

“Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry.”

“You knew her?” Danny asked in a whisper.

Kate shook her head. “No, I knew my husband and it’s quite obvious that you are his son, which means there is only one other person who could be your mother.” She wrapped her arm around Danny’s shoulder. “Let’s all go sit down; I can tell you what I do know and then you can let us know what you know and maybe we can make sense of all this,” she said as she led Danny into the living room.

Zak and Dusty followed, Zak clutching Dusty’s hand like a life preserver. CJ brought up the rear, unsure of where he fit in anymore.

Kate sat in the middle of the couch; she had Danny take a seat on one side of her and Zak on the other. Dusty and CJ took seats in the recliners facing the couch.

Kate took one of Danny’s hands in her hand and did the same with Zak. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Ok, Zak, you may know some of this, but most you won’t; it’s just not stuff that parents usually talk to their kids about.

“Aaron and I met as freshmen in college. It was pretty much love at first sight for us. He was my first and only love. We were together all through college and married within a month of graduation. I became pregnant with Zak right before our first anniversary,” Kate began. “As I said, Aaron was my first love. I was not his. There was a girl he was in love with in high school--Alison.”

Danny looked up. “My mother.”

“Yes. They had grown up together. It wasn’t until their sophomore year in high school that their lifelong friendship bloomed into love. Through their sophomore and junior years they planned their futures together; they wanted to go to college and settle down. Aaron never gave me specifics--it wasn’t something I really wanted to know about--but the only time they were ‘together’ was the night of their junior prom. Aaron said they had planned to wait, but they both got caught up in the moment and things quickly got out of control. They promised after that night that they would wait until they were married before it happened again.”

“Dad told you all this?” Zak asked.

Kate nodded. “We never kept any secrets from each other. Alison was the only other person he had ever loved, so to him it was important that I know about her.”

“Anyway, after school let out for the summer between their junior and senior years, Aaron went to a summer camp to be a counselor,” Kate continued. “He was gone until the week before school started. Alison and he would write to each other several times a week. About halfway through the summer, Aaron stopped getting any letters from Alison. He thought it was odd, but figured she was probably just busy with her summer job and family.”

“But she wasn’t,” Danny stated.

“No,” Kate answered. “When he returned to town, the first thing he did was go to Alison’s house to see her. Her parents met him and told him that Alison had been accepted into a foreign exchange program and she had already left. They gave Aaron a letter that she had written. It explained that she had been given this opportunity for her senior year and she could not pass it up. At first, Aaron thought this just meant spending their senior year apart. He received a letter from her later in the year, telling him that she would not be coming back, that she had met someone else. It was essentially a ‘Dear John’ letter. Aaron was heartbroken. He kept checking with her parents to see how she was, until they finally asked him to stop. He graduated high school and went to college. He had been a late-in-life child for his parents, and they both passed away while he was in college, so when he graduated he had no reason to move back to his hometown. We both found jobs here and settled down.”

“It’s true then,” Danny whispered. “He didn’t leave me; he never even knew I existed.”

Kate nodded. “I think the thought might have crossed his mind, but he never believed that Alison would leave him and not tell him he was a father, so he dismissed the thought. I know there was always a part of him that loved her, because he never got closure with her.”

CJ looked over at Danny. “Danny, what happened?” he asked.

Danny glanced over at CJ, tears starting to fill his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he cried. CJ went over to the couch and sat next to Danny; he hugged Danny to him. Danny buried his head in CJ’s shoulder and wept.

“Danny,” CJ whispered. “It’s ok. I just want to understand why you didn’t come back, what happened.”

Everyone watched the two reunited lovers in an uncomfortable silence. Zak walked over to the chair that Dusty sat in and squished himself in tight next to his boyfriend. Dusty wrapped his arms around Zak and hugged him. He gently kissed Zak on the cheek.

“Are you ok?” Dusty whispered in Zak’s ear.

Zak nodded. “Just a little overwhelmed,” he whispered back.

After a few minutes, Danny was finally able to compose himself.

“I’m sorry, CJ,” he said. “I never meant to hurt you.”

“I know. Just tell us what happened.”

“I went home for my mom’s funeral, like I was supposed to. There were so many of her friends and co-workers there it was just too much. At the end of the services, her lawyer came up to me and asked me to meet him at his office a few days later. He wanted to give me a few days before he read my mom’s will and started settling her estate. I was so out of it that it didn’t occur to me to be suspicious.”

“Why would you be suspicious?” Zak asked.

“My mom and I only had each other. I was her only heir. The will should have been a formality. My grandparents had passed several years ago and my mom had always told me that my dad had abandoned us,” Danny answered.

“She what!?” Zak exclaimed. “My dad wouldn’t do that!”

Kate looked at Zak sharply. “Zak, let Danny tell this, ok?”

Zak nodded, but couldn’t hide his anger. Dusty hugged him tighter.

Danny continued, “Well, I went to the lawyer’s office and he went through the will and everything was pretty much as I expected. I had already met with a realtor about selling the house, so I thought I’d be heading back to Florida the next day. Then the lawyer gave me a letter that my mother had left for me.”

Danny began to sob again and the conversation came to a standstill.

Finally, Danny inhaled deeply and continued, “In the letter, she told me the truth. She told me that my dad was her high-school boyfriend, that she had become pregnant and she had gone to stay with an aunt until I was born. She had decided that my dad was better off not knowing about me. At that time she thought that having me had wrecked her plans and she didn’t want it to do the same to him. As the years went on, she realized that she had made a mistake in not letting him know and in letting me believe that he had abandoned us. But, it was too late, she felt trapped by the lies she had told. She wrote the letter when I left for college. It was her insurance that I would know the truth if anything happened to her. She said in the letter that she hoped I would never see it, because she was planning to tell me after graduation, then I could decide if I wanted to find my father. The only information she had on my dad was his name and the town they had grown up in, which was the town that my grandparents had lived in as well.

“When I finished reading the letter, I was numb. I felt like everything in my life had been a lie. I wanted to scream. I hated my mother for what she had done and at the same time I wanted nothing more than to have her back. I basically retreated. I moved into my mother’s house and I shut myself off from the world. I turned off my cell phone so no one could find me. I couldn’t face anyone. After a few weeks of being a hermit, I decided I needed some help. I started seeing a therapist to try and help me make sense of this. One of the first things he had me do was go back to Florida and get my stuff. He wanted me to see CJ and tell him what was happening. But I was so ashamed of the mess that I was in and how much bigger I had made it, so I left you that voicemail. I wanted to see you so bad, but I thought you’d be better off without me.”

“So you took that decision away from me, just like your mom did to your dad?” CJ accused.

“CJ; I’m sorry, I couldn’t even think straight,” Danny cried. “I was falling down a deep pit and every time I tried to get out, I’d fall deeper. Eventually, my therapist diagnosed me as having Severe Depression Disorder. He thinks I’ve been dealing with it all my life, but my mom’s death and the news of my dad just made it worse. I was at the point where I was thinking of hurting myself.”

CJ grabbed Danny tight. “Don’t you ever even think of that,” he demanded.

Danny hugged CJ back. “He put me on medication and eventually things started to clear up for me. But I still had to deal with the mess that my mom had created and that I had made worse. I started searching for my dad. No one in their hometown knew what had happened to him after his parents had died. I spent a lot of time doing research and trying to locate him. Finally, I narrowed it down to a few ‘suspects’ that were the right age. Of course, the way things had been going, I ran through the others before I got here.”

“So that’s your F-150 that I’ve been seeing the last week or so?” Dusty asked.

“Yes, I was trying to see if my dad was here--I had no idea that he was gone. The only information I could find on him was old work records and an address. I was grasping at straws. I saw Zak one day and I knew right away that I was at the right place. I kept waiting. But finally, tonight, I figured I’d make my move.”

“And here we are,” Kate said. “So now that you know that you have family what are you going to do?”

“What?” Danny asked. “My dad was the only reason I even came here and he’s gone.”

“That’s right, but I am your stepmother and Zak is your brother. So you are family.” Kate answered.

Danny leaned over and hugged Kate and began to cry again. “Thank you,” he cried. “It means so much to me to have a family.”

Kate hugged him back. “If Aaron had been here, he would have welcomed you with open arms. I’m not about to treat you any differently. Besides, Zak’s always wanted a big brother--now he’s got one.”

Danny looked at Zak questioningly. Zak smiled at him and nodded; Danny smiled back.

Danny turned to CJ. “So what are you doing here?” he asked.

“This is where my family moved to earlier this year,” CJ answered. “I finished school, like we had planned, and since I had to come home to sign for my trust, I decided to move up here. There were too many memories in Florida.”

“What about Angel?” Danny asked hopefully.

CJ grinned. “She’s here, too. I should have known about you and Zak just from that.”

“What do you mean?”

“When I pulled up to the ranch that Zak and Dusty--that’s Dusty over there, Zak’s boyfriend…”

“Boyfriend?”

“Yup, you guys have a whole lot in common apparently,” CJ laughed. “Anyways, when I got to the ranch where the guys work, along with my brother, Mattie, and his boyfriend...” Danny looked at him again. “Yup, me and my brother have a lot in common, too. So, anyways, when we got there, I was getting Angel out of the trailer and she pulled away from me and came tearing out of the trailer. Well, she was in the barnyard, rearing and putting up a fuss until she saw Zak. She went right over to him and he grabbed hold of her lead and jumped right on her and they took off down the road. I had never seen her take to anyone like that except you. I should have seen the resemblance and maybe subconsciously I did, but I never would have imagined that you were brothers. Maybe Angel knew something that none of us did.”

Danny smiled at Zak. “So you like my baby?” he asked.

Zak smiled back. “I love her. She’s so awesome. But I think she’ll be happy that you’re back.”

Dusty interjected, “You should see them together. Zak was running jumps on her this afternoon and he kicked the other two rider’s asses.”

Zak blushed. “It’s all her.”

“No, Zak,” stated CJ. “You’re a helluva rider, just like your brother.”

“Zak, how long have you been riding?” Danny asked.

Dusty and CJ started laughing.

Zak got a pissed-off look on his face. “Why do you guys laugh every time someone asks that?”

“Cuz the answer is so funny,” Dusty answered.

Zak looked at Danny. “I’ve only been riding since May.”

Danny’s eyes bulged. “You’ve only been riding for a few months and you were running jumps on my horse?”

Zak blushed.

“Yes, he’s that good,” Dusty proclaimed proudly. “He took to it like he was born in the saddle.”

“I’m gonna feel guilty if I take my horse back,” Danny said quietly.

“Don’t,” Zak said. “I still have mine.”

“Yours?” Danny asked.

Now it was Zak’s turn to laugh. “Ah, yeah, I have a Friesian named Onyx and an Arabian named Apollo. Well, actually, Apollo is Dusty’s and mine. And Dusty has a Mustang named Phoenix.”

Danny shook his head. “I guess I joined the right family,” he laughed.

Zak looked at CJ. “Tell him the rest, CJ,” he said.

“Rest?” Danny asked, his head already spinning.

“Ah, I’m buying the ranch that the guys work at and I’m buying the ranch next door to start a horse rescue,” CJ stated. “Actually, if you’re staying, then I guess we are buying the ranches.”

“Really?” Danny asked. “You still want me?”

“Baby, I never stopped wanting you,” CJ answered. “It’s gonna take me a little bit to digest everything, but I want you with me always. In fact, now that you’re back, I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”

Danny started tearing up again and hugged CJ as hard as he could manage.

“Ok,” Kate interjected. “Too much emotion on an empty stomach. I saw some boxes in the kitchen when I came in; I’m assuming someone picked up dinner?”

“Oh, shit,” exclaimed Dusty. “I forgot all about it. It’s probably all cold by now.”

“That’s ok,” said Kate. “As long as there’s enough for everyone.”

“Oh, there is,” said Dusty. “I always over-order when I go there--bad habit since I’d rather heat leftovers than cook when my mom works late.”

“Well, I’ll go heat things up, if you guys want to go wash up,” Kate said as she got up from the couch. “I assume that I won’t need to make up another bed for Danny.”

CJ and Danny both turned red. “Uhh, no, he’s covered,” CJ answered, while Dusty and Zak busted up laughing.

“What are you two laughing at?” Kate asked. “I assume Dusty’s staying as well,” she said as she left for the kitchen.

“Yeah, might as well,” Dusty said. “I’ll give my mom a call to let her know.”

CJ took Danny’s hand and led him upstairs to show him their room and give him a chance to freshen up, while Dusty went to call his mom and Zak went to help his mother get dinner on the table.

Dinner was a much more relaxed affair than the past hour in the living room had been. The boys spent most of the time joking and getting to know each other.

After dinner, Kate excused herself as she had an early day the next day. She advised Zak not to stay up too late as he had school the next morning.

The four new ‘brothers’ spent another hour or so talking and laughing until they all decided it was time to turn in.

As they were getting up from the table, Zak went over and gave Danny a hug. “Yesterday, I had no brothers and today I have two. Thank you.”

Danny hugged him back. “No, thank you guys for accepting me.”

When they reached the top of the stairs the two pairs split up, Zak and Dusty heading to Zak’s room and CJ and Danny going to the guest room that had temporarily become CJ’s.

Zak led Dusty into his room and closed and locked the door behind them. He pushed his much taller boyfriend against the wall and tilted his head up. He locked his lips onto Dusty’s neck, sucking and licking at the smooth dark skin.

Dusty tried to move his hands to touch Zak’s face, but Zak grabbed his wrists and pinned them against the wall. Dusty decided to let Zak have his way, both knowing that Dusty could push Zak off him anytime he wanted.

Zak pulled Dusty’s t-shirt out from his jeans and over his head. He licked around Dusty’s dark nipples, stopping to nip and bite at them. Dusty groaned. Zak was driving him crazy; it wasn’t very often that Zak was this aggressive in their lovemaking.

Zak pulled back and grabbed the waist of Dusty’s jeans and dragged his boyfriend over to the bed. Zak unbuckled Dusty’s belt and unbuttoned the buttons on the fly. Zak pulled down Dusty’s jeans and jockeys in one fluid movement.

Zak pushed Dusty onto the bed. He pulled off Dusty’s boots and socks. The odor of sweaty feet that usually was less than pleasant just inflamed Zak’s desire. He finished pulling Dusty’s jeans off so Dusty was lying in front of Zak in all his glory.

Zak just stood there for a moment once again admiring the beauty that was his boyfriend. Zak reached down and pulled the band that tied Dusty’s hair back. Dusty laughed hungrily. Zak had this thing for Dusty’s hair hanging long and loose.

Zak quickly stripped and lay down next to Dusty. He took Dusty’s head in his hands, running his thin fingers through Dusty’s long black hair. He leaned forward and kissed Dusty long and hard.

Dusty grabbed Zak around the waist and moved him so that Zak was lying on top of him.

The two continued to kiss and caress.

Both were rock hard.

Zak began to flex his hips, rubbing his aching dick against Dusty’s, and Dusty followed suit.

Soon both boys were humping into each other as their lips remained locked.

They quickly passed the point of no return. Zak wrapped his arms around Dusty’s neck as he felt his orgasm build. Dusty wrapped his arms around Zak’s body as he felt himself going over the edge as well.

Their orgasms hit at the same time. As they each shot off, they moaned into each other’s mouths and each gripped the other as tight as possible.

“Oh, my God,” Zak whispered as he lay across Dusty’s chest, panting.

“Shit, what got into you?” Dusty laughed. “You’ve never been that aggressive before.”

“I don’t know,” Zak replied. “I just love you so much and sometimes it just hits me how much I want you and need you. Something just came over me.”

“Wow…” whispered Dusty. “My little stud.”

Zak blushed as Dusty hugged him close.

***

CJ and Danny entered the guest room hand in hand. Danny was walking slightly behind CJ, still not sure what his status with CJ was.

CJ turned and looked into Danny’s eyes.

“What’s the matter?” CJ asked as he gazed into Danny’s perfect blue orbs.

“I don’t know,” Danny answered. “Nothing that’s happened since I rang that doorbell has turned out like I thought it would. I never expected you to be here. I honestly thought I was never going to see you again. I thought I’d meet my dad, he would or wouldn’t accept me and we would move on from there. Instead, I find out he’s been dead for years and I have a brother and the love of my life is living in his house.”

“Am I still the ‘love of your life’?” CJ questioned.

“You always have been. What I did was my reaction to everything that had happened and everything that I found out. I know it was wrong, but I couldn’t deal with anything.”

CJ caressed Danny’s cheek and lightly kissed his lips. “Just promise me one thing,” CJ said.

“Anything.”

“Don’t you ever leave me again,” CJ said seriously. “If you ever get that down or feel that lost, come and get me; tell me, tell Zak, tell anyone--we will help you. You’re not alone. You never were.”

Danny began to cry. “I know that now. I’m so sorry I hurt you.”

CJ started to cry as well. “I was so lost without you, Danny. If you hadn’t left Angel behind, there would have been no proof that you had even existed in my life. I’ve been on auto-pilot for the last nine months. I tried so hard to forget you, to get over you, but I couldn’t. I even thought of selling Angel or leaving her in Florida.”

Danny flinched as if he had been slapped.

“But, I couldn’t,” CJ continued. “You mean too much to me and the only thing you asked me to do was take care of Angel, so I had to do that.”

Danny grabbed CJ in a fierce hug, holding on as tightly as he could. CJ returned the embrace. Both just stood there in each other’s arms, not sure what their next move should be.

Worn out by the emotion of the day, they both eventually collapsed on the bed and fell asleep in each other’s arms.

CJ was awakened by Danny kissing his chest. He tried to focus but the room was pitch black.

“Danny,” he whispered.

“Shh,” Danny whispered back. “I need you, CJ. I’ve needed you for so long,” he moaned as he kissed his way down CJ’s body.

The two had been lovers for so long that they didn’t need lights to know every inch of the other’s body.

Danny kissed and licked down CJ’s torso and stomach. His hands stayed on CJ’s hard pecs rubbing them and playing with his hard nipples.

Danny sat back on the bed and reached under CJ’s legs and pushed them back so CJ was bent in half on his back. Like a blind man reading braille, Danny’s hands felt their way to CJ’s ass. Danny pulled the fuzzy cheeks apart and laid on the bed. He licked and sucked at CJ’s pucker.

CJ groaned loudly.

“Shh,” Danny giggled. “We don’t need a fucking audience right now.”

CJ tried to control his volume, but it had been so long since anyone had touched him, that he felt like he was going to go insane if he didn’t cum soon.

Sensing, CJ’s need, Danny ended his assault on CJ’s ass and moved up to take CJ’s big uncut dick in his mouth.

Over the years, Danny had become something of a deep-throating expert. He took CJ’s length in one swallow.

CJ had forgotten how great Danny was at this. He was so desperate for release, that he knew that he would only last a few more seconds.

“Danny, Oh, Danny,” CJ moaned. “God, I love you.”

Tears came to Danny’s eyes as he continued his work on CJ’s cock.

Without warning he felt CJ’s cock pulse and shoot wave after wave of sweet salty goodness down Danny’s throat.

Danny swallowed every drop.

After everything that he had been through and everything that he had put CJ through, it was at this moment that Danny truly felt that he was home.

Within moments, he was back asleep nestled in CJ’s strong arms. Danny’s last thought as he drifted off to sleep was that he would never leave CJ ever again.

There wasn’t much peace in the Myers house that night, but there was an abundance of love.