Love Of Family (2024 Revision) - 2. Moving Day

Levie pulled out a pair of slim-fit, grey jeans and put them on over his blue bikini briefs, then chose a dark green shirt that made his red hair look more fire-like, and after putting on his favorite pair of Scooby-Doo socks, stepped into his tan, two and three-quarter-inch heeled cowboy boots, and called Greg when he was almost finished packing.

“Hey, Angel boy,” Greg excitedly said, “How’s your day so far,” he asked.

“Hey, hey, can I say hi... I want to say hi to him... C’mon, let me say hi to my new bro,” Brandon whined, sounding like a small child.

“It’s good, how about yours,” Levie asked, then cackled after he heard the squeal because of the wet willie his boyfriend received from his brother, and as soon as Brandon threatened to tickle Greg’s feet, he said, “Babe, you might as well put it on speaker.”

“Hi Lev, I’m Brandon, your new brother, and I can’t wait to meet you,” Brandon hollered.

“I’ll be at Greg’s in about an hour, and I can’t wait to meet you either, Brandon,”

The next few minutes were spent telling the brothers about Jaycen’s idea, which they thought was brilliant, and ten minutes later, they ended the conversation. Levie wiped the tears from his eyes and finished packing.

He took another look around the bedroom he’d essentially grown up in, sighed, picked up the suitcase, and walked downstairs to put the luggage in the backseat of his 1979 Jeep, a Golden Eagle CJ7.

Levie loved his vehicle because it was the same model and year as Dixie, the Jeep Daisy Duke drove in the TV series “The Dukes Of Hazzard.” When he got it, he and his brothers updated the engine, painted the body black with rainbow pentacles surrounding the Eagle on the hood, replaced the original tires with larger ones that had deeper treads, and attached metal bars to the driver and passenger side so it would be easier to climb into.

Jaycen crept up behind the younger redhead and giggled when his brother jumped and yelped as his arms wrapped around Levie’s smaller waist, “My kid’s not leaving without saying goodbye, Is he,” he asked as he hefted the giggling male over his shoulder, tickled his sides, spun them around, then playfully smacked his ass and set him back on the ground.

“I’d never leave without saying goodbye, Levie said through his heavy sobs, with tears streaming down his cheeks, “I’m going to miss you two so much,” The love flowing between him and Jaycen was comforting, and once he was back on the ground, he gave the same affection to Troy when he walked up to them and then headed to the barn to say goodbye to Triton.

Levie entered the barn, and heard his stallion getting excited. He giggled as the horse playfully reared up and snorted. When the door was opened, his steed came barreling out, and pinned him against the door of an empty stall. He slid to the ground, laughing wildly as the equine tickled him by nuzzling his nostrils against his neck and then his stomach.

“I love you, Tri," he said when the laughter subsided.

The horse backed off to let his owner get to his feet, and he spent the next few minutes hugging the boy who saved him as they silently reassured the other they’d always be there for one another.

“I’ll be back in a day or two, and I want you to be a good boy for your Pap-Paws because they love you just as much as I do,” he said as tears streamed down his cheeks.

The stallion nodded and snorted, and Triton hugged his owner before returning to his stall.

Bill was leaning against the door frame, watching the emotional scene., and said, “I’ve never seen a horse and owner as close and bonded as you two.” The older man chuckled when the young redhead jumped from surprise before encasing him in his signature Levie hug.

“Please, watch out for my dads and Tri when I’m not here because if something ever happened to them...” Levie couldn’t continue speaking, and teary-eyed, he melted into the strong embrace.

“So, you’ve finally called them dads,” Bill said, “We all wondered and had a bet on when you’d call them that.”

The seasoned ranch foreman had just turned twenty when he came to the ranch looking for steady employment a little over a month after Jaycen’s birth. The Stillman family endeared themselves to him, and the family held a special place in his heart. The space grew when the Moore family joined them and then again when Levie was born. Bill was instrumental in helping Jaycen and Troy take over the ranch. The young man in his arms was like a grandson to him.

Levie lifted his head and looked into the older man’s eyes. “Who won,” he asked, with just the slightest hint of an amused smirk.

“Mam-Maw Ev, she said you’d start calling them dads when you got closer to your twenties and began understanding how much Jayce and Troy sacrificed over the years.”

Levie gasped, and fresh tears started streaming down his cheeks.

“T...They sacrificed a lot to raise me?”

That’s when he realized they’d never talked about what it took to raise him on their own and softly said, “I...I’m the most ungrateful brat alive.”

Bill gently pushed the redhead back, looked into the young man’s eyes, and firmly said, “Levie Michael, look at me.”

The stern tone was something Levie wasn’t used to hearing from the elder, and it made him jump and gasp as he complied with the order.

The older man sat on a bench, pulled his young employer onto his lap, and smiled as the boy wrapped his arms around his neck and laid his head on his shoulder, just like he’d always done in the past, and with a loving, fatherly tone, he reiterated, “Look at me, young man,” as he gingerly lifted the boy’s chin.

Levie’s silvery, light green eyes opened, and he gazed into Bill’s dark brown eyes.

“You’re so far from an ungrateful brat. Levie, do you realize the first thing you said to me just now? I’ve never met a more caring, responsible, hard-working, and loving person. You do so much to help your Dads and the entire ranch. That’s not including all the riding and marksmanship lessons you’ve given over the years.” Bill paused and nodded towards Triton’s stall. “Do I even have to say anything about how you saved, taken care of, and loved that stallion? Lev, your late parents, your dads, the ranch hands, your family are all very proud of you. Why, in the world, would you ever think you’re an ungrateful brat?”

“We’d like to know that as well,” Jaycen and Troy said in unison. The pair witnessed the entire interaction.

Levie and Bill jumped when they heard Jaycen’s voice.

Still crying and sniffling, Levie looked over and up at his older brother and said, “I...I said that because I’ve never talked to you guys about what it was like and what you’ve gone through raising me, and I just took it for granted that you guys did that.” Before he could do or say anything else, Levie was swept up and cradled in his big brother’s arms, and he wrapped his arms and legs around the solid body.

Bill got up, hugged, and kissed the three young men.

Jaycen and Troy sat beside each other on the bench, with their boy sitting across their laps.

“Baby boy, just because we’ve never talked about what we experienced raising you doesn’t make you a brat, and we purposefully made sure to only show our love for you, this ranch, and each other so you’d never have to deal with the little bits of drama we faced,” Jaycen said as he kissed his brother’s forehead, then wiped his and Levie’s tears before leaning over to kiss his husband.

“Lev, we did have some issues, but they weren’t major and became very insignificant. They’re all in the past and didn’t affect us in the long run. Son, if you want to, we’ll sit down and have a family discussion about the past,” Troy said. He smiled as Levie shifted positions and continued, “The only thing that matters is we love you more than anything on this planet and have never regretted loving and raising you. We’ve been doing that since your birth.”

“What do you mean,” Levie asked, looking into Troy’s loving, brown eyes.

“When you were born, Mom and Dad couldn’t do all the overnight feedings, so Troypop and I helped them by going to the library and checking out books about caring for an infant, and we’d do it all again for our sweet Brokid.”

The men hugged Levie and tickled his sides, “Dads,” he squealed. His body wriggled and squirmed as wild, high-pitched laughter bounced off the walls of the wooden structure.

“Do you still feel like an ungrateful brat,” Jaycen asked.

His birth brother’s hands worked their way under his shirt, tickling along his bare stomach, then up into his slightly hairy armpit hollows. The new attack caused Levie to shriek, “I give... Uncle... I’m not an ungrateful brat,” and kick his legs.

The couple wrapped their brother in a double-sided bear hug, released their kid, then walked back to the Jeep. The trio had tears streaming down their cheeks as they said goodbye. Jaycen, Troy, and Levie were all feeling the same thing, and even though this didn’t change anything, except where Levie slept at night, it was still an emotional parting.

“Lev, take tomorrow off and spend some time with Greg,” Jaycen said as he placed his hands on his brother’s shoulders. A second later, he gasped and snapped his fingers. “Why don’t you see if the Wilmont family can come here with you on Sunday? We can show everyone around the ranch and spend the day working on blending our families.”

“Babe, that’s two brilliant ideas in one afternoon. The smart pills must be working,” Troy said with a chuckle. His chuckling morphed into hyena-like laughter when his comment earned him a noogie and a tickle attack that brought him to his knees as his husband’s fingers kneaded his ribs.

Levie shook his head, giggling at his adorable, playful brothers, and saw them as the perfect couple, incredible role models.

Jacen and Troy met at three years old when Stacy knocked on Ev’Lynn Moore’s front door, with a U-haul parked in front of the small rental property, three large pizzas, and Jaycen, clinging to her leg to move the Moore family into the three-bedroom cottage beside the main house at the ranch and from that day, the pair were inseparable.

The trip down memory lane took Levie back to when he was eight.

His parents told him to be honest about how he felt about his older brothers, then asked if he saw Jaycen and Troy as his parents and if he wanted to live with them on the ranch. He remembered their smiles when he told them he did see his brothers as parents and them as his grandparents. He vividly remembered that after giving his answer, his parents took him in their arms, hugged and kissed him, and said they knew he felt that way but had to hear it for themselves.

Levie also remembered how his dad said if he ever felt comfortable calling Troy and Jaycen his dads, he would be proud to share the title with his eldest sons. Returning to the present, he reminded himself to stop at the bank and make the monthly thousand-dollar transfer from his regular savings account to his secret “Bropops” account. He chuckled and said, “If you two kids could get serious for a minute.”

Jaycen and Troy stopped their playful roughhousing, looked at each other, then at the smirking redhead, and together, tackled Levie to the ground. They peppered Levie with kisses, tickles, and Jaycen’s signature noogies as he squirmed and giggled. The three of them got to their feet and had one more love-filled kiss and hug before Levie wiped his eyes, reminding them he’d be back on Sunday, hopefully with the Wilmonts.

Levie climbed into the Golden Eagle, put his sunglasses on, and then gave one last wave goodbye before shifting the vehicle into drive and heading down the long, gravel drive. He stopped to dry his eyes before getting on the road, then after taking a deep, calming breath, he put his turn signal on and turned left onto Duncan Road.

He drove along the quiet back road for ten minutes and glanced at the mountains in the distance. Levie stopped at the light, then made a right-hand turn onto the exit ramp and got on Highway 250, which took him into the city.

*****

Brandon and Greg finished eating, paid the bill, and left a generous tip for the waitress. They walked outside, stood side by side in front of the Tacoma, and stretched.

It was Brandon who broke the comfortable silence. “Hey, G, he said while nervously playing with a lock of hair.

Greg looked at his brother’s habitual nervous actions, then smiled because he’d done the same thing before they met. He also knew how to calm him down, took hold of the hand playing with the hair, gently guided his brother in front of him, wrapped his arms protectively around the smaller male, and pressed their bodies together.

“What’s on your mind, Bran,” Greg asked as he stroked the strands of silky hair.

Brandon sighed as he pressed his head into his brother’s chest. The two men whose heartbeat and protective embrace could calm and comfort him were his dad and Greg, whose gentle touch worked to calm his nerves,

“Well, I’ve been wrestling with the move, and G. I’m so torn.” His tears fell and dampened his brother’s shirt. “I’d like to move, and I think it would be a great adventure. However, I’m not comfortable being so far away from you. Yeah, Mom and Dad will be there, but not you. Bro, you’re my rock, and always protected and loved me. Do you remember when you took on those two guys who beat me up for standing up to them when they bullied that kid? It was like you were possessed. I had never seen you so pissed.”

Greg held his sobbing brother and said, “I can’t tell you what to do, but I will tell you I love you, and no matter what you decide, I’m behind you, just as I’ve always been, and you know, Mom and Dad will understand and back any decision you make.”

Brandon kissed Greg’s cheek and said, “I love you,” then giggled and said, “C’mon, let’s get outta here, I have a new brother waiting for my inspection.” He squealed as Greg administered a noogie before they got in their vehicles and drove to his townhouse.