Jayden turned from where his gaze had drifted to the Brooklyn Bridge overhead and simply stared at him. “She’s what?”
“The woman. The one I told you and Kerrigan about. From New Year’s Eve.”
Gavin wasn’t sure why he was sharing this or why he’d chosen this moment to do it. Maybe because Jayden would have pulled it out of him anyway. Or maybe it was because his head had been so far in the clouds the past week, he just needed to get it off his chest.
But here they were, heading out into the open waters of the harbor, and he was spilling every bit of his life’s current events to one of his dive partners.
“I thought you didn’t know how to find her.”
“I didn’t. And then I walked into the task force meeting Monday morning, and she was standing at the sideboard they had set up with breakfast pastries and coffee, talking to some guy she went to law school with.”
Jayden shook his head. “Seriously small world, dude.”
“Minuscule sometimes.”
“And mind-numbingly vast when you’re looking for someone.”
Even now, Gavin had no understanding of why he’d shared the whole story of his mystery woman with Jayden and Kerrigan. He had vowed to not only keep it to himself, but he’d believed he was getting past the subtle ache that he’d carried those first few weeks of the year each time he thought of her.
Instead, he’d found himself spilling his tale of woe over a few beers after a tough shift in late January.
Like a sap, Gavin thought, still unsure why he was continuing to share now. Especially because he’d tried to play it off after they’d left the bar, outside in the cold hoofing it to the subway, but both had seen through it. And neither of them had been fooled by his attempts at smoothing over his confession.
They’d been equally fair in avoiding asking him the more obvious questions of why he hadn’t shored up his problem to begin with and gotten his mystery woman’s full name and phone number.
“Well, now that I’ve met her,” Jayden continued, “I can see why you weren’t ready to let her go. She’s great, Gav.”
“She’s pregnant.”
Although he mentally braced for something between shock and overt sympathy, the sudden whoop of laughter and grab for a tight, backslapping hug was its antithesis. “Gavin, that’s amazing. Congratulations, man.”
He leaned into the embrace, surprised to realize how good it felt to tell someone. And how much better it felt to hear such elation from another person at his news.
News he hadn’t shared with anyone else yet.
And as Gavin pulled back, he couldn’t hide the smile. “It’s really good. And it’s all pretty new, but it is most definitely good.”
“I’m happy for you. My mother has always said it, and it’s one of the truest things in the world. Babies are wonderful news.”
“Since Mama Houston’s never wrong about anything, I’ll take that as the best validation when those moments of sheer panic rear up and grab me by the throat.”
“She’s going to be over the moon with this. You and Sera had better expect an invite for Sunday dinner soon.”
Gavin’s apprehension must have shown through because Jayden added, “My mother doesn’t care about what’s going on between the two of you, though she’ll find a way to give you a talking-to regardless. When she brings you out to her small cookery on the back porch and waves everyone else away is usually when it happens.”
Gavin could already picture the small prep area off the kitchen in the Houstons’ Sunset Bay row home and braced for whatever was coming. Not only because it came from a place of love, but because he deserved it. “Forewarned is forearmed.”
“Did I ever tell you the set down I got over Darius?”
“I don’t think so.”
Jayden smiled, warming up to his story. “We’d been dating for a few months when it went down. My family knew I was gay, but I preferred to keep my relationships away from them.”
Gavin realized he hadn’t heard the story before, but also realized it seemed disconnected from what he knew of Jayden’s welcoming and effusive family. “Because they weren’t okay with your relationship?”
“Nah, it was all me. Because I wasn’t comfortable.” Sadness seemed to increase the exhaustion beneath his dark brown eyes. “I almost lost Darius because of it, too. But well, with her bat ears, Mama heard through the neighborhood grapevine I was getting serious, and this wasn’t something casual.
“She dragged my ass out there to her cookery the first opportunity she got and waved a wooden spoon at me. Told me she and my big beautiful Black family loved me and whoever I loved, and if I was going to hide something special from the rest of them, I didn’t deserve to have it. And that I was insulting all of them, too, while I was at it.”
“That sweet woman who welcomes me with kisses and hugs and sends me home with leftovers for a week?”
“Don’t let it fool you. If you’re acting like an ass, she’ll make sure you know.”
“Darius is a good man. It would have been a shame to let him get away.”
“I think about it every day, man.” Jayden turned to look back toward the boat. Sera was just visible through the windows where she and Kerrigan were still talking. “Every. Damn. Day.”
Gavin’s gaze followed Jayden’s before turning back to his friend. “Is the back of this boat the equivalent of your mother’s cookery?”
Jayden grinned at that, the flash of white teeth and laughter breaking through that lingering exhaustion. “She’d love the comparison, but no one dispenses the wisdom and sass in equal measure like my mother.” Jayden slapped him on the back once more as they turned to look out over the water. “And besides, I don’t have a wooden spoon.”
Gavin laughed at the image as they made the last turn into the waterway that led to the 86th’s docks.
The words that had haunted him this afternoon settled a bit, along with the lingering excitement Jayden had shared over the baby.
You’re a family.
It was a compliment in every way.
