19. Colton's Proposition

~Leo

I hate to admit that I was more surprised that Josh was still home when I woke up than him still being asleep. It was an awful thought to have - expecting him to be gone just to further avoid us talking about whatever the hell happened last night.

The sound of someone moving around downstairs made me realize Jackson wasn't in bed. That was also surprising. He's normally the last one of us to get up in the mornings, not the first. So, being curious, I got up too, careful not to wake Josh.

As I passed by the kids' room, I noticed that neither one of them were there. Ashley's bed was a complete mess, as usual, while Logan had attempted to toss his blanket over the bed to make it seem like he made it. At least he tried. I mean, what more can I expect from a couple of six year olds?

I found both of them in the living room, their eyes practically glued to the TV, where some cartoon was playing. There were too invested in the show to even notice that I was standing there, so I let them be, continuing on into the kitchen. I'd see them in a few minutes when they came out for breakfast anyway.

Jackson was in the kitchen still when I entered, packing a lunch into a bag. Why did he need a lunch? Where was he going? It's Saturday!

"Hey love," I said, walking up behind him to peer over his shoulder. "What are you doing?"

He looked at me. "I, unfortunately, have to go to work today. It's to make up for all the time I took off the past few weeks."

I kissed his cheek. "Well that sucks. But I get it. Just surprising seeing you up first." I walked to the other side of the kitchen to grab myself some of the coffee Jay had made. "Did you know Josh is still asleep?"

Jackson shook his head. "There's something up with him," he said softly. "It's worrying me."

"Me too," I sighed, before taking a sip of my coffee. "I'll see if I can get him to talk today. Hopefully figure out whatever is bothering him."

A silence fell between us for a moment while Jay finished getting his lunch together. During that time he was thinking of lunch, I had started thinking about breakfast.

"How much longer are you going to be here before you have to leave?" I asked.

He placed his packed lunch bag on the table, glancing at the clock. "No more than ten minutes. Why?"

"I was trying to figure out what to make for breakfast, but if you're not sticking around for it, your opinion doesn't matter all that much."

I must have had some look on my face or something when I said that because he immediately burst out laughing. "Thanks for letting me know now, Lee, after how many years?"

"That's not what I meant and you know that!" I exclaimed before also starting to laugh. I wrapped my arms around his waist. "I love you."

Suddenly, Ashley's voice echoed through the house. I quickly backed away from Jackson, ready to run to see if she was okay, but then realized she was screaming "Daddy" because Josh had come downstairs, not for us.

A couple minutes later, Josh walked into the kitchen, both children on his heels. He looked exhausted, as if he barely slept last night. There was definitely something going on with him. I was seriously worried.

"Good morning, beautiful," Jay said, crossing the room to give Josh a kiss. "What do you want for breakfast? Leo's cooking."

A hint of a smile appeared on Josh's face, which slightly eased my worry about him, if only because it was the first smile I've seen on him in what felt like forever. It didn't stay on his face for long though, unfortunately.

"Whatever is fine with me," he said, grabbing a mug to pour himself some coffee. He looked over at me as almost an afterthought. "Thanks, Leo."

I smiled. "Anything for you, my love." Then I looked towards the kids, who were standing over by the table, bickering about something. I think it had something to do with who gets to use the green cup today.

Eventually, we got them to agree to not argue anymore. In between all that, Jackson left, Josh went to get dressed because there wasn't anything he could do in the kitchen after the kids stopped bickering, and I started making pancakes. It was a crazy morning, but one we were all pretty used to. Other than Jay leaving, this sort of thing basically happened every Saturday morning.

Only today was a bit more rushed because the kids were being picked up by their friend's mother. They were going to some indoor play park today, and Linda gratefully offered to drive them.

So when the doorbell rang just as we were finishing cleaning up from breakfast, I panicked. The kids weren't even dressed to go yet. Did we get the wrong time?

Ashley, however, didn't seem to care that she was still in her pajamas and ran to get the door before Josh or I could stop her. We followed closely behind her, ready to apologize to Linda for not having them ready yet.

Except, when Ashley opened the door, it wasn't Linda standing there. It was Colton.

~Kyle

I couldn't believe I was actually doing this. This wasn't going to help at all - going to their house like this. Maybe I should have told them I was coming. No, maybe I should have stayed at Dad's.

"Are you going to get out of the car or not?" Colton asked, looking over at me from the driver's seat.

"I don't know."

He groaned. "You made me drive all the way here for this? Kyle! Those men in there love you so much it's sickening. They want you to come back so badly, you don't even understand. Whatever you're afraid of isn't going to happen, unless you're afraid of them being happy, which is totally wrong. You should want them to be happy. You love them."

I sighed, looking up at the house. It was a pretty decent sized home. Two floors, a nice porch in front. From what I could tell there was a good sized backyard as well, with at least a swing set back there, although I couldn't see if there was anything else because the house blocked the rest of the yard from my view.

I kept my gaze on the house. "Maybe I did love them at some point," I said softly, "but I don't know anymore. I don't know them.

"You will, because I just got an idea. Come on."

The next thing I knew, Colton was out of the car and heading up the front path to the house. I had a feeling I wasn't going to like whatever plan he had in mind - as per usual with his plans. But then again, his plans that I was used to were from when he was still a kid. Maybe he's gotten some better ideas now that he's grown up. Not that it made me feel any better about this. So I stayed in the car, watching him reach the door and press the doorbell.

~Josh

He had such a wide smile on his face that I knew he wasn't here because something bad had happened, which was my first thought. Why else would he just show up like this - completely unannounced - this early on a Saturday morning? Colton had picked Ashley up as soon as she had opened the door and now they were both moving past Leo and I without even a glance. That was also confusing - Colton generally wasn't a kid person, why would he come by just to see them?

"Hello Colton," Leo said, shutting the door. "Was there a reason you stopped by?"

Colton stopped walking and put Ashley back on the ground. "Yeah, actually. I have a proposition for you guys."

"Ash," I said to her. "Go get dressed, okay? You need to leave soon. And tell your brother too."

Thankfully she ran off without any questions. Even if she didn't have anywhere to go soon, I felt that this was probably going to be a conversation I didn't want her overhearing anyway, if I knew Colton at all.

"So," Colton started once we had moved to the living room, "I know you guys have an opening for husband number four now." I was about to protest - we were not looking for a replacement for Kyle, never in a million years - but he held up his hands defensively and continued talking. "Don't worry. Just hear me out. He's this really great guy. Gay. Into the whole multi-person relationship thing you got on. What would you say to just one date? I'll even watch the kids for you. Okay, I'll have Elliot watch the kids because he's better at it than I am. Please just give him a chance?"

I sat there, my arms crossed over my chest. How could he even suggest something like that? It was awful!

"Uh, no," Leo said, looking just as disgusted at the thought as I felt. "Are you crazy? Sorry, Colton, but it's not going to happen."

"So you're going to make me go tell my brother that you guys won't even give him a single chance?"

I sat up. "Kyle? You're talking about Kyle? I hate you, Colton." I didn't actually mean it, and judging by the laugh he let out at my words, he knew that too.

"Your brother tells me that all the time too," he chuckled, but quickly composed himself. "Seriously though. Kyle's outside in my car. He wanted to come here, but then froze before he could get out of the car. I think he's just afraid of everything he doesn't remember, which is a hell of a lot. Go out, the four of you. I think it'll do all you a lot of good, to be honest."

I looked at Leo, who was already looking at me. Kyle was here, outside. He wanted to talk to us, even if he couldn't make it all the way to the house. I liked the idea of us all going out again, like we used to. This might be the first real chance we have at getting Kyle back, or even getting him to start remembering.

"We'll talk to Jay when he gets home, I guess," Leo said, still looking at me. "Figure out when would work best for all of us."

I stood up. "Why wait? I mean, Jackson's not here, but Kyle is. We don't need to go out now, but we can at least talk to him."

Leo reached out and grabbed my wrist, pulling me closer to him. "Love, let him be for now. We'll talk to him when he's completely ready."

"This is exactly what I've been trying to tell you!" I exclaimed, pulling my arm from his grasp. "You're not listening to me!"

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I knew I shouldn't have said them. All the blame can't be put on just him.

"Josh, you've barely said anything to us in days. It's not that I'm not listening. I am. Believe me, I am. You're not saying anything for me to hear."

I looked away from him. He was right. I knew that. But he was still slightly to blame for making me feel this way in the first place.

"This is frightening." Colton's voice broke through my thoughts, reminding me that he was still here. "You guys have never fought, as far as I know. Is everything okay?"

I shook my head, not knowing how to answer him. Whatever was going on with us, he didn't need to concern himself with. What we needed was Kyle to come back home. Then hopefully everything would be okay again.