“Hey! I brought beer.” Matt nearly yelled when he opened the front door to Brian’s house. I guess it could kind of be considered Zack’s too since they had made plans to move in together and Zack hadn’t left since then.

“Uncle Matt!” Jared yelled from the living room. With a smile on his face Matt swooped the little boy up and carried him to the kitchen, where Zack was preparing tortellini. Matt placed Jared on the counter and the case of beer in the fridge. Matt walked up and stood next to Zack with a smile on his face; he hip bumped his friend and stuck his finger in the sauce.

“Ouch,” He stated pulling it back and putting his burning finger in his mouth.

“That serves you right for sticking your fingers in my food Matthew.” Zack scolded lightly with a gentle smack to Matt’s bicep with a potholder.

“That hurt my pride; just like when my momma would do that to us as kids.” Matt put a fake pout on his face making Zack chuckle and scoop him out one of the filled noodles, he placed it on a napkin to the side of the stove. Matt almost immediately grabbed it and put it in his mouth without thinking. His eyes went wide and filled with tears. He began to chew quickly while wincing.

“What is it with you boys? You Brian and Jared are all too impatient to wait for the food to cool so you scarf it right away and burn your tongues.” Zack sighed and put the lid back on his pot and turned the stove off.

“That’s only because your cooking is so good we don’t want to wait to try it.” Brian replied from the kitchen door way. He walked over to the counter and grabbed a piece of French bread and popped it into his mouth.

“Brian Elwin Haner get your ass out of the kitchen and quit picking at my dinner.” Zack grabbed Brian by the wrist drug him over to the island counter; making him sit in one of the chairs. “That is the fifth time you have snuck food no sit here and wait patiently.”

On the other side of the counter Zack heard a little giggle. His eyes widened and he rounded the corner to see the little boy kneeled down, chomping on a bread square.

“Out,” Zack pointed to the kitchen arch way. “All three of you get out of this kitchen, so help me if any of you eat any more food before dinner time you will all feel my wrath.” He held up a spatula and pointed it at Brian and Matt.

“Hey I only had one and you let me have that.” Matt protested with his hands in the air pretending to be defensive. The smile gave him away.

“Fine you can stay. You” Zack pointed at Brian, “And you.” Next he went to Jared. “Get out.” Both boys reluctantly walked out of the kitchen, but not before Brian could grab a beer for each of them. Minus the little boy of course, he got juice.

“So what happened at the hospital?” Matt wondered once he remembered why he had come over. He was leaned up against the counter with his legs crossed and his arms folded over his chest.

“I think we should all talk about it after dinner, maybe we could tuck him in early and step out onto the back porch.” Zack is one of those people who talks with their hands so Matt understood who Zack was talking about the instant the word ‘him’ left his mouth.

“Okay. I trust your judgment. If you want to keep this away from him then I respect that.” Matt nodded and took his beer out into the living room where Brian was helping Jared do his homework.

When dinner was finally done all the boys gathered around the table with their drinks and dug in. It was hard for Brian and Matt to pace themselves when they tasted the amazing pasta Zack had hand made. Jared on the other hand ate more bread than his pasta or vegetables. He made little dinosaur noises as he ate making all three men gawk at him every so often.

“Is this what I have to look forward to when Kage is his age?” Matt wondered looking over the table.

“Pretty much, unless you wind up with a hyper child; then he will be five times worse than the little butt over there.” Zack pointed at Jared. The little boy took that time to look up at him and stick his tongue out, Zack did the same.

Dinner progressed as normal; Matt would crack jokes and tell stories with Brian about them growing up. They had never told Matt about Zack knowing them so the hazel eyed man was shocked when Zack replied to one of his stories with a glare. “I always wondered who did that.”

“Wait what?” Matt asked confused, Brian had stopped laughing and began rubbing at his neck.

“You know you assholes ruined Johnny and Jimmy’s prom night because of that.” Zack stated with his brow frowned.

“What?” Matt was defiantly more confused now.

“Let’s just say that when we were teens Matt, the two we use to take the piss out of the most were Zack and his friend Johnny.” Brian murmured.

“Oh shit!” Matt’s eyes met Zack’s across the table.

“I am so sorry Zack.” Matt stated now regretting his teenage actions.

“Oh don’t apologize to me now it won’t do any good. I forgave you for all of that when I found out you actually grew up.” Zack forked his green beans and watched them scatter on his plate. Brian reached over and ran his hand across Zack’s shoulder blades; he knew exactly how much hell he and Matt put Zack through when they were younger.

After things had settled down they watched TV for about two hours before Brian attempted to put Jared to bed. The little boy was giving him hell for it too. “But daddy I don’t want to go to my room!”

Finally after fifteen minutes of them going back and forward Matt bribed the little boy. “If you go to your room and watch a movie until you go to sleep, if your dads okay with it you can stay with me for the weekend.” Matt looked at Brian and Zack who both nodded their heads after looking at one another.

“Okay!” Jared ran upstairs and quickly got in his night clothes before turning on a movie and getting in bed. The adults said good night to the little boy before they locked the doors and went out back; leaving the screen door open so they could hear if the little boy got up and came down stairs.

“So what’s up?” Matt asked sitting at the umbrella covered metal table. It had tons of little diamond shapes in it so you could see through to the ground. The chairs matched but they had cushions. Brian lit the outside torches and took a seat next Zack.

“Matt I need you to stay calm; something is wrong.” Brian spoke picking up his friend’s hands and holding them in his own across the table. Brian let go of one hand when Zack’s nudged his. Zack grabbed onto one of Brian’s hands and the other of Matt’s that his boyfriend wasn’t holding.

“What is it?” Matt asked after taking a few deep breaths.

“Matt the baby isn’t mine.” Zack spoke looking directly into the other man’s eyes. The deep breaths started to come more shallowly until Matt collapsed back in his chair; letting go of the hands.

“Fuck,” He whispered his head back and his eyes closed. “No matter how selfish this may sound I fucking hoped with all of my being that it was yours, because at least then I wouldn’t have to face what I suspected all along.”

“How is it selfish for you to not want your life to fall apart?” Brian asked leaning over the table and taking forcing Matt’s hand into his. “Look at me.” Matt’s teary eyes met his. “You have every right in the world to be upset right now, you have been betrayed and I get that but you need to think about this. Think really hard about everything going on and think about the consequences if you do something bad. You have a baby to think about now. If you do something illegal you know you will go to jail, if that happens Val can get custody of him. Do you want him to be raised without his dad when the situation could have been different?”

“No,” Matt whispered swallowing for the first time in a few minutes.

“Let us help you forget for the night.” Zack suddenly piped up; Brian raised a brow at his boyfriend but didn’t object.