Bittersweet Irish Cream Ch. 14

Jack said in the phone, "Chris Jennings? Sam and BJ's cousin Chris? From Albania?"

"The very same one. He wants to talk to you." And before Jack could say another word, Henry passed along the phone.

"Jack," Chris called his name in his European accent.

He sounded the same, his voice a touch deeper. "Chris," Jack breathed out his name. Ethan's eyebrow went up.

"Wow you sound like a grown up," Chris said and laughed.

"Yeah you do too, I guess," Jack said because he had no other words. Then he asked, "What are you doing here?"

'My husband and I went to a Coldplay concert in Boston and because it was so close, we decided to take the drive down and see my family. I was at your apple tree when your uncle found me."

"My dad," Jack corrected him. "He's my dad now...we did an adult adoption thing about two years ago."

"Wow. So Etta and Mina are not your cousins anymore but your sisters? That's fantastic. Congratulations."

"Yup. Thanks."

Chris paused. "I would have thought you'd be long gone from this small town by now. But I hear you had a good reason to stay."

Jack glanced at Ethan who had a look of pure confusion on his face. He smiled and said, "Yea. I had a great reason."

"So you're married with a child?" Chris asked.

"Two now. Almost. We're adopting our daughter in a few weeks in court, officially. And I'm adopting Ethan's son at the same time, also officially," Jack told him. Then said, "You said husband? You're married too?"

"Yea, just two years this past February," Chris told him.

Wow!" Jack said. "That's amazing." His voice was higher than he intended. They were quiet for a moment, then Jack said, "So how long are you in town for?"

Well I'm staying at BJ's house tonight and we were going to head back up to my Aunt Lacey's house tomorrow. Our flight leaves on Friday, in three days. But I would love to see you, if...if that's ok?"

"Yeah, that's ok. That's..." He looked at Ethan again who was still staring at him confused. "Come to dinner tomorrow night. Here. In fact, stay here at the B&B. I'll have a room for you and your husband." Ethan mouthed to him, What the fuck, but Jack turned his head again.

"Wow, that's really amazing of you. Yes, we'll do that. I have to introduce Ciaran to some family members tomorrow but we should be back around the dinner hour."

Jack told him, "6 o'clock. My dad will give you the address."

"Thanks. I'm looking forward to it, and to meeting your husband," Chris said.

"Yea. Me too," Jack said. He held the phone for a bit longer after Chris hung up, thinking of the past. Then he let the phone drop in his lap.

"Papa, you look like you've seen a ghost," said EJ.

"It might as well have been," he said to him distractedly.

Ethan poked his arm. "Who are we having over for dinner tomorrow night? Chris...?"

"Jennings." Jack finished for him.

His eyebrow went up again. "Sam and BJ's cousin from Europe? You first love Chris Jennings?"

Jack opened his mouth, then closed it. Ethan laughed out loud. "Holy shit, you should see your face. Like a deer in headlights."

Jack quickly turned away. Then he stood up and said, "I need a moment." He started walking toward the bedroom.

Ethan called after him, "Take all the moments you need. Jack. I'll still be here."

Jack laid on the bed on his stomach and heart was racing. His mind wandered back to the day when he met Chris Jennings. He was sitting in his favorite spot on the first day of summer right before sophomore year of high school, on the top branch of a low hanging apple tree right along the Jenning's property line. His tree.

While his two cousins got jobs as camp counselors and his younger sister June was in camp herself, Jack had refused camp, worked a little on the farm but mostly opting to spend his summer right there. Then he heard a voice in a strange accent call out that changed everything, saying, "Why are you in a tree?"

He looked down and saw the most beautiful boy he had ever seen. Light brown skinned, thick curly brown hair and perfect white teeth. He had on a tank top that showed off his skinny chest with round nipples poking out, muscled arms and hairy legs. Before that moment, Jack had a suspicion that he might be gay. He tried to get into girls because other boys his age were, but he just didn't have any desire toward them.

But he had never really been interested in any of the boys in town either so that made him question what he was. Yet he knew at night he would dream about Tom Cruise and Will Smith before he would Julia Roberts. And suddenly there was a real life Will Smith looking at him with squinting eyes in the sun that was taking his breath away. Yup, Jack knew in that moment, he was definitely gay.

Chris Jennings turned out to be bisexual and unapologetic about it. He flirted openly with girls, which wasn't hard because they flocked to him like a magnet and flocked to Jack too since they spent every single day together that summer. But he also covertly flirted with boys, which was fun to watch them try to figure out if the things he was saying or the way he would touch their arms and shoulders actually meant something or if he was just kidding around. He pointed out three different boys to Jack that he was sure were gay, just by the way they responded to his touch or the subtle way they looked at him, and Connor was one of them.

They did everything together every day for two solid months. Chris ran track and they would run a 5k every morning together, something Jack still did to this day. Jack taught him the Galway accent and spoke to him in Irish Gaelic, and they planned to go to Ireland together one day. He taught Jack not to be afraid of anything or anyone, that no one but God could judge him for who he is and his choices in life and to never back down from doing what is right, always.

Chris was his first kiss, his first love and his first sexual experience. Chris was also his first real confidant. Then Chris left him abruptly and he never got the chance to say goodbye. And now that Chris is there, he had no idea how he was going to react to seeing him again.

Jack felt bad for not being able to shake this heart pounding feeling. He knew it was completely separate from his feelings for his husband, who he loved before he even realized he was falling in love with him. Chris was a puppy love crush, blended in the seeds of his past. Ethan was his present and his future, his whole heart, his real, adult love.

Jack still felt a newness when he looked at Ethan, like he could not believe that a man as intelligent, selfless, charismatic and loving as he is, could be in love with someone like Jack. He recognized that he was not easy to be with. He had a temper and he goes from playful to moody in an instant, that's the Taurus in him. But Ethan accepted it all and loved him anyway.

Later on Ethan joined him in the bedroom after putting EJ to sleep and placed Jackie in her crib gently on the other side of their bedroom to not wake her and a bottle in the bottle warmer on the dresser. Jack was laying face down on the bed and turned to his side as Ethan came in. Ethan took off his clothes, changed to a pair of pajama bottoms and also laid on his side.

"I'm sorry," Jack said. "I'm acting... stupid. It's just... there was so much I wanted to say to him before he left. And after 12 years he just walks back into my life? It's...crazy."

Ethan nodded, reached over and pulled Jack's shirt over his head. He touched Jack's bare chest, softly rubbing his nipples as Jack continued talking.

"I don't have feelings for him or anything. That's impossible." Ethan raised an eyebrow but said nothing as he continued to touch Jack's abs. "But this is my chance to tell him how he changed my life. And I can't pass it up. I'm sorry I didn't ask you first."

Ethan nodded again, leaned over and sucked his nipples. Jack moaned, "You aren't going to say anything?"

Ethan did not respond, instead moved up to Jack's neck and sucked on it. Jack succumbed to Ethan's kisses and fell to his back as Ethan moved on top of him. They found their familiar dance, tongues in each other's mouths, grinding their erections together. Then Ethan touched, kissed and licked Jack's chest area all the way down to his groin area and pulled off his house pants and underwear. He started giving Jack's penis soft licks around then turned Jack on his side and moved up his leg slightly to tongue kiss Jack's hole.

He stayed there for a while, soft licks around the rim, dipping the tip of his tongue inside of Jack, then back around the outside again. Jack moaned softly, knowing one loud noise will wake up their daughter. But Ethan was not making it easy, as alternated between licking and fingering Jack.

Jack told him, "I'm going to cum, babe... I'm going to cum... fuck...."

Ethan sat up and moved Jack onto his back again. He fingered Jack's spot and stroked him as Jack took a pillow and put it over his head to moan loudly as he came all over his chest.

When his orgasm subsided Jack said with the pillow over his head, "Ethan. Talk to me. Please."

Ethan silently took his pants and underwear off, then said softly, "No."

He grabbed the lube and stroked Jack first, then added some on his own cock. He moved between Jack's legs, took the pillow off his face and entered him gently. Jack lifted his legs and dug his heels into the small of Ethan's back. He held onto Ethan's forearms as Ethan gave him deep strokes at first, then quick pumps, then moved back to deep strokes.

Jack closed his eyes as Ethan passionately made love to him for a while. He moaned in his ear, calling Ethan's name softly. Ethan reached one hand down and held onto Jack's round ass cheeks, pulling him closer, burying himself deeper with each thrust. Jack let out a loud moan as his insides continued to take a beating and came again. Ethan came right behind him, filling up his insides with his Irish cream. He leaned kissed Jack's face a few times, then found his lips and kissed him on his closed mouth.

Ethan pulled out of Jack slowly and put his head on Jack's chest listening to his quickened heartbeat slow down. Jack loved making love with Ethan, who always satisfied him in bed. His touch had always made him feel electrified throughout his body and tonight was no different. But he felt Ethan's intensity, the need to claim back what was rightfully his through their lovemaking, to remind Jack who had his heart now.

They were so quiet they thought the other went to sleep. Then Jack whispered, "I know you don't need to hear it but I'm going to say it anyway. You have nothing to worry about."

Ethan was quiet for a moment, then whispered back, "Just come back to me, Jackie bear."

Jack stayed quiet and rubbed Ethan's back until he fell asleep.

~~~~~

Jack, Ethan and EJ came upstairs in the vestibule to meet Chris and his husband Ciaran. They walked in hand in hand and Ethan heard Jack do a small gasp but did not look at him. Chris was tall, taller than Ethan, with tawny colored skin, a handsome face and neat brown long locks in a ponytail down his back. Seeing Chris again made Jack's heart skip a beat. He felt like he was caught between his younger boyhood self that was first discovering his sexuality and the devoted husband he was at that moment. His cock responded involuntarily.

"Wow. Jack Redmond with the emerald eyes," Chris said, with a deep, eastern European accent. Ethan did not like the way Jack's full name rolled off his lips at all but said nothing.

"Hey...Chris," Jack said. Chris let Ciaran's hand go and walked right up to Jack to give him a tight hug and Jack hugged him back. They held each other long, and Ciaran and Ethan exchanged eyebrow raises, then Ciaran chuckled.

"You're tall," Chris said to Jack then laughed.

Jack laughed as well. "Yeah I kind of grew a few inches after 15."

Chris said, "It's really good to see you." And hugged him again. Then he looked directly at Ethan. "You must be the husband. I'm Christopher." He let go of Jack to give Ethan a handshake, which Ethan obliged.

"I'm Ethan. This is our son, EJ." EJ looked at him and then moved toward Jack and held his hand. Jack looked at him and smiled.

"It's ok, EJ. This is Papa's old friend, Chris." EJ said hello in barely a whisper.

Chris motioned for Ciaran to come closer. "And this is Ciaran, my better half."

Ciaran looked at Chris first and smiled, then shook Jack's hand, then Ethan's. "It's nice to meet you both." He said in a strong British accent. "Thank you for inviting us to stay at your bed and breakfast for the night."

Ciaran was the same height as Chris but definitely stockier, broad chested. He was also the complete opposite of his husband. Where Chris was brown skinned and brown eyed, Ciaran was pale skinned with freckles, long fiery red hair pulled back into a ponytail and bright blue eyes. Together they were a striking pair. Like Lenny Kravits and a red haired Brad Pitt in a weird gay relationship, Ethan thought.

Ciaran handed Chris two bags. Chris passed one to Ethan and said, "A gift for your son and your daughter." In the bag there were handmade colorful wooden block sets and a caterpillar teething toy and rattle.

"How thoughtful, thank you," Ethan said.

Then he passed the other bag to Jack with a wide smile. Jack pulled the Jack Daniels's whiskey out of his bag. "Ha!" he exclaimed and Chris laughed.

"Yes! Right back where we left off. Well obviously not right back," he said and they laughed together.

Ethan and Ciaran waited for the joke. Then Jack said, "On Chris's last night in Rockville, he got someone to buy it for us and we got shitfaced in the barn. First time I ever got drunk."

"Lots of firsts with me, mo chara. Gave you hair on your chest and your balls in one night," Chris said amusingly hitting Jack in the chest.

Jack laughed heartily. "God, we had so much fun together."

They looked at each other smiling and reminiscing. Ethan was trying really hard to be jealous of this gay, sexy Lenny Kravits looking motherfucker that his husband was obviously attracted to.

Ciaran coughed loudly breaking their eye contact. "So what's for dinner?" he asked Ethan casually.

Ethan smiled at him. He already liked Ciaran's smooth demeanor. "Come on down." He led the way to the basement apartment and they followed him.

Ethan set plates and Jack opened up the whiskey, immediately filled a shot and drinking it, then drank another one. Ethan watched him and was determined to keep his thoughts to himself. They were in for a long night.

They sat down for dinner with EJ between them and Jackie sleeping in the bassinet in the living room. Chris started with small talk about the concert they attended and asking about Jack's siblings Henrietta, June and Mina, as Ethan watched Jack and Chris make furtive glances at each other and smile.

"So there's a question I've been meaning to ask you Jack," Chris said between bites.

"What's that?"

"What happened to your eye? I mean, If you're in an abusive relationship you know you can talk to me." He winked at Ethan.

Jack laughed. "No I just got into a fight with a racist homophobe."

"Hmm..." Chris said. "Was it Connor?"

Ethan laughed out loud and Jack's eyes went wide. "Wow, you remember Connor from way back when?" Jack asked.

"Well he was pretty much an....a-hole to me, and it wasn't because of my accent," Chris said, looking at EJ and carefully choosing his words. "It's not something you forget."

"I think the Connor you remember is very different from the Connor today," said Ethan.

"I sure hope so," Chris said. "He was pretty awful as a young lad."

What happened?" Ethan asked.

Jack answered, "They never really gelled well together. Connor would make these ridiculous comments about Chris's hair and accent, and called him Frenchie a lot. Then there was this one incident when Chris and I met up with Sam, Liam and Connor at the park and Chris asked about us playing football, meaning soccer-"

Chris cut him off, "No, I meant football, you Americans are all in the wrong here," he said amusingly.

Jack laughed loudly. "Yeah, yeah, you're right about that." Ethan squinted his eyes at him and Jack coughed, then took another sip of his whiskey.

He continued, "So anyway, Chris wanted to start a game and he and Connor got into it, because Connor called it a sissy game. So Chris asked him what game did he play and he said baseball, and Chris asked him if he was a pitcher or a catcher, or both, and Connor said he was a catcher so Chris said..."

Jack started laughing uncontrollably so Chris finished. "I told him obviously he's a catcher because with a bum like that it was made for catching."

Ethan busted out laughing and so did Ciaran. EJ said, "I don't get it."

Ethan said between laughter, "Mind your business and eat your peas, kid." EJ sulked at the table. Ethan said to Chris, "So you knew he was gay?"

"I have no idea how they didn't know. It was as obvious as the grass was green around us," Chris said. "Especially how upset he got. He tried to fight me because, how dare I insinuate such a thing? Then he called me an uppity negro that needed to be put down a few notches."

Ethan's eyes grew wide. "Whaaaat? Well...I'm not completely surprised at his behavior, given who his father is."

"Well I'm glad I never met the man," Chris said. "If he's anything like my Uncle Ben then I've had my full of racists and homophobes for a lifetime. I believe they are friends, his father and my uncle."

Jack said to Ethan, "BJ and Sam's dad is a bigot too, just not as overtly bad as Connor's dad. He'll never say anything to your face."

"No, he'll just belittle his brother's African wife, like he did to my mum, driving her away from Ireland and back to Albania to her family, and also forbade his children to attend a gay wedding or they would be cut off from their inheritance, which is why my cousins didn't attend mine," he said bitterly.

Ciaran reached over and touched his shoulder. He and Ciaran looked at each other, having a silent conversation. Then he turned back to the table, and said with a smile, "But that's all water under the bridge now. So, Connor is no longer a nob, good on him."

"The complete opposite," Jack said. "He's out and in a committed relationship with a black man."

Chris nodded. "Not surprised. It's usually the ones fighting it the hardest end up the loudest. I kind of assumed the only reason he wanted to start a fight with me is so that he could touch me and feel me up in a way he wouldn't be able to do openly," he said smugly.

Ethan snorted and Jack laughed loudly again as Ciaran said sarcastically, "That was real humble of you."

"It's the truth. He wanted me, I saw it all in his eyes. And I wasn't the only one he wanted." He raised an eyebrow at Jack.

Jack glanced at Ethan then said, "Ok, this conversation just went left." He took another gulp of his whiskey and poured more in his glass.

"You know it's true. We talked about it, remember? I'm surprised he didn't jump on you the moment I left," Chris said. Jack averted everyone's eyes and looked down at his glass, taking another sip. Chris's eyes went wide. "He did, didn't he?"

"Noooo... We're not doing this," Jack said to his glass, starting to regret drinking so much.

Ethan, who had never asked Jack about his relationship with Connor, was now interested. "Why not? I mean, it's in the past and we all have one, right?" Ethan said amusingly to him. Jack lifted his eyes and shot Ethan a look, then back down at his glass.

Ciaran tried to help by saying, "We're not going to put the poor bloke on the spot, are we?" Jack looked at him grateful.

"No we aren't going to do that. I don't want to know any details of their relationship," Chris said. He paused then said, "Except one thing. How long? How long after I left did he approach you? A day? A week? Not more than two weeks, I'm sure of it."