“Ho, Ho, Ho!” Joey bellowed when JC opened the door to his persistent knocking pounding.

Shirtless, and dazzled both by the sun and Joey’s over-the-top-cheer, JC scratched his bare stomach and yawned widely enough to have his jaw popping before he complained, “Fuck, Joey, it’s barely ten. What in the hell are you doing here?”

“Kelly called this morning to tell me that Briahna wanted to see her Uncle JC, so I told her that I’d meet them here at eleven; and then I figured I’d best come by and get your ass out of bed before they get here.”

They stood in the bright morning light for several minutes before Joey raised one dark brow and inquired, “So?”

“So what?”

“Are you going to let me in, or are you going to keep standing in your doorway half naked until some teenie comes along and starts snapping your picture?”

“Joe, you know I love Bri, but today’s probably not –”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Pushing his way past JC, Joey walked into the living room and stopped dead. “Jesus, JC, this place is –”

“Bare, I know. I’ve been meaning to go and pick out some new stuff, but I’ve been busy.”

“Dude, it’s been three months since the hurricane, and you still don’t have furniture. Not to mention that you don’t even have a single Christmas decoration out. Bri and Kelly are going to be all over your ass about that; you are ready for it, right?”

“Which is why I haven’t had them over?” JC snidely pointed out, but his comment either went right over Joey’s head or Joey wasn’t listening because he was wandering around the room, flinging drapes open, muttering to himself the entire time that JC needed this, that and the other thing, and he’d best make a list before the girls got there or they’d both never hear the end of it.

“Joey,” JC tailed him to a corner of the room and clamped a hand over his mouth. “Why are you here, and why,” he tightened his grip when Joey tried to speak, “did Kelly have to call you this morning to tell you that Bri wanted to visit me when the last time I looked the two of you were married and living in the same house?”

“Mmmph.”

“Fine,” JC sighed and removed his hand. “Speak.”

“I’m here for the reason I told you at the door, and I wasn’t with Kelly and Bri because I spent the night with my sister’s kids ‘cause she was at the hospital having the baby.” By the time Joey finished speaking, both he and JC were grinning from ear to ear.

“You ass,” JC joked as he pulled Joey into a hug. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“I was too busy admiring how amazingly bad you looked when you opened the door?” Joey cracked, earning a pinch for his efforts.

“Fucker,” JC swore, but the softness in his eyes belayed the harshness of the word. “So, Uncle Joey, what was it this time? Did she finally have a girl, or did they add another boy to their collection?”

“A girl.” Joey smiled when JC pumped his fist, ‘Yes’. “Elysha Rose. She weighed in proudly at eight pounds, thirteen and a half ounces and she arrived at 5:15 this morning. Mother and baby are both doing fine.”

“Congratulations, Joey.” JC touched him softly on the arm. “I bet your folks were thrilled.”

“Pissed, too, that she came two weeks early while they were still in New York.”

“I bet,” JC laughed, picturing Joe Sr.’s reaction. “I also bet they’re on their way back.”

Joey looked at his watch and grinned. “They landed about two hours ago and have been driving Janine insane since.”

“Well, dude, it’s not like you came by your yenta tendencies by accident.”

“Hey, now, just because I don’t want to see my friend living like a hobo, doesn’t mean I’m a yenta.”

“My house, my career, my clothing choices, my love life,” JC ticked each item off on a finger. “Uhm, what part exactly about my life don’t you worry about, cause I can’t think of any.”

Rolling his eyes heavenward, Joey took the only seat in the room – the new window seat that JC had added when the house had been repaired.

“Don’t even get me started on your love life.”

If the guilty look that passed over JC’s face gave Joey pause, the man that walked into the room, wearing nothing but a pair of sweat pants, and muttering, ‘What about JC’s love life?’ nearly had his jaw dropping to the floor.

“Lance?” Joey rubbed his eyes, certain that when he looked again, he’d find that he’d been seeing things, but when he blinked Lance was still standing there, raking long fingers through his hair and smiling at him. Joey’s head ping-ponged from JC to Lance and back again. “Lance?!?”

The sheepish grin that spread over JC’s face had Joey blinking again – and checking a few of those worries off his list.

“Well, you see, we were both – ah – in L.A. at the same time, and Lance came over one night and we – well – uhm...”

“What JC is trying to say in his unique fashion,” Lance moved in behind JC and linked his hands over his stomach, “is that you can check worrying about his love life off your list.” The kiss the two men shared had Joey’s mouth flopping open like a fish. “I think we’ve got that covered.”

“You – he – they,” Joey pointed his last comment at Kelly when she walked in, Bri close behind her. “When the hell did this happen?” he demanded of the two men as Kelly looked on in confusion.

“About a month ago,” Lance answered, bending to pick up the little pixie who was trying to climb his leg like a monkey.

“But -”

“Joey, close your mouth, you look like an idiot.” Kelly winked at JC as she kissed first him and then Lance. “He’s just mad because you just blew his matchmaking plan all to hell and back.”

“I didn’t have a matchmaking plan,” Joey protested a bit quicker than he’d intended. “I mean, okay, so I thought about planting a bunch of mistletoe around the house when we had our party, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I had the two of you in mind when I was thinking of it, or that I thought that you should get together, or anything, cause I didn’t, and –"

“Joey, baby, I love you, but please, shut up.”

The room echoed with laughter, as JC snatched Bri from Lance and tossed her squealing into the air.

“By all means, plant all the mistletoe you want, Joey,” JC teased. “You won’t hear me complain about the chance to steal extra kisses.”

“Kisses. I want kisses, Uncle JC,” Bri giggled, taking JC’s face between her tiny hands and raining them over his face.

“Hey, you,” Lance ran his fingers over her sides. “That’s my boyfriend, find your own.”

Briahna, as only an almost four year old can, began to sing at the top of her lungs, “Uncle Lance and JC sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g.”

“Oh, Christ, do you see what you’ve done now?” Joey demanded. “She’ll be singing that damn song for the next week, and she won’t care who’s around to hear it either.”

“Let her sing.” Lance kissed the little imp on her forehead as she continued to sing at the top of her lungs.

“Lance.”

“Joey,” Lance echoed, earning a glare for his troubles.

“Don’t Joey me, you know I’m right. I’m thrilled that the two of you have finally gotten your heads out of your asses, but you need to be careful.”

“Fu –,” Lance caught Kelly’s eye and quickly altered what he’d been about to say. “The heck with being careful, I mean, we’re not going to take out an ad in the New York Times, but if people find out, they find out.”

JC passed Bri off to her mother and took a seat beside his friend. “What are they going to do to us?” he asked. “Huh?”

“They can make your life a living hell and you know it.”

JC and Lance exchanged a look. “Been there, done that,” they spoke in unison.

“Not like this you haven’t.” Joey rose to pace. “I love you both, you know that, and really the two of you – I’m thrilled, but.”

“Nope, no buts, we’ve already talked about it, Joey. We’re going to live our lives and whatever comes of that, so be it.”

Joey studied the two men, marveling at the certainly he saw in both of them.

“You’re really not kidding.”

“We’re not kidding,” JC assured him.

“But why? I mean, you could still be together and be private.”

“We could, and most likely we will be, but if we’re not, we’re okay with that. Joey,” Lance let his gaze travel over to where Kelly and Bri were playing and waited until Joey’s attention was also focused there. “When you find it, and its right, what other people think doesn’t matter.”

Joey held out and arm, pulling Bri and Kelly to him, “Yeah, okay.” He smiled, his eyes crinkling, as he hooked his other arm around Lance and JC’s necks, and then he joined them in laughing when Brihana began to sing again.

“Uncle JC and Lance sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g…”

Hugs to Missy for the beta. I think I need to give that lady a raise!

C@legalladies.net
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Revised: 12/21/04.