The Kids Grow Up by Trish Hanan (novel24 .TXT) 📖

Harry shook his head.
“Jake, everyone deserves a vacation, we’ve been working nonstop for years now and your father agreed that you’ve been under a lot of stress and a couple of weeks off will do you a lot of good,” he told him. Jake sighed.
“My father lied to you, babe, and my mother too and I’ve been lying to you for the past two years. I wanted to tell you. I wanted us to have an open marriage like you said we could have if I ever wanted to,” he explained and Harry nodded. “But I knew that once you found out about her that you wouldn’t understand and you would be hurt and I couldn’t stand to do that to you so I’ve been cheating on you for two years now, Harry, and I’m very sorry.” Harry gasped.
“You’ve been cheating on me with a woman, but Jake you’re gay,” he said. Jake shook his head.
“No, I’m not, I’m not like you, Harry,” he said. “Babe, we got together when we were too young, our sexuality wasn’t set yet, we didn’t know for sure what we wanted and we just fell into being gay because we fell in love. But I’m bi like all of the kids are and I fell in love with a women.” Harry shook his head.
“Just because you’ve made love to a woman successfully, Jake, doesn’t mean you’re bi-sexual, all that stuff about being too young, that sounds like Reverend Milo’s been talking to you. You’re as gay as I am and don’t fool yourself,” he declared. Jake sighed.
“That doesn’t change the way I feel, Harry, I’ve been making love to a woman and it’s wonderful,” he said and Harry sighed.
“Well, that’s okay; we can have an open marriage honey, that’s no reason to leave me. We always said if one of us wanted to invite someone into the bedroom we could,” he said reasonably. “I have no problem with us being open.” Jake smiled.
“That’s what I tried to tell Violet,” he began and Harry gasped with shock once again.
“You’ve been cheating on me with Violet, oh, God, Jake, don’t you understand what you’re doing?” he said. Jake shook his head.
“Now see, Harry, this is the reason why I didn’t tell you, you’re wrong, Violet’s changed. She’s not the same person she used to be,” he told him. “She’s sweet and kind and gentle. You should have seen her with these children today, they loved her. You need to give her a chance and you’ll see how much she’s changed.” Harry shook his head.
“Jake, she’s fooling you, women like Violet don’t change, she’s only using you to get back at me for refusing her those many years ago,” he said. “That’s why she took the job at the clinic, to be close to you, to fool you into believing she’s changed and to trick you into falling in love with her. She’s using you to get back at me, please don’t leave me for her, for anyone else, but never for Violet, Jake.” Jake shook his head.
“You’re wrong, Harry, she said you’d say this and she was right, you’re never going to let her live down her past and that’s just plain wrong,” he said sadly. Harry sighed.
“Fine, I’ll give her a chance, invite her for dinner and we can talk but that’s still no reason to leave me, Jake, not after ninety-three years or is she making you leave me?” he asked softly. Jake shook his head.
“No, leaving you is my idea, you see we could have an open marriage Harry, but Violet wants children and we want the children to have my name,” he said as gently as he could and Harry flinched as if he had hit him. He nodded.
“Well, I can’t argue with that and I can’t make you stay if you don’t want to, you can come back for your things tomorrow. I’ll make sure to be out of the house,” Harry said and Jake nodded. He started to say something but realized there wasn’t anything more to say and turned around to leave. Then Harry spoke again.
“You can leave your wedding ring on the table, Jake; you won’t be needing that,” he told him. Jake nodded, took it off and put it on the table. Then he looked down at the floor.
“Harry, I’d like to take Gertie if I could,” he said. Harry shook his head.
“You know we can’t separate the dogs, they’ve been together too long,” he said. Jake nodded and turned to go. Before he reached the door, Harry called out.
“Jake, you can have the dogs.” Jake nodded and walked out the door, closing it behind him. When Harry heard the click, he dropped to his knees and began to sob, great big sobs that racked his slender frame. Both dogs came into the kitchen and he hugged them. He was losing the man he loved and his precious dogs, life was too cruel.
Harry stayed on the kitchen floor crying for the longest time then he picked himself up and walked into the living room. He stopped at the table and picked up Jake’s ring and held it tight in his hand. The living room looked the same; somehow he expected it to be all tore up like his heart. Then he wandered into the dining room feeling like a ghost who had somehow wandered into someone else’s house.
In the bedroom everything reminded him that Jake would never come into this room again and that was too much to bear and he couldn’t stand to look at it. And the thought of Jake coming in here tomorrow and getting all of his clothes and things was too much for Harry to bear. So he rushed to the basement and brought up several vegetable bins and began taking clothes out of Jake’s drawers and neatly putting them into the bins. He took all of his clothes out of the closets and shoes and every single item of Jakes out of the bedroom and they filled four bins. Harry rolled them out to the porch and left them.
Next he went to the study which still looked like a Vet’s office and filled three more bins with all of Jake’s files and his computer and everything. Then he went to the living room and put in all of the movies and music CD that he loved and into the bins they went. And all of these went out to the porch.
Then Harry went down to the basement where they kept their gold and money and divided it equally in half, giving him twenty million more because of the twenty million he had put in the depository because of the economy. It was sixty-four million and he covered it with a tarp and put it out on the porch. Then it was four in the morning so he dozed on the couch after his sixth crying fit of the night.
A knock on the front door woke Harry up in the morning and he opened it a crack to see Jake standing there.
“What do you want?” he asked softly, tears filling his eyes. Jake wore a worried look.
“Are you alright, babe?” he asked. Harry shook his head.
“You’ve lost the right to call me that,” he told him and Jake nodded.
“Is this all my stuff?” he asked and Harry nodded. Jake nodded.
“Can you meet me at David Marshall’s office at ten to sign the divorce papers, here’s the address,” he said and handed Harry a white card. Harry took it and closed the door. Jake sighed and looked at all the bins. Harry had looked like hell, like he’d been crying all night and he felt so guilty he wanted to cry himself. Then he looked at all the bins and felt frustrated. He hadn’t planned on taking all of this, he was just going to grab some clothes and some money and replace everything else. How in hell was he going to take all of this crap to Violet’s? He looked in the bins and found the money and his clothes and decided to take that and leave the rest, let Harry throw it out for all he cared.
Harry shut the door and read the address on the card, David Marshall Street. Figures that idiot would name the street after himself and not just Marshall Street, what an ego. Then he realized that his cows were probably in distress so he hurried to the back door and opened it to find two pails of milk sitting there. He smiled when he realized that Danny had milked Bessie and Daisy for him. Harry ran the milk through the pasteurizers and put the white in a pitcher and wondered what the hell was he going to do with that? So he dumped it. He drank some green and went in and took a nice hot shower which smelled like Jake, the whole house smelled like Jake. He was going to have to do something about that if he was going to live here anymore.
Harry stood at the sink and looked at his face in the mirror and his eyes were all red and puffy so he rubbed his hands together and put them over his eyes and healed himself. This helped the red and puffy but didn’t change the pain he saw in them. He guessed only time would take that and he had thirty thousand years to go without Jake so maybe he would get over him, maybe.
On the way to Marshall’s office Harry realized that he couldn’t go down there wearing his wedding ring and he couldn’t stop at the Jewelry Exchange which now belonged to Emma and get a different ring without her asking a lot of questions so he decided to stop at an Alterian store and pick something up. Since he didn’t have any money on him, he stopped at the bank to take some out of his account.
“I’m sorry, Harry, but Jake closed your account yesterday,” Brian told him when he tried to write a check. Harry was shocked.
“Jake closed our joint account, he took all the money out, not just half?” he asked and Brian nodded. Harry nodded.
“Brian do me a favor, clear out Marshall’s desk, he’s fired and I don’t want him in my bank anymore,” he told him and Brian grinned.
“That’ll be a real pleasure, I hate that little prick,” he said. Harry grinned.
“Hire one of the kids to replace him,” he said and Brian nodded.
Harry drove home and got some money that was still in the drawer. That was dirty pool stealing two million from the bank and a petty thing to do, probably David’s idea. So now he’s lost his precious bank job. That’ll teach him to fuck with Harry Talbert.
Harry stopped at an Alterian jewelry store and bought a silver ring with a dark, round, purple stone, the complete opposite of his ring and put his wedding ring in his pocket with Jake’s. Then he drove to Marshall’s office and walked in. He came to a complete halt at the sight of the crowd gathered to greet him. David was there as well as his lovely wife Gloria. Jake was present along with his lovely fiancée and both of his parents as well as hers. It was a party