Page 27 of Finding Basil (Foggy Basin Season Two)

“Besides good medical, I need money each month for rent, which you can pay directly. I’ll need a small stipend for food, clothing, though I do have plenty of maternity clothes, with twins, I may need bigger sizes, if you go for twins. You don’t have to, you know.”

Herb and Basil locked eyes, and Herb saw how excited Basil was. Herb could deny him nothing, so he turned to her and said, “We’re very interested, and we’ll talk about twins, of course. But you recover. And after?”

“After, I’d want twenty-five thousand to live on for the next few months while I recover and can do this all over again. Hopefully, I’ll start being recognized in the art world sometime during all this, and I can just do it for the joy of it, instead of what I live on.”

Herb assured her, “I know a lot of people in the city who are always looking for the next best thing. I can drop your name.”

“Well, then we’ve just become best friends.”

After exchanging numbers, Basil and Herb left the women alone and went back to their respective homes to rest, although neither could, and they were on the phone through the early hours of morning, listing pros and cons, throwing out baby names, all of it.

They’d keep the secret while the wedding commenced, unwilling to have that news get in the way of the wedding that they’d so looked forward.

And it was beautiful. The wedding was held in a small chapel, with the family’s priest presiding. Herb hadn’t converted, and that was usually a requirement, but Father Lehey, well, loved the family enough to break that one little rule.

The party was at Lili’s, just off the fields of sunflowers and marigolds she planted nearest to her home. The patio was huge, meant for parties, parties it hadn’t seen in years.

They’d brought in tents, flowers, buffet tables with chafing trays and a champagne fountain. A bar was set up near the marigold patches, and the wedding party’s table was in front of the field of sunflowers.

It was beautiful.

Toasts were given all night, and the dancing never stopped. Sabrina came but was stationed inside the house most of the time, near her brand-new babies. Herb and Basil spent a long time there too, feeling more and more like their story was being written before their eyes.

Carla and Andrea, another of Basil’s nieces, did a flash mob for their uncles, and everyone joined in the fun. There had never been a better time in his life. Herb was sure that he’d made the right choice when he searched online for a home and found it.

Abuela danced with Herb and told him how much she loved having him as a grandson too. That was possibly the greatest gift he received all night. “He loves you, my boy. That beautiful creature that came into our lives to make us all happy, he has never been as happy as when you’re with him.”

Herb felt tears falling down his cheeks as he said, “I feel the same way. I can’t stop smiling when I’m with him.”

“You found him that day he needed you, and you found him before that. There was something moving you, something you can’t see, can’t hear, but it moved you to him, and him to you. Cherish each other. That’s all you can do in this life. Cherish each other.”

They were cutting the cake, the four-tiered thing with the lemony icing and two silly grooms on the top, when Lila told them she was about to announce her gift.

“Lila, you helped with the wedding, and you let us have it here for no charge!” Herb argued.

“Shut the hell up. Cut your cake and have your first piece.”

They fed each other the cake delicately, and then they kissed, the spice and lemon lighting up their tastebuds as they shared that kiss.

When that was finished, Basil’s parents asked for silence from the rowdy crowd, and they flanked Lila, smiling as Lila announced her gift.

“Now, those that know me, well, I don’t give up easily. I’m as stubborn as the day is long, and we know that for a farmer, that’s a mighty long time.

“This wasn’t an easy decision for me, but my old bones have planted my last seed. I’m retiring, and Cordelia over there found me a nice little place in town, where I can still have a few rose bushes to tend, but I won’t be working from sunup to sundown.”

She looked at Basil, then Herb, as tears filled her eyes.

“I never had kids. Couldn’t. But I found the love a mother has in planting and in friends.

Basil, well, I’ve known him since he was a pup, and Herb, well, he’s a good egg.

I’m giving them my place, to have more acres to plant and to have an extra house when that one o’ theirs finally falls over in exhaustion. ”

Herb was stunned silent, and Basil’s hands slapped over his own mouth to keep the scream contained.

Basil hugged her, telling her it was too much, they couldn’t possibly accept, but she wouldn’t hear of it. “I want someone good to tend that land. Who knows who’d get it when I die? Some idiots who would build condos or some such shit. I want it loved, and I know the two of you will love it.”

And they did. After they returned home from their honeymoon, Steve was there, watching the house for them, as they’d asked. He was doing so much better that they wanted to show they trusted him with the very thing that had gotten him into trouble.

He walked them around to the back of the house and showed them the huge crack in the foundation. “I swear, I didn’t do this one.”

“Dammit,” Basil said, crouching to the ground to take a closer look. “Herb, baby, this is bad.”

“It can be fixed,” Steve offered, but added, “It’s going to cost a fortune.”

A fortune he no longer had. Sure, the Jimenez family had helped with the wedding, but he’d spent most of the rest of his savings on the farm and the house when he’d first arrived. That seemed like ten years ago instead of only one.

“What the hell are we going to do?”

“We have a home,” Basil said and turned him in the direction of Lila’s. “It’s big enough, she’s kept up with all the repairs. It’s a beautiful home.”

“What about this one? Just let it crumble?”

Basil laughed and said, “No. Once we can afford it, we can get it fixed up, keep it or sell it, or…save it for our kids, when they need a home.”

“Kids? Does this mean…?” Steve asked.

They’d talked endlessly about it on the honeymoon in Cancun. They decided kids were high on the list of the plans for their life together, so they didn’t want to wait any longer than they had to.

“We’ve already called Tilda, the surrogate we met when Sabrina had the girls. She’s going to be ours, and the plans are tentative, but we want to start this winter.”

“Well, damn. What you’ve always wanted, Basil. I’m really happy for you guys.”

Herb lay in bed that night, the first night in their new home. Lila had packed most everything except the furniture she couldn’t fit in the new place. She said that it was time he got rid of that hideous orange couch, anyway.

Basil came to bed freshly showered, smelling of lavender and magnolias, without a stitch of clothes on his body. As he climbed under the covers, he slid next to Herb, kissing his bare shoulder. “Are we, uh, going to christen our new home?”

“I…it’s all so…there are three hundred more acres, Basil, and what the hell are we planting on three hundred acres?

We’ll have so much chamomile the entire valley will be sleepy.

And another house? And for free? I still think we should pay her something, but we have just enough for the IVF, and what about kids?

We’re not ready for any of this. It’s…happening too fast. We just met!

We’re married! We’re talking about three hundred acres, kids, and what about—”

Basil kissed him delicately on his lips, cutting off all the rest of the worries before they could reach his lips.

Basil has full control of his lips.

Herb’s hands slid around Basil, and their kissing intensified, and he thought back to the honeymoon they’d had, and how they’d made love on the terrace of their hotel, under all those stars…

On the entire trip, Basil’s hand in his, the pride he felt from walking around with that beautiful man beside him…and the love he felt. Oh, there had never been two people more in love in the entire world.

They exuded it, and people took notice wherever they went. As they sipped pina coladas on the beach or ate tapas in the outdoor dining area at their favorite restaurant, everyone stared at them, smiling wistfully, like they were witnessing something out of their favorite romance movies.

Herb moved over Basil slowly, their eyes locked as Basil gave him a patient smile. “You did that on purpose.”

“I did.”

One thing Herb had learned early on was that Basil could distract him with a kiss. Worries were gone with the touch of those lips to Herb’s. And yes, it was all changing, all so big, but Basil would be by his side. There was nothing he couldn’t handle with that man, that wonderful man by his side.

“I love you more than anyone has ever loved anyone in the entire world.”

“Even though we just met?” Basil asked with a little giggle that was so adorable, Herb could eat him alive.

“Yeah, smartass. How did I live that whole life without you?”

“Right place, right time, when the stars aligned and were ready for us to meet.”

Herb was inside him quickly after a lot more kissing and petting.

He didn't move for a long time, though, and instead, using that connection, he stared at his new husband. Basil panted sweetly, his eyes rolling back, but Herb couldn’t stop staring.

All he could do was memorize every bit of Basil’s face.

Basil whimpered a plea, “Make love to me,” in a soft, mewling voice.

Herb answered, “I am. Right now, my love is watching you. Soon, I’ll feel you, and then…more.”

Basil wrapped him in his arms, pulling him close to kiss him tenderly, sucking at his bottom lip, then his chin. “You are so good to me. You’re so sweet, Herb.”

“I am yours, Basil. You’re mine. Forever.”

Their bodies rocked slowly, Herb’s cock thrusting in gently, and Basil’s teeth skimmed along Herb’s jaw until he found Herb’s ear and nipped there, then bit a little harder.

It was all he could do not to scream with the fucking joy of it. Not only was everything else perfect about Basil, but his lovemaking was glorious. Basil’s movements were so in sync with Herb’s that it was as if he were clairvoyant.

They were just that in tune with one another.

When Basil made him lie on his back, Basil was on top, his hands on Herb’s chest balancing him as he rode like some sexy cowboy, slowly taking his horse on a ride through the clouds.

In the dim light of the bedroom, where only the moonlight streamed in through the big window across from their bed, Basil looked ethereal.

He was aglow with the reflected light, a halo around his entire body.

How tight he was as he pulled up, clenching as he did. Pulling sounds from Herb that he’d never made, deep, guttural moans that came close to telling the world how he felt, being made love to by his husband.

His husband. How strange it was to think of the lynx that moved so fluidly as that. He seemed more like some angelic creature that was sent to make his days the closest a living being could be to heaven.

Those eyes that shone down on him, though they were in shadow, he knew they were looking into his, connecting in that way, as in every way. There was love in those eyes, in the hands that rested on Herb’s chest, and in the way he moved over him, making him feel so good…

“My love, my everything,” he croaked. “I’d marry you again a thousand times.”

“You don’t have to. Only once, because it’s going to last as long as the wind and the trees, baby,” Basil whispered, moving down to kiss him sweetly.

That was Basil. As hot and passionate as their lovemaking was, he never neglected to show tiny bits of pure love, tenderness. That sweet kiss assured him that what they were doing wasn’t an act of sex, but one of love.

He held Basil tightly, and they could barely move their lower bodies, but it didn’t matter.

The kiss had turned from tender to desire, heat that rose to fill the room.

Tiny grunts, tiny moans, mouth clashing, teeth, lips, breath until they came in a way that had them both shaking like an earthquake was rattling the room.

As they recovered, Herb said, “When we have our babies, promise me we’ll still have time for this.”

“Oh, that goes without saying. I need that at least six times a week, twice on Sundays, and that is nonnegotiable.”

“You’re younger than me! I…six times a week?”

“And twice on Sunday, so technically eight times.”

He laughed and said, “I’ll give it my best shot.”