The Second Shot

Chapter Nineteen

The funeral for Eacker's parents was small and quiet. The priest droned on for a while about Heaven, and that they were in a better place now. Eacker spoke for a bit as well, but he was barely aware of the words coming out of his mouth.

Their Will was read inside the funeral home, and Eacker got most of his parents money, as was expected since he was the oldest. Catherine got all the books in the library, but they had all burned with the house.

Eacker had planned to get his siblings out of Virginia ad soon as possible, and he did, and with in four days of his arrival, they were all on the train to New York.

Eacker worried about all his siblings on the ride home. Catherine, who was so smart but so vulnerable, Jacob, who he had never had the best relationship with, and Marie, who was too young to go through such loss.

Eacker had bought them all thicker cloaks for the weather in New York, but his siblings were still unaccustomed to the cold, and huddled against him as they made their way home.

The next month passed in a blur. Eacker bought a larger house, so all of them could have a separate room, with the money he had inherited. It was closer to the Hamilton resistance, and so Hamilton came over more often than ever, his mother came as well on a few occasions.

Eacker bought Catherine practically any book he found, to keep her mind off the tragedy. Marie was a bit too young to understand the entirety of the event, and got over it the quickest, which made Eacker a bit happier knowing that it wouldn't affect her mentally or emotionally. Jacob took to New York easier than Eacker thought he would, considering their Virginian roots.

"I'm so lucky to have you here to help me." Eacker told Hamilton one night as they sat alone in the kitchen Eacker was still not used too. Jacob, Catherine, and Marie had all retired to bed, and now it was only the two men awake.

"What do you mean?" Hamilton asked.

"I mean that my siblings love you so much, and I'm so lucky to have you here to help me with them, because I'm afraid that I won't raise them well enough, but I have you, so I feel like I don't have to worry." Eacker replied.

"They love me?" Hamilton asked.

"Well, Catherine and you share the love of books, and you get politics more than I do, which Jacob likes, but you can still play pretend with Marie. You're like the perfect person for this family."

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Do you. . .do you love me?"

Eacker didn't know how to respond. He had realized at some point that he didn't just have a crush on Hamilton. He could easily see himself spending the rest of his life with the man, and he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Hamilton. But he wasn't sure how his parents would feel. They had died barely a month ago, if he told Hamilton how he felt, would he be forgetting about them?

Randomly, Eacker thought of his Mother before she became obsessed with herself. Sometimes, when Eacker was studying, or practicing an instrument, she would place her hands on his shoulders from behind and lean over and kiss the top of his head. "I love you, George," he remembered her saying once, after his Father had gone on a rant about gay people "No matter who you love."

He also remembered how his Father would behave with one of his male friends, who's name Eacker had forgotten. They way they would talk quietly, and stand too close, was not unlike how lovers would behave.

Eacker took a deep breath and looked Hamilton in the eye. The candlelight danced in Hamilton's hazel eyes as he awaited Eacker's answered.

"I love you more than you could ever know." He said.

Hamilton quickly walked over to Eacker and kissed his cheek before running out the door before Eacker could say anything else.

Eacker sat by himself in the kitchen for a few minutes, smiling giddily, before rising and going to blow out the candle.

"Do you love him?"

Eacker turned to see Jacob standing in the kitchen doorway. Eacker hesitated, then nodded.

"Father said that being gay was bad," Jacob said "and he also said that the Hamilton's were bad people. But I think he was wrong. I like Hamilton, and I think he's good for you. And I don't think that being gay is bad, because you're gay, and you're not a bad person."

Eacker raised an eyebrow. "I'm happy for you." Jacob said, walking over and hugging him. Eacker hugged him back before gently pushing Jacob towards the stairs leading to the second floor in the living room.

"Come on, Jacob, it's past your bedtime."