Page 90 of No Rhyme or Riesling

He turned away, but after a few steps, he realized John wasn't following him. Adam stopped and looked back again, seeing a serious expression cross John's face.

John slowly walked over to the tamped-down dirt. He stopped there, then lowered himself to a crouch, even reaching down to lightly brush his fingers over the earth.

“Hey, Frank,” John murmured.

Adam hesitated. He wasn't sure if he should move away so he could give John privacy, but John wasn't trying to keep his voice down.

And Adam was too curious to hear what the man had to say.

John took a deep breath. “Thank you for raising such an amazing young man,” he said. “Thank you for your message, even if I waited far too long to hear it. Thank you for everything you did for me after my own folks died. And thank you foroffering us a chance to reconcile, even if I was too stupid to take it.”

Adam sniffed and dashed more tears off his cheeks.

John swallowed hard, the movement of his throat visible from where Adam stood. “Frank, I'm going to ask your son to marry me.”

Adam gasped.

“And I hope, somehow, wherever you are,” John went on, glancing from the earth to the sky and back, “I'd have your blessing.”

Just then, right above them, a beam of sunlight pierced through a tiny gap in the clouds.

Adam gasped again. “John. Look.”

John looked up, and the two of them stared as a bright, glorious rainbow streaked across the sky.

Adam heard John's breath hitch, and tore his gaze away from the rainbow to see tears collect on John's eyelashes.

John slowly shook his head. “I don't normally believe in signs, but I'll take this one.”

Adam grinned. “Me, too.”

They gazed up at the sky for another moment, then left the field, hand-in-hand, the light of the rainbow lighting their future and guiding their way.

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