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Rylan grinned and cast Autumn a sideways glance as he turned the truck onto the familiar street that led to his childhood home. "It's a gentlemen's sport, thank you very much!" He said, laughing. "Not that that stops people from going all, sun's out guns out when it's warm."

There was a rowing club in town that catered predominantly to sweep rowing, with a growing fleet of sculling boats. But it also rented out kayaks and canoes, and owned a couple of dragonboats for the heck of it. But with Boston and the Charles River so close, it wasn't often that Rylan stopped by the Ashdown Boat Club.

And he had no doubt that he'd get along with Deacon. Any friend of his friends usually became his as well.

"Sure is," Rylan agreed. "I wonder how we all got dragged into this in the first place."

A brief silence as he navigated the sweeping turn that led to his parents' house, and he pulled the truck to a stop out front. "You'll have to give me the official rundown of this magical Other Ashdown soon, but it's Sunday and it's lunch time, so we'll have to postpone that for later." He shut off the engine, unbuckled his seat belt, and had just opened his mouth to give Autumn a briefing on the dads she was about to meet when the front door swung open and two dads, followed by two fit-looking gun dogs, came pouring out of the house.

The dogs - one an orange and white Brittany called, uncreatively, Britt and the other a silver Weimaraner appropriately named Spook for his ghostly appearance - came trotting up to the truck, investigating it all over with their finely tuned noses. The dads strolled along behind them with big grins on their faces that probably explained where Rylan had inherited his sunny smile.

"Hey, dads!" Rylan said, giving Autumn a look that told her to prepare herself before climbing out of the truck. "This is my friend Autumn."

"Oh! I'm sorry, I couldn't tell, you were so good with Fidget," he said, shutting the door of the truck and uttering a short hush to the two dogs to send them scuttling back to the heels of Rylan's fathers.

"Firesmoke says no!" Britt hissed as she trotted back to Lance, while Ghost lingered a moment, reluctantly.

"Aw, but..." He let out a barely audible whine before gliding back, ghost-like, to Jack's side.

Meanwhile, Lance and Jack and made their way over with excited, beaming smiles, looking on Autumn as if she was the person they had waited their whole lives to see.

Jack extended his hand to introduce himself, but Lance brushed past him and went straight for the hug. "Autumn! It's so great to meet you! Look, we always wondered when he was going to bring someone home to meet us. And you, Cam, you've been keeping wonderful secrets from us, have you?"

In the background, Rylan half-raised a hand, as if to stop his pop, and opened his mouth to say, "Wuh- No, pop, she's not..."

The fathers Rylan grinned, and exchanged a look.

"You know, we kind of figured," Lance said. "But that's okay, somebody's got to pass on these incredible genes you inherited from us."

Behind them, Ry closed his eyes and shook his head. "Yea, no, this is not... Autumn is not my girlfriend, and before you ask me why the ******** not, it's because she has a boyfriend."

Mostly.

There were also, of course, other people who had shown up in his life first who had taken that special spot.

He should have suspected that introducing Autumn to the dads would have ended poorly for him. Unfortunately, Rylan hadn't thought that far ahead when he'd offered to bring her along to check out this spectacular marblewood.

"Not my words verbatim," he managed to say before Lance cut in with a devious waggle of his eyebrows.

"Impressive's a good way of putting it. Stately, even. Towering?" Lance teased.

Rylan let a look of mild horror cross his face. "Let's not discuss, joking or not, the impressiveness of pop's wood?" He groaned, looking to Jack for backup.

Jack shrugged. "What, you want me to downplay the truth?"

"You two are impossible," Rylan deadpanned.

At least, for the moment, they seemed to have moved on from the fact that Autumn was not that date they'd thought she would be. And maybe, if he was lucky, they'd also gloss over the questions addressing who, if not Autumn, he might be dating.

At the declaration, both dads seemed to decide that they, too, loved Autumn.

"Well, step right this way, Autumn," Lance said, waving toward the open front door. "I intend to deliver on that promise. This is the most impressive wood you'll see in a while. Like. Monumentally impressive."

He all but dragged her toward the promised wood, sitting out back in the shed, as Rylan followed with head shaking.

"Pop, stop manhandling my friends, and-- dad what are you doing?" He demanded as Jack whipped out his cellphone and started to punch letters into it. "Are you-- Don't, no, stop texting everyone you know about this."

But it was too late. Jack looked up with a grin of s**t-eating proportions roughly equivalent to Autumn's and shrugged with feigned innocence. "I'm off to serve the ratatouille," he announced, following the other two into the house.

Which left Rylan standing there, astounded by what had taken place, with Spook sniffing anxiously at his feet.

"What am I supposed to do with them?" He asked the dog.

"Ah, that's all you need to know," Lance said with a vague wave of his hand. "Your boyfriend will know what it is when he sees it. It's just pretty, mostly." And it was a challenge to work with, which made it infinitely more interesting.

They went through the house, passing the kitchen where Jack's ratatouille simmered invitingly on the stove. That, and about four plates of salad, couscous, mashed potatoes and grilled chicken he was also in the midst of preparing. When the family said Jack enjoyed feeding people... he really enjoyed feeding people, and would no doubt send Autumn home with a week's worth of leftovers.

"How did we end up here? Well, we met when Jack was still playing baseball for the Spinners out in Lowell. I was in grad school at UMass out there, and then Jack got hurt and I graduated, so we moved into Boston," Lance said, leading the way out the back door and into the yard. "We were in the city a couple of years, but then with the kid on the way," he gestured back behind him to Rylan. "We decided it'd be a good idea to move out into the suburbs."

"We do alright for ourselves," Lance answered with a happy nod. "Jack takes care of the finances and I take care of everything else that's more fun."

He crossed the yard with Britt trotting along behind him, sniffing everything as hunting dogs liked to do. If Autumn was paying attention, she'd probably hear the dog muttering quietly about smells like flowers... as she followed their trail.

"I was in school for psychology!" Lance announced. "I wanted to be a psychiatrist. I was for a few years, but then I realized how depressing that job is, and I wanted to take care of the kids so I quit. Picked up carpentry, cycling, you name it. And I got to be the fun dad." Which evidently delighted him to no end. "Plus, Laura - that's their birth mom - she comes by sometimes and hangs out with us."