While we were talking, Harper crossed the room and introduced himself to Zan and Gianni, then the little boy. Cooper seemed excited as he shook his hand, and we heard him exclaim, “I’ve seen you on TV!”
“Cooper has no idea how famous my dad is,” Christian said, as we sat down at a long table and watched the group onstage. “It’s pretty funny. When he told Cooper he’s a singer, the kid asked if he’d ever performed with Billie Eilish. Zan asked who that was, so Cooper told him there was no way he was famous if he didn’t know that. Now my dad feels like a dinosaur and is spending all his time listening to current pop music. He’s actually become a big Demi Lovato fan.”
Harper took a seat behind a drum kit on the stage, and Cooper joined him. The two of them worked in tandem and started banging out a decent rhythm. Zan joined in on the guitar while Gianni accompanied them with a tambourine, and soon the four of them were improvising a pretty great rock melody.
Harper kept joking with the kid while they teamed up on the drums, and Cooper howled with laughter as Phoenix muttered, “He can be so fucking charming.”
I turned to him and said, “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“It is in Harper’s case. All he has to do is dazzle people with his dimples and that huge personality, and he gets anything he wants.”
A few minutes later, Shea came into the room carrying a big stack of pizzas, and Christian hurried over to help him. Shea called, “Is anyone expecting an Uber? There’s one waiting out front.”
Harper jumped up and said, “That’s for me. Coop, want to come help me with my pet chicken?”
The little boy squealed with delight and raced Harper across the room. On the way by, the kid yelled, “Guess what, Christian and Shea? Harper has a pet chicken! Also, I want to be a drummer, not a guitarist.”
They disappeared into the lobby, and Christian said quietly, “Maybe someday he’ll want to call us Dad. But he’s not there yet, and we respect that.”
Gabriel asked, “Are his biological parents totally out of the picture?”
“Yeah, they are. Cooper’s been in foster care since he was two,” Shea told us. “It broke our hearts when we found out how many different foster homes he’d lived in over the last seven years.”
“But that’s all behind him now,” Christian said, as he took Shea’s hand. His husband nodded and kissed Christian’s forehead.
A minute later, Cooper rushed into the room with a skinny white chicken in his arms and exclaimed, “Look, it’s a real live chicken! Her name is Loco and she’s really fluffy! Can we get a pet chicken? Please?”
The two men exchanged alarmed glances, and then Shea said, “We’ll think about it. For now, let’s put the chicken down and go wash your hands. We’re about to eat.”
The little boy, who had unruly light brown hair, big brown eyes, and a face full of freckles, wrinkled his nose and said, “I’m not hungry. I just want to play with the chicken.”
“It’s pizza, your favorite,” Shea coaxed, “and you can play with the chicken after you eat.” The kid didn’t look convinced.
Harper joined us with what looked like a huge diaper bag over one shoulder, and he was pushing a weird combination stroller-birdcage. He told Cooper, “If you want, I’ll let you give Loco a special treat. But only after you wash your hands and eat some dinner.”
Cooper considered that for a few moments, then thrust the chicken at Harper and said, “Okay.” He ran off in the direction of the restrooms while Harper kissed the chicken on the top of her head, then put her in the stroller. I tilted my head and took a closer look at the chicken. It seemed as if each eye was looking in a slightly different direction.
As we gathered around the table, I was introduced to Zan and his husband Gianni Dombruso. I was so starstruck that I stammered something like, “Oh my God, it’s such an honor Mr. Tillane. I can’t believe it’s really you.”
Zan’s eyes crinkled at the corners as he shook my hand and said, with his distinctive English accent, “It’s always nice to meet a fan.” When he was introduced to Phoenix, he exclaimed, “I’ve met who I can only assume is your twin brother, Dallas Jaymes! He’s a hell of a guy.”
I could tell Phoenix was making a real effort not to frown as he muttered, “Yeah, he’s awesome.”
We all filled our plates, then took our seats around the long table. Cooper insisted on sitting next to the chicken, and after he ate half a slice of pizza, he insisted he was full and shifted impatiently from one foot to the other until his dads told him he could go and play. Harper opened the door to the birdcage stroller, and as promised he produced an oat and strawberry granola bar so Cooper could feed the chicken. Loco pecked at it for a few seconds, then half-flew, half-tumbled to the floor and took off running with Cooper right behind her.