Uniting the Souls (Souls of Chicago #6)
Annabella Michaels
To Allison, thank you for being my friend, cracking the whip, encouraging me and talking me off the ledge more times than I care to admit, but most of all, thank you for Tompalooza. I can never thank you enough for all that you do.
I smiled as I looked around at the new building and everyone gathered there for the grand opening. The new Agape House was much bigger than the old facility and we’d be able to help so many more kids. Lately, we’d seen a rise in teens that had been kicked out of their homes or needed to run away to escape an abusive parent, or were just living in such terrible conditions that they needed a helping hand. Whatever their reason for coming to the center, they all had one thing in common, they were all members of the LGBTQA community.
It hadn’t been that long ago that I was one of the teenagers that needed the center. I didn’t allow myself to think about the circumstances that had led me to seek refuge at Agape House very often, choosing to focus on the positive things that had happened since I first walked through those doors instead.
Agape House had changed the course of my life, just as it had done and would continue to do for countless other teens, and it was all because of the man standing next to me. Matt was the first face I saw when I walked through those doors so many years ago. I’d been wary of him at first, which was completely understandable given my situation, but after getting to know him as a teen and then working with him as an adult, I found it laughable that I’d ever been afraid to be around him. He was an amazing man with a huge heart and a kind soul. He would give the shirt off his back to anyone in need, yet rarely shared any personal information about himself. I gazed up at Matt as he looked out over the crowd with a small smile on his face that got wider when he caught me looking at him.
“This is really something, isn’t it?” I said.
“It sure is. It’s still a bit mind-boggling that someone would take such an interest in my little center and want to help in such a big way. This new building will change everything,” he replied.
“Well, they’re a great group of people for sure, but I bet none of them would have fallen in love with the center if it wasn’t for you and the work you’re doing to improve the lives of those kids. You’re the heart and soul of this organization,” I told him, speaking passionately because it meant that much to me.
“I don’t really do all that much. It’s the kids who are the heart of the center,” he replied modestly. I shook my head with a smile. That was typical Matt, always deflecting any praise away from himself.
Matt was an amazing boss who genuinely cared about the kids that came to his center. He did his best to provide care for each LGBTQA youth that walked through its doors, but it had become a constant struggle to keep the program running while trying to maintain the old building that threatened to crumble around them. Government funding had become scarce, so Matt was forced to rely on donations and various fundraisers just to remain afloat, but that barely covered the cost of the daily operations.
Just when things started to look their bleakest, music mogul, Lachlan Edwards stopped in one day to look around. He’d heard about the work the center was doing from his fiancé, Rylie, who’d begun volunteering at the center as part of his recovery program from drug and alcohol abuse. Lachlan had been so impressed with Matt’s program that he’d immediately offered to build a new facility for the center.
Lachlan, Rylie, and several of their friends—including the entire Greene family who had taken turns volunteering at the center ever since I could remember—worked quickly to put together a plan which would not only provide a new location for the center, but also allow us to help more youth than ever before. Lachlan and the band, Carter’s Creed, had used their connections to raise awareness, and enough funding to ensure that Agape House would be able to keep running for the next hundred years at least.
I looked out over the room and smiled as I watched our friends who had helped make the new center a reality. Giovanni and Caleb were kneeling on the floor talking animatedly to their daughter, Sarah, as if they were telling her a story. Carter had his hand in Ryan’s back pocket as they talked to Lachlan and Rylie. Every so often, I’d see Ryan glance down at his husband, giving him a very heated look and I could only imagine what Carter was doing with that hand.
Landon and his husband, Micah, were talking with Landon’s parents and I watched as Micah reached up and put his hand on the back of Landon’s neck, letting him feel their connection. And then there was Morgan and Akio, who were standing in a corner, talking quietly. Every once in a while, they’d glance down at the rings on their fingers and then give each other a look that was so intimate that I knew, for them, they were the only two people in the room.
“I hope I find a love like that someday,” I said wistfully, not referring to any one couple in particular. As far as I was concerned, they all had found the kind of love I’d like to have; the kind that lasts forever and defies all logic.
“I hope you do, too,” Matt murmured quietly and I thought I detected a hint of sadness in his voice. My heart ached at the thought of anything hurting Matt.
I glanced over at him and opened my mouth, but then shut it right away. I could tell that there was something in Matt’s past that haunted him and I wished that he would open up and let me in, but I knew, better than most, how painful it could be to revisit the past, so I let it go. I was still watching Matt when suddenly his back straightened and his eyes grew wide. He looked startled.