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This is not where Tom ever expected to end up.
Growing up in San Mateo, he'd always imagined that he'd play professional baseball. Football, well... Football was just a hobby, something to pass the time during the long months when baseball wasn't in season.
But it seems his forward pass was far prettier than his homerun swing.
So he'd switched sports and never looked back (though baseball is always going hold a big portion of his heart). And, in a way, football was responsible for all of this.
Taking a deep breath, he studies his reflection, adjusts the tie of his tux (even though it doesn't need adjusting), and then looks around the bedroom. Football is responsible for this room. For this house. This house that is the wedding present that Matt didn't really want and would have put a stop to if he'd known about it in advance.
Good thing Tom had decided to tell him about it after everything was paid for and framed it as a gift. Otherwise he'd be sleeping in one of the other bedrooms for the next several decades.
He takes another deep breath. Tells himself he shouldn't be this nervous.
After all, this ceremony is just for show. There's a piece of paper from the state of New York with his and Matt's signatures that make it all legal.
But this... This is for them. For their families (for their mothers, and Tom still feels ten years old again every time he thinks about his mother's expression when they'd told her that they'd tied the knot in New York) and their friends.
Growing up in San Mateo, Tom had known he'd get married one day. Find some pretty girl, settle down, have a big house and a lot of kids. He'd been wrong.
Oh, he was married and settled down (and still enduring all the teasing from teammates and colleagues over that), and the big house, well. He is standing in it. And there are a lot of people in the backyard, waiting for the two of them to show up and put on a show.
And as for a lot of kids, well, they're negotiating. Sort of. The beginning stages, anyway. Tom is holding out for a half a dozen, and Matt is standing fast at two, maybe three, but Tom figures they have time to sort it all out.
It was the pretty girl he'd been wrong about, and Tom has never been happier to be wrong in his entire life.
Because Matt is a hell of a guy. Tom had known that from the very first second he'd laid eyes on him. And God knows, Matt can do so much better than Tom (exactly as Matty had pointed out the one time he'd kicked Tom while he was down, and Tom has never forgotten that particular conversation), but Tom's not going to argue that since Matt seems to think differently.
Tom just thanks God every day that Matt, for whatever reason, loves him unconditionally.
He presses one hand to his pocket, just to feel the circle of metal resting there. It's the first time it's been off Matt's finger since Tom put it there (never mind that his own finger feels naked with his ring in Matt's pocket), but it's all about appearances.
And their families (their mothers, Tom reminds himself, because the moms really are their biggest cheerleaders) deserve this.
Looking at his reflection one last time before heading downstairs, Tom smiles.
No, it's not where he ever expected to end up, but he wouldn't trade it for anything.