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“Text is fine.” This time, I chuckled. Arnav always had a lot to say. And had to say it quickly, given how many sisters he had.

I’d spent a lot of my youth in that house.

A pang for having left my friend behind resonated in my chest.

You could’ve told him. He would’ve understood. He wouldn’t have judged.

All things that were very true. And water under the bridge at this point. Still… “Uh, Arnav?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m gay.”

“Uh, Jai?”

“Yeah.”

A long pause. “I want to say I figured because you’re the director of Pride Camp—although we both know any qualified person could do the job.”

“True.”

“But I’ve sort of mostly and yeah kind of known since you were about fifteen.”

My stomach plummeted.

“I never said anything. I didn’t figure it was my place. And you didn’t do anything specific…” He cleared his throat. “Foster is amazed at my inarticulateness.”

I still held my breath.

“I wasn’t attracted to you. And you were clearly, firmly in the closet. And I also might’ve been wrong. I wasn’t willing to screw up a friendship. I hoped, if you ever came out, that you’d feel comfortable telling me.”

“Yeah.”

“And you just have, so we’re good. Right?”

“Yeah.”See how simple that was? You could’ve done it fourteen years ago and saved yourself the heartache. Except if I’d come out in high school, there would’ve been hell to pay. When my secrets hadbeen revealed, the shitstorm I’d expected had materialized. Only it had been so very much worse than I expected. “Thank you.”

“No problem. Oh, we have a friend coming over as well. I hope that’s okay.”

“Of course.” Even as I said the words, though, I longed to pull them back. Truly, I couldn’t think of a single person I wanted to see. Well, his sisters would be okay, but he’d saidfriendand notfamily. “What can I bring?”

“Yourself. Oh, and be prepared for puppies.” With that, he cut the line.

Dogs?

Oh God, does he know?

Breathe.

Who would’ve told him? And if he did know—because of some painful quirk of the universe—wouldn’t he have said something?

Again, I reminded myself to breathe.

Not so easy to do.

I logged out of the system, shut my laptop, and gazed out the window.

Grey and Makenna were down by the water with the campers. The plan was to do some canoeing tomorrow.