Page 22

Chapter 22

Liam

Brodie was better at the whole figuring out his shit thing than I was. He bought a new laptop and planned to spend the morning at Bennett’s drinking coffee and writing. While he worked, I was going to… I had no idea. And that was the crux of the problem. The very thing I’d worried about.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come in?” Brodie asked as I pulled into the parking lot to drop him off.

“I’m sure. You’ve got your shit to work on, and I’ve got mine. I’ll be a phone call away when you’re ready to go.” I stopped the car in front of the diner and put it into park so I could lean across the seat and steal a kiss. I kept it brief because kissing Brodie was my favorite thing and it was all too easy to fall into more with him.

“As long as you’re sure.” Brodie paused, reaching for the door handle, his other hand clutching his laptop bag.

“Yes, love, I’m positive that I don’t want us to turn into codependent nightmares for each other. Go to work.”

“What will you do?”

“I think I’m going to call Carol. I haven’t talked to her since I left.” I had to come out to her, sooner rather than later. The idea of coming out to her made my stomach turn to ice.

“Well, I’ll see you in a couple hours. Have a nice chat.” Brodie stole another kiss then got out of the car. I waited until he was in the diner before pulling away.

Truthfully, I had no fucking idea what I wanted to do and part of me hoped that Carol or Oren would tell me what to do. Brodie was sweet and insisted that I figure things out on my own. He didn’t want to influence my decisions or my ideas. I think he was worried about me doing what would make him happy, and not what would make me happy. And he was probably right to worry about that.

I drove back home, well, to Brodie’s house. I’d had my phone off since last night when we were trying to watch a movie and Oren kept texting me. I was wrapped up in Brodie and hadn’t wanted to come up for air so I turned it off. Oren was going to shit a kitten, but he’d forgive me.

I powered my phone up and it went nuts as it loaded in all the missed calls and messages. It was hard not to panic when it took an eternity to stop. Oren and Carol had been the most frequent callers so I called Oren back first. He answered on the first ring.

“It lives. Jesus fuck, Liam.”

“Where’s the fire?” I put him on speaker and leaned against the counter, bracing myself with both hands.

“Have you been under a rock? What do you mean, where’s the fire? You and your boyfriend hit the society pages, my friend. Which we will circle back to later, by the way. So not only have people been calling me to try and get in touch with you, but your in-laws have called several times.”

“My in-laws. Wait… what?”

“Have you not looked at any of my messages?” Oren groaned in disgust. “Liam, you’ve been outed. They have pictures of you and your boyfriend holding hands and kissing. Eating breakfast at some little diner. He hand fed you bacon. That’s pretty gay, dude.”

“Bisexual. Actually,” I corrected him. I’d expected the word to be harder to say, but it came tumbling out and my shoulders rolled back, suddenly lighter for having said it out loud. “I’m bisexual. And so what if he’s my boyfriend? Aren’t I allowed to be happy?”

“According to me and the sensible half of the internet, yes. Your sister wants you to call her, by the way. Expect some flak for being unreachable.”

“Why does the internet even care that I have a boyfriend? I’m a nobody.”

“You’re rich and you were just in the headlines for opening the memorial wing for your deceased wife. Some little reporter was tipped off that there might be an interesting follow-up story. It turns out that your sexuality is of great interest to people who make money off of headlines and clickable links. It’s also of great interest to your in-laws.”

“What on earth could they possibly want?”

“Well, it’s not like they can get money from you, so they probably want blood. Speaking of blood, call your sister.”

Calling Carol was the last thing I wanted to do, but I knew I had to get it over with eventually.

“Fine, I’ll call her right now.”

“Thank you. And, Liam, I’m happy for you. You’ll have to bring him around for a visit.”

“I’ll do that. Say hi to your fireman for me.” I ended the call and barely managed to take a breath before my phone rang with a call from Carol.

“Hello, Carol. It’s nice to hear from you. What can I do for you?”

“What can you–Liam Anthony Lawson. You’re gay? Since when?”

Carol sounded worried, but not angry. I could work with that. The lack of anger made my knees weak and I leaned more weight on the counter.

“Bisexual actually. Since always. But if you want specifics, since you were dating Matthew Hart. Sorry, I know he was kind of a meathead, but he was hot as shit.”

“ Matthew was your bisexual awakening?” Carol sounded incredulous. “You were eleven.”

“Listen, he was hot, okay. Those broad shoulders. That narrow waist. His ass. Did you see his ass?”

“And suddenly I’m very sorry I asked.” Carol’s laughter soothed the little boy in me who thought she’d hate him for this. “Did you secretly lust after all my boyfriends?”

“Hardly.” I rolled my eyes. “Only the hot ones.”

Carol was quiet for a long moment and I let her have it. Now that the band aid had been torn off, the relief I felt made my head swim. I never realized how tightly I’d held myself until I let go. For the first time in years, I felt like I could breathe.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was going to. I wanted to tell you about him, but I didn’t know how.”

“Can you tell me about him now?”

“What do you want to know?”

“Does he treat you well?” Carol asked, her voice wavered from emotion and I wished that I’d told her in person so I could’ve seen her face.

“He’s amazing. Smart, friendly, sweet.” He worries about me making choices just to please him. He wants me to find a purpose on my own, something just for me. He supports me in ways no one ever had. Or maybe in ways that I wouldn’t let anyone else. But instead of saying all that, I said, “Yes, he treats me well.”

“Good. He better.” Carol cleared her throat. “Tell me about Brodie. What does he do? How did you meet? Where did you meet? Can I meet him? Send me a picture.”

“Oren said there were pictures.”

“Yeah, those don’t count. I want one you took.”

I sent her a picture of him standing at the shore, his pants rolled up to his knees and his shoes dangling from his fingers. We hadn’t planned to go near the water that day, but we’d taken a bit of a detour on our explorations and all the walking had made Brodie’s feet hot. We went down to the water so he could cool off. I’d snapped a couple pictures of him without him noticing me, but the one I sent to Carol was of him looking back at me. He had a bright smile, one I liked to think of as mine. I could almost hear him calling to me to come join him.

“He’s no Matthew,” Carol said, “but he’ll do. When do I get to meet him?”

“Soon, I promise.”

“I can’t get away right now, but surely the two of you can make the trip.”

“I’ll have to run it by him, but yes, I want you two to meet.”

“Good. Okay, I have a meeting in fifteen that I have to prep for, so as much as I would like to keep interrogating you, I have to go. But you’re going to call me more often, and you’re going to come for a visit. Okay, Liam?”

“I’ll call more often. And as for coming for a visit, I’ll see what I can do.”

“I suppose that’s fine. Love you, little brother.” Carol ended the call. Before I could even see the headlines, Brodie was calling me.

“There are photographers following me,” Brodie whispered.

“Fuck. Where are you?”

“I’m in the back at Bennett’s. Ethan is letting me hide in his office. Do you know what’s going on?”

“What’s going on is that apparently my sexuality is big news on a few websites. Someone wanted to do a follow-up on me after the hospital ceremony where I opened Piper’s wing. Apparently, a bisexual well-off widower is big news today.”

“I didn’t realize you were a big deal.” Brodie laughed, but his heart wasn’t in it.

“I didn’t either, to be honest. Oren said Marsha is behind it.” Those weren’t his words, but they’d been heavily implied by his comment about them being out for blood. “Stay where you are. I’m coming to get you. I love you.”

“I love you too.” Brodie hung up the phone.

I needed a deep breath to steady myself before stepping outside. A car parked across the road looked suspicious and the zoom lens of a camera confirmed my suspicions. In that moment, I’d never hated Marsha more. My grief had been a wretched thing, but it wasn’t the same insurmountable monster that had eaten John and Marsha alive. I’d tried my best to be there for them both, but I had to accept the fact there was nothing I could do for them that would help anymore.

Marsha had always been meddling and overbearing, and Piper had been sweet and good-natured and had gone along with a lot of it because it was mostly harmless stuff, Piper had said. But Piper was gone. I no longer had to play nice, and for the first time since I lost her, I didn’t feel guilty for the animosity I felt toward her grieving parents.

“First thing’s first.” I climbed behind the wheel of my car and drove to the diner. Instead of going in the front, I pulled up around back and got out, shooting a text to Brodie telling him where I was.

A second later, the back door opened and I was greeted by a younger version of the man who served us pancakes. He had his hair tucked up under a bandana, but his eyes sparkled with a glittery sort of eyeshadow. An earring dangled from one ear, catching the light.

“He’s in Dad’s office.” He steered me in the right direction and I found Brodie sitting on a couch in an office that was smaller than the walk-in closet in my condo.

He shot to his feet and I pulled him into my arms.

“I’m sorry.” I buried my face in his hair and took a deep breath.

“Why are you sorry? I’m sorry. You were outed, Liam. Like, super publicly. Are you okay?”

“Am I— wait. You’re upset because I was outed? I don’t care about that. I care that your privacy was invaded.”

Brodie snorted. “I don’t care about that. I have no skeletons in my closet. A few internet articles won’t hurt me. I’m just pissed that you were outed like this. It’s not okay.”

He looked at me, his eyes swimming with sadness and anger, and fear too. But when I kept looking, all those different things just looked like love to me. “It’s not okay,” he repeated, almost pleading with me to agree with him.

“It’s not. You’re right. And I’ll deal with it.”

“We will deal with it together.” Brodie tilted his chin back, sticking his nose in the air the way he did when he was ready to fight to get his own way.

“Together,” I agreed.