Page 84 of Necessary Time

“If you say so.”

“I do.” I set my wine down on the edge of the fountain and folded my arms in front of my chest. “Have you talked to them since you told them?”

“No.” He sat down next to my wine, staring down at our shoes.

“You’ve not called?”

“No.”

“So, it didn’t go how you expected and you ran away?” I asked.

His head snapped up, expression wounded, and I immediately regretted my word choice, even if it was the truth.

“That’s what you did.”

I dragged my tongue across the front of my teeth, stepping back.

“I’m sorry,” Colin said quickly. “I didn’t…I shouldn’t have said that.”

“If you’re drawing a line between this and what happened between me and David, let me remind you,I’m twenty.”

“I shouldn’t have said that,” he repeated. “It’s not the same thing, but don’t throw your age in my face as an excuse, Wesley, if you don’t want your age to be the reason for anything else.”

I made a rough sound in the back of my throat, at an absolute loss for words.

“I’m not the one here who has ever had an issue with my age,” I reminded him.

“I tried to apologize for that.” He held his hands out in surrender. “That was unfair of me to say when the issue doesn’t have anything to do with how old you are.”

“Whatisthe issue, then?”

“The issue is my parents aren’t speaking to me because I’m with a man. And I don’t want you to have to go through that with your parents or with your brother.” Colin looked at me like his heart had shattered in his chest.

“My parents aren’t going to care that I’m gay,” I assured him.

“Your brother.”

Rolling my eyes, I reminded him, “Henny is not going to care either, if you haven’t noticed.”

“I meant about being with me.”

“I thought age wasn’t an issue.” I folded my arms, shifting weight onto one hip while I waited for whatever comeback he’d pull out of his ass.

“Your age isn’t the issue,” he said. “Mine is. Mine could be. And…for what, Wesley?”

“For what?”

Colin had taken this conversation, this argument, so far off the mark, I couldn’t even keep track of what the issues were. The only thing I knew was how it felt, and it felt like he was looking for an out because he was reacting wildly. The same way I had the last time David tried to clear the air with me. Desperately, I’d pulled straws out of thin air, hoping to change the course of the conversation into something that I could win.

I failed then, and Colin was failing now.

“What does that even mean?” I asked.

“I don’t want to be with women,” he said. “I know that. Coming out to my parents was something I was going to have to do sooner or later. But telling your brother about me? That’s…”

“Oh.” Everything came together when I realized what road he was going down. “It’s this again.”

“Now it’s my turn to ask, Wesley. What doyoumean?”