Derek smiled. “I know.” He stuffed the phone in his pocket. “You didn’t even have to say it.”
Gideon waved him away with a warm smile. “Go get your boy.”
. . .
Patrick took the same table he and Derek shared on their date. He felt sick. Why had he bothered coming here? The text hadn’t gone out. Derek didn’t get it… he wasn’t coming. Maybe he wouldn’t even if he had gotten it. Maybe he’d forgotten about Patrick by now. He hadn’t tried to call before Patrick changed his number. Why would he come running now?
If he doesn’t show… you have no choice but to go home.
This anxiety and queasy feeling… was this how Derek had felt last Saturday night, waiting for Patrick to show up? Then that sinking feeling of despair when he didn’t? Or was he giving himself too much credit? Derek was likely disappointed when Patrick hadn’t shown on time—butdespair?
He laughed bitterly. “Get over yourself. If he was that crazy about you… he would’ve called.”
Patrick didn’t know how long he intended to sit and wait. He had no idea where Derek lived. Or if he was coming, how long it would take him to get here.
He didn’t get the text and you know it. He isn’t coming.
Patrick cursed himself for not charging his phone last night. Healwayscharged it at night.
Twenty minutes passed.
Thirty.
When it hit forty, panic and despair set in. Patrick hung his head and slid his hand over his eyes, tears burning.Please, God… please…
He sensed a sudden presence at his table and looked up as tears ran down his face.
NotDerek.
“It’s time to come home, son,” his father spoke with quiet authority. Brian stood with him. “You don’t have to be afraid. Everything is going to be all right.”
Patrick shrank back against the booth seat, fresh tears rising. “Please… just leave me alone,” he whispered, chin trembling. “Ican’tbe who you want me to be. Why can’t you just love me… for me?”
“Patrick…” Brian looked at him with sympathy, tears in his eyes. “Wedolove you… but you need help.”
“Come on, son.” A deeper firmness entered his dad’s voice. “It’s time to stop this foolishness. God is calling you to be so much more than… this. Are you going to turn a deaf ear to your Lord and savior?”
“God loves you just the way that you are.”
His dad and Brian turned around, startled by the newcomer.Derek.
Patrick was convinced the man was a hallucination, conjured by his frantic, desperate mind.
Derek looked past the other two men as if they didn’t exist and held Patrick’s shocked stare. “God loves you as you are becauseHemade you this way.” Derek walked closer. “Perfect.Beautiful.Not a damn thing wrong with you.”
“You need to leave.” Alan Weber tried to insert himself between Derek and Patrick, but Derek stepped around him.
“Did they tell you?” Derek asked quietly. “Did they tell you that I called your housetwice, trying to reach you, and both times, they told me I had the wrong number?”
“What…” Patrick breathed, eyes jumping to his dad and Brian.The two “wrong numbers” had been Derek?
“We were right to do so,” his dad stated. “Thispersonis poison. And you will have nothing to do with him. Let’s go home.”
Derek rested his hand on the back of the booth seat. “I second that motion.” He gazed at Patrick. “Let’s go home.” His dark eyes squinted ever so slightly, warm invitation emanating forth. “It’s your choice, Patrick… it always was.”
“You’re coming withus,”his dad insisted, but Derek stood between him and his son.
Shaking inside, Patrick slowly slid out of the booth. “No, Dad.” His words trembled, thickened with emotion as he moved closer to Derek. “I’m not.”
