Page 93 of Unforgettable Player

“Okay.”

When I hesitate on the threshold of her room, she makes a shooing motion at me with her hand.

I set the table while Dad puts dinner out and Mom pours out a couple of glasses of wine.

“Why isn’t Elliot here?” Mom asks.

Dad and I share a look, but I pretend not to notice the way he’s goading me.

“I texted him, but he hasn’t replied,” Scout says. “He’s with his dad.”

“Maybe he’s had a breakthrough?” Mom says.

“I’m gonna go over there after dinner to see if he’s okay,” Scout says. “I can usually get Mr. B to eat something.”

“You’re a good friend,” Mom tells her.

Scout pretends she isn’t beaming at the compliment. “He’s my best friend. I’d do anything for him.”

“Anything?” I ask before I can stop myself.

Scout frowns, her mouth full of green beans. “Yeah,” she says around them. “Why?”

“Nothing,” I look down, my face on fire. I do not blush, but the heat engulfing me right now says otherwise. “It’s just … you want him to be happy, no matter what, right?”

Scout completely sidesteps my question and turns her attention to Dad. “Why is he being so weird? He came in my room to tell me he loves me, and that he’s sorry for kissing my friend at my sweet sixteen.”

Mom gasps. “Connor, you did what?”

Dad’s watching me carefully.

I have to watch myself. Elliot doesn’t want Scout to know. But it fucking sucks. All this lying and hiding how I really feel.

When I fail to say anything, Dad steps in. “Can’t you brother tell you he loves you?”

Scour shrugs. “It just felt random.”

“Maybe I’m random.”

“Urgh, you are not ‘random’, you’re the most cookie-cutter, vanilla, predictable, straight white man on the planet.”

I swallow, pushing my greens around my plate, feeling Dad’s gaze on the side of my face.

“Maybe I’m not.”

She just scoffs.

“Seriously. Maybe I’m not straight.”

Mom’s head snaps up.

Scout actually looks at me with a frown. It feels like the first time she’s taken me seriously in years. “Are you coming out?”

“Yeah.”

“As what? Gay?”

“Bi.”