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Nick looked at his older brother, then shoved the empty beer glass toward him. He felt dizzy, like the air was too thin to breathe.
His voice came out wispy. “You might want another one.”
“Why?”
“Because you guessed wrong.” He laughed shortly. “Way wrong.”
Michael studied him but didn’t say anything.
Nick took a breath and forced himself to look up. “Michael.
I’m g*y.”
CHAPTER 23
Three feet of wooden table stretched between them, but it might as well have been three miles. This moment between words and reaction seemed to stretch into infinity.
Nick had leapt off that cliff, and now he was waiting to see what he’d hit at the bottom.
Michael eased back into the booth and leaned his forearms on the table. He edged Nick’s half-empty soda glass toward him. “Here. You look like you’re going to pass out.”
Nick couldn’t move. He worried he would pass out if Michael didn’t say something more substantial than that.
The waitress came to the table again, obviously noting that they hadn’t left. She fidgeted, clearly unsettled by the tension.
Or maybe she was cold. Nick tried to get a handle on the temperature in the room.
She picked up the folder with the signed receipt. “Did you boys need anything else?”
“Coffee,” said Michael. “Please.”
She disappeared, leaving them in silence.
Michael cleared his throat. “I don’t know how to say this, Nick . . .”
It was like his older brother had picked up a spear and begun to shove it through Nick’s back. He felt the pain that acutely.
But then Michael winced and looked at him. “Would it be weird if I said that’s not surprising?”
What?
What?
Nick came out of his seat to reach across the table and punch Michael in the shoulder as hard as he could. “You dick. I thought you were about to throw me out of the house.”
Now Michael looked like Nick had checked his brain at the door. “Why on earth would I throw you out of the house?”
“I don’t know! I had no idea how you’d react!”
“You want me to punch you? Cause a scene? We could totally put on a show.”
However Nick had imagined this conversation going, this . . .
this wasn’t it.
Some of the tension slipped from his shoulders. Nick took a long breath and blew it out through his teeth.
“How long have you been carrying that around?” said Michael.
