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“Probably someone Luke sent for,” I tell him, even as my heart starts pounding. “You’d be surprised at what money can buy, kid.”
He tries to smile, but he looks nervous.
“They’re not here for you. That I know of, anyway. You want to stay in the car?”
“I’ll go in.”
I leave Eden in her carrier, hauling the heavy thing inside in case there’s someone dangerous in the house and I have to stash her in some closet. Miller and I walk into the hall together, and when we get into the kitchen, I find Steven standing near the bar stools by my father.
I’m so shocked, I almost drop the baby carrier. Miller can tell, I guess, because he takes the carrier from my hands and walks past me toward the living room. If my brain weren’t frozen in shock, I would laugh at the way Steven looks at Miller. Then Steven’s gaze comes to mine.
“We let in the wrong car, sir.”
“Steven, you don’t need to call me sir.”
My eyes lock onto my father, standing by the oven. He looks like he does on TV, but with wrinkles. There’s some gray around his temples. He’s wearing a gray suit. I hear Eden cry, and I hear Miller murmur to her. My heart feels like it speeds up and slows down at the same time.
He looks at me. My dad.
“Vance?” he says, and I say, “That’s me.”
His eyes look the same as mine. I never really noticed how I do right in this moment.
“I came…by to see you.” He blinks. I can’t read his face. My lungs feel too tight.
“Were you in the city?” I hear myself ask him.
“I drove here. From the East Coast.”
“What?”
He steps closer to me, and I notice Steven retreat down the hall, toward the garage door, beyond which is the security room.
“I wanted to see my son.”
I run the words through my head two times. My brain isn’t working.
“I don’t understand.”
You never thought of me as a son before.
That’s what I’m going to say, but suddenly, Sky is here. He’s wearing one of the suits I love best, I note as he moves past me, out of the hall and into the kitchen like a shark in water.
He stops in front of me, looking from me to my father and back to me. He says, “Did you invite him?”
“It’s my fault,” Steven starts, from down the hall, at the same time my father says, “I came to see Vance—”
But Luke interrupts them both. “Steven, thank you.” He nods, and it’s clearly dismissive. Then Luke turns to my father.
“If you’d like to stay at our house beyond this point, we can step into the library.”
Wait, what?
“Vance, you want to check on Miller and the baby?”
His face is expressionless. I feel myself nod.
I don’t move into the living room, though. I stand right where I am, which is about eight feet from the more casual library, located right behind the living room. So I hear everything that’s said between Luke and my sire…as I used to call him in my own head.
My mind clings to Luke’s voice as I have a hit of my inhaler. I’m stunned as he says, “If you want to see Vance, you’ll have to see me first. I’m not sure if you’re aware—I’m his husband.”
“I’m aware,” my father starts.
“You came to our house to talk with Vance?”
My father almost literally sputters.
“It’s been years, right? Many years?” Luke presses.
There’s another noise that can only be described as a sputter. “I’m gay.”
My mouth falls open at the same moment that Luke says, “What did you say?”
“Please don’t share this with the public yet. But I’m gay. Well, the younger people, they might say bisexual. I have a lover—going back years,” my father tells Luke. “Many years. But there’ve also been women. Vance’s mother…she was one of those. To cover my tracks.”
“You were married,” Luke says, like he doesn’t get it.
“Well, yes. But she knew I was stepping out on her. For a time, I tried to do that with a woman.”
What the holy fuckshit is this?
“I’m not who you need to talk to,” Luke says. “You can tell Vance all this yourself. But hear me on this, Senator: If you say one thing that upsets my husband in his new home, mere days after I married him and promised him a life of all the happiness that I can give him, you’ll be escorted off the premises very quickly.”
I can’t stay standing for another second, so I walk into the living room. Miller’s eyes are wide. He’s holding Eden against his chest. Our eyes lock. He says, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
He gives me a yeah-right look.
“Me too,” he snickers.
Luke and my father come in. I hear their footsteps, turn around.
“Vance. I’m sorry to surprise you. I wanted to get in touch. To talk. Connect.” He says the word like he’s just trying it out.
