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John ran a hand over his mouth as he teared up reading Julia’s message.
How did I miss this?Owen responded. No matter, good for you, love you.
Katie: Love you so much, Johnny.
Jeff: Duh. Carry on, bro.
Josh: I’m with you, O. Didn’t know, but whatever. Love you, J.
“There,” Cindy said. “All good just like I told you it would be.” She put her arm around John and brought his head to her shoulder.
“Thank you for the push. I suppose I should tell Gram and Gramps, too.”
“They won’t care either. I was with her earlier, and she was urging me to take Jace for a spin because, and I quote her in horror, ‘You wouldn’t buy a car without test-driving it, would you?’”
John sat up straight and laughed. “She did not say that.”
“Yes, she did, and you know she did.”
“She’s becoming more irreverent all the time. I love it, and I’ll talk to them. After that, I don’t care who knows.”
“That’s the way to be.”
On a break, Niall came up behind them. “What’s going on over here? Are you okay?”
“I am,” John said, smiling at the other man. “Better than ever, in fact.”
“And what brought this on?”
“A little coming-out party, you might say.”
Niall raised a brow. “You weren’t out yet?”
“Not officially.”
“And you are now?”
“To almost everyone who matters.”
“Great. You want to grab dinner some night?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Excellent.”
Watching them exchange phone numbers filled Cindy with an incredible feeling of pride in her brother and the courage it had taken for him to share his truth with their family. John left an hour later, and the bar crowd slowly dwindled until Cindy was left alone with Jace, who’d offered to walk her home after his shift.
“Everything all right with your brother?” Jace asked as he washed the last of the glasses.
Cindy reached for a towel he’d left on the bar and gestured for him to pass her the glasses for drying. “It is now. He came out to our family tonight.”
“Oh wow. How’d that go?”
“As my friend in Dallas would say, it was a nothingburger in the grand scheme of things. My mom said she already knew, and the siblings were very supportive. A couple of them said they’ve known for years, too.”
“It might’ve been a nothingburger for all of you, but I’m sure it was a big deal for him.”
“It was huge. He was shocked when my mom said she already knew.”
