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“I...I’m missin’ something.” I turn to Laney, her face pale as she focuses on the road.
“Um...” Laney clears her throat, but Serena speaks up before she can continue.
“Uncle Howie and Uncle Reagan weren’t allowed to be married,” Serena states. “But they had a vows ceremony.”
“Who’s Reagan?” I ask Laney.
“His partner,” she tells me.
“Howie was gay?”
She nods. “He came out to his family five years ago. But I knew long before then.”
I blink, shocked that Howie never told me and that Laney didn’t either.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was gonna.”
“That’s why Howie moved out. He wanted to live with Uncle Reagan instead,” Serena adds.
“He lived with you?”Why the hell didn’t she tell me that, either?
“Yeah, for a while...”
“What aren’t you tellin’ me?”
She pulls into the cemetery and quickly glances at me. “Can we talk about this later?”
“Sure, but wewillbe talkin’ about it...”
I loved Howie like a brother and wouldn’t have cared either way if he was gay, but why wouldn’t she share these details with me after talking for the past few weeks?
Once she parks, she grabs the bouquet of roses we picked up earlier and leads me to his plot. His stone isn’t set in yet, but a variety of flower arrangements are around it. I kneel, rubbing a hand over the fresh dirt and grass.
“Hey, buddy...” I manage to choke out. God, I wished I’d seen him at least once more before he died. How goddamn unfair.
“Uncle Howie, I got to meet my daddy finally!” Serena gushes, and a new wave of guilt and emotions floods my veins. “He’s aranchernow.” She giggles.
I laugh at the unexpected admission she tells him.
“He’d find that funny too,” I admit with a grin. A football star turned ranch hand.
Pulling out my folded letter from my pocket, I tuck it into the roses and place it next to a set of dying ones. “Read that when you get a minute,” I murmur.
“What’s that?” Serena asks.
“Just a little thing I wrote him.”
“Can I read it?”
“Serena Mae.Manners,” Laney interrupts.
Serena frowns.
“Sorry, kiddo. It’s adult stuff.”
“I know a lot about adult stuff,” she exclaims.
