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“What?”
“Dad’s good-looking, I get that, but if you’re just gonna jump in on his side in things, you can quit now. He doesn’t need the advocate.”
That made me feel lower than I’d felt in a very long time. “Jesus, Chandler, I’m sorry it came out that way. It’s not that, I swear. I just…don’t see him forcing that on you. Again, I don’t know him very well at all. If he is, then he’s going to have a fight on his hands. I would maybe side with him if you didn’t want school at all, but your choice of schools, that’s all you. You’re the one that has to go, to learn.”
“Really?” he asked with his eyes narrowed but hopeful.
“Really. In fact, maybe it’s time for you to sit him down and have these conversations with him. Start with your sexuality, though. I happen to know he’d be okay with your being gay.”
“How do you know that? Did you tell him?” Chandler had stopped on the path, and he shook like I’d told the local witch hunter he’d cast a spell.
“No! We were talking about parents and kids, and he only wants you and Colby to be happy. That’s it.”
“Oh,” he said, visibly relieved. “If he freaks, I’ll leave before spring.”
“I was gonna ask about that. Why are you heading off late?”
We started walking again, as the breeze blew across our faces. “Early, not late. I did extra classes two years ago, got my core stuff out of the way. I was trying for a whole year early, but I got sick with Covid and was out of school for six months.”
“Damn. That’s rough.”
“I had asthma. Have, that is. Before the vaccines came out for my age, one of the maids had it without knowing. My dad…was so mad.”
“I’m sure.”
“I’ve never seen him so mad, but it wasn’t her fault. She was isolated from everyone except her family, but she also took the mail. She got it from her mailman, come to find out. I talked him down and made him hire her back after he fired her. It was a mess.”
“He was protecting his kid.”
“Yeah. He’s calm and collected most of the time, but he can get mad.”
It dawned on me then. “Is that why you’re afraid of telling him?”
“Maybe,” he said right off but shrugged. He was conflicted. I got that, too.
“I don’t know him, we’ve established that, but I do know he’d never be that angry with you unless you did something really terrible. Picking your own college or being gay, not terrible.”
He stopped and turned to me, his smile twitching on his lips, begging to bloom, but he kept it at bay long enough to bring out his teenage smart mouth. “Like you said, you don’t know him.”
“Yeah, right,” I laughed. “So, we’ll talk about it more in the morning. I’m waking you up at seven.”
Eyes wide, he stared in shock. “Seven?”
“Seven.”
Dinner was roasted chicken with baby potatoes and candied carrots, Chandler’s favorite meal. I didn’t know if it was on purpose or coincidence, but Chandler ate it absently while Rick watched him throughout the meal.
There was more going on than either was telling me, and it was totally possible they didn’t understand themselves. My feelings on it were simple. They were close to being apart and neither was ready.
When dinner was over and Chandler retreated to his room for a Halo tournament or whatever video game he played with his friends, I went out to the back patio to watch the sky.
The light pollution of the city was gone from there, and there were so many stars that the sky was glistening with them. The moon was a sliver, so it should have been dark, but the stars kept a sheen of pearly, hypnotizing light. I couldn’t look away, so I didn’t notice Rick coming to sit at the patio table with me.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
I jumped a little as I heard him, then laughed at my own reaction. “Yes, it’s beautiful here.”
“Didn’t mean to startle you.”
