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“How far are we?”
Chandler laughed and said, “A mile.”
“Only a mile? Feels like five,” I said, then found a boulder to sit on while I caught my breath. “That was the best run I’ve ever taken though, and I thought it was pretty by Burke’s.”
He came to sit near me and said, “My grandfather bragged that my family founded the town and picked out the very best spot for themselves. It’s almost too pretty here.”
“Too pretty?”
“Yeah. Even my dad says it, that it fools us into thinking the rest of the world is like this. Pretty, nice people and all that. He says that even in other small towns just like this, people aren’t all that nice and there are few places this beautiful.”
It sounded like Rick was scared to death of having his children out in that not-so-beautiful world. Hence my job. “Chandler, it’s not all terrible either. I find that most places are what you make of them for yourself. In places that are beautiful, you can find ugliness, and in dirty, dank city blocks, you can find beauty. A person’s outlook, reflections, and projections often make the difference, and, well, finding good people too, to share these places with.”
“That’s the thing I think my dad is most afraid of,” he said, staring off at the view. “The people.”
“Can you blame him? He’s been hurt a lot. It…I feel it off him. I can relate.”
“My mom dying was hard enough, but that bitch…” he smiled over to me shyly. “Sorry. That woman he married, that left after Colby…she broke him. It’s different, I guess, to lose someone that didn’t want to go.”
I’d never thought of that. “Having someone you love, watching them fall out of love with you, yeah, that’s where I can relate.”
“Me too, but just, you know, crush shit.”
The kid was very mature, more than I would have thought when I first met him. “You’re strong, Chandler. That may be the one thing you need to let your dad know more than being gay or the college stuff. I don’t think he quite gets it.”
“How can he? Don’t parents always see us as little kids?”
I laughed quietly. “I wouldn’t know, but I think that’s probably true.”
“You’d make a good dad. You listen.”
“A dad? Me?”
Chandler turned and with his eyes locked on mine and no smile on his lips, he said, “Yeah. If you got with a guy with kids that would come along with it.”
I watched him and he never even blinked. “Chandler, are you trying to set up me and your dad?”
“Me? I’m just a dumb kid with a straight dad. Right?”
With that, he got up and started down the hill, calling after me to catch up. I laughed and started after him, a million questions coursing through my head that I knew I’d never get the chance to ask.
Chapter Nine
Dinnerwasroastbeefand mashed potatoes, the creamiest potatoes I’d ever had. The cook/housekeeper, Phoebe, was a great cook. I’d have to jog twice a day if I kept eating at the main house, but I had yet to go shopping for my place.
“How was the run this morning?” Rick asked us.
“Good,” Chandler said simply.
I decided to expand on that some. “He took me on a great trail. It was absolutely beautiful.”
“Oh? Moosehead or Deer?”
Chandler didn’t answer right away, as he was staring at his phone, so Rick reached over and took it gently from him. “We’ve had this conversation, Chan.”
“Sorry,” he said without a bit of remorse.
“Where did you take Kanan for your jog?”
