AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She frowns. “Is that how you feel? That you were… bred?”
My voice drops. I’m aware that people are around us, even though they can’t really hear. “I know I was bred. That’s why my parents got married. Someone had to carry on the family name.”
“You have the horses at your estate?”
“There’s not enough room for them. We have a property upstate. I visit when I can, which never seems like enough. Especially now that Hemingway is home.”
“Your brother?”
I make a face. “He got expelled.”
“Oh no.”
“He was having sex in the bathroom. I feel… pretty useless, actually. I should have had the birds and the bees talk with him years ago. And maybe a sexual orientation talk. And a gender identity talk, maybe. I don’t even know. I’m failing him.”
Sympathy crosses her face. “I feel the same way.” Her voice drops. “Lizzy thought she might be pregnant. She took the test at my loft. Negative, thank God. She’s supposed to start college in the fall. She has a lot to do before she’s ready for kids.”
I stare at her, surprised that I never put it together before. “We’re the same.”
“What?”
“You and I. Both of us are raising our siblings.”
Awareness raises her brow. “You’re right.”
“Though you have quite a few more than I do.”
No fucking wonder I was drawn to her. She’s beautiful and perfect and… the same as me. We share an experience that’s shaped us. That connection remains while we finish the dessert and finally get our entrées. Our conversation turns a little lighter, but it never becomes completely playful. There’s a new gravity between us, pulling and pulling.
When we’re done I help her stand and lead her out of the restaurant.
A man approaches me, his expression intent, and I force myself not to flinch. I try to offer a handshake, but he pulls me in for a hug. He’s my father’s friend. No, scratch that. He’s my father’s best friend, which makes it that much worse.
Which is why I’ve been very careful not to make close friends.
“How’s Dan?” he asks, trying to mask his hurt and not being very competent at it. “I’ve missed him at the country club. Other guys ask me about him.”
“He’s fine,” I say. “Private. You know how it is.”
“Right. Right. When does he want to meet up for golf? You’ll pass the message along, won’t you? Tell him to give me a call. Or email.”
“I’m sure he’ll appreciate the invitation, but he’s pretty busy lately.”
A resigned smile. He thinks he did something to piss my father off. Or that maybe my father and him were never friends, that he just imagined it all. I know because I feel that way too, sometimes. When my father doesn’t remember something, when he seems so sure that it’s twenty years ago. It’s a mindfuck, this disease. On my father and everyone else.
Chapter Fifteen
Eva
Finn’s quiet when the valet brings his car around.
No wonder why. Those comments from his father’s friend had to hurt.
Most people couldn’t see it. His mask was firmly in place—the charm and the easy humor. But I saw underneath. Maybe once he dropped the mask, it left him a little vulnerable. Only to me, though. Even my own body tensed at the man’s clear confusion. He didn’t understand why his golf partner had disappeared, and nothing Finn said would fix that.
Except the truth.
Though I’m starting to understand why the Hughes family has kept their secret. I’m not sure the world really wants the truth. What would happen if he’d told that man that his father might not even remember how to play golf? He would get pity, at best. And suspicion, like he said, that he would fall prey to the same disease.
