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“You, know God and…stuff,” I say, cringing at how lame that sounds.
“God…and stuff?” she repeats, a small little chuckle in her voice.
Parker snorts. “You’re not really all about this, are you?”
They don’t seem to be upset or scandalized by my apparent lack of interest, so I relax a bit, my lips tipping up in the corner. “What gave me away?”
“Are you liking it, though?” Parker asks as we pass by the chapel. “God and stuff aside?”
“Yeah, it’s a really great place,” I admit honestly, and I think of my favorite place to bring up. “I love the art studio.”
Mary perks up. “Art was my favorite part of camp here. What kind do you do?”
“Acrylic based.”
“I love that!”
I smile. Okay, so it isn’t that hard to bond with his kids. “Do you want to see the studio?”
“Sure,” Parker shrugs.
We head over to the art studio, and I head to the locked cabinet at the far end of the room once we’re in. I start pulling out all of the work I’ve done so far—from a portrait of the sunset to an abstract rendition of a tree—and the twins enthusiastically look them over.
“Noah, these are gorgeous!” Mary gushes as Parker sifts through the rest of the paintings in the cabinet. “You’re so talented!”
“What is this one?”
I don’t move fast enough.
My eyes widen in horror as Parker pulls out the canvas I wasn’t going to show them. I should have been more careful. I should have just stuck to the paintings the kids drew, but I wanted to impress Jarred’s kids.
In Parker’s hands and the focus of Mary’s slack jaw is the painting I drew of Jarred and me in bed together.
“What…what is this?” Mary asks, her voice breathless and confused as she brings her finger down the canvas before looking up at me. “Noah?”
Parker shakes his head slowly. “Is this…Dad?”
I panic. “I can explain—”
“You’re fucking our dad?” Parker asks, hands tightening around the canvas so hard I think he might tear it in half.
“No, I’m not,” I lie quickly. “It’s…it’s just—”
“Oh, this is wonderful!”
“It’swhat?”
I stand before Parker and Mary, confused as fuck, and completely shocked when they both smile at each other with that creepy twin-like connection. They completely ignore me as they look at one another, another realization crossing through their identical faces. “This makes so much sense now.”
Parker nods. “I know. I didn’t think it would be this, though.”
“Excuse me?” I interrupt, waving my hands in the air. “What the fuck is going on?”
Mary takes the canvas from Parker and sets it down on the table gently. “We know.”
I furrow my eyebrows. “What do you mean,you know?”
“Well, we didn’t know Dad was attracted to men, but we knew that he was dealing with something all his life. He was always so unhappy with Mom. So unhappy in general.” She looks at her brother. “Today…Parker?”
