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  “Sorry, Dad. I’m not going to be in town next weekend. I’m flying out to Oregon with my boss for a work thing.”

  It was close enough to the truth.

  “Huh. Ain’t that convenient.” From the man’s dark tone, Caleb knew his father thought he was lying.

  Okay, so he was lying, sort of, but he didn’t care. “I’m sorry, Dad. It’s my job.”

  “How do we get a copy of your key? Guess we can stay there if you won’t be.”

  Why was he afraid of the man? He no longer lived under his roof. “Dad, I won’t be in town. Besides, my place is in Sarasota, not Orlando. You’d be better off getting a hotel room.”

  “I don’t want to pay for a hotel room if you live right there.”

  “I don’t live ‘right there,’ Dad. You’re not listening. I—”

  “Don’t you dare take that tone with me.”

  Caleb felt his stomach twist, the old fears trying to force him into stuttering apologies Caleb didn’t even owe the man. “I live over two hours away from Orlando, Dad. South. Even longer if the traffic’s bad. I’m south of Tampa.”

  His father’s tone eased back a little, now sounding confused. “Your momma said you lived close to Orlando?”

  “I’m not. I’m nowhere close to Orlando. I mean, close as in I’m closer to Orlando than I am Miami, or Tallahassee, yeah. But if you’re thinking you’re going to save time and money by staying with me, you’re not.”

  “Then you can drive over and have dinner with us. We’re getting in Friday afternoon.”

  It wouldn’t be as easy to disengage as he thought. “I have to work Friday. I leave straight from there for the airport. I can’t take a whole day off like that yet. I don’t have vacation time, and I need to save up my sick leave.”

  The dark undercurrents returned to his father’s tone. “Your momma wanted you to meet the daughter of one of Kelly’s friends. They went through a lot of trouble to arrange that. What am I supposed to tell her?”

  “I’ll gladly tell her, Dad. Besides, Mom needs to stop trying to play matchmaker for me. I’m too busy for that right now with work, and I didn’t ask her to do it.”

  “Why you suddenly have all this work to do? Never had that when you were up here.”

  “Because Sarasota County is a lot bigger. I sometimes have to attend evening meetings, especially if I have to make a presentation to the BCC, and I—”

  “The what?”

  “The Board of County Commissioners. And—”

  “You never had to do that here.”

  This wasn’t going to end well. Caleb could see that already. “Dad, I do a lot more now than I did before. That’s why I make more money now than I did, and—”

  “You so rich you can’t make time for your family, then?”

  “What do you want from me, Dad?” Caleb didn’t realize he’d yelled it until his father went quiet on the other end for a long moment.

  “Don’t you dare take that tone with me, boy.”

  “Then how about listening to me for a change?”

  “I knew it was a mistake letting you go to college. Should’ve made you get a job with me at the mine like I wanted to, but no, I let you and your Momma talk me into letting you go to school. You should be married by now and—”

  Something inside Caleb snapped. “I’m sorry I’m such a disappointment to you, Dad. Sorry I actually went out and became independent and left home and didn’t have to get married to do it like the girls did.”

  Then Caleb did the unthinkable—he hung up on him.

  Caleb dropped the phone onto the couch next to him, staring at it in horror as if a phantom hand had ripped it from his grasp.

  Oh…shit.

  You did not hang up on Jeremiah Prevost.

  At least, he never had.

  One of the great things about leaving home for college had been dorm life. Sharing a room had meant a freedom he’d never known existed before. He’d still felt too terrified to try to date guys, or even attend any events that might be construed as him supporting the LGBTQ community, because he never knew who he might run into and what gossip might trickle back to his family.

  He wasn’t sure if he was more terrified about his father maybe calling back…or not.

  As the minutes ticked by and the phone remained dark and silent, Caleb’s tension only ratcheted higher, tighter.

  He jumped when the phone rang ten minutes later.

  His mom.

  Knowing putting this off would only make things infinitely worse, and trying to channel a little of Boyd’s usual calm, he answered.

  “Yeah.”

  “Why are you yelling at your father?”

  He forced himself to keep his tone low and even. “He refused to listen to me. He got pissy at me for informing him I live over two hours from Orlando, then berated me for my life choices. I’m not sorry, and I’ve had enough. I’m an adult and I don’t deserve for him to talk to me like that. He wants respect from me, he needs to give a little in return. And by the way, stop trying to fix me up on dates.”

  “Guess you don’t care about your parents anymore, huh?”

  “Stop it, Mom.” He rubbed at his forehead. “Don’t play the guilt card. I’m happy here in Florida. That’s not a statement about my feelings about you or Dad unless you try to make it one. You know, I’d think you’d be happy for me.”

  “How am I supposed to be happy for you when you won’t even settle down? You’re our only son, and the last boy with the Prevost name!”

  You’ve…gotta be shitting me.

  “What?”

  “You heard me.”

  “No, what I heard is this comment out of left-field that you expect me to breed just…because? Seriously?”

  “Stop being so crude.”

  “Well, then stop making up silly excuses why you think I should get married.”

  “You have no idea how hard it is, trying to fight the lies when people whisper that they think you’re... You have to understand how that makes us feel, when they say you’re…gay.”

  She uttered the last word in a whispered hiss that made it sound like he might as well be sacrificing babies and skinning kittens, too.

  The words left his mouth before he could pull them back. “Well, why should they whisper it when it’s true? I don’t see the big deal.”

  He heard her shocked gasp, and it was like the bottle finally uncorked in his soul.

  Not just uncorked—exploded into grains of sand.

  Sitting up a little straighter on the couch, he barreled through it before she could recover enough to respond. “I’m gay, Mom. I’ve known it since high school and was too terrified to admit it. Especially around Dad, when I knew he’d literally kick my ass. Don’t worry, I never dated any guys while I was up there.”

  “You…you—”

  “I’m gay. I date men.” Well, that truth, about his relationship status, could wait a little longer. “You want to disown me? That’s fine, I’ve kind of expected it. You’ve got three perfect daughters who can do no wrong in your eyes, no matter what they do, so go ahead and pretend you don’t have a son anymore, if you want.”

  She hung up on him.

  Well, that’s that.

  Setting his laptop aside, he carried his phone into the bedroom with him and curled up on Boyd’s side of the bed, holding Boyd’s pillow in his arms with his face pressed against it. It still smelled like him.

  Seven days. I can do that.

  Being at work without him would suck, but yeah, he’d be staying here at Boyd’s while alone.

  Going home…hell, he was home.

  Boyd was his home, and all he wanted to do was remain right there, surrounded by the man, even if the man himself was winging his way to the other end of the damn country.

  It was better than nothing. And outside of his current life in Florida, “nothing” was what he now had.

  Thank god he lived nowhere near Virginia. That was, if his mother even told his father what Ca
leb had admitted. Maybe she wouldn’t. That was a possibility, too, that she’d cover it up to keep it quiet, not just from his father but from anyone else who might “whisper it”.

  Must preserve the family image, not that they had much of one. Wasn’t like they were rich or anything. Their only claim to local fame was being descended from one of the first families who founded the town.

  Since that didn’t translate into money, it meant jack shit. If anything—

  Oh.

  Now it clicked. Not that he’d ever heard them talking about the “family name” before like that, but he wasn’t an idiot.

  Whatever self-worth his father—and his mother by default—had wrapped up in that “distinction,” of being part of a founding family, had to be part of what was fueling this.

  And the fact that they were raging homophobes, but in addition to that.

  Part of it was wrapped up in their “common man” versus “the elite” bullshit they’d gotten roped into believing, thanks to their hours spent unquestionably soaking up every bit of garbage Fox News spewed at them every night.

  That, and the garbage their preacher also spewed at them, that gays were ruining the world, and that the Apocalypse couldn’t come fast enough to suit them.

  If he hadn’t earned a scholarship to college, he never would have gone. No way his parents would have helped him, even if they had been able to pay for it. His parents scoffed at people who went to college as book-smart and common-sense-stupid.

  Including him, apparently.

  I’m the same guy I was growing up as their son, I just happened to go to college because I wanted to be a civil engineer.

  Hell, he’d loved playing Sim City as a teenager on the second-hand desktop computer he’d received for Christmas when he was thirteen. Obviously, the real-life version of that wasn’t a fraction as fun or glamorous, but he enjoyed the work, even the boring minutiae.

  He inhaled again, envisioning Boyd’s blue eyes as he did.

  I’ll talk to Sir once we’re together again.

  Maybe even wait until they were on the flight home to tell the man what happened. He didn’t want his family drama overshadowing Boyd’s time with Ella.

  I’m going to be a step-dad!

  He sadly smiled. It wasn’t exactly something he’d be able to brag about to his parents, or anyone in his immediate family.

  Except…knowing it was Boyd he’d spend the rest of his life with, the terror of being alienated by them no longer froze him the way it used to.

  All because of Boyd.

  Chapter Four

  Boyd tried to relax as his plane taxied to the gate in Portland, but it wasn’t happening. Tension rolled through him even though, logically, he knew he was wanted here.

  Ella wanted to see him and get to know him as much as he wanted to get to know her. He was finally going to see her again.

  This is really happening.

  When he was able to turn his phone on again, he breathed a sigh of relief to see Caleb’s text that he’d arrived safely at Boyd’s after leaving the airport. He sent him a quick response that he was on the ground and would call him as soon as he retrieved his luggage and had picked up his rental car.

  He also texted Ella just before getting off the plane to let her know he was on the ground. He’d opted to meet Ella at her place, wanting a rental car to use while out there since she’d be working some of the time. After retrieving his luggage, he found the rental car counter and, less than thirty minutes later, he sat in the car.

  He called Caleb first.

  “How was your flight, Sir?”

  He thought Caleb sounded a little…tense. “I’m here. Nervous as hell.”

  “You’ve got this, Sir,” Caleb said. “I don’t expect you to call me later, so I’ll say good-night to you now.”

  “I love you so much, boy.”

  “I love you, too.”

  Caleb definitely sounded a little off. “Are you all right?”

  Caleb’s brief hesitation filled Boyd with fear. “Stupid conversation with my parents. That’s all. I’m fine, Sir. Nothing to do with you.”

  Boyd relaxed. “Is everything all right with them?”

  “Just my dad being my dad. Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

  Boyd wasn’t sure Caleb might not be holding back to not worry him, but he wouldn’t press him about it now. “Call me if you need to talk about it later, please?”

  “I’m not going to bother you about this while you’re out there, Sir.”

  “That wasn’t a request.”

  “Yes, Sir. I’m fine, though.”

  Boyd knew he was stalling, even though he did want to see Ella. Reluctantly, he said his good-byes to Caleb and plugged Ella’s address into his phone’s GPS.

  With that, Boyd was on his way to Beaverton. Deep shadows painted the landscape as the sun set over the far western horizon. The mountains fascinated him. They reminded him of the time he’d spent in Europe, before college, his senior year of high school when his father had been stationed in Germany.

  He had lived in Florida ever since leaving Germany for college in Tampa, which, considering the worst of his memories of Germany—getting his heart broken during his first romance with another man—had been an attempt to build his life without painful memories weighing him down.

  Maybe he’d only partially succeeded in doing that, until he’d met Caleb.

  The man had healed his soul completely in that way.

  Still, didn’t have many mountains in Florida. He’d traveled, mostly for work, but never to the Pacific Northwest. Another reason he wanted a chance to gather himself before seeing Ella again, to have time to get the new-location wonder out of his system so he could focus all his attention on her.

  They had talked several times on the phone since the night she’d reached out to him, and texted every day. A tentatively growing relationship Boyd hoped would become much closer over time. During the past week, Caleb had helped him scan copies of pictures of his parents and family to bring with him. He wanted to sit down and go through them with her, explain who everyone was.

  Show her a few more pictures he had of him and Helen together as kids, pictures he knew she didn’t have. What would hopefully be a sweet surprise for her.

  He knew Ella had just received her nursing degree six months earlier and worked at a local hospital, in their ER department. She wanted to continue her education to get her doctorate at some point, but for now her focus was working and building her savings. She’d used everything she’d received in the insurance settlement over Helen’s death for living expenses and college tuition, the last bit of that exhausted on her trips to Florida to locate him.

  Something else he felt guilty about, even though he knew it wasn’t logical to feel that way. It’d been her choice to do so.

  And, in the end, it meant they’d reconnected.

  With his phone’s GPS guiding him, it took him less than forty minutes to find her apartment complex. Not exactly the newest, but fortunately it didn’t look like a total dump, either. The complex sat built on the side of a hill, with the parking lots lower than the buildings. There were a series of steps and sloping sidewalks to negotiate leading up to the buildings.

  With his suitcase and his carryon in hand, he headed toward her building.

  Why am I terrified?

  Terrified was the most apt descriptor of how he felt.

  Which didn’t make sense. He’d handled the BCC’s questions during workshops, dealt with the press, and had managed to successfully survive heartbreak, get through college, land himself a job, and adult to the point he had a retirement account and owned a house.

  I’m a father.

  He’d missed all the little things. Being there for her birth, for all her firsts. Not being able to tuck her in. Not being able to celebrate her accomplishments or mourn her losses with her.

  Not being able to hold her when she didn’t feel good.

  Not being there for her when she had no on
e else.

  I will find Helen’s parents and chew them new assholes.

  They had no excuse for not contacting the military and asking them to track down his father and contact them. He would have taken care of Helen, of Ella.

  His responsibilities.

  It felt like the longest walk of his life, heading up that sidewalk to Ella’s apartment. Located on the first floor of the three-story building, it was a corner unit. Generic white horizontal blinds hung in the narrow window next to the door and in a larger window to the left of it.

  After a couple of deep breaths, he knocked.

  When she answered the door, her tentative smile sent his own heart racing. She wore blue scrubs with a grey, long-sleeved T-shirt under her top. Before he could say anything, she threw her arms around him in a strong hug before finally letting him go so he could step inside.

  She shut the door behind him and, once he’d set his bags down, she hugged him again, now crying.

  He held her, not saying anything, knowing there really wasn’t anything to say at that moment.

  Words were meaningless.

  But he hoped the fact that he showed up proved to her he was serious about wanting her in his life. Wanting to be a part of her life.

  Wanting to figure out how to be a dad to an adult.

  “I can’t believe you’re really here,” she tearfully said, not trying to end their embrace. “I wish Mom was still here. I mean…I know she would have wished things would be different between her and you, but…” More sniffles. “I’m glad you’re here,” she whispered. “Thank you.”

  “I’m here. I wish I could stay here longer.”

  “I’m sorry I bolted.” She looked up at him. “Thanks for not being a jerk, and for proving me wrong.”

  He smiled. “Oh, I can be a jerk. Just ask the people who work for me. Besides, I am a sadist.”

  She laughed. “But everyone I met at Venture insisted you’re such a nice guy.”

  “It’s the Minnesohtah accent, ah, you betcha.” He dropped it. “Fools them all. Makes me a tricky sadist.” Back into the accent. “Besides, none of dem dere folks work for me, doncha know.”

  Another sniffling laugh, and this time she released him so she could wipe at her eyes. “Come on in and I’ll show you around. I hope you’re okay with spaghetti. I meant to get something better from the store but I had to work later today than I planned. We were short-handed. I’m off for the next three days, though, so we can go grocery shopping tomorrow.”