Page 39 of Country Road Romance

“Yes, ma’am,” he said again. “I’ll be extra careful, and when I do get that award, I’ll be dedicating it to you.”

She scoffed at that. “Don’t be ridiculous. There are better people for that. Like my grandson over there. I’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve watched one of your movies together.”

“I didn’t realize that Jared was such a big fan of mine,” he said with a smile. Jared at least had the good grace to look embarrassed.

“Oh yes, he talks about you all the time,” Marla went on, heedless of the discomfort she was clearly causing Jared.

“I’ll definitely keep that in mind,” he said. He bumped Jared’s knee with his own under the table, smirking as his face turned several shades of pink.

The rest of the dinner passed companionably, and at last Marla made it clear that it was time for her to go.

“This has been a truly fantastic meal, my dear,” she said, beaming at Joyce.

Joyce looked so taken aback to be praised by her mother that she didn’t say anything.

“Don’t look so surprised,” Marla said. “I know I don’t dish out the compliments as often as I should, but we both know that you’re the best cook in the family.”

As she made her way out the door, Grandma Marla gestured to Charlie to lean down.

“Don’t you dare tell anyone that I said this, but I want you to know two things. One, I think that you did the right thing there in Huntington. That man got what was coming to him. Just don’t do it again. Two, you’re a good match for my grandson. Youwouldn’tbelieve the type of people that he’s brought up here before. Just don’t break his heart like they did, or I will come and find you. I might be old, but I still know how to throw a punch or two myself.”

And with that she was gone, sweeping out the door.

Charlie wasn’t quite sure how he felt about Marla. He liked her, obviously, but he knew she’d meant what she’d said about defending her grandson. She wasn’t going to stand by and let anyone hurt his feelings.

“So, now you’ve met my grandmother,” Jared said as he came back inside. “She’s quite the force of nature.”

“You could say that. She definitely wasn’t quite what I expected, and not at all like my grandparents, or what I remember of them, anyway.”

“Did they die when you were young?”

Charlie shifted a bit uncomfortably. “Neither of my parents were very close to their parents, and so they didn’t really want me to be, either. I think I might have met them a handful of times before they died.”

He hadn’t been aware until he said it just how much he’d missed out on that sort of relationship, and once again he found himself being a little envious of the life that Jared led.

“Are you absolutely sure that she doesn’t know you’re gay?” he asked.

He thought that she must, given what she’d said to him.

Jared made a very complicated face. “Well, it’s a little messy, actually. I think the best way to put it is that she ‘knows’ but she doesn’t really ‘know,’ if you know what I mean.”

Charlie laughed at that. “Yeah, I think I have a good idea of what you’re talking about. It’s one of those things that older people do that allows them to keep pretending that you’re the same person that you were when you were growing up. I guess that we all have some sort of fiction that we use to keep ourselves sane.”

“What are you two boys whispering about?” asked Joyce, who’d managed to sneak up on them without either of them being able to hear her. “I hope that you haven’t been sayinganything mean about your grandmother. You know that she thinks the world of you.”

“Of course not, mom. We were just talking about how funny older people can be.”

“Don’t make fun of your grandmother,” she said sternly. “That’s not nice.”

“We weren’t making fun of her, mother,” Jared said. “We were just commenting on how she can still pretend like my…guy friends are nothing more than just roommates. She still talks about Paul that way, even though we were together for five years and lived in a house with just one master bedroom.”

“She’s from a different generation,” she said.

Charlie wanted to point out that neither Charlie nor Jared were exactly “young” anymore, but he figured that in this case discretion was the better part of valor.

“I know that, mom,” Jared said. “But don’t you think that sometimes it would be nice if gay people like me were able to just be themselves openly and without fear of judgment from the members of their own family?”

This was quickly becoming something more than just a spirited disagreement about the nature of the closet, and Charlie knew that he had to do something before it got really out of control. It was clear that Joyce and Jared could really get into it when they both had their feelings hurt.

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