Page 93 of Sapphire Storm

Ethan wanted to answer confidently in the affirmative, buthe couldn’t. He’d been tortured by the same thought ever since Roman hadannounced his plan to sleep with Scott Bryant.

“They’re gonna have to have real wedding documents, right?He’ll be signing stuff. He’ll be a member of her freakin’ family. If they don’tdo all that, someone’s going to find out it’s not real.”

“I expect it will be a real wedding on paper.”

Andy shook his head and drank his coffee. “I knew that womanwas trouble, but I didn’t want to say anything. That’s how I was able to be inhis life, you know. I didn’t try too hard to be his dad. It was too late by thetime I showed up. He was a teenager, so you know, I did the older buddy thing.I didn’t boss him around. And I didn’t need to. He was a good kid, emotional attimes, but he’s always been a good kid.”

Ethan nodded.

“You love him?” Andy asked.

He felt Lucy Russo’s eyes on his back and wondered whichtouches in the house she’d left behind. She hadn’t lived here, but she’dprobably considered it a second home and spent many nights under its roof. Whenhe spoke, he realized he was addressing her as much as Andy.

“There’s a spot on my sofa that still smells like hiscologne. If I sit down on it, I can’t get up for at least an hour, and I spendmost of that time hearing his laugh and seeing the light in his eyes when he smiles.”

Andy nodded, sipped coffee, nodded some more. “And clearlyhe wants you,” the man finally said. “Otherwise he wouldn’t be doing any ofthis. And you want him. So maybe I keep my mouth shut and mind my ownbusiness.”

In the silence that followed, a question started to bubbleup inside of Ethan that made his chest feel tight and hot, tensing his handaround the coffee mug’s handle. He must have been wincing at the tension he wasfeeling because Andy was studying him closely all of a sudden. “What?” the manasked.

Ethan shook his head, trying to shed the question like a dogsheds rain. But he couldn’t. “If she were alive today, do you think she couldever wrap her head around this? Me and Roman. Together. After everything.”

“She was tough,” Andy said. “It would have taken time,but…maybe.”

Or maybe Andy was being generous with him. When Andy startedto speak again, Ethan was startled.

“Ronnie was about fifteen when she found some stuff on thecomputer that made it pretty clear he was into dudes. And she figured enough timehad passed that she should try to find his dad, see if he had any advice. Shefigured he’d finally come out of the closet, you know. That he was living hisbest life, and maybe he’d be able to tell her how she could support their son.But boy, was she wrong.”

“Wrong how?” Ethan asked.

“He wasn’t living with a man somewhere. He’d married anotherwoman, but he’d met this one at church camp where they’dde-gayedhimor something. At least that’s what he said. He had some technical, religiousterm for it. But the point was, he wanted her to send Ronnie there too. He saidhe could save him. And boy, did she flip her lid. She told him that if he wentanywhere near Ronnie she’d call the cops on him because he didn’t have any kindof custody. She said no way was she going to let his shame get into their boy’shead after everything she’d done.”

“Whatshedid?” Ethan asked. “What did she do? Shedidn’t cheat on anybody.”

Andy sighed and sipped his coffee. “It was about takingRonnie into the city that night. She never forgave herself. She was trying tohumiliate Thomas, but she said she never stopped to think about how it wouldaffect her kid. And then fast forward, he’s fifteen, it turns out he’s got thewhole gay thing in common with his old man, and she’s sitting there wonderingif what she did that night is going to make him feel worse about who he is.”

“Did they ever talk again?” Ethan asked.

“Two years later. I told Ron I was taking his mom on alittle vacation, but we went to see him. ’Cause he was dying. He wrote to herout of the blue. Told her he didn’t have much time left and he wanted to seethem both. But she wouldn’t bring Ronnie, and I don’t blame her. She was afraidit was a trap, that if she showed up with him, some of Thomas’s crazy ex-gayfriends would pop out of the woodwork and try to throw him in a van orsomething. So I went with her.”

“You saw him?”

Andy nodded. “Yeah, I mean, I shook his hand, but mostlyLucy sat with him. He was in hospice by then. Shame was he’d met someone.”

“Someone?”

“A guy. He’d left that nutjob group and actually startedliving with a man. He’d come to terms with who he was and then, boom.Pancreatic cancer. He finds out he’s barely got any time left. He told Lucy heunderstood why she didn’t bring Ron. The trip was good for her. In the end,Thomas did her a solid. She was a different woman after that. Like it took herthat long to accept that the whole thing wasn’t her fault. That it hadn’t been’cause she wasn’t pretty enough or loveable enough or sweet enough.”

“And Roman doesn’t know any of this?” Ethan asked.

Andy shook his head. “But please, let me be the one to tellhim when he comes home.Ifhe ever comes home. To answer yourquestion, even before all that, she would have walked through fire for her boy.And so if you’re the one he wants, she would have found a way to accept it. I’mnot saying it woulda been quick or easy, but she would have found a way. Youwant to know what woulda really helped?”

“Yes,” Ethan answered, wondering if he’d ever been as eagerfor an answer in his entire life.

“If you got him away from that damn woman and out of thisdamn mess,” Andy said.

Ethan felt a focus and clarity he hadn’t felt in days.

“On it,” Ethan finally said.

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