Page 47 of Summer of the Boy

Chapter Twelve

Most of Ridley’s boxes get stacked in the back corner of the garage, as he only needs his summer clothes and a few sundries, toothbrush, hairbrush, shaving gel, razors, basic bathroom necessities. We’ll move the rest to our apartment when we get to school.

I make room, emptying two drawers for him, clearing out space in the closet. Clearing off space on my desk for his laptop.

Mom and Amanda spend the time we’re getting Rid sorted out in my room to prepare salads, a macaroni and a potato. Dad happily takes his position as Grill Master seriously, grilling up steaks tonight because they’re the fastest to grill.

When I pull Rid outside with me, holding his hand, he pauses to watch my family, his new family, setting up for the cookout. Tears in his eyes.

“No one’s ever gone through this much trouble for me,” he says.

“No trouble at all,” my mom says. Setting the second of two large pitchers, this one of homemade lemonade, next to the iced tea, both dripping with condensation, to sit on the sideboard table next to the salads she and Amanda made.

With hardly a fly or mosquito to bother us thanks to all the citronella candles my mom lit and placed around the patio, permeating the air with a wonderful citrus fragrance, we actually get to enjoy our time in the outdoors. All of us sitting around the glass-topped table, making a memory.

Rid is so comfortable with everyone now. So different from the first time I brought him here for mac and cheese with bacon.

Bellies full, the conversation flowing, my mom and Amanda abruptly stand and walk through the sliding glass doors back into the kitchen. Maybe two minutes later Mom emerges carrying a birthday cake lit up with sparklers. Amanda follows with dessert plates and forks.

Taking their cue, I begin to sing the happy birthday song. The rest of the family joins in. My dad, my sisters, Mom and Amanda. At the end of the song, mom tells Rid to make a wish. He looks around the table, stopping to acknowledge each of us, then closes his eyes.

When he opens them again, my dad hands off a wrapped gift. My parents went shopping for a gift for Rid? I couldn’t begin to express what that means to me after the shitshow his mother put us through. Damn, I have a great family.

A stunned Ridley takes the wrapped package from my dad and just holds it.

“Go on, open it.” My dad urges.

Rid tears into the paper. And stops. Frozen, staring at it like he’s afraid to touch it.

“Leif told us you’ll need one for school.” My mom offers.

“I don’t know what to say,” Ridley answers. And honestly, I don’t know what to say either. My parents bought him an iPad and an external microphone.

Best. Family. Ever.

Amanda turns to my dad and he hands her off a wrapped package too. She sets it in front of Rid. “Happy Birthday,” she murmurs, then bending down she pecks his cheek.

He opens the Atlantic Tech T-shirt she must have ordered online. He’s so excited he whips off the shirt he’s already wearing right there at the table, and puts on the new one. There are more good tears.

I have a gift for him upstairs in my room. “My gift is upstairs. They didn’t tell me about the party or I’d have brought it down. I’ll go get it.”

“No.” Rid stops me. “Stay for now. Let’s enjoy the cake.”

“Okay.” I rest my hands on his shoulders. Then ask the others, “Will anyone here be offended if I kiss him?”

All I get are ‘are you stupid?’ looks from the family, so I don’t waste any more time and bend down to wrap my arms around his neck. “Happy twentieth birthday, babe,” I whisper in his ear before planting a chaste, but loving kiss on him.

I swear I hear my mom, Amanda and my sisters sigh in the background. Alright, enough of that. They’ve all been great so far, no sense pushing it.

When I stand, Dad actually pats my back. He just witnessed his only son kissing his boyfriend yet still pats my back like he’s proud of me. Part of me, despite all they’ve done for Rid and me, still finds it hard to believe.

Will they really ever get used to the new dynamic? I mean, my parents, sisters and Amanda at a backyard cookout. It could be two summers ago. Yet so much has changed. I’m no longer Amanda’s boyfriend. I’m Ridley’s boyfriend now. We’re moving in together.

And I seem to be the only one taking issue with any of it.

Time to pullmyhead out ofmyass, I guess.

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