Page 57 of Will & Patrick's Endless Honeymoon
“This conversation is done.”
“Not so fast.”
Patrick glares at him before turning away. “Yes, so fast. You have nothing to say that interests me.”
“You and Will should have dinner with us tomorrow night.”
“Nope.”
Tony smiles winningly. “It would go a long way toward soothing Kimberly’s hurt feelings.”
“Kimberly’s hurt feel—” Patrick wipes a hand over his face. “You know what? Forget it. Go back to your little swingers party for three and leave me and your son alone.”
It’s only as Patrick’s stalking away that it occurs to him that it’s probably not wise to talk to a murdering mobster that way. But he shrugs and doesn’t even look back over his shoulder. Because if there’s one thing he’s sure of about Tony Molinaro it’s that he loves banging Kimberly Patterson.
And if there’s one thing he’s sure of about Kimberly Patterson, it’s that she is obsessed in her own sick way with Will. That means Patrick’s safe from the Molinaros and murder so long as Will is happy with him, and so long as Kimberly doesn’t decide Patrick needs to be offed.
Probably.
It doesn’t really matter. He’ll take his chances rather than live in fear. Besides, Tony Molinaro seems to like it when Patrick puts him in his place. Maybe because no one else does.
Will sits in bed reading when Patrick comes back from his little surprise tête-à-tête with Tony with the bag of half-melted frozen Snickers bars. Patrick tosses the bag on the night table and opens his mouth to propose they play a kinky game with the candy, because apparently Hawaii’s fresh, ocean air gives his dick teenage boy stamina again.
He stops in his tracks. Rivulets run down Will’s face and he’s red from the middle of his chest up, like he’s been crying for a while now.
“What’s wrong?” Patrick rushes to him, slips his hands into Will’s hair, and lifts his head. “What’s happened?”
“I hate this book!” Will exclaims, throwing the thick novel on the floor, his lips trembling. “I hate it so much!”
Will’s willingness to express his feelings is something Patrick admires, though he sometimes finds it confusing as hell. He’s been enjoying his vampire book, but even when he hates something he’s reading, he doesn’t cry about it. Taking a deep breath, he rolls with it. “I take itA Little Lifeis not the next great gay novel then?”
“It’s so sad.” Will’s mouth crumples, and he leans over, crying into his hands. “It’s so horribly sad.”
Patrick’s not big into literature, preferring to spend his too-few entertainment hours being actuallyentertained, but he’s been through college. He’s readThe City and the Pillarand he’s seen too many miserable gay films. He knows the score. “Aren’t all ‘great gay stories’ sad?”
“No!”
Patrick considers. “I mean, someone has to die or commit suicide or there’s no big important life lesson in it, right?”
“Stop.”
Patrick awkwardly pats his back. “Want to tell me?” He kind of hopes Will doesn’t, actually, but he’ll listen if it’ll make Will feel better. He suspects whatever he says in reply won’t help much, though.
“It’s too sad to talk about.”
“Okay.” Relief flows. He can just hold Will and that’ll make it better in its own way. At least it usually does.
But as soon as Will’s safe in his arms, tucked up against Patrick’s chest in a reverse of their usual sleeping position, Will starts talking about the book again. He outlines the plot and says, “That’s when I flipped ahead because it had to get better, right?Right?” He clutches Patrick. “It didn’t get better. It got worse.”
“Sounds like a bad book.”
“It’s so unbelievable in one way, but in others…in the abuse and the way a young person can be led into doing things they never wanted to do.” He swallows thickly, rubbing his cheek against Patrick’s shirt. “It made me think about you and that man who—” His voice chokes. Patrick shudders. He prefers to forget. “And it reminded me of what happened between me and Ryan. And it made me think of other people too.”
Patrick says nothing, stroking down Will’s back. Life’s plenty hard and maybe bringing a child into it is selfish and stupid. But he can’t help thinking that he and Will are going to pull it off somehow. Maybe love has made him optimistic? He hopes not.
“Why is it so easy to break someone, Patrick? How can it be so simple to take a person and destroy them?”
Patrick has a feeling this is a rhetorical question. He’s getting better at figuring those out. He used to just answer any question Will posed to him, willy-nilly, but time has proven that sometimes Will doesn’t actually want answers. Especially not Patrick’s answers. He kisses the top of Will’s head instead.
