Page 54 of Spencer and the Younger Girl
Damien laughed as he bumped it.
“So, your date with Charlotte a couple months ago…”
Spencer only half-listened as he pulled the truck out onto the road.
“I liked her. I was confused, I still am, but I promise the date was real. I wasn’t just using her for some sense of normalcy.”
Hadley leaned over the seat to talk to him. “A friend’s therapist says there is no such thing asnormal.”
Despite Spencer returning home for Damien, they’d never spoken of this. It was a trust they were building up to but hadn’t gotten there yet.
What made people want to trust Hadley so readily?
“I like that.” Damien chuckled. “No normal.”
“We all just need to be who we are, no apologies. If people don’t like us for it, are they really people we should care about? No.”
“Gabe… his parents sent him here because he came out to them. They’re a conservative family. My parents took him in and gave him a job as he got his GED.”
“Have you told your parents?”
“No.”
Spencer gripped the wheel tighter. He wanted it to be easier for his brother, simpler.
“Why not?” Hadley asked. Her questions were so blunt, so honest—the kinds of things most people would never ask.
Damien sighed. “I don’t know. My parents… they’ll love me no matter what. But it’ll change how they see me forever. I don’t know if I’m ready for that.”
“Damien.” She reached out to touch his arm, her voice softening. “Wouldn’t they want to see the real you?”
There was so much goodness in her voice, as if she couldn’t imagine a world where bad things happened. Spencer forced himself to keep his eyes on the road and not turn to stare at the girl saying all the things he wished he could say to his brother.
They got to the farmers’ market and unloaded the truck. Damien led them to his mom’s usual table on the closed-off street. Every Saturday, they shut part of downtown off to traffic for the farmers’ market.
People set up tables selling pies, jewelry, fruit, and anything else they could make money on.
But the Lee stand had been a popular one for many years.
Spencer used to work it with his mom. After grumbling about spending his Saturday there, he always ended up enjoying it.
Damien set up jars and fruit around the table, making sure everything was as their mom liked it.
Spencer tried to help, but his brother swatted him away, so he sat in the chair behind the table.
The crowds started to come early—Gulf City loved their farmers’ market—and before long, all three of them were busy selling products.
“Hey, stranger.” Victoria walked toward him, a smile tilting her lips.
Out of all the people he’d abandoned three years ago, she was the only one who left him first. Maybe that was why they could be so comfortable with each other even after everything that happened.
“Vic.” He wrapped her in a hug. “I don’t think I thanked you before for letting me crash.”
She pulled back. “You never need to thank me, Spence. I’m just glad you’re back where you belong.”
He latched the cash box and stepped out from around the table. Damien was busy with a customer, but Hadley’s eyes followed him. He didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing.
“I’m not sure belong is the right word.”
