Page 77 of Delivery After Dark
“He is.”
“I love his Irish accent,” Kelsey said with a smile.
“I do, too.”
“Did something happen to upset you?” Jeff asked.
“Sort of, but it wasn’t his fault. It was mine.”
“How so?” Charlie asked.
John fixated on a framed picture of the seven Lawry siblings that his mother had hung on the dining room wall. “Well… It’s just that we, you know, were together, and all I could hear in the back of my mind was that voice, telling me all the reasons it was wrong and disgusting and?—”
“What?” Sarah asked, shocked. “He didn’t know…”
“Yes, he did, Mom, and he tormented me with what he knew every chance he got, and he still is.”
“No!” Sarah’s forceful tone took the others by surprise. “You will not let him have anything to do with this.”
“‘Let him,’” John said with a laugh. “If only I could turn it off, but I’ve yet to figure out how.”
“I feel you,” Jeff said. “I turned to drugs to make it stop, but I’m certainly not suggesting you do that.”
John huffed out a laugh. “I’ve been tempted. Niall… He’s such a great guy. He’s been nothing but supportive, and I’ve treated him like shit. I’m sure he’s probably moved on by now.” That thought was profoundly depressing.
“I don’t think he has,” Charlie said. “I saw him in town the other day. He asked about you.”
John perked right up when he heard that. “He did?”
“Yep. Said he was worried about you. I told him we were, too, and that we were hoping we might get you to talk about it at some point.”
“Thus the meatloaf,” Sarah said.
The love and support from his family made all the difference, even if he’d been ambushed by them.
“I don’t know what to do,” John said. “I want to be with Niall, but I can’t bear the thoughts that run through my head when we’re together. It brings it all back…”
“We’ll call Kevin McCarthy in the morning,” Charlie said. “We’ll get you in with him to talk it out, and in the meantime, you should tell Niall what you’ve told us. I think it’ll make a big difference to him.”
“You think so?”
“I know so,” Charlie said. “That man cares about you. If you ask me, he looked heartbroken to not be in touch with you.”
“I hate that I did that to him.”
“It’s nothing that can’t be fixed,” Jeff said. “You just have to be honest with him.”
“What if it’s too late?”
“Then you learn from this and do the work with Kevin so you’re ready the next time you meet someone special,” Sarah said. “Either way, you have to heal yourself before you can move forward with any relationship.”
“If Niall cares like I think he does,” Charlie said, “he’ll wait for you to be ready.”
John couldn’t believe how much better he felt after talking to them. “Thanks, you guys, for, you know… everything. A lot of people don’t get this kind of support from their families when they come out. It means the world.”
“We love you, Johnny,” Sarah said tearfully. “We want you to be happy, and being with Niall obviously made you happy.”
“It did, until things got real, and the past intervened.”
