Page 103 of Love It or List It
“So, uh….”Joe didn’t want to sound ungrateful, because whatever was happening here, it was awesome.In the time he’d been sick, he’d definitely been mood-swinging all over the place.He had a hard time accepting help, but he’d definitely needed it.
And the person who’d been helping the most was conspicuously absent.Joe barely remembered most of the past week.He hoped he hadn’t said anything to run Austin off.
“Where’s Austin?”
Gavin, Meg, and Alex exchanged wordless glances.Then Alex looked at Will, who nodded with slumped shoulders, and the other three left the kitchen as he took over watching the stove.
Ominous.
“He went to work,” Will said.“I think.”
In the dining room, Gavin, Alex, and Meg divided up tasks.Gavin volunteered for litterboxes, Meg for walking Pepa.Alex said they’d check on the laundry and fold it if it was dry.
Joe snapped his attention out of the twilight zone and back to Will.“You think?”
Will poked at the chicken in the pan.“We’re not exactly talking.”
Oh good.Joe had gotten healthy just in time to mediate a family crisis.
The microwave beeped.Will retrieved the bowl of soup and brought it to the table, along with a spoon, and then returned to the stove to turn the burner off.
Joe picked up the spoon and stirred the soup.The familiar comforting aroma of one of Nonna’s best-loved recipes wafted up to his nose.“Why?”
“I think….”Will dropped into a chair across from Joe.“I think I fucked up.”
That seemed likely.Joe took a bite of soup.Oh God yes.Real food.He tried to pay attention to Will as well.“Oh?”
Will hunched.He’d gotten tall in the past two years, but now he seemed to be making himself small.“I haven’t been very good.Um, to live with.Especially when you were away, and then when you were sick.I just—I didn’t help at all.And I got mad when Austin didn’t do everything for me.And when he wasn’t you.And then I—”
He shut his mouth with a click.
Joe let him hold his silence for a moment while he shoveled in a few more spoonfuls.His stomach did not protest, but he should probably slow down anyway, just in case.He didn’t want to see the soup a second time.
“What is it?”he finally prompted.
“Last night Austin caught me smoking weed in the house and flipped his shit.”
Will probably should’ve offered Austin the weed, after the couple weeks he’d had.No doubt he needed to unwind a little.
Then Joe’s brain reminded him what today was.“Ah.On the night before an exam when he thought you should be studying?”
“In the house when your lungs were barely working, I think was his main objection.”Will rubbed his index finger over an invisible imperfection in the tabletop.“I didn’t think about it.I didn’t think aboutyou.Just like I didn’t think about how hard it was for Austin having to do everything for you, and the pets, and me, and try to run a business.I was only thinking about myself, and I could’ve… whatever.If I fail an exam, that only affects me.But everything else….”
Joe’s stomach prompted him for more soup.He obliged.Then he had to ask.“When you say flipped his shit…?”
“He yelled.Loudly.”Will hunched over a little more.“I’m surprised it didn’t wake you up.He said he was driving me to school and back for the next week like—like he was grounding me.I told him you weren’t my real dads.”
Joe winced.“Not your finest moment, bud.”
“In my defense,” Will said miserably, “I was high.”
He didn’t sound like he thought it was a particularly good defense, so Joe left it alone.“What did Austin say?”
Will buried his face in his hands.His shoulders shook.
Alarmed, Joe let his spoon clatter to the table.He couldn’t move very quickly, but he got up anyway and scuttled around the table so he could put his hand on Will’s shoulder.
Wordlessly, Will turned and buried his face in Joe’s midsection, wrapping his arms around his waist.
