Page 20 of Like the Season
“Good morning, Sir.”
“How’d you sleep last night, boy?”
“Missed you, Sir.”
“Missed you, too.” He kept his voice low. “Anything to tell me?”
A soft sigh. “I had to jerk off to get to sleep. I missed you and couldn’t get my brain to shut off.”
He’d suspected he might. “My good boy. I had a hard time sleeping without you, too.” Time to see if Caleb was as all-in as he claimed to be. “So, listen. There’s been a development.”
“Development?”
“Ella’s pregnant.”
“I…did you saypregnant?”
“I did.”
“So…we’re going to be grandpas?”
Boyd’s eyes dropped closed and he rubbed at them with his free hand, trying to stave off the relieved tears wanting to break through. “Yeah, we are.”
“That’s awesome!” He hesitated. “That’s…thatisgood, right?”
“I hope so. Except the guy’s apparently an asshole. I don’t know all the details yet. She doesn’t want to tell him about the baby, but I’m going to try to get her to do it while I’m still here so I can go with her and back her up.”
“How soon can we get her moved here?”
Boyd gave up trying not to cry and wiped at his eyes. “Do you know how much I fucking love you right now?”
Caleb laughed. “Sir, she’s your daughter, and she’s alone. She needs family.We’reher family.”
Boyd needed a minute to recover from this. Everything was happening too perfectly in some ways, and he couldn’t process. “What was going on with your family yesterday?”
* * * *
Caleb had hoped Boyd wouldn’t remember that. “It’s…just them being them.”
A slight edge sharpened Boyd’s tone, the same tone he used on Caleb when they scened.
Dom tone. “That’s not an answer, boy.”
Knowing there was no way Boyd would let this go now, Caleb opted to tell him the short version, the basics, without delving too deeply into the background.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.”
“My family’s homophobic, Sir. It…it is what it is, and I know this about them. It had to come out eventually, because I’m not going to hide who I am anymore. I don’t live there now, and I’m never living there again.”
“What about visiting them for holidays?”
“Frankly? I don’t want to. Especially not now.”
“Are you afraid of your father?”
“Not with, what, a thousand miles between us, no. But I did a damn good job hiding it, or so I thought, when I was living at home. Plus, I won’t be here next weekend when they’re in Florida. Everyone’s a winner,” he tried to joke.
“So youareafraid of him?”
