Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Colby popped three french fries into his mouth. “Did it freak you out?”
“Not really, but I was young and had no concept of the world. Plus, I think it was easier because August left, so I just went on like I’d been before. I didn’t do anything else with a guy until I was twenty. I was attracted to them, of course, but I just…wasn’t ready or wasn’t sure. But I sure as shit enjoyed myself with him.”
Colby chuckled, gaze still anywhere but on Clint.
“You ever want to talk about anything, I’m here,” he said when Colby remained quiet.
“Yup. So like I was saying, the goats…”
Colby spoke, and Clint listened. Every once in a while, he’d look over at August and his son.
CHAPTER THREE
August
“Are you gonna hang out with that guy?” Reese asked after they’d ordered their dinner.
August still couldn’t believe Clint was across the restaurant from him. Of course he’d known it was a possibility that Clint still lived in Harmony, which meant they would run into each other at some point, but that was in the abstract. This was real.
He’d had a lot of friends in his life. Once he came into himself a little more, he didn’t struggle to make them or with getting teased the way he had in elementary and middle school, yet he’d never felt with anyone that instant connection he had with Clint. He hadn’t felt the same bond, which he couldn’t really explain. Maybe it was because Clint had been the kind of guy to befriend him when others wouldn’t?
“Dad?” Reese prompted, making August remember that his son had asked him a question.
“Yeah, I’d like to. Clint was my friend. It would be nice to reconnect with an old buddy.”
“Is he gay?”
Well, he sure as shit hadn’t expected that question, though maybe he should have. “I’m not sure how he identifies.” Which was true. “But whether or not he is doesn’t matter. Queer men can be friends with nothing sexual between them. It’s a bit of a stereotype. You know better than that.” Reese had grown up surrounded by queer and straight people alike. They had both as friends, but he and Lewis had had a large group of LGBTQ friends.
“I didn’t mean… I just… Whatever.”
His favorite word. Everything was whatever.
“I’m not looking to date right now, Reese. But at some point, it might happen, whether it’s what I planned or not. I know that’s difficult. It makes things feel more concrete, but this is our reality now, and we have to deal with it and live our lives the best way we can.” Lewis had dated in the two years since their separation. August hadn’t. Lewis currently had a boyfriend. The rules seemed to be different for Lewis.
“Because you asked for a divorce,” Reese snapped, and August sighed.
“Because we weren’t happy. We fought all the time. We weren’t in love anymore, and your father agreed with me. Pop didn’t want to stay in the marriage any more than I did. I know it’s hard to accept—”
“You didn’t have to move me so far away that I won’t get to see him.”
Lewis hadn’t been seeing Reese all that often when they were still in Orlando. It was the truth, but he would never remind his son of that. “I’m trying here, Reese. I wish I had some way to always know what’s best, what the right thing to do is, but I don’t. All I can do is try.”
Reese looked down, picked at the black nail polish he wore. He wasn’t the kind of kid who subscribed to one style or who had a specific group he fit into. He liked black nail polish, but he wasn’t what the kids called emo. He loved art and graffiti, the second having gotten him into trouble more than once. But he also used to play sports, starting when he was five, which had always been his and Lewis’s thing. Not that August wasn’t supportive. He sat his ass at every game and carpooled back and forth to practices, but he hadn’t enjoyed sports outside of watching Reese. Lewis and their son both had. He’d stopped playing after the divorce, though, and anytime August tried to talk to him about it, Reese just said he wasn’t interested in sports anymore.
“Pop is,” Reese said softly, without making eye contact with August.
“Pop is what?”
“Dating. I mean, he has a boyfriend, one who’s moving in with him.”
August knew Lewis was dating Zachary, but not that they were planning on living together. He waited to see if a stab of anything hit him—jealousy, a sense of loss—but it didn’t, not when it came to him and Lewis, but it did for Reese. “Did Pop tell you that on the phone?”
“Yeah. He’s moving in this weekend, and Pop didn’t want me to see something on Instagram or something.”