Someone clears their throat. When they speak, I recognize Theresa’s voice. “Everything okay in here?”
“Yeah,” Evan says without taking his eyes off me.
She pauses. She’s hesitant when she speaks again, unsure. “Okay, well … come in for dinner when you’re ready. It’s cold out here.”
Evan smiles a little. “Thank you,” he whispers to me as his mom heads into the house.
“What for?”
“Being here.”
“Of course I’m here. It’s where I belong.”
When we go inside, Theresa’s setting up the table in the kitchen and the smell of pizza floats from the oven.
She looks up uncertainly at Evan, then me. “Everything okay?”
Even’s eyes and nose are red from crying. I expect him to bristle. To push her away. Pretend he didn’t break down.
Instead, he steps around me and puts his arms around her. She squeezes him so tightly her knuckles turn white as she grips his shirt. He clears his throat after a minute and she rubs his back before they break away.
“I’m okay, Ma. You okay?”
She wipes her face. “I’m good. Pizza’s almost ready.”
“Good, I’m starving.”
Theresa looks past Evan, giving me a grateful smile.
We’re quiet as we sit down to eat. Evan chewing cautiously, though he’d told his mom he was starving. I know he’s just trying to make her feel better. Stop her from worrying.
“I found the toolbox.”
She looks up. “Oh? Ev, don’t worry about the sink, we’ll-”
“I’ll fix it. Nate’ll help. Right, Nate?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, of course.”
“It was a shit hole in there,” Evan says. “Found all kinds of stuff we should throw out. Decapitated Barbies mostly.”
Theresa laughs. “I wasn’t sure if Stacie would want them or not.”
“No one wants that, Ma.” Evan grins and she visibly relaxes a little.
He goes quiet, running his crust over some tomato sauce on the plate. “Ma, what did Dad think about people being gay?”
As he asks the question, he keeps looking at the plate, squishing the crust harderagainst it.
I watch her, watching him so intensely I think she’s going to burn a hole in the side of his face. “Your father wasn’t homophobic,” she says, her voice somehow both gentle and rock solid. “He wouldn’t have stood for that shit.”
He swallows. She reaches over, puts her hand on one of his.
“Wanna know something else?”
“Hm?”
“Your father loved you. More thananything.And he would be so proud of you, Evan.”
