“Charma!Finally!I thought you were dead.”
He rolled his eyes.“I’m pretty sure you knew I wasn’t dead.”After all, he’d been declining the calls, not letting them just go to voice mail.
“Well, you could have been for all I knew.You never call.”
He sighed, not trying to cover it.“Mom…” This was why he didn’t talk to her.
“Well, you don’t.”
“No, because I know what you’re going to say.”
“You do not!”
“No?You’re not going to tell me about some girl I’ve never met before who you’re sure I would like enough to have babies with?”
“Not today, no.”
“Oh.”Okay, that was a surprise.And at least she hadn’t denied that that was what she usually wanted to talk to him about.“Okay.So what are you calling about?Everyone is okay, aren’t they?”Oh goddess, what if someone in the family was sick and he’d been ignoring her calls?
“Sandra saw you at the beach the other day.She said you were holding hands with a boy.”
“You know I’m gay, Mom.”The lack of incoming grandchildren was why they’d fought in the first place.
“Pshaw—of course I know you’re gay.But if you’ve got a boyfriend, why wouldn’t you tell me?”
“To be honest, I didn’t want another lecture on contributing to the family gene pool.”
“I wouldn’t do that if you have a boyfriend.”
“What?”Why would him proving he was gay instead of just saying it make a difference?
“It was one thing when you didn’t have anyone special.There was no reason for you not to help bring babies into the world.But if you have a partner, I would never ask you to be unfaithful to them, even just for procreation’s sake.”
Well, that was an odd line to draw, but he was just going to accept that she’d drawn it and was going to drop the subject now that he was with someone because if he was being honest with himself, he missed his family.A whole lot.Thanks to Darcy, he wasn’t lonely anymore, but the compound was full of people who loved him, and who he loved, and he missed them.He missed the big weekly dinners and the way there was always someone to talk to.The boisterousness of it all.
“Well, then.I have a boyfriend, Mom.”
“Is it serious?”
“We moved in together.”
“You moved in together and you never told me!”Now she sounded shocked.
“Yes.”
“How long has this been going on?”
“We’ve been living together a little over a week.”She didn’t need to know that he and Darcy had only met just a couple days before he moved in…
“Still, it sounds like news you’d like to share with your family.”
“It is news I’d like to share with you, Mom, I just didn’t know about the whole ‘won’t hassle you about grandchildren if you have a partner’ thing, and the last thing I wanted was that particular lecture with Darcy right next to me.”
“His name is Darcy, is it?”
“That’s right.”
“And…”
