“You brought out naked baby photos and showed them to my prom date.”
Joel grabbed the phone from me. “Mrs. Silver, if you have any naked baby photos of Tristan lying around, I would love to see them.”
I couldn’t hear her reply, but Joel held out the phone and took a selfie, sending it to my mother before I could stop him. He handed me back my phone with a grin.
“That’s what he looks like first thing in the morning?” Mom crowed. “Well done, son.”
“Mom, I don’t have time for this. I hafta let the organizer know I’ll be there before the ceremony.”
“Dad already took care of that, Tris. We’re on the way.”
Fifteen minutes later, my mom, dad, and sister pulled up, all decked out for a Texas graduation ceremony. My mother was a classic blonde, blue-eyed Texas beauty, and she had a love affair with hot curlers and hair spray that no one could come between.
“Here, Tris,” she said, pushing a hanging bag into my hands. “There’s clean underwear in there, too. No telling what you two got up to last night.”
Dad snorted as Mom moved on, giving Joel one of her big, effusive hugs. Dad was a silver fox, and more than one of my queer friends had asked me to put in a good word should my mother ever meet a tragic ending.
I made sure Mom never knew about those offers, if only to keep her out of jail and my friends out of the hospital.
“There’s no fighting it, son.”
“I know, Dad,” I said, racing back into Joel’s house. “I don’t even try.”
By the time I made it downstairs in my gown, Joel had charmed my entire family, even my hates-the-world sister. He quickly made his way over to me.
“Hey, handsome,” he said, setting the cap on my head. Leaning in, he whispered, “Your mom has an extra ticket to the commencement and asked if I wanted to come along. What’s the protocol here?”
I raised my brow at my mother, who patted her hair and acted like she hadn’t planned to invite him all along. Dad and I exchanged a glance.
I grabbed Joel’s hand. “Guess you’re coming to my graduation.”
* * *
The commencement coordinator wasn’t too thrilled when I walked up ten minutes before the event started. Still, she gestured to my place in line and pasted on a smile when I walked across the stage.
As I scanned the crowd, I picked out my dad’s whistle from the back of the auditorium. When I spotted my family, Joel was standing between my mom and dad, beaming with pride.
After the ceremony, Mom insisted that Joel join us for dinner. She’d put on my favorite meal—fried catfish and slow-cooked green beans with bacon.
“You’ve been a really good sport,” I said, taking off my graduation cap as I climbed into Joel’s pretty F-150. “You shouldn’t have had to do the whole meet-the-parents thing for a while.”
He reached across the bench and pulled me in for the sweetest kiss. “You’re the luckiest son of a bitch, you know that, right?”
I watched in the rearview mirror as Mom, Dad, and Jasmine piled into the old Dodge Caravan and headed out. “I really am.”
Grinning like idiots, we took off and made our way to Highway 123. I gazed at Joel’s profile as he flew down the old four-lane, my heart thumping wildly in my chest.He shifted uncomfortably, and my eyes drifted to the bulge in his jeans.Me too, buddy.
Sensing my stare, he glanced over at me. “What?” he asked, grabbing for my hand.
“I just—”
Oh, fuck it.
I reached across, unzipping his jeans.
“Tris?”
Grinning, I scooped out his half-hard cock and leaned down, taking it to the back of my throat.
