Shep shook his head. “Nothing.”
“It’s not nothing, Jaynie.” To Elijah, she said, “My son knows you just lied to us, but he didn’t want to say so in front of me, in case I hadn’t caught it. Which I did.” Elijah’s cheeks flushed, but he didn’t deny it. Molly leaned in giving a half-smile. “So which part of your statement was the lie?”
He wanted to tell her the truth. He wanted to tell the world the truth, but that wasn’t possible. Could he trust Dr. Molly Shepherd? He licked his lower lip. “Are you asking as Shep’s mother or as his doctor?”
She had no problem grasping his meaning. “Nothing you say to me will ever leave this room.”
He believed her. He did. But he still had to force the words past his lips. It felt shameful. “I outed myself.”
Shep’s gaze snapped towards him. “You did?”
He gave a half-nod. “I don’t know why I did it. I staged the whole thing. I paid off my co-star, sent the tape to TMZ and just waited for the day to arrive. I wasn’t expecting to be on the red carpet when it went live and I didn’t expect the homophobe with the concrete slushie,” he winced, remembering the sharp sting of ice and rock. “Some part of me hoped it would end my career, I guess. Another part was just tired of hiding who I was all the time.”
“And instead of ending your career, your team just created a steady boyfriend for you. Did they think that would make your being gay more palatable to the masses?”
“My mother lives for crisis situations, loves putting a spin on things. She hates that the world knows I’m gay, but she loves that the world thinks I bagged the most family-friendly gay in Hollywood,” Elijah managed, his voice bitter to his own ears. “Is this really important? Do we have to talk about this?”
She interlocked her fingers, giving Elijah a long, hard look before turning on her son. “Is it important? Does it bother you that the world thinks he’s dating another man?”
Elijah sagged in relief, grateful to be off the hot seat, at least momentarily. Shep looked to Elijah and then shook his head. “No. Elijah knows he’s mine. That’s all that matters.”
Elijah flushed but smiled despite himself. Shep’s mother didn’t seem to find the bold statement as sweet as Elijah did. Her face grew tense as she turned her attention back Elijah’s way. “Does it alarm you at all that my son seems to have claimed you as his own?”
He didn’t have to think about it. “No. He’s mine too. It’s not one-sided.”
“I doubt you’d go to the same lengths as my son to protect what you consider yours.”
That ruffled Elijah’s feathers. His jaw tightening before he said, “Maybe you just can’t read me as well as you think you can.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think the two of you understand the potential ramifications if this thing goes badly.” She clasped Shep’s hand. “Jaynie, you’ve come so far. You’ve had a life I didn’t dare hope was possible for you when we first realized that you were… different. One slip because of this boy and it could all be for nothing. All our hard work… for nothing.”
Elijah’s heart seemed to shrivel in its chest but he remained silent.
Shep shook his head. “If I slip, it won’t have been for nothing. Elijah’s not nothing.”
“Will you still feel that way if Elijah’s the one hurt in the fallout?”
Shep’s nostrils flared, his fists white-knuckled on the table. “I would never hurt him. Ever.”
“Not intentionally, but when people are impulsive, others are often caught in the crossfire.”
Shep’s voice sounded wooden as he said, “If there’s anything I learned from you, mom, it's how to control my impulses.”
“Are you saying you wouldn’t inflict harm to defend Elijah?”
“No. I’m saying if I did, it wouldn’t be impulsive.”
Elijah’s eyes went wide, and he fought to keep the smile off of his face. It probably wasn’t wise to smile and gaze dreamily at the man who said he’d hurt somebody in your name, especially not in front of his shrink mom. But even so, inside his heart was doing somersaults.
Molly was silent for a long while, before Elijah watched her come to some kind of epiphany, her face so expressive a cartoon light bulb might as well have turned on over her head. She studiedher son. “Are you two sexually active?” she asked.
Elijah was certain somebody had just sucked all the air from the room. “What?” he wheezed.
“Sex. Are you having it?” she asked, all traces of maternal concern gone, leaving only the shrewd narrowed gaze of a scientist.
“Depends on your definition of sex, I suppose,” Elijah muttered, his face bright red.
She raised both brows, her lips flattening into a straight line. “I define it as an intimate act that usually ends in one or both people orgasming.” She looked at Shep. “Well?”
