Cliff watched as the general’s shoulders slumped slightly, the challenge slipping out of his eyes. Cliff pulled open the door and held it, not saying a word as the general left. Then he closed the door and returned to the bedroom, where Dade was under the covers.
“Are you okay?” Cliff asked as he slipped out of his clothes and climbed in next to Dade.
“I don’t know. I mean, I just can’t deal with him right now. What he did was just too much, and I have no idea why. Maybe someday I’ll be able to figure it out, but the only reason I can come up with is that he was trying to exert some kind of control. Like me stepping away from him was a threat, so he had to pull some sort of show of power.” He sighed. “Anyway, I don’t wantto think too much about him. Stick a fork in him—he’s done.” Dade scooted closer, resting his head on Cliff’s shoulder.
Cliff drew him close, and they lay together quietly. “It’s okay. I’m sure your father will come around and realize what he’s lost.”
“Yeah….”
“No, really. After all, it’s you, and that’s pretty special. He’s going to feel the loss and realize what he’s done.” He knew he was trying to be comforting, but he wasn’t sure it was working.
ChapterTen
“Where arewe going?” Dade asked as they approached the gate of the Carlisle Barracks.
“I need to get a change of shoes,” Cliff said as he showed his ID. Dade did as well, and soon they glided down the tree-lined streets past the headquarters and the Post Exchange to the base housing. Dade had been here before, of course, but they didn’t spend much time on the base. He always felt it was in part because that was where Cliff lived and worked, and Dade’s place was an escape. He also figured Cliff wanted to remind him of the army as little as possible.
“Can I ask something? Doesn’t the XO position come with a bigger apartment?” Living quarters were assigned by need and by rank.
“It does. But a family was moving in about the same time I was relocating, and I told the quartermaster to assign them the larger accommodation. It’s just me, and I don’t need much space.”
Dade took his hand and kissed it lightly. Cliff was a good person, and he was coming to realize just how lucky he was to have him in his life.
“Look,” Dade said with a smile as flakes of snow drifted in the air. Like a switch had been thrown, it began snowing harder, the breeze blowing the flakes everywhere.
“It’s really pretty.” The snow continued for a few minutes and then slowed just as he reached his parking spot. Cliff pulled in, and Dade got out and followed Cliff inside. The furniture was nothing special, sort of military utilitarian, as was the rest of the apartment. The only real character came from the pictures on the walls and the few sitting on the tables. It always felt like Cliffcould pack his life in four boxes and be ready to go in less than an hour. But there were differences from the last time. On the table beside the sofa was a framed selfie Cliff had taken of them when they’d gone hiking up at the dam. He looked things over as Cliff went to the bedroom and then returned.
Dade sat down, and Cliff sat next to him. “Are we ready to go?”
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “Look. I got a call at the office from your mother yesterday.”
Dade nodded. He should have expected something from her. She was always the peacemaker, and it bothered her when he and his father fought. “What does she want? I’m not ready to forgive my father. I know it’s been two weeks, but what he did….” He had never thought of his father as homophobic, but maybe he just couldn’t stand to see Dade happy with another man. Cliff had said that the transfer paperwork looked completely legit, but the signature was nothing more than an unidentifiable squiggle.
“He’s your father, and from what I understand, your mother has not made this time a piece of cake for him. I can just imagine your mother when she’s on a tear.”
“So let me guess. They’re coming here to talk to me.”
“Your mom asked if you all could meet here. On neutral ground, so to speak. I don’t know what’s going to come out of it, and if you don’t want to stay, then I’ll message her and tell her not to come.”
Dade leaned against Cliff. “I love that you want to try to help, but I don’t know if I’m ready to take him on again. Everything is such a fight with him, because if I don’t, he’ll steamroll over me. But I suppose if he has something to say, then I can hear him out.” He tensed, and Cliff put his arm around his shoulders and held him.
“Making peace with him, at least on some level, is going to make you less stressed.” He met Cliff’s gaze and knew he was right, dammit.
“When will they be here?”
Cliff checked his phone. “About ten minutes.”
Dade huffed and figured he might as well get this over with. “If I want to go…?”
“Then we go. I know I helped set this up. But you’re still the one in control. When you say we leave, then you and I will usher them out, lock the door, and get in my truck to go to lunch. It’s that simple.” Cliff lightly touched his chin. “I’ve felt the tension rolling off you for days.”
“I know. But I’m still so angry with him.” Dade shifted on the sofa so he faced Cliff. “I know that you’re going to be transferred someday, and that I’m going to have a choice—be heartbroken if I let you leave without me or go with you. And that was a choice I was willing to make when the time came. Actually, it was a decision that I had hoped would make itself, between the two of us. But my father doesn’t get to step in and make that choice for me, like he always tries to do.” He felt the tension he thought he had under control boiling up again. So maybe Cliff was right, and he needed to talk to his father and have this out so he could let it go.
A knock on the door made him jump slightly. Cliff slipped away and opened the door. Dade stood and greeted his mother with a hug before stepping back as his father came inside. He didn’t hug or even shake his hand. Instead, he held his gaze and refused to take a step back.
“Knock it off,” his mom told his father. “Stop these power games. It’s what got you in the doghouse in the first place.” She glared at his father, and he lowered his gaze. “You two need to talk, and you….” She tapped his father on the shoulder. “Need to get it through your head that Dade is his own man.”
“That’s all I ever wanted.”
