“Congratulations, then.” The smile that broke out on Mark’s face made Liam exhale a massive sigh of relief. “Wonderful news.”
They hugged, getting dishwater stains on each other’s clothes but not caring in the slightest.
“I know it’s a surprise,” Liam said.
“It’s not.”
“It’s not?”
“I could tell something was percolating with you and Nathan.”
“You could?” Liam felt his ears get red. Maybe they weren’t as careful as he thought.
“I’ve noticed how you look at him, like you’re constantly pinching yourself that you get to spend time with this person. I don’t care what gender the person is who’s able to make you feel that way. I haven’t seen you this happy in a long time.”
“Since Kelly?”
Mark flicked a stray soap bubble off Liam’s beard. “Happier.”
Chapter 20
Nathan
At three the next morning, two ewes went into labor at the same time. It was almost as if they were competing with each other for who could have the loudest, most painful delivery. Liam even shushed the ewes at one point, worried they would wake up his family. Nathan had gotten over any kind of squeamishness he might have had about the lambing process. The ewe this morning had one breech birth, and Nathan didn’t blink when it came time to turn the lamb around inside the uterus.
After the early morning births, he and Liam took turns napping during the day. He didn’t know how Liam was able to handle lambing season on his own last year. Nathan watched him sleep peacefully, sprawled out cold against a bale of hay, his chest rising and falling with breath. He would have moments like these on the farm, times when he caught himself looking at Liam for no reason and feeling a pang of tenderness in his chest at whatever he saw. It wasn’t as if Liam was bent over or shirtless, although those were wonderful moments, too. Liam would be writing out a grocery list at the kitchen table or giving one of the lambs a checkup and Nathan would feel a bolt of heat feeling rush through him. And then when Liam would look up and cock an eyebrow at him? Damn.
Rather than question them, he savored these moments, even though they were followed by his brain reminding him that this connection was built on lies. It was like the housing development inPoltergeistthat was built on a Native American burial ground. That did not end well.
Later in the afternoon, post-nap and post-impromptu literal roll in the hay with Liam, Nathan headed over to the house to run lines with Franny and give her notes on her performance. Each time they met, he had less feedback for her. She was taking to acting like a fish to water, turning the living room into the Globe Theater. Nathan couldn’t help but think that her talent was genetic. It was something else that connected them.
“You want to be serious when you say this line. It’ll get a big laugh,” Nathan said. “You don’t want to hint that you’re in on the joke at all. That takes away from the humor. I need to believe that you are convinced that you will marry the prince. Make me believe, Franny.”
Franny nodded with her big eyes taking in every syllable of feedback.
“I can’t believe I’m being coached by a real, professional actor. When will we get to see you on the big screen?”
“It takes forever for movies to get released. They have to edit, put in sound effects, dub in any muddled dialogue, and then the studio decides when the most advantageous time to release it will be, which could be a year or two from now. And my part might get cut completely.”
“Like Coco the housekeeper inThe Golden Girls.”
“Precisely. Where did he go after the first episode?” Nathan shrugged. “It’s the nature of show business.”
“My mum once told me about how she was an understudy in a production ofMy Fair Lady, and when Eliza got sick the day before opening night, Mum had to take her place, and she received such great notices that they kept her in the part.”
Our mum was a total badass,he thought.
“I think she even has the reviews clipped out in one of her scrapbooks.”
“She kept a scrapbook? That’s adorable,” Nathan said. He had started one for his early performances, but his stepmum threw it out during one of her spring cleaning purges. The only thing she hated more than tasteful décor was clutter.
“Not a scrapbook. Several. Mum was a complete pack rat. She saved everything.” Franny laughed to herself. Nathan gave a stage laugh while other thoughts circulated in his mind.
Mariel kept everything. Including the photograph from the Oasis concert.Who kept a random picture of a random mate she shagged at a random concert? If she was such a packrat, Nathan wondered what else she kept from that time in her life.
“Did she save receipts going back ten years and craziness like that?”
“Probably. There’s so much junk in the basement. We tried keeping it in the attic, but Dad was afraid the ceiling would cave in.”
