Chapter Eighteen
LIAM BROUGHTa Sleep Sheep to the baby shower. He’d bought it the night before on the recommendation of a couple mothers at work, gotten it gift wrapped at the store, and written something carefully neutral on the card. That night, after tossing and turning for several hours, struggling to get some rest, trying not to think about who he was going to see the next day andhow it all would go, he’d ripped through the paper, yanked the damn sheep out of its box, and cycled through the sounds. The heartbeat and whales were creepy, the surf made him restless, but the rain? Hell, yeah. That rain hit the spot.
Which meant, of course, that he had to make another run to the baby store in order to pick up a new Sleep Sheep the next morning. He was helped by the same clerkas the day before, and he had to resist the urge to make up excuses for why he was becoming some sort of Sleep Sheep shepherd. His shopping decisions were none of the clerk’s business.
Just like Ben’s life was none of Liam’s.
Just like it hasn’t been for the last fifteen years, he reminded himself.No reason to start getting worked up about it now. After all, he’d been the one to try to convinceCalvin about the different mores of gay relationships. He knew perfectly well, in theory and in practice, that it was possible to have sex,goodsex, with someone you didn’t really care about. So why the hell was he acting as if he and Ben had made some sort of commitment to each other just because they’d fucked?
He drove into North Falls without being able to answer that question. The closesthe could get was “wishful thinking.” He’d wanted it to mean more. He’d wanted—well, he wasn’t completely sure what he’d wanted. But he definitely hadn’t been dreaming of a day when he’d walk into a damn baby shower and see Ben with his new boyfriend. Old boyfriend. Whatever. Except—what the fuck? That asshole got a second chance, but Liam didn’t?
Possibly that asshole hadn’t cheated on Ben andthen waited a decade and a half to try to make amends.
He’d found parking well down the block from Calvin’s house. Considering that many of the guests probably lived in town and would have walked, the number of cars suggested a serious shindig. Not that Liam would expect anything less from Calvin, but his limited experience with baby showers suggested that they tended to be more intimate affairs.
He was glad he’d gotten a gift receipt for the damn Sleep Sheep, because with this many guests there were bound to be some duplicate presents.
Yeah, that’s what he was going to worry about. That would be his dominant thought walking into this party.
Damn, I sure hope nobody else bought a Sleep Sheep. Or at least I hope my sheep is the first one to get opened so I’m not the loser who has to sitthere and watch them open a present somebody else already gave them. Yeah, this Sleep Sheep thing is a real issue. I am really, really concerned about the Sleep Sheep. Nothing else. Just the sheep.
“Liam!” a jovial voice called as he approached the house. Calvin was in the doorway wearing a long, flowing shirt with some sort of characters embroidered around the hem. Ragged jeans underneath, butthe shirt was festive enough to count as dressed up, at least for Uncle Calvin. And he seemed genuinely pleased to see Liam, although of course that could all be an act. Pleased that mayhem was about to erupt at his event, possibly.
Still, Liam’s smile felt pretty natural. He held up his gift box. “Have you seen anything else this size and shape? If you have, I think we need to hide the othersuntil after mine is unwrapped. That’s totally normal, right?”
“You’re the third person who’s asked,” Calvin agreed seriously. He squinted at the box. “Football?” he guessed.
“Do babies enjoy football, generally?”
“Babies don’t give a shit. Well, no, let me correct myself—that’s aboutallbabies do. So you might as well get them something that’ll be useful down the line.” He stood back fromthe door and gestured Liam inside. “I bought it a little cask of scotch. Seth and Dinah can stash it away somewhere—if they don’t get desperate and drink it themselves—and the kid can crack it open when he or she turns sixteen.”
“Uh, twenty-one, technically.”
“Technically,” Calvin agreed.
“Wait. Did you honestly buy the baby a cask of scotch?”
“Scotch doesn’t age in the bottle, so it had tobe a cask for there to be any meaning to the gift.”
“You’re focusing on the ‘cask’ part. I admit, I was distracted by the ‘scotch.’ For a baby.” Liam shook his head. “I can’t decide if that’s the best baby gift I’ve ever heard of or the worst.”
“That was just the effect I was trying for.” They were in the kitchen then, and Calvin waved an arm in roughly the direction of the fridge. “Beer inthere. Wine and hard stuff out on the deck. Snacks out there too.”
Liam peeked through the kitchen window and almost recoiled at the sight. The yard was jam-packed with people. There were yellow and white ribbons and sashes and huge paper flowers hanging from every tree, several oversized, inflatable animals that might have been Disney, might have been knockoffs…. “You went all out,” he managed.
“Seth’s family’s been in the area since settler days, and Dinah’s a teacher—everyone loves teachers, as long as they’re cute and sweet, which Dinah is. This party is the social event of the season.”
Cute and sweet. Sure, Liam loved cute, sweet teachers. Surly, emotionally withdrawn teachers? Were they popular with everyone too, or was Liam special that way?
He reached into the fridge and pulledout a beer, then looked over at Calvin and got the nod that made him grab another. He twisted the lids off, held one of the bottles out to his host, and said, “I called Ben and asked if it was okay that I came.”
Calvin nodded. “He told me. You’re a spoilsport for ruining the surprise. I didn’t get to see the cop car incident—I was hoping to getsomefun out of this.”
Which was kind of why Liamhad brought the topic up. “If you’re just looking for entertainment? If I’m only here because you want to torture Ben? I know you don’t owe me anything, but we both care about Ben, so for his sake—”
“Kevin!” Calvin said brightly, looking somewhere over Liam’s shoulder. “Excellent timing! I don’t think you’ve met Liam, have you? He and Seth and Ben all grew up together. Liam, this is Kevin—he’sBen’s date.”
Liam turned reluctantly and found himself staring at an empty doorway. “Where’d he—” he started, but one look at Calvin made it clear there had never been anyone to be introduced to. “I guess it’s too much to hope that Kevin is imaginaryallthe time? Like, Ben’s not actually dating anyone?”
