Faith just nodded. "Yeah. She said it's his fault for dumping me on her."
"I see." Yep, I made a note of that. "So why do you live with her and not him?"
Faith shrugged again. "I wish I could. Dad said he'd be ok with it, but he wasn't sure if Mr. Simmons would like it much. And he said we'd have to go back to talk to a judge about it before I could just move."
"Yeah. That's the downside of being grown up," I explained. "All the rules. Why do you want to live with Luke instead of your mom, though? I mean, is she just too busy?"
"She doesn't listen to me," Faith said.
"About what?" I asked. "Gimme an example."
"Well, like when I said I didn't want her to marry Brody. He's weird."
"Weird how?"
"Like, how he acts." She groaned. "I dunno. He just stares at me all the time like I'm some kind of freak. And when I came back after Violet gave me a makeover? Like, before you were here. He kept trying to play with my hair. It's weird! Ashton's a fag and he's not that weird about it."
I grunted out a sound that didn't quite make a word. "Ok, why do you think Ashton's gay?"
"Because that's what Mom said. He makes panties so he has to be a fag."
So much to unpack with that. Giving myself a second, I made a little note in her records, but my mind was spinning. "Did you know that fag is a pretty rude word?"
"No," she admitted. "Isn't that what you call men who are with other men?"
"Gay," I corrected. "But there are a lot more options." I felt like I'd been saying that a lot lately. I was also starting to realize why Violet hated this town so much. "Human sexuality is complicated and not easily defined. Some men like mostly women but a few special guys. Sometimes they like all the guys and a few special women, and more in between. Whether you think there's something wrong with it or not is up to you, but it still happens."
"I like Ashton," she said. "He's kinda funny. I just don't tell Mom when I talk to him because she would fa-reak out." She pulled out the word to make her point.
I chuckled at that. "Do you think Brody might be gay or bisexual?"
"Um..." She scrunched up her face and thought about it. "Would he be with my mom if he was?"
"If he was bisexual, maybe," I said. "Means he likes both." Mostly, I just wanted to get her talking about her stepdad again.
"I think he hates it too much, so he couldn't be. And Mom would never be with a man like that. It's a sin, you know. That's what she says. People like that are going to hell."
The girl was a little too good at blocking me. Time to redirect. "So you believe in God?"
She nodded. "I was baptized when I was little. Go to church every Sunday."
"You like it, though?"
That made her sigh. "It's kinda boring, and I hate getting up early on a Sunday. But it's nice because I always see Dad."
Which explained why Luke was so obsessive about going to church. I hadn't seen him as the religious type - at least not overly - but he also didn't seem the kind to miss a Sunday service. It was because he wanted to see his daughter. I mentally put another mark in his box.
"Your Mom go? Stepdad?"
"Both," she said. "But Brody always wants to sit beside me. He does this thing where he drapes his arm over the back of the chair behind me, you know? Then I can't lean back. And if I kick my legs, he always makes me stop."
"How?" I asked, feeling the hairs lifting on the back of my neck.
She mimed pressing her hand on her own thigh, but it was high. Much closer to her hip than her knee. "Right there?" I asked. "Just like that?"
She nodded. "Sometimes he squeezes."
"Faith, this is one of those questions I have to ask, and it always sounds bad. Does he ever do anything inappropriate with you? Touch you too much or in places he shouldn't?"
