She smiled around a breath of relief. "It's hard. My parents told me to pray for him. My sister sent me links to conversion therapy, but fuck that." She paused, her eyes going wide. "Sorry."
"We don't have filters either," Cy assured her.
Emily sighed again. "Well, I'm not ashamed of my son. I'm also pretty sure he told me by accident, but it worked out. The hard part is knowing how hard it's going to be for him."
"He can call either of us at any time," Ash offered. "Trust me, you're helping more than you know. Like I told Zeke, my mom said I was going to hell. Cy's dad chased him out of the house. That just meant we had to fumble through all of it on our own. Well, Gran helped, but only when I got old enough and brave enough to admit it. By then she already knew."
"Vera," I clarified. "She ran Southwind. Those two went to school there, and she was Violet's grandmother, but everyone who went through the program calls her Gran."
"Because she wanted us to still have family," Violet explained. "And these two were the bad boys I hung out with. I made it clear to Zeke that we won't judge him on how he treats his enemies, just his friends."
"Well, I appreciate it more than you know. He's been asking to go over again. Said something about spending the night, but I don't know about that."
I just chuckled. "Emily, he doesn't want to kiss my daughter. We do have guest rooms too, if that makes you feel better. I can make them hang out in the living room and sleep in separate rooms, but I'm honestly not worried about it. He's just one of the girls, I guess you could say."
"Are you sure?" she asked. "Luke, you've been so helpful, and I don't want you to do this because you feel sorry for us."
"Understand is a better word," I assured her. "I was right where you are until Cy hired me at Southwind. I also fixed your door because I was worried about you two getting locked in there if something catches on fire. Not a conversation I want to have with Faith, and doorknobs are easy."
"Thank you," she said, reaching up to clasp my arm. "I also heard that Meredith said they can't hang out."
I groaned. "Yeah, the joys of co-parenting. Meredith only knows that he's gotten in some trouble at school, and she's worried he's going to drag Faith into it."
"And you're not?" Emily asked.
Yeah, that wasn't easy to answer. I still wanted to try, but I had a feeling it might not make sense to her. "Zeke's a good guy, Emily. He knows he's stronger than Faith. He knows she has to be careful so she can stay with me. He took that punch in that fight for her. Not because he has a crush on her, but because he's the strong one and she's the happy one. I think they're good for each other. I think Zeke can teach Faith how to survive her bullies, and if it wasn't for this custody case, I'd have no problems with my little girl getting in a little trouble to protect herself. I think that sometimes hitting really is the right answer, and Zeke seems to know the line."
"Well, then I might beg you to deal with him after school a few more times," she said. "He's still going on about how you taught him to change the doorknob, and how he put the new one on that you sent. Thank you. I'll pay you back for it."
I waved it off. "A friend of mine said that favors should be paid forward. Help someone else just because you can and we'll be even."
Which was when the kids came trotting back. She rounded up Zeke, but the boy broke away to give Faith a hug, and then we all headed back home. The whole time, Faith was chattering about her weekend with her mom, which sounded mostly like a weekend with her grandparents. Evidently Meredith worked on Saturday afternoon, but Faith's grandfather took her fishing out at their pond. Then Faith helped cook dinner, and she was explaining all about how she made gravy.
In other words, it was a good weekend. Her only complaint was that when Meredith caught her texting Zeke, she'd taken her phone away. Faith had just pulled out her tablet and kept going, and she wasn't even ashamed of skirting the rules. I told her she needed to listen to her mother's rules when she was with her, but the little brat rolled her eyes. Clearly, she had no intention of that.
And for most of the day, everything was fine. I had to remind myself that I couldn't just kiss the guys when they walked past, and there may have been a few smiles we all shared, but overall, it was a nice ending to the weekend. At least until I went up to make sure Faith was going to bed and found her trying on her new clothes.
She was wearing a skirt that was barely long enough to hide her panties. It was tight and black. Her face was covered in makeup, her eyes were ringed in black, and her lips were the kind of red that no girl in middle school should ever wear. I stopped in my tracks.
"Where did you get that?" I asked, thinking she must've raided Violet's room.
My daughter just huffed at me and lifted her chin. "Mom says I can wear it because I'm a woman now."
"No," I told her. "You go wash your face, and that skirt is staying in your closet until you are sixteen."
"Dad!" she huffed.
"I'm serious, Faith. What did Violet tell you about makeup? I agreed because you proved to me that you could do a little. That? It's a lot, and you are thirteen years old!"
"But this is what the other girls wear," she whined.
"I do not care," I said, stepping the rest of the way into the room. "Where's the lipstick?" And I held out my hand, making it clear she needed to pass it over.
"Mom got it for me!" she screamed back.
I just bounced my hand at her, making it clear I wouldn't budge. "Be glad I'm not asking for the eyeliner too. Lipstick, Faith, and you will not walk out of this house in the morning wearing revealing clothes. Don't even think about hiding it."
"You just don't like that Mom bought me stuff," she said. "I don't always have to be the good girl, Dad. Zeke wears eyeliner like this!"
