She nodded slowly. "Yeah, so I asked him if he liked boys. I have never seen my son cry like that. He was so sure that I was going to hate him too, and he said he didn't want to be like this, and he didn't want to live like this. Now, you don't have kids, but that's every mother's worst nightmare. I madedamnedsure he knew that I will love him no matter what, and I got him a bracelet to prove that I'm proud of him. He never takes it off. Thing is, after he visited here?"
"Cy and Ash may have kissed in front of him," I admitted, guessing where she was going. "They also may have planned it so he'd know it was ok to be open about it."
She turned back to the door and started scrubbing again. "That whole night, he told me about it. About how it's ok that they're boyfriends, and that Ash is so cute." She laughed once. "He said you were extra cool to him, whatever that means. All I know is that my boy smiled like I haven't seen in far too long."
I leaned in to press my shoulder against hers, since both of our hands were filthy. "He did the same for Faith, you know. She was cutting, and he told me that he'll let me know if she starts again."
Emily just licked her lips and her body stilled a little. "He, um, also told me something else."
"About the court case?" I asked.
"Yes and no," she admitted. "He said that Faith told him you're dating all three of those guys, and they're all dating each other. On the way over, I got a lecture about poly-something, and that it's like a couple but with more people."
"Yeah..." I wasn't sure how to respond to that. She didn't sound angry. Emily just sounded like she was giving me the chance to explain things myself. I just hoped I wasn't about to mess up Faith's only friendship. "Cy and Ash were my best friends growing up. They were dating, but broke up when Ash and I went to Europe to model. Luke was my middle school crush. When I moved back here, I started dating Luke, and things got complicated."
"Because Luke's bisexual?" Emily asked, sounding nothing but concerned.
"Because of Brody," I clarified. "Well, the whole town told Luke that we'd try to do something horrible to him, so he broke up with me. Ash and Cy told me they wanted to try a relationship with the three of us. Then Luke showed up a few hours later with Faith and a camera. It was a mess, Emily. Then we just gave up on lines. Cy and Ash are a couple in public. Luke and I are together as far as people care. The reality is that we're all together, and it just works."
"That's an awful lot of dirty underwear to pick up," she pointed out.
A laugh burst from my lips, because that wasnotthe response I'd expected. "Thankfully, they all pick up after themselves." I chuckled again. "Yeah. But does that bother you?"
Emily just lifted her hands. "I had a one-night stand with a cute guy from a bar. I got Zeke from it. Who the hell am I to talk about what works and what doesn't?" She paused again, meeting my eyes. "Zeke also said that Luke got outed in court."
"Pictures of him and Cy making out in the back pasture," I explained. "There was some heavy petting."
The look on her face was almost disgust. "In the pasture? But stickers, and ants, and never mind the chiggers!"
Again, I laughed. This time it was in relief. "They were dressed and fixing something on the tractor. They just got distracted, and, well, boys. Things got hot and heavy, and Meredith's PI got pics from Simmons' property. They put those up on the screen in the courtroom, Emily. Luke had been wanting to tell Faith, but for legal reasons, he had to wait, and then that's how she finds out? He was mortified. Both because there was some dick grabbing, and because he felt like he'd been lying to her."
"Zeke said he explained that to her," Emily promised. "He said he's been talking to her about a lot of stuff because she thought you cheated on Luke, so he told her about poly. Last week, he was scared that she was going to go live with her mom after she said you cheated on Luke, and yeah. He was pretty worried that he might not get to come over, and it sounds like this is the one place where he feels like it's ok to just relax."
"With or without Faith," I assured her. "Make sure he knows that, ok? He can just come hang out and talk to us even if she's with her mom. If you're working..." But I paused. "Emily, what exactly do you do?"
She breathed out a weak laugh. "I clean houses during the day and waitress at a Mexican restaurant in Bonham in the evenings. My day job's why I had this stuff and know how to get the paint off."
"Do you like kids?" I asked. "Not just yours, but other teenagers."
She leaned into the brush, putting a little elbow grease into removing the paint. "In general, yeah. I always wanted to be a mom. I just saw it happening differently. You know, after a wedding, and with a husband to help. That's why I kept him, you know? I thought about adoption or abortion, but I wanted to be a mom, so I decided that I'd find a way to make it work."
"Are you going to let Zeke come to school at Southwind when it's open?" I asked.
"Yes." She leaned back and used her forearm to wipe her brow. "Violet, when Zeke said it was a possibility, I told him that even if I have to get a third job to pay for that, I'd make it happen. A place where he won't get in trouble for being gay? Where teachers will stand up for him and actually stop the bullying?"
"With criminals," I reminded her.
She rolled her eyes. "Like you? Like the people here?"
"I was never a criminal, actually," I admitted. "My mom just wasn't mentally stable. She hated Gran for leaving my grandfather for a woman. So, I got dumped here, she got herself in enough trouble to end up in a mental hospital, and my dad's in jail. Ash and Cy were criminals. So were Cessily and Darnell. Luke stayed here because he was a teen dad and needed help."
"And yet all of you are living the kind of lives we hope our kids get," she pointed out. "I have a feeling that being a criminal is more about fighting back and less about being bad."
"That's what we think," I admitted. "We don't judge someone for how they treat their enemies, just their friends."
"Which is why I think this place would be good for Zeke. It'll also keep him with his best friend, and I think that matters a lot at their age. Friendships are how they learn to value themselves."
I dropped the steel wool back in the bucket, knowing I was jumping the gun by a lot, but I just couldn't help myself. "Emily, would you let me run a background check on you?"
