The living room got quiet. Linc’s heart tried to thump out of his chest, and the pancake turned to glue in his throat. Lacey watched him steadily, and he knew what she was doing. He hadn’t told her about Avery the night before. He’d only shared that night in Raleigh. But no doubt she still didn’t trust him to tell Lilah, and he couldn’t fault her for it.
But his dad was here, and awake now, and Lacey’s boys too. Was this how he wanted them to think of him? Was coming out the impression he wanted to leave his nephews with on his first visit?
Avery’s trusting face swam up from his memory. His wide-eyed enthusiasm, his careful hesitation when he knew he was being a geek or talking too fast but didn’t know how to stop.
Linc had promised to be publicly his the night before, but they’d missed that opportunity. He hoped Avery had understood. Hewould. Avery was so dedicated to his own family. He’d get why Linc had needed to leave.
But if he couldn’t be out with Avery at the auction, he could at least be out with him here.
“Actually, there is someone,” he said, looking at Troy, because it felt safer than looking directly at his sisters. He swallowed, aware that he still had time to lie—or make a run for the car. “His name is Avery. He likes video games and sweet potatoes.”
The seconds of silence after he said “potatoes” were the longest of his life. He focused on the sweet, nonjudgmental face of the nephew who had only met him the day before, counting slowly in his head.
One. Two. Three.
A cracking wet cough filled the room. Linc’s dad was hunched over his plate, the cough shaking his whole body until Linc was sure it would split like an over-boiled egg.
His dad glanced up, wiping a string of phlegm from his lip and smiled. “Fucking queer.”
“Hey!” Lacey stood so fast Lilah was flipped out of the chair with her. “We do not use that kind of language in this house.”
Their father laughed again and waved her off, still wheezing. “Yeah, yeah.”
“No.” She strode across the room until she could poke a finger in his thin chest. “You and your shit attitude are the reason we haven’t seen our brother in seven fucking years and that my sons don’t know their goddamned uncle. So you can get your head out of your ass, or I will kick you to the curb so hard, you’ll shit my toenails for a week.”
One. Two. Three. Four.
The couch cushions were vibrating under Linc. He glanced to either side, where both boys were smothering giggles—badly—behind their hands.
“Shh,” he said, but that only made them laugh harder. He pulled them against his sides, and they howled into his T-shirt.
Lacey glared at them. “This is not funny.”
He shrugged while the boys squirmed against him. “What part of ‘we don’t use that language’ were you referring to exactly?”
She scowled. “The part where there is anything wrong with being gay.”
His hands tightened, and he dropped his eyes. “Oh.”
“So, that’s it?” Lilah said incredulously. “You’re gay? That’s the deep, dark secret that you’ve been keeping all this time?”
He opened and closed his mouth. The boys had gotten control of themselves and looked up expectantly. Linc could laugh it off. He could tell them they’d misheard and Avery was a woman. He could...“I guess?”
She flopped back down into her chair. “Well, that’s just ridiculous.”
“It is?”
“Yes.” She glared at him. “I’m bi. If you’d stuck around a few more years, you’d know that.”
He stared at his baby sister. “You are?”
She folded her arms over her chest. “I like who I like. What’s it to you?”
“I like girls,” Jake said.
“I like pizza,” Troy said.
They both dissolved into laughter.
