“Hello, son.” The guy confirms my thoughts.
“What are you doing here?” Reece grinds out.
The guy sits back in his chair insolently. “Well, I heard you were in town and you haven’t come to see me, so I thought I’d come see you instead,” he drawls.
“I have nothing to say to you,” Reece almost growls.
His dad just smiles. He’s goading Reece and I'm glad that he doesn’t rise to the bait. Instead he sighs and unclenches his hands.
“Shall I make you a coffee? You too, Holden?” Theresa rises, her tone still bright. I glance at Reece and he gives the slightest of nods.
“Yes p-please, Theresa. That w-would be lovely.”
“Good, then please sit, there are fresh cookies in the tin.” I wait for Reece, taking my cues from him. I only know what he’s told me about his dad, so I’m wary. He slowly takes a chair and I join him at the table, sitting opposite his dad, but he doesn’t say anything. I’m not sure if I should introduce myself, but given what I’ve been told about him, I don't know that I should, so I keep quiet. I can sense the displeasure coming off Reece and I don't like it. I want to reach out and comfort him, but I’m notsure it’d be a good idea, so I squash my hands between my knees to resist the temptation to touch him.
“How’s things?” Mr. Fisher asks, and Reece snorts derisively.
“What do you care? You haven’t once asked that in twenty years, so why bother now? Not once have you asked how I am, or been interested in what I’ve been doing. Even when I told you about Mac, you didn’t seem to be bothered. I don’t know why I was surprised. You don’t care about one son, why would you care about two?” His voice is sharp and bitter.
“It was a shock was all,” his dad says, and Reece snorts again.
“And what about now? You’ve had several months to get over the news. Have you asked about him? Did you even know Marina was here?”
I see Mr. Fisher’s eyes narrow slightly and his nose twitch. He knew. Reece saw it too.
“I thought so,” he says and falls silent.
“There you go, love.” Theresa places a mug in front of me and then passes one to Reece before she stands behind me and rests her hands on my shoulders.
“I don’t think you know Holden, do you?” she says, and Mr. Fisher’s eyes flick toward me again.
“No,” is all the answer he gives.
“He’s my boyfriend,” Reece says.
I see a change come over Mr. Fisher’s face as he contorts it into pure disgust. Theresa keeps her hands firmly on my shoulders as he turns to Reece.
“Really?” He barks a laugh. ”You’re one of them?”
The way he says “them” is filled with pure spite, and I’m taken back twenty years to when Reece spoke the same words to me. Instinctively, fear grips my belly, and I want to run away and hide. I would if it weren’t for Theresa’s hands still holding me down. At first my fear rises, but she squeezes gently and I realize that she’s doing it to comfort me. She stays until I can breathe normally again, then she goes over to the sink. When Reece doesn’t say anything, his dad speaks again.
“I thought I’d raised you better than that,” he sneers.
“You didn’t raise me at all, though, did you?” Reece’s voice is perfectly calm. “All you taught me was how to hate. I learned those lessons so well I ended up hating myself. It took a long time for me to remember the lessons of the person who did raise me, so I could accept who I was and that I could love whomever I wanted.”
“I can’t believe I have a nancy boy as a son.”
“Two sons.” Reece smiles for the first time since he walked into the room. “Mac is gay too, Dad.”
Mr. Fisher’s face goes red and angry and he looks like he’s about to burst a blood vessel. He casts his gaze around the room and turns his attention back to me.
“This is all your fault. People like you, corrupting decent folk.”
I recoil from the force of his bile. “You’re an abomination, you all are.”
Reece slams his hand on the table, making us all jump. He rises out of his seat and gets into his dad’s face.
“Shut up. Don’t you dare talk to him like that. He’s worth a hundred of you. You aren’t even fit to look at him,” he shouts. “Now get out. I don’t want to see you ever again unless it’s to apologize.”
