“If anyone ever needed a dog, it’s that kid.” Eugene’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know his family personally, but I know enough about them to know what it’s like to be in his shoes.”
Eugene made no secret of the fact that his family was full of rich, judgmental assholes who put a lot of pressure on themselves, and everyone around them, to succeed. And success didn’t matter if you weren’t the exact way they wanted you to be.
“Doesn’t anyone come from a normal fucking family? You know, parents who give a shit. White picket fence. Maybe a cat or a dog or some shit. Family vacations in the summer.”
He only shrugged. “Whatisnormal?”
“I’ll kick your shins if you get all philosophical on me. You know what I mean. Don’t tell me you don’t believe in the happy family?”
“Oh, happy families exist, but a lot of them don’t look like the two-point-five kids with the dog and a boat in the driveway and vacations every summer. My family is Thurston and Joe.And sometimes I have lunch with an annoying guy who’s like a brother to me.”
“Shut up, Eugene.”
“See? Annoying, just like a brother would be. Who’s your family, Lukas? Besides me, you're dashing, only slightly older brother.”
“My best friend. My dog.” I rolled my eyes. “And this pain-in-the-ass guy who thinks he knows everything.”
“Relatives come and go, but family is always there.” He reached for his drink and flashed me a smile. “Look, I’m sorry I convinced Thurston not to tell Sawyer, and I’m sorry we also blindsided you, but I really wanted this to work, and I thought it would be better if he eased into the project first and then found out.”
“And your reasoning for not telling me this?”
Eugene grinned at me. “Oh, that’s easy. It was fun. Besides, you’d have gotten all weird waiting for him to put the pieces together, or you’d have told him yourself.” He rolled his eyes. “Everyone is so disgustingly honest.”
“Thanks. I think.” Now that the issue of Sawyer and the subterfuge had been settled, I asked Eugene the same question I asked at almost every lunch we shared just to fuck with him. “So when are you going to let me shoot the three of you? I told you it doesn’t have to be published or put online.”
“Joey will never be comfortable with the idea, andDaddywould rather sit on hot coals than bare his ass on camera. Besides, he’s not the only one who’s protective of Joey.”
Eugene flashed me a look that was probably meant to be intimidating, but I didn’t care. He knew I wasn’t really serious. I just liked fucking with him.
I remembered the way Sawyer had turned red from the tips of his ears to his cheeks and down his neck, when he found outI was a porn star. “Please tell me you’ve called Thurston ‘Daddy’ in front of Sawyer.”
“I’m not supposed to, but sometimes it slips.” Eugene wore an expression of victorious mischief. He was a brat, through and through. “It’s harmless. For him, anyway. And it earns me a good wallop from Daddy.”
Our food arrived then, with a dubious look from the server, which pleased Eugene to no end. The man had no shame about what he liked and who he loved.
Once the server scuttled away, I leaned closer. “You’re a menace to society, Eugene.”
“Thank you.”
“I should be mad at you and your husband for meddling.”
“But you’re not and you won’t be because you were never mad. Annoyed isn’t mad. Grateful isn’t mad. Relieved isn’t mad.” He flashed me another one of his winsome smiles. “You’re welcome, Lukas.”
“I suppose it isn’t all bad that you didn’t warn him up front. And to be fair to him, he did take it in stride. He was surprised, but thankfully not disgusted—or elated. Which would have also been uncomfortable.”
“Are you still scarred from the superfan with the English degree who wanted to act out the scenes so he could get a better feel for them?”
God, that had been something else. I thought I’d lucked out at first. A fan with a degree, who was passionate about the project. Until I found out he was a little too passionate.
“And the one who wanted to do a watch party for all my old material so I could talk him through everything. I almost prefer either of those to the ones who ghosted when they found out what I do.”
“Fuck all of them. Sawyer is a good kid. He won’t be creepy or inappropriate, which is why Thurston picked him. Truthfully, wemight have been able to get away with telling him first, but then he wouldn’t have been as comfortable at your first meeting, and I felt that it was important for the two of you to establish even a sliver of rapport before springing the wholewe’re going to spend copious amounts of time talking about my dickpart of the job.”
“Well, when you put it like that.” I rolled my eyes. “I suppose I should say thank you.”
“Your gratitude is inspiring. Truly,” he deadpanned. “I still think you could write the book yourself. No one knows better than you what you’ve gone through and the kind of things you want to convey.”
“I’d rather not.” Eventually the truth would come out. Hell, I’d have to talk about it with Sawyer sooner or later. I still wasn’t quite ready to rip off the Band-Aid and tell Eugene that the reason I needed a ghostwriter was that I was dyslexic. Reading was painfully slow for me, and you could forget about me writing anything. It wasn’t going to happen. Maybe if I’d had a parent who’d been concerned about my wellbeing, even the slightest amount, I might have gotten the help I’d needed when I was younger. But I’d managed this long on my own.
