“Harley!” TD chortled. “You crack me up. All this time you’ve been dangling it in front of our faces, haven’t you? LoveHarley? Haraleah? A bouncer who travels all over the world? I can’t believe it.”
“That’s actually not the main inspiration behind my screen name, if you can believe it, but that’s a conversation for another day.” Harlow took the Single Dads in, gladder than he could express to be standing here with them face to face, then set his sights on xV. “Do you think we should migrate into the living room? It’s been so long since we last saw each other, I feel we have a lot of catching up to do.”
“Sure.” xV gestured back the way everyone had come. “I can’t promise we won’t be interrupted—Mal, I’m sure, will run into Leah in the hallway and lose his mind—but until then, it looks like we’ll have an uninterrupted Single Dads Support Group session minus one.”
“Minus two,” Gwynn corrected. “Glit’s part of the group now, too.”
“Is hereallya doctor?” TD asked. He ventured farther down the hall to stand at Harlow’s side, looking up at him expectantly. “I mean, I asked him and he said he was, but I couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not. It’s so hard to convey emotion through text, you know?”
Harlow snorted. “I know.”
“So… soishe?” The Single Dads started to move, and Harlow followed them. “And does that mean that Simon is a doctor, too? Do you have a picture? Of Simon, I mean. Not Glit. Although, if they’re brothers, they’re probably pretty similar, right? Everett and I kind of look the same, only Everett is older and more muscular.”
“TD?” Gwynn asked.
“Yes?”
“Let’s sit Harley down before we launch our interrogation, okay? That way, it’ll be harder for him to get away once we start asking the really pointed questions.”
On the inside, Harlow laughed. Why had he ever been afraid to tell the truth? The Single Dads were on his side, and they would be no matter who his daughter was, or where life took him. A week ago, he’d been certain that the good times were over. Now he knew better. The clouds had rolled in, but there was still sunshine to be had. He’d found his daughter, he’d found a lover who lit up his life, and he’d reunited with the friends who’d kept him sane through the tough times. If Knot and Simon had been able to join them, the afternoon would have been perfect—but even in their absence, it was pretty damn good. And knowing that tonight, when conversation was exhausted and his heart was full, he’d get to return to Simon made it that much sweeter.
