“So,” Everett said, taking a place by his father’s side. “What’s going on?”
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about what I want from life.” Everett’s father kept his gaze fixed on a point across the room, but despite his avoidance, his body was relaxed, and his expression was almost whimsical. “A lot of thinking about what’s best for me and your dad, but also about what’s best for you.”
What was best for Everett? Everett couldn’t help but smile. If only his father knew. He set his hands on the counter and tilted his head back, examining the glossy black ceiling tile. Az had done a great job keeping the foyer clean—Everett didn’t notice so much as a smudge on any surface, reachable or not.
“You’ll be thirty soon,” his father continued. Worry troubled his lips, but only momentarily. “I know that Caleb’s been helping you, and I appreciate all that he’s done, but I don’t want you to feel like you have to depend on him forever. One day, you’ll want more than what a best friend can give you, and I don’t want to be the one responsible for holding you back from happiness.”
A family.
He was talking about a family.
Heat rushed Everett’s cheeks. He sucked in his bottom lip, wanting desperately to blurt out the truth, but simultaneously not wanting to destroy Caleb’s trust in him. For years, they’d kept their love hidden because they’d both known that one day, without a third, their relationship would fail. It had never felt right to put their parents through the heartache.
But that didn’t seem likely anymore. Against all odds, they’d found a man that had captured both their hearts, and who seemed uninterested in giving either of them back.
“Dad…” Everett tried, but lost courage before he could complete the sentence.
“I’ve had retirement on my mind since I found out I’d become a grandfather,” Everett’s father confessed. “Every now and then, you run into something in life that puts everything in perspective, and Bo and Penelope have flipped that switch for me. You know everything there is to know about running The Shepherd. Next year, I want to step down and leave the club to you.”
“Dad…” It was the news Everett had been anticipating for the last several months, but it was being delivered for all the wrong reasons. Everett took a deep breath while he struggled with his decision. “I don’t want you to feel like you have to step down because of me. If I needed money, I could find another job.”
“I know you could, but I don’t want you to have to do that when I’ve been thinking about slowing down, anyway.” His father ran a hand through his hair, and some of its silver strands caught the light, gleaming. “Your father has been exceptionally patient with me over the last few decades, but he needs more from me than I can give him while I’m working every night, especially now that you boys are out in the world on your own. I know that he’s worried about you, too. If I can put his mind at ease by stepping down and handing the reins over to you, it’s an easy choice to make.”
“So you’re doing this because you and Dad want to give me a chance to make it on my own?” Everett turned his head and watched his father, following the profile of his face down his proud nose to the short, trimmed facial hair of his upper lip and chin. “Now that Gage has Aaron and has started a family of his own, you’re worried that I won’t find happiness if you don’t step in and do something?”
“I don’t think so.” His father’s brows knit together as if he were considering it. “But I can’t speak for your dad. You know how he can be.”
“Dad?” Everett closed his eyes. “I really appreciate all the thought you’ve put into this, but I can’t lie to you. Even if I took over and worked full time, I wouldn’t move out of Caleb’s place.”
For the first time since they’d started the conversation, his father turned his head and fixed Everett with a curious look. He didn’t need to speak his question to ask it—the “why” that never made it to his lips furrowed his brow and glinted in his eyes.
Everett couldn’t keep the truth from him anymore.
“I love Caleb,” Everett said simply. “I love him as more than my best friend.”
There it was. Everett licked his lips nervously and searched his father’s face for signs of disappointment, but found none. Unsure of how to proceed, Everett decided to elaborate.
“When I moved into the condo, we were already a thing. We didn’t move me in so Caleb could split the mortgage, like we said. I’m sorry for having lied, but the truth is complicated, and our relationship isn’t traditional. Both of us were worried that it wouldn’t work out, and that if we told you, and you put your hopes in us being together forever, we’d hurt you. We didn’t want to do that, so we kept things under wraps.”
Everett kicked his heel against the counter, the steady tap of his shoe against the wood paneling grounding him in the moment. He’d expected to feel guilty after confessing, but the opposite had happened—he’d never felt so free.
“In the last couple of months, I knew that things were going to fall apart if something didn’t change, and I figured that when you asked me to take over, it’d be the kiss of death for our relationship. Caleb would go on with the life he’d always lived, I’d take my place here, and we’d drift apart. But recently, we found a way to make it work, and neither of us has ever been so happy.”
“What happened?” his father asked.
“We met someone, and we brought him into our relationship.”
Silence.
It wasn’t awkward or uncomfortable. If Everett had to describe it, he would have called it contemplative.
“It hasn’t been long that we’ve been together,” Everett explained. “I think it’s probably still a little too early to have told you, just in case something does go wrong, but…”
What Everett wanted to say was that at this point, he was almost certain that nothing would go wrong. Everett knew that Caleb was in love. He’d seen the way he looked at Jayne, and how he smiled in that soft, adorable way when he thought Jayne wasn’t looking. He’d seen the light in Caleb’s eyes shine a little brighter whenever Jayne was around.
And Everett felt the same.
From the moment he’d walked into Alex’s living room and spotted Jayne standing there, he’d known that Jayne was someone special. The last month had only confirmed what he’d originally believed.
