Chapter 15
Life was weird, Wyatt thought as he stared down at his passport application form. Life was really weird, and sometimes it just took something as tiny as a bee sting to change everything. Because when Izzy had stumbled and fallen, when Wyatt had suddenly known beyond every doubt that he couldn’t lose him, he’d discovered reserves of courage he didn’t know he had. Courage to let Izzy see him for who he was. Courage to reach out to him. Courage to consider telling Dad and Justin they were in a relationship. And now…
Well.
Wyatt picked up the form, crumpled it into a ball, and tossed it into his wastepaper basket.
Courage to admit to Dad that he didn’t want to go to Paris. He wanted to stay here in Oak Glen. Maybe look into starting his own bakery. He could sell cookies and cupcakes and bread through the stall at first, while he made plans for getting his own premises in a year or two.
His heart beat a little faster at the thought of telling Dad, but that was okay. Because he was scared that Dad might be disappointed in him, but that didn’t lessen his courage. Courage wasn’t the absence of fear, was it? Courage was being able to act despite that fear. And Dad…DadlovedWyatt. Wyatt had always known it, and never doubted it. So even if he was disappointed by Wyatt’s change of heart, or baffled that he’d never told him about it before now, it wouldn’t make him stop loving him. Not even for a second.
Wyatt drew a deep breath and checked the time on his laptop. It was past ten. He got up from his desk and crossed to his door. He peered down the dark hallway. The door to the main bedroom was open, light spilling out, and he could hear the low murmur of voices.
He headed toward them.
He passed Lettie’s door. It was ajar, but her light was off.
When he reached the main bedroom he lingered in the doorway for a moment. The lights were on, and the comforter on Justin and Dad’s bed was turned down. Wyatt heard water running in the en suite bathroom—a blast of it against the sink—and then Dad said something in a low voice, and Justin laughed.
Dad came out of the bathroom first, pulling on a T-shirt over his sleep pants. “Wyatt,” he said. “Everything okay?”
Wyatt glanced at the bathroom door in time to see Justin appearing.
“Yeah,” he said, swallowing down his fear. “Can I talk to you about something?”
And that was when he heard, very faintly from somewhere downstairs, the sound of breaking glass.
* * * *
Everything happened both quickly and painstakingly slowly after that.
“There’s someone in the house,” Dad said, grabbing for his phone. And then he grabbed for Justin too, as Justin tried to move past him. “Don’t!”
“Lettie,” Justin said. “I have to—”
“Don’t,” Dad said. “You wait in here with Wyatt. You lock the door. I’ll go to Lettie.”
And then he slipped out into the hallway.
Wyatt closed the door behind him, and locked it. A moment later Justin’s phone lit up with a message from Lettie.
Dad’s with me. He says stay there.
“What if they come up here?” Wyatt whispered.
“I’m calling the police,” Justin said, his voice low.
From downstairs, Wyatt heard something break and then—
And then barking and growling as Lettie’s pack of dogs burst into the house.
Holy shit.
Whoever was downstairs, they’d just opened the connecting door to the garage where the dogs slept, and the dogs didnotlike them one bit.
* * * *
By the time the police arrived, the two guys were bailed up in the laundry room, staring down two rescue pits, a German shepherd, two lab mixes and a Chihuahua and, Dad said, probably questioning all their life choices. Wyatt didn’t see it, but Dad said that the Chihuahua was probably the most terrifying. When the cops turned up, Lettie had to call the dogs off so that they could get close enough to arrest the guys.
