“I talked to Harper last night,” Dad said. “She’s gonna try to come down for a visit.”
Wyatt opened his eyes.
“She misses you,” Dad said.
Wyatt missed her too. His fierce, outspoken in-your-face older sister. She’d always had his back, from the moment he was born. He wondered what she’d think of him now.
Dad set a coffee down beside him. “You hungry?”
Wyatt shook his head.
“Not even for quiche?” Dad asked. It was hardly a quick breakfast food, but Dad’s recipe had been one Wyatt’s favorites since he was a little kid.
Wyatt wasn’t hungry though. He shook his head.
Dad stood in front of him, and put his hands on Wyatt’s shoulders. “Kiddo, do you even know what you’re doing?”
No. Story of his fucking life.
“Wyatt, I’ve asked you a bunch of questions, and you haven’t answered a single one,” Dad said. His dark eyes were crinkled with worry. “Not verbally, at least. Can you talk to me, please? Can you say something?”
Wyatt held his gaze for a moment, and then looked away and shook his head.
Maybe he just didn’t have anything to say.
* * * *
Dad’s worry hung over the house like a pall for the rest of the day while Wyatt curled up on his bed and watched cooking shows on his laptop. He thought of Izzy, just over the road at the greenhouses, and wished he had the courage to go and see him there. But the thought of Justin finding out, and of Izzy losing his job for it, was enough to quell that idea.
Wyatt had never been the bad kid. He’d never been the rebellious one. He’d never been the sort of kid that Dad and Justin stayed up late at night fretting about. Harper had had her moments there, and so had Lettie, but Wyatt had always been too introverted to actually go out and get in any trouble. It turned out though that he hadn’t had to go far at all to find trouble, had he? He’d found it very close to home.
That’s what Dad and Justin thought, at least, but Izzy wasn’t trouble. Not like that. Izzy…Izzy liked Wyatt, and maybe even more than that.
“I’m sorry Wy, I love you but I won’t put you into danger.”
I love you.
I love you.
Wyatt’s eyes stung.
He got off his bed and walked to the window. He remembered the day he’d looked out to see Izzy arriving, and thought he’d looked like a rock star. He remembered Izzy saying that Wyatt should leave his window open for him, and all the fantasies that Wyatt had spun from that, about him and Izzy in his bed. Wyatt looked down toward the road, following the curve of the driveway past the pond, and over toward the greenhouses. He couldn’t see anything from here, but the thought that Izzy was so close and yet out of Wyatt’s reach was painful. It seemed cruel, and Justin had never been cruel before. And Wyatt understood, at least partly. He understood that Justin thought Izzy was a bad influence on him because that was exactly the persona that Izzy wore proudly. Except it also wasn’t fair, because Justin was always the guy who’d seen past that in everyone else, and the only reason he couldn’t do it with Izzy was because he knew Izzy and Wyatt had been together.
Wyatt wasn’t a little kid anymore. He didn’t need Justin to protect him from the big bad world, at least not like this. And okay, yeah, he’d always been anxious, always been more fragile that his peers, more likely to break instead of bending, and he’d always liked that Justin and Dad kept him safe, but he’d been brave with Izzy. He’d been so brave he’d shocked himself, and he didn’t want Justin to wrap him up in cotton wool now, not when he finally knew how good it felt to be without it. Still terrifying, yes, but liberating too. He’d seen and been seen, and Izzylovedhim.
Wyatt wanted to feel brave again, but he couldn’t go to the greenhouses, not when Izzy would get in trouble for it, and certainly not to the trailers where there was no cover story in the world that would excuse why he was really there.
Wyatt went downstairs and headed for the front door.
“Wy?” Dad called.
Wyatt turned and found Dad standing in the hallway behind him.
“Where are you going?”
Wyatt shrugged.
“No, kiddo,” Dad said. “I’m sorry, but I’m gonna need you to use your words for this.”
