“I will, Mom. You, too.”
“Talk to you soon!”
“Bye.”
I really needed to talk to River, but I couldn’t. I could chance misunderstanding when it came to my parents, but not with him. Not until I got there so I could be with him, look him in the eye when I asked him what had been going on, still was, with my dad and him.
Chapter 11
River
It was weird, that in the past I would’ve easily gone to Lake to talk about what had happened between Ben and me on that video call, but somehow now I shrugged and didn’t really comment when he’d asked me about how things with Ben were going.
I loved Lake like a brother, he’d been my platonic soulmate for years, but this was too private. What I’d experienced with Ben was something I kept close to my heart and cherished like no other sexual experience so far.
My mind was still blown about him taking the initiative like that. He hadn’t said so, but I guessed what we’d done hadn’t turned him on physically. It had, however, seemed like he got mental satisfaction out of it, and that was incredible to me.
Whether we could do that one on one instead of virtually sometime in the future was yet to be seen. I would love that, but only if he wanted it, too.
Work got busy. The Mickelsons had their baby about one month too early but the baby was healthy. Madden and Mona had come by one night, but Dr. Cobb didn’t call me because it wasn’t an emergency. He’d done the STD testing for Madden, and he’d given Mona some antibiotics and pain meds for an ear infection. He’d also given her a new beanie from our stash to keep her ears covered during the nights, and she’d been ecstatic.
One day, Dr. Cobb and I were having our lunch together for once. We were in the office, behind a closed door because we didn’t want Ani to overhear our conversation.
“I just don’t know what to do with this urge to domore,” he said with clear frustration.
I sighed. We didn’t really have many options. “Maybe there isn’t anything more you can do?”
He shook his head, looking pained. “I know I’m doing my best, but it’s…”
“Well, you know how Lake now owns the rescue?”
“Right, you told me that.”
“And also extended the invitation for you to come to the opening next week,” I reminded him pointedly.
The corner of his mouth twitched. “And I promised you I’d make an appearance.”
“Good.” I stuck out my tongue like the professional I was. “Now, Lake’s aunt Ruth, she had this idea that she wanted to help more LGBTQ youth. We talked about it at one point, how it wasn’t possible for us to set up a shelter or anything like that for various reasons, licensing and stuff like that mainly.” And the fact that one of our staff had a potentially awkward history with the law. “But then we figured that we could do it in a different way, maybe.”
“What do you mean?”
“We had this concrete slab for the new stable poured last week. It’s going to be pretty big, and Lake wants there to be a couple of studio apartments in the loft area.”
“So he’s thinking, give these kids a job?” Dr. Cobb seemed interested and less hopeless now.
“Right, except it can’t be anyone underage,” I reminded.
He nodded thoughtfully. “Right.” He finished his sandwich, deep in thought. “You know, I’ve even considered becoming a foster parent, but I don’t think that’s something I can do alone.”
“A partner would definitely help with that, yeah. Especially with how busy we get here.”
“And the night visitors.”
“Yeah, I think you probably could do it alone, even with the night time patients, but I don’t think it’s sustainable long term,” I said as kindly as I could.
“No. Having a younger kid asleep upstairs while I go downstairs when the buzzer rings isn’t an option, but an older kid would wonder and…” He rubbed his face with his palm. “But if you guys do something at the rescue, let me know. I’ll be at your service whenever you might need me.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
