“You think?” I asked jokingly.
“Yeah… I mean, Perseus and Zeus?” he asked, a rare chuckle escaping his lips.
“You caught on to that, huh?” I said as I rifled through the cabinets for a mug. I found one that saidWorld’s Best Dadon it and filled it with coffee, then sat down across from him.
“Took me longer than it should have to figure out what she was doing,” Reese admitted with a smile.
“What gave it away?”
“The way Zeus and Perseus would ‘hug it out’ after every battle Perseus fought or monster he slayed.”
I nearly spewed the coffee I’d been drinking all over the place. Hot liquid scalded my throat as I was forced to swallow so I could laugh. My girl and her antics…
“She’s starting on Poseidon tonight,” Reese continued. “I googled him… he’s gota lotof kids,” he drawled.
I chuckled and said, “Thank God my father tells her the PG version of these stories. She thinks Medusa was just misunderstood.”
Reese laughed and reached for a bean.
“My dad put you to work, huh?”
“Yeah,” Reese said as he lifted the bean he was working on. “Your dad told me what he’s making for dinner, but I couldn’t understand any of it. I assume these beans will end up being something fancy in German.” Reese tossed the bean into the colander before reaching for the next one. “He’s upstairs, if you’re looking for him. He got a phone call – a panicked student or something, I guess.”
I nodded. “Mid-terms. No, I just needed a pick-me-up,” I said as I lifted the cup of coffee. I couldn’t tell him why I needed the pick-me-up, since I didn’t think he’d like hearing how his father, Nash, and I couldn’t stop fucking one another long enough to get more than an hour or two of sleep at a time. Since the night we’d admitted our love for each other, which had been just two short weeks ago, our relationship had gone into overdrive. I was running myself ragged sneaking back and forth to the guest house at allhours of the night. Everett was still struggling with the guilt of knowing what would happen if Reese found out about us, an emotion I shared, since I was finally starting to see slow but steady improvement in Reese’s demeanor as his health improved and he spent more time with my family. Nash was going through his own shit trying to adjust to a relationship that was intense and real, but on very shaky ground. I knew he was waiting for that moment where it would come crashing down around him, like it had with Chris so many years ago.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
Reese nodded. “Good,” he said. “Glad to finally be off the pain meds. That shit made it so fucking hard to focus,” he muttered.
“How’s it feel being without the walker?” I asked as my gaze fell on the quad cane next to his chair.
“Good, but scary too. My balance is shot.”
“It’ll take time to get all that back,” I reminded him. “Don’t rush it.”
Reese didn’t respond as he continued to work on the beans. I couldn’t see the burns on his arms because he was wearing long sleeves, but I’d seen them during his last therapy session, since he often wore a T-shirt to keep from getting too hot. They still looked horrific and I suspected they probably hurt like hell, but the fact that he didn’t need the pain pills anymore was a good sign. While his physical health was on the upswing, things hadn’t changed much when it came to him and Everett. Reese was no longer hostile toward his father, but he didn’t engage with him, either. I knew Everett was starting to lose hope that Reese would ever come around, though he hadn’t said as much.
He hadn’t really needed to.
It was written all over his face when he looked at his only child.
Part of me was frustrated that Everett didn’t push Reese into talking to him, but as badly as I wanted to give Everett his son back, I knew if I overstepped my bounds, I’d push both Reese and Everett away.
“Thanks for all this,” Reese said suddenly. His eyes were downcast, but after a second, he looked up at me. “I know I didn’t make iteasy on you,” he began. “On anyone,” he amended. He was silent for a moment before he said, “You may not believe this, what with my sunny disposition and all, but I don’t have a lot of friends. Any, actually.”
Despite the humor he tried to inject into the remark, I couldn’t find it in me to smile, not when I saw the pain flash in his eyes.
“In the hospital, you said you thought of us like that… as friends…”
“I do,” I said when he hesitated. It was painful to watch a grown man deal with such deep-seated insecurity. He reminded me so much of Nash. But whereas Nash had turned his pain inward and used it to drive himself to succeed, it seemed like Reese’s pain was what kept him floundering. He’d had glimpses of what it was like to be seen as a man outside of his father’s shadow, but I had a feeling he was still trying to find something he could really hang onto. I really hoped that thing was Ronan’s group.
Reese managed another nod. Clearly, the admission had been difficult. “Thank you. I… I can’t promise I’ll be any good at it… the friend thing. They were kind of in short supply when I was growing up… or ever,” he explained.
“Yeah, I can’t even imagine what that was like for you,” I murmured. “Not knowing who your friends really were when your dad’s the?—”
“Yeah,” Reese interjected.
Sensing that was as much as he wanted to say on the matter, I switched topics. “Well, you’re welcome to stay as long as you like, Reese. And once you do go home, I know my family and I would like it if you came back for whatever country’s culinary classics are on the menu for that week, or to listen to my daughter impart her strangely spot-on wisdom from whatever mythical creature has her attention at the time,” – I motioned to Fat Cat – “or to just have a really overweight cat sit on your lap.”
