I wasn’t sure Aidenwasmy friend, although I was increasingly sure Iwantedhim to be. I’d never had a friend like him before.
I’d had Kieran, but he was… not like me, exactly, but definitely not like his little brother. Not likeeitherof them. He was the grownup, the oldest, like me.
Aiden was something else.
“Aiden said you told him he reminded you of an ex-boyfriend,” I blurted out, because I hadn’t stopped thinking about it since he’d said it. I looked up, meeting my dad’s eyes, a thousand questions swirling through my mind.
Dad held my gaze for long moments, then looked away as he sipped his water, staring down into the bottom of the glass like it was single malt.
“Should’ve told you that the day I walked in on you making out with Kieran,” he said.
The tips of my ears burned. I hadn’t told Aidenthatpart.
“I wasn’t making out with him,” I said, shifting uncomfortably. “We kissed once. Neither of us liked it.”
“But you weren’t doing it for nothing,” Dad said. “Were you?”
I swallowed.
No. No, we hadn’t been doing it for nothing. I’d started it, asking Kieran if he’d ever wondered what it’d be like.
He had.
I hadn’t told Aiden that part, either, and I wasn’t sure whether he’d figured it out or not. I hadn’t talked to Kieran about anything like this since that day, so I had no idea how his feelings ran now.
He’d had girlfriends since, like me, but I was learning today that it might not have meant a goddamn thing.
“No,” I said quietly.
Dad’s foot nudged mine under the table. “You’re not alone,” he said. “You’ve never been alone, and I’m sorry now that I didn’t tell you that then. You deserved the truth, even if your mother didn’t like it.”
Right. That was why I didn’t know, wasn’t it?
Mom wouldn’t have liked it. She would have liked it even less if it’d given me the confidence to experiment back then.
Dad’s life might not have been worth living. It barely had been anyway.
My stomach twisted. Why hadn’t I ever stood up forhim? He was my dad, I loved him.
“I wanna tell you something,” Dad said. “And I’m thinking the best way might just be to come out and say it, so here goes: I have a boyfriend. Who I didn’t bring with me to this because I’m not nearly as brave as you are.”
The ground shifted beneath me, room tilting suddenly sideways, only it hadn’t actually moved—it was just me, having my entire worldview shift right in front of my eyes.
Dad had a boyfriend.
“Boyfriend?” I asked, almost certain I couldn’t have heard that right.
Dad chuckled. “You’re right, I’m probably too old to call him my boyfriend. Partner, then.”
“Partner always sounds cold to me.”
“You’d rather I said lover?” Dad raised an eyebrow.
I wrinkled my nose, wincing at the thought. “No. Boyfriend, partner…”
“Was planning on husband,” Dad said. “Sometime soon. I’d like you to be there. Promise I won’t kick you out for bringing Aiden.”
Wow.
