Maisy perked up and hurtled herself out of the room and to the lobby where Derek heard his brother greet the toddler with enthusiasm. When he was sure the girl was in safe hands, he turned back to Mat and smiled.
“Don’t take it personally, dude.”
“I’m not,” Mat said, though his tone told a different story. “How are you doing? You have that look.”
Derek sighed, hating how much of his heart he wore on his sleeve, but he made it a habit not to lie to his family at the shop. “I had a rough night. Got stuck in one of those little ATM rooms at the bank after the power went out and had a nasty panic attack.”
Mat rose, taking Derek by one shoulder. “Shit, are you okay? Do you need me to take some of your clients tonight? I can move stuff around if you need time off.”
Derek smiled at him. “Thanks, but I’m good. I wasn’t alone, and the guy who got stuck in there with me kept me distracted. And anyway, watching May will help with the rest. Sam got called to fucking Denver to jump through more hoops for these fuckers, so I’ll have her for most of the day.”
Mat’s brows dipped, his expression going dark. “Seriously?”
“Seriously,” Derek said from behind a sigh. “They’re making him sit through another psych eval, and he said May’s case-worker—or her boss, or something—wants him to do another like life skills class to prove that he can parent with a disability.”
“Those fucking fucks,” Mat growled.
“Trust me, I know.” Derek unclenched his fists when he felt his arm muscles begin to burn with the tension. “But I promised not to say anything. I have a feeling they’re going to send a few more suits in here to make sure we’re not like dealing drugs or sacrificing virgins, so we should be prepared.”
Mat rolled his eyes. “I’ll tell Tony when he gets in.”
“Alright.” Derek laughed when Jasmine’s loud squeal pierced the quiet of the room. “I should head out before the princesses start a revolt against how long it’s taking to get their lunch. You working late?”
“All-nighter. Sage asked me to take walk-ins for him this evening, so I’ll be around.”
“I’ll bring you something later if you want. Just text me.” Derek cupped the back of Mat’s neck and squeezed before stepping awayand heading for the low swinging door. He found his brother holding Jasmine by her ankle, two inches above the soft leather couch cushion, and the little girl was giggling her head off. “If Tony saw that, he’d cut your…walnuts off and give them to you in a jar.”
Sage laughed as he righted the girl and smacked a kiss on her cheek. “Tony trusts me with his life. Anyway, who’s hungry?” he signed the words with one hand, and both Jasmine and Maisy clapped their hands as he led the way out.
Basil pointedly ignoredhis sister as he lost himself in arrangements. Spring was their busiest time—they had Mother’s Day, graduation, spring weddings, and religious celebrations which kept them working from open to close. Being able to make money like this helped his ire at living in such a quaint little town. It was modern and trendy, but had the small-town feel to it which for him meant the over-enthusiasm of locals who were doing everything in their power to pretend like they were cool with deafness. It always amused him the way that hearing people thought he would benefit in any way from their yelling, or the way they would speak without sound and exaggerate their words, or the way they just couldn’t accept that he didn’t read lips.
He could catch a few things, but people didn’t want to accept that being Deaf from birth made it a little difficult for him to understand the concept of speech, and frankly he found English confusing and frustrating. There were just too many goddamn words that could easily be said with expression instead, and why all of the plurals and tenses and conjunctions and articles?
He never really understood his sister’s desire to assimilate. They’d both been raised by Deaf parents, in the Deaf Community, but he figured it had something to do with just how social she was. She hated being left out of any conversation, hated not being included in everything. His parents had always told him not to worry about it, that she’d find her own way, and he tried notto feel betrayed when she began living her life mostly verbal and rarely taking out her hearing aids, and applying to universities on the west coast.
Frankly, if it hadn’t been for the accident, for the death of their parents and their aunt and uncle, and being left the flower shop, she might have just stayed in LA and made herself a comfortable life there amongst the people she’d grown to love. He couldn’t help but wonder if she resented him for it, when he’d asked her to help him get the shop back up and running.
He wouldn’t have blamed her. Hell, he resented it enough himself that in the end she’d been right when she pointed out he was going to need help from someone who could communicate with most of the town. And he couldn’t help but appreciate that she’d been the one to stay, because the idea of hiring some stranger to work with him made his stomach twist in ugly ways.
He just didn’t trust people. He’d dropped his guard once—and only once—and it had left a big enough scar he wasn’t anxious to do it again. Ama was forever giving him shit about it, for the way he shut down and just stopped trying, but she had never let humiliation stop her from moving forward.
Basil just wasn’t that kind of guy.
He’d met Chad when he was at University. Chad was interning for some Senator in DC but was staying near campus because he’d found a sublet with cheaper rent, and he ended up frequenting the coffee shop where Basil was working. He was attractive, which Basil had to admit even to this day Chad had a charismatic charm about him that was hard to ignore. Up to that point, Basil had never given a hearing guy the time of day, but he watched Chad navigate the mostly-Deaf run coffee shop with ease, taking it in stride when they didn’t bother to accommodate him, and watched week after week as he picked up more and more of the common signs thrown around the place.
He also watched Chad watch him—it was blatant, there was no way to miss how Chad’s deep blue eyes followed him aroundevery time he moved from the coffee bar to the ice bin to the pastry window. And the way Chad would sometimes wait until Basil was at the register before ordering. And he’d been charmed the day Chad had raised a shaky hand and looked as nervous as a newborn foal when he curled his fingers into the letters of his name.
His friends encouraged him to go for it, not deterred by the fact that Chad was one of them—the hearing people who outside of this insular community and campus, would treat him like a second-class citizen. Chad was trying, they told him, and he was hot, and he obviously liked Basil.
So, when Basil carefully signed, ‘Go out with me,’ mouthing the words as carefully as he could so Chad might understand, he’d been over the moon when the answer had been yes.
Then they dated. And Basil was young and stupid and thought maybe it wasn’t such a big deal when Chad’s signing skills plateaued at basic customer service. Or the way he kept pushing Basil to learn lip-reading better, or the way that he pushed for Basil to sign up for speech therapy.
It still made Basil feel sick to his stomach when he thought about the way he’d just signed up for the therapy, and the way he knew that deep-down it was wrong because he’d hidden it from both Amaranth and his parents.
He was losing sleep, and his grades were falling, and he was unhappy, but it didn’t matter because his boyfriend was hot and wanted him, and he was a special kind of guy. He had a way of looking at Basil like he was the only person in the entire room, and it was enough to warp the mind of a twenty-year-old who had never really had much luck with dating before.
It got ugly so slowly, Basil hadn’t realized it until one night he was having beer and pizza with some of the other interns Chad was working with. Basil had been working his ass off in therapy and lip reading, but he had been struggling so he’d kept it to himself. In the end, maybe it was best, because Chad felt safe in front of his friendswhen he started talking about Basil like Basil had no hope of understanding what was going on.
