“Leo?”
My entire body stiffens at the sound of a slightly familiar voice, and I turn to find Rune, Easton’s coworker. He’s the guy from IT who everyone seems to have a massive crush on. The guy that Easton pisses off just by breathing too loudly, which makes my brother feel weird because everyone likes him.
Except this guy.
But in spite of his hatred for my brother, I like him, and he’s always been very kind to me. He asks how I am, which is something most people at the station don’t do, and he always listens when I talk.
My face softens into a genuine smile. “Rune. Hey.”
He tries and fails to match my grin. He looks frazzled today, his long hair tangled in his hair tie, flyaways catching the sun. He doesn’t look like he’s slept or showered in a few days, and he keeps glancing behind me toward the stream.
“Are you okay?”
He takes a long time to answer, biting his lip, and then he says, “I’m here with my son. Can you do me a giant favor and not tell anyone about this?”
“About…this?”
“Running into me here. Or, uh…” He hesitates, then says, “That I have a son. Especially your brother,” he adds.
I feel irritation creep up my spine. “You know that Easton isn’t going to be a dick about you having a kid, right?”
He sucks in a breath and opens his mouth, but then he deflates and walks over. “Mind if I sit?”
I gesture for him to go ahead, and he does, though he keeps his body sideways so he can watch over my shoulder. I’m assuming his kid is behind us, and I’m not going to be the weirdo who looks over, especially when it’s obvious he’s very protective.
“Look,” he says after a long moment of silence, “it’s nothing personal against your brother. I know he wouldn’t be a dick about me having a kid. It’s just…I really don’t, ah…” He stops and rubs the back of his neck, looking so wildly uncomfortable that I wish I could rewind the clock and go to another park so he’s not freaking out. “When people find out about my son, they ask really invasive questions, and it gets weird.”
I frown. “Find out what?”
Rune doesn’t answer. It turns out, he doesn’t need to. A small child in a very brightly painted blue wheelchair rolls up around the corner and comes to a stop. I can tell his son is somewhere in his tweens by his face, and he has wide shoulders, while the lower half of his body is very small, and it’s clear his spine isn’t straight by the way his body rests sideways.
He looks like Rune too—tan, longer hair that sits just above his ears with a slight curl to it, very big brown eyes, and a smile with dimples.
“This is Elio,” Rune says, almost resigned. “Elio, this is Leo.”
“My name has your name in it,” he says.
I offer a small smile. Kids always pick up on the most random shit. “It does. I think that’s pretty cool. It’s nice to meet you, Leo with an extraE.”
Elio bursts into laughter. “I’m gonna change my screen name to that. No one is going to get it.” He pulls out what’sobviously some kind of handheld game system, and Rune makes a noise of disappointment. Elio rolls his eyes and looks up. “What? I already looked at all the nature. It’s super cool. Now my friends are waiting for me.”
“We’re at the park,” Rune complains. “Can’t this wait?”
“The park is where the bugs and birds live,” Elio fires back.
Rune waves his son off. “Fine, go. But don’t go off the path. If you break your chair again, I’m not fixing it. You’ll have to be stuck in your old one with Scooby-Doo on it!”
Elio scoffs as he takes off, and while I have no idea where he’s going, eventually I hear the telltale music of a video game, so it’s obviously not far.
“Sorry. He’s not really trying to be rude or anything. He’s just not that great at socializing, and he’s at that fun stage of life where video games and friends are more important than anything else.”
I can’t help a small laugh. “He’s a kid. Who the fuck wants to talk to adults when you have video games and friends?”
Rune’s face softens into a smile, but I can still see the worry in his eyes. “Um. So…”
“I won’t say anything to my brother,” I assure him. “Or anyone. Not that people talk to me. But I bet the guys would be cool if they knew about him.”
He blows out a puff of air. “Yeah. I, uh…I thought so about the last place I worked. I was doing dispatch, so my sister brought him by, and they all seemed really nice to him. But it got…weird and complicated.”
