Nobody's Son (20 page)

“Hey, is everything okay?” he answered.

“Yeah.” Darnell paused. “Well, mostly. Sorry to bother you at work, but….”

Shaun frowned. “That doesn’t sound good.”

Darnell sighed. “I told Katie about dinner, and she was fine with that, but then I mentioned you had been planning to bring your boyfriend but he was out of town. The way she reacted… I started to ask her what was wrong, but before she said it, I figured it out.”

Dammit.
“Is she antigay?”

“Not so much her. Not her at all, I think. But her parents are ultraconservative Catholic, and until a few years ago, so was she. Like, she’s been on the outs with them for a while because she stopped going to church every Sunday, and they’d probably have a fit if they knew she was on birth control. The main reason I haven’t met them yet isn’t because I’m black, though that’s part of it. It’s because I’m not Catholic.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah. So you can just imagine how they are about the gay thing. I mean, we talked, and it’s more like she doesn’t really know any gay people. Not openly gay, anyway. It’s not so much that she’s homophobic as that she’s just never had to deal with it. You know?”

Shaun laughed. “Dude. I’m just now dealing with it for myself. So yeah, I know.”

“Good point.” Darnell blew out a breath. “Anyway, I don’t think it’ll be a problem in the long run. But maybe it’s better if she just meets you now and then Con later. Start out in the shallow end.”

Something else Shaun was just learning about. “Okay. Yeah. I can see that.” He sighed. “I hope it’s not gonna be a thing, though. I don’t want this to come between you two.”

“It won’t.” Darnell’s voice was firm. “If she can’t accept you, then I can’t accept that. You’re the closest thing I’ve got to a son, and I’m not about to give that up. Not even for her.”

Son.
Not for the first time, Shaun wished that was true, biologically speaking. Darnell was already the closest thing Shaun had to a dad. “Thanks,” he said. “I knew that, really. But it’s nice to hear it.”

When Darnell spoke again, Shaun could hear the smile in his voice. “Besides,” he said, “you’re still a few games up on me. I gotta have a chance to catch you, right?”

Shaun snorted. “A few? Try a few dozen, old man.”

Darnell laughed openly then. “Whatever you say, kid. We can argue it out over beers next week.”

“You’re on. See you Wednesday.” Shaun hung up smiling, and he found himself hoping things worked out with Darnell and Katie. Darnell deserved to have someone in his life. Shaun’s mama would’ve wanted it that way.

And deep down, Shaun believed his mama would’ve wanted Shaun to have someone in his too. Even if it wasn’t the kind of person she thought it would be.

She loved me
, he thought as he turned to greet another arriving guest.
And love has to win out.

He hoped with everything he had that he was right.

“TELL ME
you didn’t hear anything else from that asshole.”

Shaun laughed as he looked up from the computer. “I didn’t hear anything else from that asshole.”

“Good.” Jimmy huffed. “I have a letter all written up and ready to go if you need it. On my shiny new Legally Gay letterhead and everything. And if that doesn’t do the trick, we’ll call the cops for a restraining order.”

“I hope it won’t come to that.” Shaun grinned. “I think if he showed up again, Gran would put the fear of God into him. And maybe a baseball bat into his kneecap.”

Jimmy hooted. “I think I love your gran. Does she want to adopt a rapidly aging gay man who could offer her free legal services and prime seating for all the hot young guys she wants to ogle?”

“Oh, man.” Shaun winced. “Please don’t talk about my grandmother and ogling guys in the same sentence.” He shuddered. “Just the mental image will haunt me for days.”

“Psshhh. You never know what people get up to. Maybe all those church meetings are cover for her secret life as a leather-clad dominatrix.” Jimmy mimed cracking a whip. “On your knees, boy!”

Shaun faked a gagging sound, which just made Jimmy laugh harder. “All right, all right, I’ll stop,” he finally got out. “Whew! The look on your face.” He giggled. “If I ever want to gross you out, now I know where to go.”

“Please,” Shaun begged. “Don’t. Anything but that.”

Jimmy waggled a finger. “No promises. Except I will keep your secret. Some people aren’t nearly as circumspect as I am.”

“If that’s an example of you being circumspect,” Shaun said, “I’d hate to see you with all the filters off.”

“Don’t worry.” Jimmy gave a wicked grin. “Hang around here long enough, and it’s a sure bet.”

He turned on his heel, hollering a “toodle-oo!” over his shoulder, and Shaun just shook his head and turned back to his computer. There didn’t seem to be much else he could do. Jimmy was just Jimmy, a law and a force of nature all rolled up into one.

Shaun wouldn’t have him any other way.

“YOU DIDN’T
hear any more from that man, did you?”

Shaun fought back a grin at the way his gran broached the subject almost exactly the same way Jimmy had. He shook his head as she sat down next to him at the table. “He sent a few texts on Saturday, but nothing after that.”

“Hmm.” Gran reached for a biscuit and the butter dish. “Do you know why he looked you up after all this time? If he thought he was your father, why would he wait so long?”

“He said he didn’t know.” He set down his fork. No way could he eat, not even his gran’s pan-fried steak and gravy, while he told her this part of the story. “He told me first that he was in some kind of steps program and he was looking up Mama to apologize to her, but he found me instead. But then I found out”—he didn’t want to get into the testing stuff—“that he was sick. He needs a liver transplant. And apparently he thought I would just hand over part of mine.”

Shaun expected the same stunned look from her that he’d gotten from Darnell and Jimmy, but instead he got a kind of cold fury he didn’t think he’d ever seen on her face.

“That bastard,” she spat out, flinging her knife down next to her plate. “How dare he do something like that? Even if he had been your father, how could he expect you to do something like that for somebody who never bothered with you before?”

Torn between laughter and tears, Shaun settled for a watery smile and reached out to lay his hand over hers. “I don’t know, and I don’t want to know. He’s gone, and with any luck at all, he won’t be back.”

“He’d better not,” she grumbled, shifting in her seat like she was about to get up and go after him right then. “That baseball bat in the front closet ain’t just for show. I was the best hitter on the team back in school, and his head is a hell of a lot bigger than a softball.”

The laughter won out. Shaun shook with it, his gran’s glare only making him laugh harder. “I’m sorry,” he managed. “I just… I’m picturing him running and you chasing him with a bat, and….” That was all he could say before he couldn’t talk anymore.

Gran huffed, sounding put out at Shaun’s descent into giggles, but after a few long moments, she laughed too. “I’d do it, you know,” she said. “Chase his lily-white butt all over creation if I had to. Don’t nobody mess with my family and get away with it.”

Shaun finally subsided, wiping tears from the corner of his eyes, and went back to his dinner. “Well, Jimmy said he’d send a letter on his legal letterhead if I needed it, or help us file a restraining order. I hope we won’t need that, though.”

Gran mixed a pool of gravy at the side of her plate in with her rice. “Tell me about this Jimmy. You like working for him? And he’s a lawyer too? How’d he end up running a resort or whatever it is?”

Shaun took a sip of tea. “He’s great. Funny and laid-back. And yeah, he used to practice law, but he didn’t like it, so he went back to school and learned how to do massage. He had money from being a lawyer, and maybe some family money, I don’t know, and he bought the resort.”

Gran nodded and swallowed her mouthful. “And he likes it out there in the country?”

“Surprisingly, yeah, I think he does. ’Course, one of his partners has a business in town and the other’s in college, so they go back and forth a lot—”

Shaun stopped talking when he realized what he’d let escape. He’d been working at the resort for months, and all that time he’d never told Gran that it was geared toward gay men, or that his boss was gay. Now he’d let that slip, if she was paying attention, and on top of that, he’d told her he was in a three-way relationship.

Sure enough, Gran’s sharp gaze met his. “Partners? I don’t think you mean they co-own the business, do you?”

Shaun dropped his gaze to his plate. “No,” he admitted. “Jimmy’s gay. And, um. He has two boyfriends. Cory and Mikey.”

“Lord.” Gran shook her head. “I don’t get none of that. And three of them? Mm-mm-mm.” She made a sound of disbelief, but then she just went back to her dinner, and Shaun breathed out a soft sigh of relief.

That didn’t go badly.
But then, talking about his boss and his preferences was a far cry from talking about himself and his own.

Still, it was better than her going off on a rant about homosexuality. He’d hold on to that thought, and if—
when
—he was ready to tell her, maybe she’d have the same kind of nonreaction reaction.

He didn’t want to think about what might happen if things went worse than that.

WHEN SHAUN
stepped into Rayland’s, it took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the dim lighting inside the restaurant. By the time he could focus, he heard Darnell calling his name from off to his left. He turned and caught Darnell’s eye, giving a small smile as he started to walk that direction.

The woman standing next to Darnell at the round wooden table had a deep olive complexion and long, dark, curly hair pulled back with a simple white headband. She gave Shaun a tentative smile as he approached, and Shaun did his best to send back warmth in his own smile.

“I’m Shaun Rogers,” he said, holding out a hand.

“Katie Sanchez.” Her handshake was firm, and up close, Shaun could see that she was small but curvy, her outfit simultaneously flattering to her lush figure and modest enough for a meet-the-family dinner.

“And I’m Darnell.”

The silly comment broke through some of the tension, and they all laughed as they settled into their seats. Glasses of water sat at all three places, and Shaun took immediate advantage, taking a long sip to soothe his dry mouth.

“So.” Katie cleared her throat and glanced at Darnell, who nodded his encouragement. “Darnell told me how you know each other. I’m so sorry about what happened to your mother.”

Shaun forced a smile. “Thank you. It was….” He didn’t know where to go from there. Difficult didn’t begin to cover it.

“It was hell.” Shaun’s gaze flew up to meet Darnell’s. “It’s no use sugarcoating it. Hardest few months of my life, and I know it was a whole heck of a lot worse for Shaun and his grandmother.”

Shaun let his gaze drop and nodded. “Yeah,” he murmured. “It was.”

After a long pause, Darnell spoke again. “I didn’t mean to make things even more awkward,” he said. “I just thought it might be best to get that out up front, so you’d know what I told Katie. I also, just for the record, told her that I loved your mama with every bit of my heart, and that’s not something that’s just going to go away.”

Shaun lifted his head to find Darnell looking at Katie now, his gaze soft. “Sharon Rogers was one of the best people I’ve ever known. She was beautiful and smart and brave, and she raised one of the other best people I’ve ever known.” He glanced at Shaun before turning his attention back to Katie. “But one thing I’ve learned in my life is that love doesn’t have limits. The way I feel about Katie doesn’t make what I felt—feel—for Sharon any less. It’s not a replacement. It’s an addition.”

Katie smiled, and Darnell smiled back before he turned to Shaun. “I told Katie, and I’m telling you now, that no matter what happens with her and me, I’m not giving up you and your gran. You’re family just as much as you would have been if I’d been able to marry your mom. That’s not gonna change. I promise you that.”

Shaun hadn’t even realized he’d feared losing Darnell until now, and he didn’t have time to worry about it because Darnell had already covered it. He blinked away the moisture in his eyes and smiled.

“Well, good,” he said. “’Cause I didn’t want to have to borrow my gran’s baseball bat to chase you down.”

Darnell laughed, and Shaun and then Katie joined in. Most of the tension around the table drained away, and after that it was just a normal dinner. The question of Shaun’s sexuality didn’t enter into it. It was just a guy introducing his friend to his girlfriend.

When they said their good-byes outside the front door, Darnell hugged Shaun a bit longer than usual and said, “Remember. I promise.”

Shaun nodded as he pulled away, and Katie gave him a smile and a wave as she and Darnell walked off toward his car. Shaun headed for his own car, wishing suddenly that Con had been there with him.

Next time
, he told himself. Next time he’d be the one with a new date on his arm.

“HEY THERE,
gorgeous.”

Shaun’s head snapped up from the computer screen at the sound of Con’s voice, and a grin split his face. “You’re back!”

“I hurried to finish so I could head down early.” Con smiled and moved in closer to where Shaun stood in his usual spot behind the front desk. “Somebody might have let it slip that it’s your birthday.”

Shaun tilted his head back to meet Con’s heated gaze. “They did, did they?” Feeling brave, he reached out one hand to rest on Con’s hip, using the touch to pull him a little closer. “Did they also tell you to bring me a present?”

“Well, I’m here, aren’t I?”

Shaun didn’t have a chance to retort because Con was kissing him then, deep and thorough. Shaun relaxed into the kiss, savoring the taste and feel of his lover, his hard body pressed close and his tongue exploring Shaun’s mouth.