Dream Me(51)

Zat told me to be truthful with LeGrand. “Be gentle with him,” Zat said. “Just like he’d be with you.”

But how do you diplomatically tell your friend his dad is a perv and that’s why you avoid meeting up at his place? It would be a huge test of our friendship, and one that terrified me, because I’d reached the now or never moment. If LeGrand couldn’t accept it, it might mean we weren’t meant to be friends. After all, I hadn’t done anything wrong.

I texted him to get together after work and right off he asked me to meet him at The Lucky Lady. I suggested the tennis clubhouse instead. We could take a walk, I said. I knew whichever way the conversation went, I was going to miss LeGrand badly. He’d be going back to Memphis in a few weeks.





Seventeen


“I really need to talk to you,” I dreaded what came next. “And I need to do it before you leave. I thought about emailing, but it’s too private.”

I kept my eyes straight in front of me even though LeGrand was by my side. I had to stay resolute so I didn’t want to be sidetracked by one of his disarming smiles.

“I know,” he said, the seriousness in his voice matching my own. We walked along the marina away from The Lucky Lady. The path would eventually take us to a long pier which ended in a tiny spit of sand in the bay, a mini island complete with its own private beach. “I’ve been waiting for this.”

“You have?” I kicked myself for not bringing it up sooner. If he’d been waiting for it, then I’d been torturing myself for no reason.

“I mean . . . I knew you’d say something before I left.”

“It’s really been bumming me out, I have to admit. In fact, it’s downright depressing.”

“Is that so?” He looked surprised. “I thought, you being from California and all . . . I thought you’d be more accepting.”

“Being from California would make me more accepting?” I must have flushed a hot shade of scarlet on the outside because I felt a hot shade of anger on the inside. “Are you crazy?”

There were a few seconds of painful silence and then we both just stopped walking and looked at each other.

“Are we talking about the same thing?” LeGrand broke the silence.

“What are you talking about?” I frantically replayed our conversation in my head. What had I just said to him? Was he thinking I was coming on to him? That’s the last thing I would ever want LeGrand to think.

“I have a boyfriend,” we both blurted out at the exact same moment. Then, “Wait . . .” and, “What?”

It was what they call a comedy of errors.

“I thought . . . I thought you were talking about my being gay,” he mumbled uncharacteristically.

“Oh,” I said meekly. “I didn’t even know you were gay.”

Another long silence.

“Whoops,” LeGrand drew the word out into about three syllables. “I guess you do now.” He smiled hopefully at me, eyebrows slightly raised. “I’m glad you do,” he said hesitantly. It sounded more like a question.

“Me too.” I rose up on my tiptoes and put my arms around his neck. He hugged me back and I realized we’d never touched each other before that moment. “Why would you think I’d care?”

“Because I haven’t outed myself yet. Only my friend in Memphis—and now you.”

“Your parents don’t know?”

“Least of all them. Especially my dad.”

“It’s probably tough being an only child, huh? Not even a sibling to share with.”

“I wasn’t always an only child,” he said. “I had a younger brother, but he drowned in a swimming pool when he was two and I was five.”

“Oh, LeGrand, I didn’t know that either. I’m so, so sorry.”

“Yeah, me too. That’s when my mom and dad stopped acting like we were a family. They both blamed each other, you know. Like who was supposed to be watching the kids at the party? Anyway, that happened a long time ago.”

I put my arms around him again and rested my forehead against his chest. He hugged me back. Second time we ever touched each other.

“I’m so honored, LeGrand. Thanks for confiding in me. It’s awesome that you trust me with this.”

And it was awesome. To know LeGrand liked me for the person I was. I admit there had been times when I wondered if he only wanted to add Mai and me to his gang of adoring groupies. But that was settled once and for all. Right then I knew we’d always be friends, no matter where our lives took us.

We walked all the way down the pier and when we got to the end we sat on the miniature beach where tiny bay wavelets lapped against its shore.

“This was one of my favorite places to come when I was a kid,” he said. “There are miniature seahorses that live in the sea grass. When I was little my mom used to wade out with me and we’d catch some and take them back to the boat. Then the next day we’d walk back here and let them go.”

“I want to see one!” Miniature seahorses sounded positively magical.

“We don’t have a net,” he said. “But we can come back before I leave. I’ll show you how to do it.”

“Cool.”

“But we have to let them go.”