Riding With Brighton(62)

“So it was Mom who wanted to live there—in the country?”

“Yes. And eventually I fell in love with it too. Plus, we had you and she was happy for a while, so nothing else really mattered. And you were always the perfect son. She was determined to make you the manliest of boys. If you want to know the truth, Jay, I kind of hated sports. I never played. I never had the desire to watch them.”

“But you coached my Little League teams. And you’ve never missed any of my games. And how many hours have we spent watching football and baseball together?”

“Right. Well, I grew to love it. I loved coaching yours and Ty’s teams. I love being your dad. But even you being an exceptional athlete and turning out to be a very popular, handsome kid wasn’t enough. She thought you had too much time to yourself in the country. Every time you wandered out that door and down to the river, she would worry about what you were thinking, why you needed to spend so much time by yourself and what thoughts were going through your head. Plus, she wanted to ensure that you remained part of the group you were friends with. And of course, they all lived here. So….”

“Are you kidding me? That’s why we sold that land and bought this house? So that I wouldn’t be gay?”

He lets out a breath and shakes his head. His eyes glaze over with tears. “I should have put my foot down. I should have made her go to therapy or something. I was just so used to it being a priority in our life, I didn’t see what was happening.”

I run my hands over my face and hide under them for a minute. “This is too much.” I drop my hands and look at my dad. “I don’t even know how to comprehend all of this. I mean, what is this going to do to us? To her? To the two of you?”

“Right now, it’s bad. But I think in the long run, it will be good. Maybe she’ll finally start living her own life now. I don’t want you to worry about it. This is the last year we have with you until you go off to college, and I just want you to be happy. It breaks my heart that you’ve had to keep this to yourself.” He pauses and looks at me, like really looks at me. The look on his face is tortured. “How long have you known, Jay?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know… a long time, I guess.”

“Did you ever think about talking to us about it?”

“Not really. Until yesterday, I really had no intention of ever telling anyone in this town.”

“I should have done a better job of talking to you about things—important things. I should have made it clear that you could tell me anything and that I would always love you and have your back.”

“Dad, it’s not your fault. I do feel like I can talk to you about anything. Just not that. I wasn’t ready to admit it to myself much less talk to anyone about it.”

“But if we hadn’t built your life the way we did… if we had stayed in the city… if your mom didn’t have this irrational fear… if we had been open and honest with you about Grandpa….”

“Dad, stop. My life has been great. This town is actually pretty great.” I smile, thinking about the things Brighton showed me yesterday. “And Brighton lives here.”

My dad smiles at that. “He’s Max Bello-Adler’s son, right?”

“Yeah. You know him?”

“Sure. His company set up all the computer stuff when we built the new offices.”

“Computer stuff?” I laugh.

“Not my area of expertise.”

“Clearly.”

He smiles. “I have a lot of respect for him. I admired the way he talked about his family—Brighton specifically. He really loves that kid, and he had no reservations telling me that he was gay. It wasn’t even an issue. You were dating Colette then, and I was sharing my concerns about, well, the fact that I didn’t particularly like how she treated people, and he told me about Brighton’s boyfriend and how he felt the same way.”

I smile at that. Max didn’t like Harrison. “Wait, you didn’t like Colette?”

“God, no. Did you?”

I laugh. “No, not really.”

“Anyway, we had a very long conversation about our two boys and their dating lives and it was such a breath of fresh air, being around someone so open-minded and accepting. It just made me feel good about humanity as a whole.”

“Yeah,” I agree. “They’re all kind of like that.”

“He’s a good-looking kid. And the mom, Michelle?”

“I think she goes by Mickey.”

“Right. Anyway, I can see where he got his looks from.”

God, am I really doing this? Talking to my dad about how hot Brighton is? Yeah, I think I am. I think I want to. “He is pretty good-looking, and he’s just an awesome person in general.”

“So you like him?” he asks with a huge smile.

I can’t help but smile back. “Yeah.”

“Is he your boyfriend?”

“I don’t know. I guess we haven’t talked about that. I mean, our relationship started yesterday.”

“So he’s more than a friend?”

“Yeah. Way more.”

“That talk we had a few years ago about condoms… it still applies. You know that, right?”

“Oh my God. Dad, please, can we not?” I think I’m more freaked out about me having sex with a guy than my dad is. Which is so strange.