Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 47200 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 236(@200wpm)___ 189(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47200 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 236(@200wpm)___ 189(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
But Steve’s no dummy. And I can see now that I shoulda just come out with it, long before helping him get his business into first gear.
I guess we just got lazy.
It happens right after another one of Steve’s dinners on a Friday night. He’s insisted I come over, and he’ll cook for all of us.
So far, so good.
But come eleven o’clock, and then midnight, May and I are giving each other guarded glances.
And Steve takes on the air of a man who has something to say.
“I should probably head to bed,” May says, about to excuse herself, but Steve asks her to sit.
We all know what’s coming.
“You don’t have to pretend anymore, May,” Steve says calmly, shaking his head and laughing to himself.
But it’s not a happy laugh.
It’s a wounded, ironic kind of grimace he wears as his eyes settle on mine.
“And you, Brandon? I suppose your beat after spending the day with May ‘helping you out’ around the house, huh?” he says cuttingly but regains his composure quickly.
“I guess I have something to tell you,” I croak, trying to swallow but feeling my mouth as dry as dirt.
“I guess we both have something to tell you,” May adds, making me jump when her hand slips into mine, and she rests them both on the table.
Steve takes in a sharp breath, steadying himself and, I have to say, being a fucking man about it.
“So go ahead,” he murmurs. “Tell me all about it,” he says before raising his hand quickly.
“No. Don’t tell me all about it. I don’t need to know the sordid details…Just tell me when all this started, Brandon. May,” he asks, looking over to her, his eyes filling up with tears before either of us even says a word.
“How could you?” he sniffs bitterly, looking every bit as hurt and betrayed as I thought he might, but he’s not angry.
Not angry at all.
Just hurt that we’ve been fooling around behind his back and keeping secrets.
May looks upset too and only lowers her head in shame, but I, for one, feel better now he knows.
“I’ve been in love with May since the day she graduated,” I tell him, and her too, keeping my hand firmly over hers.
“Things moved quicker than I thought, and it wasn’t until we both knew how much we were in love that it meant hurting you if you knew,” I tell him.
Not excusing myself or apologizing but trying to help him to understand.
He thinks for a moment. “So. You coming all the way out here, for good. All that was just a way to get to May?” he asks me.
“Don’t twist it to make it look like that, Steve,” I retort, but he is kinda right.
“I meant what I said about helping you, and I still do,” I remind him.
“I can give May more than any man half my age, too. Give her a life…,” I say but stop myself.
“What?” Steve snaps. “Give her a life her father couldn’t? She’s my fucking daughter, Brandon. Who the fuck asked you to help yourself, huh?” he asks angrily, but May pipes in just as hotly in reply.
“I’m not a kid anymore, Dad. I’m an adult. And I know you’ve provided for me, always made sure I had everything I need,” she agrees.
“But do you think a girl like me is ever gonna have a guy like Brandon just breeze into town and sweep me off my feet and let him go? Getting eight bucks an hour tutoring part-time and living with my Dad into my old age is the kind of life I had planned for myself,” she says defiantly.
I like her fire, and I’m proud of her for speaking her mind.
We might be burning a bridge here, but at least everyone’s having their fair say.
And for Steve to take the news without his fists flying, I think he’s matured a lot more gracefully than I would’ve normally given him credit for.
I feel my pulse slow down now that he knows. It means no more hiding the truth. But it also means May and I have to make some decisions that he might not like.
Like her moving in with me permanently.
Maybe even moving back to the east coast, if that’s what she wants.
Or we might decide to live between both places.
But before any of that, Steve has plenty more to get off his chest.
And it’s not all bad news either.
“I knew,” he says, reflecting with a nostalgic air.
“I knew that day of your graduation, May. And I know you better than you think, Brandon,” he says to me.
“I just didn’t want to believe it. I even told you I thought May had a little crush on you, thinking you’d set me straight there and then. Tell me I was crazy, but you didn’t,” he recalls. “That’s when I think I had to own up to the facts, and it wasn’t soon after that I noticed May’s bed not even slept in. So joining the dots wasn’t rocket science.”