Page 25 of In the Name of the Father

“Good morning.” Nate chuckled. “I’m just busting your balls. What’s going on?”

“Bear with me for a sec. Do you remember that wedding we went to a couple years ago? The one where Aiden was marrying his little, and they had an ordained Christian pastor perform the ceremony?”

“Yeah, totally. I had to beg you to be my date at the last minute because Tina cancelled.”

“Funny. Anyway, can you remember anything about that pastor? His name, church affiliation? Anything at all?”

“Callum something or another. But I’m sure Aiden would know. Why don’t you ask him?”

“Well…” His insistence on hiding under a rock for so long was about to bite him extra hard in the ass. “I might’ve stopped returning his calls. I doubt he’d be interested in hearing from me.”

Nate sighed. “Malcolm, Malcolm, Malcolm… What are we going to do with you? I’ll give you his number.”

“Whoa, wait. That’s not what I meant.” Malcolm cringed. When had he gotten so wimpy? He was behaving the exact same way that used to earn Everett a punishment. It wasn’t Nate’s responsibility to pick up the slack for him. “You know what, never mind. I’d love to get his number if you have it.”

“Happy to oblige.”

Malcolm could easily picture the shit-eating grin on Nate’s face.

After getting Aiden’s contact info, Malcolm ambled into the kitchen to fortify himself with some coffee. Like the morning before, the sun had just broken the horizon. But a new sense of purpose had filled him after spending the previous day with Seth. Malcolm held to the belief that Seth needed a certain type of help that he couldn’t provide. However, he’d also concluded that Seth needed him to be there for him too. In what exact capacity remained to be seen.

Before he spoke to anyone else about the young man, though, he needed to understand more of Seth’s background. He didn’t dare go in blind and he wasn’t about to ambush him with yet another religious authority figure without some context. Whatever help he sought for Seth would have to be with his consent. Choice had been taken away from him for much too long.

“Hi. Is it okay if I come into the kitchen?”

Malcolm was jolted from his thoughts by Seth’s hesitant voice. He wrapped his hands around his warm mug and turned to face him.

“Good morning. Of course, you may. For future reference, unless I’m in the bathroom or my bedroom with the door closed, you don’t need to ask permission to enter a room. You have free reign of the house.” Malcolm gestured to the dinette. “Why don’t you have a seat and I’ll grab you some coffee.”

Seth tugged on the end of his T-shirt, worrying the fabric. “Um, good morning. But wouldn’t you like it if I made breakfast again? I want to do my part.” His brow creased. “I guess the omelet wasn’t very good, was it?”

Malcolm’s gut clenched. Even the simplest things gnawed away at Seth and they hadn’t even touched on the tougher subjects yet.

“The omelet was wonderful, and I look forward to you making me another one in the future. But last night after you went to bed, I prepared us some overnight oats.” Malcolm gestured again. “Go on. I’ll grab what we need.”

After Malcolm had poured Seth’s coffee and a glass of milk, he retrieved the oats and a pitcher of orange juice he’d made from concentrate. Malcolm held a smile at bay from how pained Seth appeared at not being allowed to help. While he didn’t believe in lazy boys, he was determined to show Seth what it was like to be catered to for a change. Malcolm ached to give Seth as much attention and care as he could handle.

“Here we go.” Malcolm placed the final component of their breakfast onto the table. It wasn’t much of a surprise that Seth didn’t take one sip of his coffee until Malcolm had joined him and taken a drink of his own. “Let’s dig in.”

Seth followed Malcolm’s lead and they finished their meal in no time. With both of their stomachs full and a cup of coffee each, Malcolm decided it was time to confront some of Seth’s demons. He’d purposely cleared his minimal schedule so he could remain at the house with him. His fear was that their conversation might trigger something.

“I’m going to grab another cup of coffee then go relax on the sun porch. Would you like to join me?”

Seth had already begun gathering up their dishes. “Sure. I’m not keeping you from work or anything, am I?”

“Not at all. To be honest, I usually only drop in at the vineyard a couple times a week, or if there’s some sort of emergency. After Everett passed, I found it difficult to be there all the time in my old capacity. So, I hired a manager to run the day to day business aspect, and now when I show up, it’s primarily to meet with him and check in on things.”

They each brought their own mugs into the sunroom, which had originally been open walled when he’d purchased the property. But with so much rain throughout the year, he’d decided to finish it off and use it for all his plants and indoor trees. That way, he could enjoy the area for reflection, to read or just watch the rain hit the windows during a storm. He hoped the calming atmosphere would support Seth while he told his difficult story.

“Here we go.”

Malcolm placed his mug on the round, glass topped wicker table sandwiched between two large wicker chairs with cushy padding. Everything in the room was done in deep burgundy and emerald green, the color scheme not much different from the Silver Chalice’s. Malcolm lowered himself onto his chair then indicated to Seth to take the other one. He wanted them to be close, but also give Seth his space.

“Wow.” Seth gazed around the cozy room. “This is beautiful. Do you like to read? This would make a great reading room.”

“Actually, yes. I do.”Might as well ease into things. “What do you like to read?”

“I’ve only recently gotten to read some of the books I’d always wanted to from before. I can’t check them out of the library, because I don’t have a local ID, but I sometimes go there on my days off to fill the time. Actually, I’d rather not check them out anyway. Then I can sit there and read and not have to be at the motel.”

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