Page 51 of Tameron

“Big crowd.”

My entire body went still. There wasn’t a chance in hell I wouldn’t recognize that voice. Turning my head, I saw Tameron hovering shyly in the doorway, leaning heavily on a walking cane. He was holding his body slightly to the side, which told me he was still dealing with vertigo.

I was more than familiar. My mom had it pretty badly, and there were days she couldn’t get out of bed.

“Hey.” I jerked my head for him to come in, and he took a few hesitant steps forward. “You feeling better?”

Pulling a face, he shrugged, and I could see the frustration hovering in his eyes. “Depends on what you’re comparing it to. I’m finally upright and can drive again, but I’m not totally steady on my feet once I get to walking.”

He was finally close enough to touch, but I didn’t dare. Not here. Not when there were eyes and ears everywhere.

“I got adjusted though.” He tapped the little box behind his ear. “It’s done wonders for the screaming locusts in my head.”

I offered him a sympathetic look before dipping around him to adjust the thermostat. I kept this class warmer than the others because their bodies needed the extra help with relaxation. “You want to stay?”

“What class is right now?” Tameron asked.

I forgot it wasn’t his normal day at the gym. “It’s my senior chair yoga.”

He bit his lip and watched the people set up.

“You’d be welcome, though I have to warn you, some of them are a little…forward,” I warned, leaning in close. Barbara had looked over and now had her eye on Tameron. I was more than prepared to tell her to back off.

She caught Tameron’s eye and winked, and he let out a startled laugh. “Oh.”

I turned my body toward his. ‘She’s really into my brother,’ I signed slowly.

Tameron choked a bit in the back of his throat. ‘Dax?’

I nodded my fist. ‘She’s trying to get his business card out of me so she can watch him work on her car all day.’

“Oh lord,” he whispered. “I might skip this class.”

“Probably a good idea. She means well, but you know…”

He made a face that told me that, yeah, he did. “So, I just came by to sign an accommodation request form, but now that you’re here…” He trailed off.

I reached out and gently brushed a touch over his arm. When he looked up, I signed, ‘Anything.’

He licked his lips, then swallowed heavily. “I think I’d like to officially take you up on your offer to meet your family soon.I mean…it’ll be good for me, right? Everyone is always saying immersion is the best way to learn.”

I chuckled. “That’s not exactly immersion, but yeah. It’ll be good. My dad’s spent years working with veterans who have hearing loss.”

His eyes widened. “He—oh. Did I know that?”

“Probably not,” I confessed. “I didn’t want you to think I was, like, proselytizing for the Deaf community.”

He opened his mouth, then shut it again. “Is he Deaf because he served too?”

“No, no. He was the first Deaf kid born to a hearing family. Typical story,” I said, waving my hand. “Parents were told that ASL would stunt his intellectual growth, so he was shoved into a residential deaf school that only taught oral language and was forbidden from signing until he got to college. But my dad’s a lot like me.”

“Stubborn as fuck?”

I burst into laughter. “Exactly. He started learning from books in secret and then taking classes at the community center when he got older. He was accepted into Gallaudet, where he met my mom and…well, the rest is history. But he understands what it’s like to straddle two worlds. He made a choice between them, and he’s happy with it, but he knows that’s not for everyone.”

“It sounds like maybe he was the best dad for you.”

I couldn’t argue with that. There would always be the inherent trauma of being born into a culture that would never fully belong to me. No matter how hard my parents worked to make me feel included, I had to accept the truth that I didn’t totally belong. That I would always be different. That deep down, they would have preferred me to be like my brother, even if they loved me exactly the way I was.

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