Page 83 of Tameron

I frowned. The LED lights were neat, but it was thick and looked heavy. I didn’t see mesh-wearing, fur-booted ravers strapping that on their bodies, Deaf or not.

‘Cool.’

He puffed out his chest and nodded. ‘Might go party with the kids.’

Rolling my eyes, I walked over and helped him out of it, draping it over the table next to the radio. ‘Good luck with that. Mom will kill you.’

He scoffed. ‘She’ll come. She got one of her own.’

God, I did not want to picture my parents trying to Irish jig at a rave. Lord help everyone in the vicinity. ‘Want to get started?’

My dad eyed me. ‘You in a rush? Have someone to see?’ He stepped closer and said aloud, “Boyfriend?”

I shoved him back. ‘Stop. Not my boyfriend. We’re just friends.’

‘S-E-X friends.’

I grabbed his wrists and shook my head. ‘Never again.’

He burst into laughter and gave me a pat on the shoulder. ‘You boys thought you were so clever, jerking off to porn we can’t hear. But I always knew. I know you have sex. Don’t be embarrassed.’

It didn’t matter how old I was. Talking about sex with my dad would always be mortifying. ‘Enough. Fence work now, please.’

He sighed and walked over, unrolling the first piece of chain link. It didn’t take long to get it set up, but by the time we were done with all four sides, I’d worked up a heavy sweat. Christ, I needed to run more often.

‘That was my workout for the month,’ he said as he grabbed two water bottles from his cooler.

I took one down in a handful of deep swallows. ‘Come to my gym. I’ll hook you up with the best trainer.’

He pulled a face. ‘No, thank you. I don’t want to do burpees.’ He fingerspelled the last word with heavy disdain. ‘How is Tameron?’

Lord. He really wasn’t going to let this go. ‘He’s fine. I think he went to the shop with Dax.’

My dad grinned. ‘Already fitting in. Part of the family now.’

‘He has a family.’ He had more than one family—his own and Nash’s. He was always welcome in ours, but I didn’t want to put that pressure on him.

My dad’s expression fell. ‘He didn’t like dinner?’

‘No, no. He had a good time. He got some good ideas of things he can use at home to make it easier when he takes off his hearing aids. But he feels lost.’

My dad nodded. ‘I understand. I told him what it was like.’

The two of us walked over to his Adirondack chairs, which he’d set up under the bigger magnolia tree, and we sat, feet kicked out toward each other. I enjoyed the silence for a bit. It was windy and a hint of fog was in the air, but it was warm enough to be pleasant.

Then my dad kicked my foot. ‘Are you okay?’

I sighed. ‘You and mom struggled to be together at first, right?’

He shrugged. ‘It took me a while to really understand what it meant to be Deaf. I didn’t grow up that way, so I didn’t know a lot. I was disrespectful when I didn’t mean to be. I favored my voice. I wanted to do what was easier at the time, and I wanted her to meet me more than halfway. She didn’t like that.’

No. I couldn’t imagine she did.

‘Would you be angry if I end up with a man who never wants to be fully part of it?’

He tilted his head to the side, then leaned forward over his thighs. ‘When you were born, I cried three times. You didn’t breathe right away, and I was scared. Then I held you, and you were so perfect. And then they told me you could hear.’

My gut clenched. It wasn’t the first time I’d sat through the story of my parents grieving not having a Deaf child. And it was never malicious. It was never cruel.

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