Page 125 of Sapphire Spring

Mason felt his throatclose up.

“What?” Pete asked. “What hurt?”

“The way you talked to me. The names you used to call me.”

“What names?”

Tony cleared his throat and sat up. Mason shook his head atthe man, hoping he wouldn’t intervene.

“Well, faggot for one.Cocksuckerwas another.”

“I never called you those things.”

“You use the words all the time.”

“Fine. Wash my mouth out with soap then. But I never calledyouthose things.”

“They’re not just dirty words, Dad. They’re slurs. They’re…attackson who I am.”

“How the hell wouldIknow who you were?”

Tony cleared his throat. “All right, guys. Maybe we should—”

“SoI’m not going to get a turn?”Pete asked, face reddening.

Tony studied them both. “Mason, do you feel like you’ve saidyour piece for the moment?”

Mason nodded.

Now that he had the floor, Pete suddenly looked like hedidn’t want it. He stared at the dirt, shaking his head. “I mean, you sit heretelling me how you’ve never told me who you really are, and then you get on myass for not approving of you? How can I disapprove of someone I don’t know? Imean, I didn’t see you in high school, Mason. And I was like, okay. Fine. He’soff playing sports. He’s off with his friends. You were having a life. Butbefore that, when I used to bring you to the beach house with the guys, you’djust… You’d get lost in space. You’d wander off in a corner, and it was likeyou weren’t even there. And I’d try to talk to you, and you’d just look rightthrough me like I was a stranger. I didn’t even know how to deal with that. Allright, fine.SoI use words I shouldn’t use sometime.All right, so—”

“It’s more than that, Dad. You know it’s more than that.”

“How’s it more than that?”

“You made up a work dinner to try to force me to cancel adate because you knew I was seeing a man.”

“That’s bullshit. I did thatbecause you wouldn’t tell me who you were going to see. I figured you wereabout to fall off the wagon.”

Mason felt like ice water had been thrown in his face. Wasthis the truth or was his father lying? “No son of mine. That’s what you saidto me in my office. You were starting up some big speech about how no son ofyours could ever be less than one hundred percent straight.”

“No son of mine has a right to judge the type of woman Itake to my own beach house. Which you had just done.That’swhat I wasgoing to say to you before you threw a picture frame at mydamnhead. Because you were ready to dumpshiton someversion of me you made up.”

“I didn’t make up that you’re a bully. You always have been.Always. If it felt like I was staring through you when I was a kid, maybe it’sbecause I was afraid of you jumping down mydamnthroat.”

“Withwords?Seriously, words? I spend how muchbailing you out because of your messes, I bring you into my company when I don’tknow if I can trust you to even show up for work, and I get called up onto amountain to talk aboutwords.”

“It’s not just words!” Mason barked.

“Okay. Fine.Fine.I’m not crazy about guys whofuckwith other dudes. You want to send me to another campfor that?”

Pete’s rage sent a shockwave across the clearing, and Mason,for the first time, glimpsed something else writhing beneath the hate.Something that startled him silent. Something in the strange wording his fatherhad just used—notfuck, fuckedwith. As if hefelt he’d revealed too much, Pete ran his hands over his face and sucked in adeep breath.

“I know it’s not PC or whatever, but how the hell was Isupposed to know you weren’t straight when you spent your whole life surroundedby bikini models? I swear to God, Mason. Honestly. I was ready to let you go.You went up to UCLA. And I thought, well, it’s this big, liberal school, sohe’ll probably run off or become an artist or a Democrat or I don’t know what.And I’ll be down a son who talks to me like I’m supposed to park his car andI’m taking too long. No big loss, I guess. But then you came back. To me.” Hecrooked a finger at his own chest. “Youcame back tome.Because you needed to be bailed out. Because you needed somebody to fund yournice cars and your all-night parties with Chadwick. And now I’m this son of abitch who drowned you in allthis crapwhen the truthis you used me for a check and a job, and now you want to punish me for it infront of all these people. You have any idea howshittythat makes me feel?”

“As shitty as it made me feel whenever you’d call a man youdidn’t like a faggot.”

“Inevercalledyoua name—”

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