Page 63 of Homecoming for Beginners

Nothing.

He kept his own bedroom door closed, not because he valued his privacy but because he felt like he should, with a kid who wasn’t his in the house. The empty bedrooms had their doors closed too. Then Theo’s, open a few inches with light spilling out into the hallway, even if it was still silent.

Ty knocked softly and peered in.

Ollie and Theo lay on the four-poster bed, fast asleep, Theo curled in toward Ollie’s chest like an opening parenthesis. His fingers were clenched in the fabric of his father’s shirt. Even on that big bed, even cuddled up together, they somehow managed to take up all the available space. It was hard not to feel like it was some kind of metaphor.

Ty rubbed his sternum like that might remind his heart to keep beating. Then he padded down the hallway to the linen closet and pulled out a couple throw blankets. It was supposed to get cold tonight, and Theo and Ollie had passed out on top of the covers.

He covered each of them with a blanket, turned on Theo’s desk lamp, and flicked off the overhead light. Then he returned to his own bedroom and sat on the bed with his face in his hands.

What the hell was he going to do?

TY RANout of the house on Saturday like his ass was on fire.

He’d slept fitfully the night before. Between talking to the police and not-talking with Ollie, he couldn’t get his brain to settle. Add in his anxiety over Theo’s silent treatment, and he didn’t think anyone could blame him for leaving the house before Ollie and Theo woke up. He walked to the school to retrieve his truck.

The whole thing backfired on him when he returned home to find a note on the kitchen table.Gone to Cassie’s to help set up for Mel’s birthday party. Talk later?—Ollie X.

“This is just mean,” Ty said out loud to the universe. It was one thing for him to avoid his own problems and quite another for the universe to take the decision out of his hands. Now that hecouldn’thave that talk with Ollie right now, it was the only thing hewanted to do.

Instead he had to attend an end-of-year cookout with his coworkers, pretend his heart wasn’t wherever Ollie was, and hope desperately that he wasn’t being too greedy, grasping for more when Ollie had already given him so much.

What if Ollie changed his mind?

Ever since his chat with Ollie the other night, the atmosphere in the house felt charged. Ty kept catching Ollielookingat him. It was driving him crazy. And it felt unfair—he’djustmanaged to convince himself he could be Ollie’s normal platonic friend he lived with, at least for a few months.

Ty could not be Ollie’s normal platonic friend if Ollie was going to look at him like that.

Hell, Ty wasn’t sure he could move back to Chicago if Ollie kept looking at him like that.

For the first time in over a decade, it felt like someone looked at him and saw someone they liked. Someone they wanted to build a life with.

Unfortunately Ollie seemed to want to make his life in a town that had ground Ty’s self-worth into dog shit and then used a stick to scrape it off their shoe. Plus, Ollie had never once mentioned being attracted to men. That would’ve come up, right? So maybe Ty was imagining things. Or maybe Ollie had an incipient sexuality crisis on his hands. Did Ty want to get involved in that? (Dumb question. Ty would absolutely be all up in Ollie’s sexuality crisis, lending a hand or mouth or dick or whatever body part the situation called for.) And on top of those issues, they had Theo to consider. Ty was by no means a parenting expert, but he was pretty sure his dad dating right after his mom died would’ve sent Ty into an absolute rage tornado.

He couldn’t be responsible for turning sweet, sensitive Theo into a seething ball of angst. That would do terrible things to his karma. It was bad enough he wasn’t talking to Ty right now.

“Hey,” Peggy said from across the picnic table. Around them, the not-quite-end-of-school-year staff party ebbed and flowed. This year Jason Kim was hosting; his family had a fruit farm with a small event space. Ty would’ve loved it if he could convince himself to take any of it in.

Maybe he and Ollie should come back here with Theo.

Maybe Ty shouldn’t count his chickens before he asked if they wanted to peck in his yard. Or something.

Peggy continued, “This is supposed to be a party, and not the pity kind.”

“Yeah,” Henry put in, knocking his elbow into Ty’s. “Cowboys don’t cry. What’s going on?”

For a moment Ty didn’t know where to begin—Henry might maintain there was no crying in baseball, but he infamously cried at graduation every year, and also Ty wasn’t a cowboy; he didn’t even ride the lawn mower.

At least the question knocked him out of his Ollie-and-Theo spiral.

And then Peggy said darkly, “This better not be about Alan Chiu.”

Henry’s expression went thunderous. “Is he still giving you a hard time?”

Oh good—a whole new pile of anxiety. “That asshole.” On the other hand, no need for Henry to get worked up. He should watch his blood pressure. Eliza would kill Ty if she lost a second husband. “I mean, he’s trying to run me out of town, naturally. Cops showed up at my house last night to get a statement. Didn’t take a genius to figure out they were there doing his bidding. I told them I wasn’t talking to them without my lawyer.” Which—fuck. Ty took out his phone. “So I guess I have to call your wife. Again.”

The sun returned to Henry’s face. “I love my wife.”

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