Page 35 of Running Scared
Bailey thought about it.And thought.And then his father’s chuckle broke into his frantic scrambling for a way to explain that first meeting.
“So, uhm, orgy, was it?”
“No!”Bailey cried in outrage.“No.You know me better than that.Val got hurt in a wreck—he pretty much pulled every muscle in his body and had a roaring concussion.Dean showed up to make sure his brother was taken care of, and McCauley showed up, and Val’s best friend showed up too, and after I got everybody calmed down and checked Val out, Dean and I… uhm… had a moment.”
“A moment,” his father echoed dryly.
“A reallygoodmoment,” Bailey admitted, because it had been.And then, because his father probably guessed this anyway, “My first moment since Emmett.”
“Yeah, son.I know.So an important moment.”
Bailey shrugged.“I thought so, but I also didn’t expect it to go any further, you know?Dean left, I fell asleep, and… and I was, like, ‘Wow.That was amazing.’And never expected to see him again.”
“What happened?”His father adjusted his seat so he was lying prone on the bed, and Bailey wondered if somebody up front needed a break because he wasn’t ready to sleep yet.
“He showed up a week later,” Bailey said, that moment so clear in his mind.Dean, head leaned back against the stucco, eyes closed, half smile on his face in spite of the discomfort of his injury.“And I was so glad he was there.And that’s how it went.He’d disappear and then show up again, and we forgot to talk about the important things because….”
“Because being togetherwasthe important thing,” his father supplied, and Bailey sighed, because his father, as always, got it.He had since… well, since Bailey was eleven and had a terrible crush on the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys.He’d beensoexcited about football, but he couldn’t remember any of the rules, and when his dad had asked him what about the sport he liked best, he’d blurted, “The guy with the ball is so pretty!”
And that had been it.His father had bought him posters of Drew Bledsoe and told him to maybe tell his friends it was because he was going to “bring it home this year” and not spread the “pretty” part around school.Bailey had taken his advice to heart and hadn’t come out to friends until college, when he was pretty sure it wouldn’t be a thing.But his father had always known and had always supported him and had always,alwayswanted him to be happy.
“Yeah,” Bailey said now.“It was.And this morning I almost… almost made him leave, because I realized I wanted more.”
“What did he say?”Connor asked drowsily.
“He said I should have asked him earlier.He had no problems talking, but he needed specific questions or he wouldn’t think about telling me things.”
His father’s laugh sounded slightly more awake.“Uhm… wow.”
Bailey snorted.“That’s Dean.He”—Bailey’s voice grew soft—“said he’d been diagnosed as on the low end of the spectrum when he was in college, because he organized information so specifically and didn’t always pick up on emotional cues.I-I don’t know if his family knows that, but I get the feeling….”
“They wouldn’t have cared?”Connor asked.
“Well, not so much not cared,” Bailey said, “but the way Val talks about Dean, about his other family—like the quirk wasn’t what mattered.What mattered was communicating with the person.I, uhm, think that’s why Dean wouldn’t think to tellme.”
“Mm…,” Connor murmured.“Because he’s been accepted for his entire life by all his important people.”
“Yeah,” Bailey said softly.“I hope I didn’t let him down.”
“You must not have,” Connor told him.“You called him with an emergency, and that boy called in the cavalry, didn’t he?”
Bailey laughed softly, thinking his father probablyreallyneeded his sleep now.“Oh yeah he did.”
“Someone who would go to the wall for you like this—son, that’s special.What’s he look like?”
Now Bailey reallydidlaugh.“Like Val, but leaner and younger.Just as cocky, though, but you can definitely tell they’re brothers.”
“Well, Val’s a good-looking man,” Connor murmured.“His little brother might almost be good enough for my son.”
“Dad,” Bailey said, figuring it was time.
“’Night, son.Let me know when we come to a rest stop.I don’t want to use that tiny portajohn.It’s terrifying.”
God, Bailey’s father was the best.
AFTER ABOUTsix hours of sleep, Val was going in the back to rest, and Rory was up, so Bailey asked to sit up front with him.Rory was good company, Bailey realized, but then, Val had been too.Snarky, snappy, the two of them could bitch at each other like an old married couple, and then they’d laugh into song, which only made Bailey laugh more.
And miss all he’d let lapse during the past four years.
