Page 41 of Winning You
Lucas wasn’tsure what it meant that he felt a punch of relief when his uncle showed up to take him to the food truck and Frankie, Fallon, and Elodie had already gone back to their place. He wasn’t ashamed to be hanging out with them, but he had a feeling that if Gage could spot the way Lucas was feeling, other sighted people would too.
He’d only learned facial expressions by reading about them in books and then asking his friends or his dad to explain them to him. He knew a few gestures now—he knew what a thumbs-up was, and he’d perfected flipping people off, which had really come in handy. But he hadn’t realized what a peace sign was supposed to look like until he was seventeen, and when someone accused him of having a resting murder face, he had no idea what that could possibly mean.
But whatever was on his expression, it was obvious to the people who could see it. Just like there was a damn good chance his old blind friends would have been able to hear it in his voice too. He had no mask there either.
He wore everything out in the open, and he was second-guessing himself about the dinner now because what if Frankierealized he had a monster crush on him and felt so bad about it that he accepted the offer out of pity?
The thought made him a little queasy as he climbed into the car beside Dallas.
“You’re quiet today,” his uncle said after a few minutes on the road.
“It was a weird night.”
“Oh?”
Lucas let out a puff of air, then said, “You’ll probably hear about this eventually because I know Gage is going to talk to his dad, and I know y’all can’t keep a secret if your life depended on it.”
“Hey, that’s…” Dallas trailed off. “Whatever, that’s fair. Is it bad?”
“I don’t think Gage is going to jail or anything, but he did knock a guy out in our hallway last night.”
Dallas made a choking sound. “Sorry, what?”
“The guy had it coming. He hit his boyfriend.”
“Oh, what the fuck?” Dallas said, anger rising in his tone.
Lucas loved his uncle a little more for that. “Gage is going through a lot, you know? He probably would have frog-marched the dude out of the building if he’d been a little less angry.”
“You know what’s going on with him? You don’t have to tell me, but Adele’s been worrying himself sick that Gage is bottling it all up.”
“I know what it is,” Lucas confirmed. He didn’t tell Dallas that he only found out last night. “He’s going to talk to his dad soon. Shit’s gonna hit the fan, so, like, when you learn about it, try not to freak out or get weird with him, okay?”
“Yeah,” Dallas said behind a breath. “Yeah, okay. God, is this what I have to look forward to with Audra? She just turned five, and she’s already giving me grey hair.”
“Oh. It’ll probably be way worse with her,” Lucas said with a grin.
“I hate that you’re right.”
He laughed and then bowed his head and let himself feel the soothing rocking motion of the car as they headed toward the art museum, where Marc had parked the truck that morning.
“So,” Dallas said, and Lucas tried not to groan because he really wanted to be in his own head. “Are we going to talk about what’s going on with you?”
“Apart from that I’m a twenty-two-year-old virgin whose peak seems to be food truck chef?” Lucas said. He regretted his words immediately.
“All of those things can change. You know that, right? You won’t be twenty-two or a virgin for the rest of your life, and I’m pretty sure you’re not going to peak at food truck chef if you don’t want to.”
Lucas bit his lip. “Being a whatever-age virgin owning a bookshop and café would be pretty fucking cool.”
He could almost feel Dallas squirming in his seat about the virgin thing. No one wanted to talk about it. No one wanted to try and give him advice because no one walked in his shoes. The people in his family who were all visibly disabled had also long since lost their virginities and had fallen in love more than once.
They were leagues ahead of Lucas, and no one knew how to guide him forward.
So they said nothing, and he’d stopped asking.
“Hey, listen,” Dallas said as the car began to slow, “you know you’re an amazing guy, right?”
Lucas’s brows furrowed. “Uh?”
