Page 5 of The Evening Wolves

Colt’s smile grew, and his blush deepened. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Mid-Missouri had opened recently, occupying a glorified storefront in a strip mall on the northeast side of town, and once football had ended, Colt and Ashley had started going one or two afternoons every week.

“Are you volunteering there too?” John asked.

“Just dropping off a donation. I thought I saw you guys carrying chairs.”

“They help run the afternoon programming,” Emery said.

“We just put out chairs, snacks, that kind of thing.” Colt chewed on the sweatshirt’s cuff for a moment, and then he blurted. “Did you know almost a third of LGBTQ kids experience homelessness or housing instability at some point?”

Nobody said what they were thinking: that not too long ago, Colt had been one of those kids.

“I didn’t know that,” Nico said, which Emery assumed was a lie.

“And over forty percent of them seriously consider attempting suicide every year?”

Nico shook his head. “Is it really that high?”

“It’s even higher for trans kids.”

“Colt’s really passionate about helping other LGBTQ kids,” John said, scruffing their son’s hair. “He raised donations at school for GLAM.”

“Ash is the one who’s really good at it. Everybody likes Ash.”

Emery couldn’t help the noise that escaped him, but when his husband shot him a look, he did manage to tamp down the volume.

“And they all talk to him. They tell him everything, even kids who won’t talk to anyone else. He can just, like, smile at someone, you know? And he gets really quiet and listens. And even though he’s super funny, he doesn’t clown around or anything, so kids feel safe with him. Like, you know, they can relax with him. Be themselves.” Colt bit savagely at the cuff again and mumbled, “Or whatever.”

“That sounds very nice,” Nico said. “I bet Ash feels that way about you too.”

Colt shrugged, but happiness radiated from him so intensely that, for a moment, Emery found it almost painful. He was surprised to feel John bump against him, slide an arm around his waist, and lean his head into Emery’s. Emery tightened his arm around John in answer.

“I never see you post about GLAM. How long have you been doing that?”

The fact that Nico followed him on social media clearly wasn’t news to Colt, but by the way his face lit up, the possibility that Nico actually paid attention to his posts was life changing. “Oh, um, Koby won’t let us. That’s the rule at GLAM. No phones. He says he has enough trouble keeping us from—” He stopped, his face coloring as he actively did not look at his dads again. “—getting in trouble,” he finished lamely. “Jessica says it’s a privacy thing, like, what if a kid isn’t out?”

“For those playing along at home,” Emery said, “Koby is the head of GLAM, and Jessica is a girl Colt made friends with there.”

“She’s so nice. The one time I saw her get mad was when Ty kept trying to livestream even after Koby told him to put away his phone.” Colt shook his head. “Jessica helps with everything; she’s really passionate. Koby couldn’t do half the stuff he does if he didn’t have people like Jessica and Farah and Jamir.”

“And people like Ash and Colt,” John said with a smile.

Colt shrugged. “Plus,” he said with the tone of someone casually passing along important information, “Ash and I both play football, so we’re in charge of making sure nobody causes trouble. Jessica tries to keep them in line, but, like, some of these kids don’t know how to act, you know?”

Nico did an adequate job of hiding his amusement as he nodded and said, “Good thing they’ve got you guys. And I bet your dads have taught you some self-defense.”

“Oh yeah,” Colt said, and in that instant, he sounded like every teenage boy everywhere experiencing a surge of testosterone. “I showed Ash some moves.”

“Some moves,” Emery said under his breath.

John elbowed him.

“Speaking of which,” Emery said, “how are your self-defense classes going, Nico?”

“Nope. This topic is off-limits.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You told me you were going to enroll because, quote, ‘I’ll do better if my instructor isn’t my ex-boyfriend shouting at me to make my fist better, whatever that means,’ end quote. Which, by the way, I showed you what I meant—”

“And that’s a wrap,” Nico said.

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