“You tucked them in, didn’t you?”
Ty was going to give Peggy so much shit if she went out to lunch with Jason. She’d never know what hit her. “Can I plead the Fifth?”
“Have you talked to him about his feelings?”
Could they go back to talking about how everyone hated Ty? That seemed like more fun. “You saidcowboys don’t crytwo minutes ago and now you’re asking if we’ve talked about ourfeelings?” When Ty was agonizing over the fact that they hadn’t had a chance to talk about their feelings? That was just mean.
“Talking is not the same as crying,” Henry said patiently. “You’re mooning, but you’re also happier than I’ve ever seen you, small town politics notwithstanding. So why haven’t you asked said beautiful man if he wants to join you in bed?”
Peggy turned an incredulous look on him before returning to Ty. “Maybe don’t open with that.”
“How many queer men have you dated?” Ty asked, because in his experience that was how it went a good 50 percent of the time.
She threw a grape at him.
“No, she’s right, though.” Henry leaned over, picked the grape off the ground, and wrapped it in his napkin. Probably concerned a dog might come along and accidentally poison itself. “You wouldn’t want Ollie to think you just want his body.”
Ty could not believe he was having this conversation with his former coach and a friend he’d barely spoken to since high school. Life came at you fast. “This is great, you guys, but your concerns are so… basic. Surface-level stuff.”
Peggy and Henry exchanged looks. “So whatareyou worried about?”
“Okay, well, for one thing, I’m supposed to go back to Chicago in less than two weeks.” He ticked the items off on his fingers as he went. “Are we really going to start a relationship long-distance? What are the long-term implications of that?”
Peggy opened her mouth, but Ty went on before she could answer.
“Or, what if Ollie decides his family sucks as much as mine did and we decide to make a go of it in Chicago? And then it doesn’t work, and we’ve uprooted Theo for no reason?”
“Uh, Ty—”
“And Ollie resents me forever for driving a wedge between him and his family?”
“Ty—”
“They hate me, by the way,” Ty went on. Was that the third finger or the fourth? “So, like, imagine I stick around here instead of going back to Chicago. I’m independently wealthy now.” He shivered as though someone had walked across his grave. Probably his dad’s ghost. “Like, I could do that and stay here with Ollie. But everyone here loveshim as much as they hate me. What if everyone decides he’s guilty by association? And then the teachers start treating Theo like a criminal—”
“I think you know us alittlebetter than that by now,” Henry said, but Ty kept talking over him.
“—and he doesn’t get into college, and he ends up broke and living in a rat-infested apartment in New Haven, addicted to scratch-off tickets?”
Ty ran out of fingers on the first hand.
“Were you planning on writing him out of your will?” Henry said. “Because I know how much that house is worth, kid.”
Hunching his shoulders, Ty stared at his paper plate. A carpenter ant had scaled the side and was investigating his potato salad. “Or what if Theo isn’t ready for Ollie to date, and he gets upset because he thinks I’m trying to replace his mom? He’s already mad at me because I made him go to the hospital. Or what if heisready and I’m a shitty stepparent? It’s not like I had a great example to follow.”
Peggy reached across the table and put her hand on top of his. “Hey, come on. You’re great with kids.”
“Plus,” Henry broke in, “you need to make up your mind on how far in front of the horse you’re putting the cart.”
Peggy plucked a strawberry from her plate. “Henry’s got a point. I mean, maybe you should kiss him first.”
Ty had always had fair skin. Right now he could feel the flush rising up his neck to gradually fill his face, like a real-life cartoon.
Peggy dropped the strawberry. “Wait, youalready kissed?” Ty buried his face in his hands. “Excuse me. Here we are trying to give you a pep talk and you’re withholdingcritical information.”
“Well it’s not like I can just go aroundtelling people Ollie kissed me, Peggy. I don’t usually enjoy outing people. Especially when I don’t even know if they’re into guys.”
“If he kissed you, that’s probably a pretty good indicator.”
