A part of Lawson knew then that he wasn’t seeing the whole picture that was Tommy Cattaneo, but he clothed himself in willful ignorance, hopeful that love would win the day.
Now, he knows Tommy carried a wealth of secrets, was laden with them, in each crease and slope and shadow.
It shouldn’t hurt anymore, but it does. He doesn’t think it’ll ever stop hurting.
Frank takes a deep drag on his cigar, car filling with its dark stink. He gives Lawson a thorough up-and-down look that leaves Lawson’s skin shrinking. “You’re cockier than I expected.”
Lawson snorts, though his pulse skips. “You had expectations?”
“Low ones. Every time Tom and Noah came to visit me in New York when they were kids, Tom couldn’t shut up about hisfriendLawson back in Eastman.”
“Is that how he said it?Friend?”
The grin becomes a sneer. Or, it would be one, if there were any energy behind it. “What? You think a teenage boy tells his uncle he’s playing grab-ass with another boy? No,” he presses on, before Lawson can protest the wording, “but he would say, ‘My friend Lawson’ this and ‘my friend Lawson’ that. I’ve seen moony kids before. I got the gist.”
Lawson grits his teeth and takes a deep breath.
“What?” Frank prompts. “You wanna say something? Wanna correct me? Tell me it was true love and not some stupid kid shit?”
It wasn’t, Lawson yearns to say. Has to clamp his lips tight against,What the fuck do you know about love? ‘Cause that’s what we had.
The sad truth is that Lawson can only speak for himself. Who knows what Tommy felt back then. What he feels now.
He says, “If you’ve got a problem with your nephew being gay, that sounds like ayouproblem. Also like none of your business.”
“Gay? You think? He has a fiancée.”
“Yeah, speaking of which, she came to see me.”
“I know. That’s why we’re having this conversation.” He taps ash out the cracked window without taking his eyes off Lawson. “In the past three days, three separate members of my family have been spotted speaking with you publicly.”
At first, Lawson feels the acute sting of the fiancée being family, when he never was. But then the rest of the sentence registers. “What do you mean ‘seen?’ Seen by whom? A waitress? My friend?” He frowns. “Are youspyingon me?”
“Yes,” he answers, without shame. “I was. From the moment we crossed the city limits. But now, after the stunts those three have pulled, I’d imagine people much more frightening than me are watching you – because they were watching Tom, you understand. And now…” He sighs, and gestures in a frustrated way, cigar painting smoke streamers in the air. “You’ve been noticed.”
“Noticed bywhom?”
“You don’t want to know.”
The car slows, turns, and Lawson realizes they’ve gone around the block, and that Coffee Town is only three blocks away.
“Alright,” Frank says. “What’s it going to take?”
Lawson stares at him, uncomprehending.
He clamps his cigar between his teeth and fishes a slim leather rectangle from inside his jacket that Lawson realizes is a checkbook. He smooths it open on his leg, produces a pen, and takes the cigar back between his fingers. “You work at a coffeeshop, you live with your parents – one of which is disabled, right?”
Lawson bristles. “How do you know that? Who told you?” A terrible thought occurs: does Tommy know about Dad? Did he sit down across from him in Flanagan’s knowingexactlyhow pathetic Lawson’s life is now?
Frank waves dismissively. “I have people. In other words: I know your life is shit, and I need you out of Tom’s so you don’t turn his to shit.” He takes the cigar back into his teeth and poises a pen over a blank check. “How much will it take to make you go away? For good?”
When Lawson continues to stare, he puffs out smoke and says, “I’m a very rich man. Name your price.”
Lawson…laughs. Something like hysteria builds in his chest, hard and painful as a knot of heartburn, and tumbles out of his mouth as a high, half-crazed laugh.
Frank Cattaneo watches him, unimpressed.
“Shit,” Lawson wheezes. “Are you serious? Are you…” He has to giggle, and then catch his breath. “You’re offering me money? In all the movies, this is the part where you threaten to kill me. Or actually kill me. Aren’t you guys supposed to be more ruthless than they are in Hollywood?”
