Shit.This isn’t the time nor the place I wanted to do this, but apparently, the universe has other ideas.
Ryan looks between the two of us, something like bewilderment written all over his face. We weren’t doing anything too incriminating, but with our proximity and my hands around Bodhi’s hips, it’s not hard to figure out.
“Ryan—” I start to say before he cuts me off.
“What thehellare you doing here?” Venomous eyes narrow as they take in Bodhi before me. I can practically see Bodhi cave in on himself under Ryan’s scrutiny.
“It… it’s not what it looks like,” Bodhi blurts out, stepping farther away from me.
Standing up, I hold out a hand. “Bodhi, it’s okay.” Glancing over at a furious-looking Ryan, I continue. “Ryan, this isn’t how I wanted you to find out.”
His seething, narrowed eyes snap to me. “Find out what?”
Bodhi grabs my arm, a frantic, pleading look on his face. “Jules, don’t.”
“Jules?” Ryan repeats. “What the fuck is going on, Dad?”
“Bodhi and I have been seeing each other, son.”
A harsh, clipped“fuck”leaves Bodhi’s mouth from beside me as the rage seems to amplify within Ryan. I realize our relationship—if that’s what you’d call it—is unconventional, especially given they used to be friends, and is no doubt a huge shock to Ryan. I guess I’d hoped, had it ever come out, he would learn to accept it.
However, the next words out of Ryan’s mouth as he shoots daggers at a dejected Bodhi make me realize how utterly naïve that was of me.
“You’re fucking my dad? Are you fucking kidding me, Bodhi?”
“Lower your voice, Ryan,” I snap.
Instead of paying me any attention, he closes the distance between him and Bodhi, stopping directly in front of him. Bodhi’s arms are wrapped around himself as he keeps his gaze locked on the ground.
“While my mom was fucking braindead and barely hanging on, you were fucking my dad? What kind of sick fucking person does that?”
“It w-wasn’t like that, Ryan.” Bodhi’s voice cracks, and it shatters me.
“Bullshit! Her body is barely fucking cold and underground, and you’re in here all over him!”
“I was just trying to comfort him.”
“It isn’t your fucking place to comfort him,” Ryan seethes through gritted teeth. “Are you so fucking starved for attention that you can’t see how fucked up this is?”
“Ryan!” I bark. “I understand this is shocking, but you don’t need to be cruel.”
“This is just fucking rich.” A humorless laugh escapes him as he directs his attention on me. “Did you know he let me fuck him, too,Dad?”
My stomach lurches to my throat. Certainly, I didn’t hear that right. “Excuse me?”
A whimper comes from behind me as a sinister smile forms on Ryan’s lips. “Oh, your littleboy toydidn’t tell you?” I inwardly cringe. “I popped his cherry back in high school.”
Bile rises my throat. I try to swallow against it to keep from spewing everywhere as I turn, meeting Bodhi’s glassy gaze. “Is that true?”
“Jules…”
“Is. That. True?” I don’t even recognize my own voice, as it’s laced with barely restrained disgust and horror. “Did you sleep with my son?”
He chomps down on his bottom lip so hard, I’m surprised it doesn’t bleed, a single tear falling down his cheek.
“Answer me, dammit!”
“Yes.”
