“Give me your address, then! You can send it over Facebook messenger. I’ll get an invitation in the mail today.”
“Okay,” Skyler replied, a huge smile now stretching his lips. He had worried. He had wondered if his sister would give him the same lecture that their parents had. But she seemed genuinely just as interested in seeing him as he was her.
“I’ve got a plus one on there,” Hannah said, and her voice was suddenly a little bit slower, a little bit less exuberant. “But pick who you bring carefully, okay?”
It was like a bucket of cold water dashed over his head. He knew what she meant. Their parents, probably their mother, had definitely spoken to her, had given her side of the story, and Hannah was letting him know that in a way that was far more tactful than anything that Skyler could have managed.
“I can just bring no one. Just come on my own,” Skyler suggested, and there was a long, long silence, so long that Skyler wondered if Hannah had just hung up on him. Just when he thought that he had better use his call display to call her back, she spoke up again.
“No, I mean, I think it would be better if …” Her voice trailed off, and then she heaved a long sigh. “Look, Mom is being a pain in the ass, okay? Like if you tell her I said that, I’ll deny it, but she’s getting her fingers into everything, and it’s driving me crazy.”
“That doesn’t actually surprise me,” Skyler replied, his voice dry, which made her laugh a little bit.
“Well, she keeps saying about how this is probably her only chance help with the wedding and see one of her kids get married because of how, you know.”
“Because of how I’m gay,” Skyler said. He was past the point in his life where he was going to pull punches about that.
“Right,” Hannah replied, and she sounded actually pretty relieved that he had just said it. “Because of that. But she would seriously get off my back if you would just bring a girl. A friend, or something?”
This time, it was his turn to lapse into a long, meaningful silence. It drew out between them, and Skyler knew that he needed to say something, anything. To tell her that was unfair. To tell her that it was actually possible for her to tell their mother to fuck off and mind her own business.
After all, Skyler had done it.
“Look, I do know it’s a lot to ask. It’s just, it’s my wedding.” Hannah’s voice took on that old, familiar wheedling tone, the one that he remembered so very clearly from his childhood. The one that he had never been able to resist, and she knew it very well. “Please? It would help her calm the hell down. You don’t know what it’s like.”
Skyler winced. He did know, he was sure of it. Or did he? It was true that he had never been married or gotten married, and he certainly hadn’t tried to live with his parents as an adult, but he had grown up with them.
Which, he supposed, proved her point. He bit back a sigh, knowing that she had won. She always did.
“I’ll come with a girl. But I won’t pretend to be dating her,” Skyler replied. “And only if I can find one who wants to come with me.” He knew that was a big if. He didn’t exactly know that many girls, other than Mary Anne, the teenaged farmhand who would be wildly inappropriate for him to bring.
“Okay! Just try,” Hannah urged. “I’ll understand if you just come alone, but try.”
Skyler hung up feeling unsettled. Hadn’t he just been thinking that he was glad that he didn’t have to try to hide who he was anymore? And now, a few words from his sister and he was going to back right up on that because people would make assumptions, including his mother.
But Hannah had a point, at the same time. It was her wedding, and it was obviously a big deal to her. He sighed and rubbed at his eyes, then, just as his sister had requested, he input the address of the ranch into Facebook messenger.
Wasn’t it worth it to go to his sister’s wedding? Sure, it hurt his pride, more than a little, but this was also his only sister he was talking about. It was the least he could do, and after the wedding, when it was safe again, he could go right back to what he was doing now.
It wasn’t like he was seeing anyone who would get offended by him going to a wedding with a friend.
Still, it was unsettling, and he knew why. It was just that there didn’t seem to be much of a choice for him, not if he wanted to stay in contact with his family at all. That was a real risk, anyway, and while he couldn’t say that he cared much about being out of touch with his parents, he had just gotten Hannah back.
Eight
Craig
The winter was pretty much over, Craig realized, and he still had nothing to show for it. He had spent months going to local colleges, going to information sessions, even talking to a career counselor, and nothing had helped at all.
The truth was, he had even less of an idea what to do with his life now than he had when he had first come home. All this soul searching, all this time spent away, and he had nothing.
It was a warm day, at least, sunny and bright, and Craig grabbed a bottle of whiskey and headed to the creek. To the very same spot that he had taken Skyler when they had both stripped and gone swimming together.
Still a bit too cold for that now, although the green leaves peeking out, unfurling from the long, droopy branches of the willow tree said that it wouldn’t be too long. For now, it was nice to sit in the sun, which fell so golden and beautiful around him, and drink. Maybe not the healthiest response to the situation, but one that he was familiar with.
“It’s only noon.”
The voice surprised him. He had been getting progressively drunker until the world seemed to shimmer around the edges, and the sun felt warmer than it was. He’d always been a happy drunk, and a lot of things had seemed to make more sense when he was. He wasn’t really all that drunk yet, just lightly tipsy, but enough that he was feeling a lot better about the whole situation.
