Page 52 of Heal Me, Love Me
“Because I’ve spent years wondering what would happen if anyone knew.”
“That you were into guys?” I was starting to put the pieces together.
His eyes stayed fixed on the TV screen. “My family’s weird about appearances, not in a blatantly homophobic way, but still weird enough to care about shit like that.”
“We’ve never really talked about your family. What are they like?”
“Rich.” He snorted softly. “Busy. My parents basically live in different countries for half the year. My brother runs an investment firm with my dad, and my sister married a surgeon. Everybody’s impressive and has their whole life mapped out.”
“And then there’s you.” I grinned.
“Yep,” he agreed. “The guy who skipped college, fights people in cages, and lives with other dumbasses who like getting their asses kicked.”
“Speak for yourself. I do the ass-kicking in my fights.”
He smiled. “I always figured that if I told them, it’d become a thing. Not because they’d kick me out or disown me. They’d just look at me differently.”
“My dad wasn’t the accepting kind,” I admitted quietly. “So trust me, I get not telling your family.”
Mason looked over at me. “What happened when you finally did?”
“Never happened. My dad died when I was seventeen, and my mom and I aren’t close.”
Some people wanted closure with their parents. They wanted acceptance. They wanted one big emotional conversation where everything finally got fixed. I’d stopped wanting that years ago. Hell, I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d talked with my mom. It had to have been months ago.
“Damn.”
“Rowan’s parents were more like parents to me than mine ever were.”
Something in his eyes softened as if he understood what I meant. Family wasn’t always about blood. Over the past couple of years, the guys had filled some of that void for me too, and I suspected Mason knew exactly what I meant.
“You know what’s wild?” he asked.
“What?”
“I think I sensed something other than hate between you and Rowan before you two said anything.”
I chuckled. “That doesn’t surprise me.”
“You looked at him like you wanted to fight him, and everybody who got too close to him.”
“That’s because I did.” I smirked.
He grinned back. “Seeing you two together makes coming out feel a little less scary.”
“You know you don’t have to figure everything out tonight,” I told him.
“Yeah, I know.”
“And you don’t owe anybody some dramatic coming-out speech either.”
He looked relieved to hear that. “Good. Because I’d probably make some lame joke, and no one would believe I was serious.”
“Sounds about right.”
“Rude.”
“It’s true.”
