“Brody—”
“He took money from you. He stole from you. He took it from me—”
“Stop. That’s enough.” Dad was using his ‘I’m-the-father-here’ voice, and I instantly subsided. Jim Thomas had a way of raising his voice just enough to be heard over sibling squabbles, and not one of his four children ever ignored him because he used that voice so infrequently. “I knew what he was doing for a few weeks, and I didn’t tell you. That is why it’s awkward because when I see you now, I can’t look you in the eye and keep on lying.”
I slumped to the bed, all the energy leaching from me in one go.
“The week before you found him… ” In bed with another man. He didn’t need to finish that sentence because I knew what he meant. “I’d had a call two or three weeks before from the accountant telling me that things weren’t adding up. Small things here and there, nothing huge up until a few months before and then the proceeds from a truck sale couldn’t be found as posted, and the bank accounts didn’t match up. He couldn’t understand, but there was only one person who could’ve been doing that.”
“Marc.”
“So, you see, for all that time, I was suspicious and telling you that I thought something was happening, but I never told you what I knew, so you defended him. I was investigating with the accountant, working my way through, and we saw what he was doing. I wanted to fix things, only he got to you first, said I was telling lies and what could I say? You loved him—”
“Dad, I’m sorry.”
“—and whatever you had, it was special and important to you, and for me to blindly tell you what I knew for sure and for you to hate me for that. I couldn’t do it.”
“God, Dad, I could never hate you. I thought you—”
“You’re my son, I love you so much.” He was choked up. “I wish I could have made it okay for you.”
“You do, every minute of my life you make things okay.”
We did what men do, sat in stoic silence for a while, then Dad cleared his throat.
“So tell me about this young man you’ve met.”
“Young? Who said he was young?” I teased because that was my safe place.
“We all know you have a crush on that Justin fellow. Spill.”
So I did.
Early the next morning I was at the parking lot first, standing by my Toyota with its winter tires and wondering if it would be me driving. Justin’s car was right there all big and luxurious, and I bet it had all the bells and whistles. Part of me hoped he would suggest driving.
“Morning!” he called, quickening his stride toward me, closely followed by Ivan along with Kristen, who hadn’t left to go home, and instead moved into Ivan’s room. As soon as Justin got near, he mouthed something that looked like couldn’t help it, sorry.
“Hi!” Ivan said jovially as he and Kristen reached us. “We have our stuff, and we were heading for the springs, Justin here said we could join you.”
Kristen shook her head. “Actually, what happened was, we met Justin in the elevator and found out we were all going to the same place, and Ivan here invited us to go with you.”
“It’s good. I’ve heard the springs are beautiful.” I defused Justin’s worry with a smile. “Who’s driving?” I tapped my trusty car, but Ivan was all about the big Ford.
“Justin, wanna show us what this beauty does?”
I wondered for a moment if Justin knew about cars, but he shrugged and held out the keys to Ivan. “We can take it, you drive.”
Ivan was in heaven. I sat in the back, and Justin gave up shotgun to Kristen, and that was cool.
Because in the back Justin and I could hold hands.
The hot springs weren’t far up into the mountains, and we got to see more of Banff and the surrounding area.
“It’s stunning,” Justin confessed. “I’d never been to Canada before this.”
“I hadn’t either,” I added.
Justin sighed. “In fact I never saw much of L.A. outside the stage when we filmed season one. All I recall is that I was exhausted the entire time I was there.”
“It’s fun this time,” Ivan and Kristen held hands for a brief moment before he returned his attention to the road.
“Even if one of us is out of the competition,” Kristen said without heat.
Ivan patted her arm. “I’ll be joining you soon, and then we get a real vacation together.” Ivan stared at Kristen as if she hung the stars.
“How did you meet?”
“At the last reunion, we chatted, spent two hours in the dark out the back just talking, and realized there was something there.” Kristen blew Ivan a kiss. “Love this big lug.”
“Love you too, Krissy.”
“That’s so cool.” Justin glanced at me.
I just squeezed his hand and sue me if I couldn’t stop grinning.
The baths weren’t busy when we arrived, snow was falling, and the flurries were icy cold but we all agreed we couldn’t come to Sulphur Mountain and not do the springs. We paid for tickets, then changed into our swimwear in the small cubicles. When we first arrived a faint scent of sulfur hung in the air, but weirdly enough the smell seemed to grow less noticeable after a few minutes.
“Probably burned our sense of smell or whatever,” Ivan said as he stuck a toe in the warm water. “None of us will ever be able to bake again.” He and Kristen went in and bobbed out of sight in the rising steam. I went to follow, only Justin wasn’t moving. He was eyeing the water with trepidation, freezing his ass off as snow floated around him.
“You need to get in. It’s warm in here.”
“Yeah, maybe I’ll stay out here.”
“What’s wrong?”
He looked from me to the mountain that loomed over the springs. “You ever see the movie Dante’s Peak?”
“I’m guessing it has a mountain in it?” I deadpanned.
He rolled his eyes at me, which was cute, then he hitched up his swim trunks, a bright red and orange pattern, the only ones that they sold in the lobby gift shop. I’d packed my own knowing I wanted to try out the springs, so mine was a more sedate dark blue, but he looked good in those bright colors. Admit it, he looks good in anything, and particularly nothing at all.
“For real, these two young beautiful people decide it’s a good idea to go into a hot spring and then just like that,” he snapped his fingers, “the volcano starts doing some crazy shit and boils the water, with them in it.”
“Well, that’s okay then,” I said and waited for him to take the bait.
“Why is it okay?”
“If they only take the beautiful ones, then you’ll be fine.” I went deeper into the hot water before he could give me a comeback, and I only knew he followed me in when he tackled me from behind and gripped me like a monkey.
“Asshole,” he muttered in my ear, and I snorted a laugh then extricated myself and turned to face him. We were hidden from the rest of the swimmers in the wisps of steam that rose above us, but I wasn’t ready for a PDA that could be innocently walked into. I tugged him along until we were around a stony corner, out of sight, and hidden in the steam, and then I cradled his face.