“I know.” Jackson’s expression was tender as he slipped his hand into Kyle’s. “But it’s already better than the conversation you tried to have with your dad. That’s gotta make it easier, right?”
Kyle winced.
“Sorry.” Jackson leaned over and gave him a kiss on his cheek.
Joy, who’d been watching their interactions with utter fascination, let out a contented sigh. “You two are adorable. Kyle, why were you never like this with any of your girlfriends?”
Kyle flushed pink.
Jackson’s smile widened. “You weren’t?”
“Shut up.” Kyle punched him lightly on the arm, and Jackson laughed.
Joy laughed too. “Okay, what were you going to tell me? That you’re with Jackson? I got that already.”
“I’m bi,” Kyle said and then stared at her as if waiting for some sort of negative reaction.
Joy frowned. “Okay. I thought that was fairly obvious.”
Kyle blinked at her. “You knew?”
“Not until I saw you two together at the hospital. Or rather when I saw Jackson and he was so upset. I guessed then. Surely he told you.” Joy nodded to Jackson.
Kyle turned to look at him. “Told me what?”
Jackson winced. “She told me that if we were together, she was fine with it. Then she wouldn’t let me say anything at all, insisting that if you wanted to come out it should be when you were ready.”
Kyle stared at his boyfriend and then at his mother. “You really said that?” he asked her.
“Of course. You don’t think Jackson would lie, do you?”
“He lied by omission. He didn’t say a word.” He eyed Jackson again. “Hell, Jay, I wouldn’t have been nearly as nervous if you’d given me that vital information.”
Jackson averted his gaze. “Sorry. I was going to, but then you were in pain and sleeping a lot, and then when I got here, you needed me to help you get a bath and… well, we know how that went.”
Kyle snorted. “Yeah. We do.”
Joy cleared her throat. “Don’t mind me. Just a mother in the room who doesn’t need to know what her son does behind closed doors.”
“What?” Kyle whipped his head back around, looking at Joy in horror. “Just what do you think went on here tonight?”
Joy held her hands up. “I don’t know. Don’t want to know.”
Jackson threw his head back and laughed.
“Oh. My. God. This conversation is way off the rails,” Kyle said. “For the record, I needed someone to help me get into the bath. Balancing on one foot while getting up and down is really hard. Jackson helped me. That’s it.”
“Well, I also washed your hair and got shampoo in your eye,” Jackson said.
“Yeah, thanks for that, by the way. My eye is still irritated.”
Jackson shrugged one shoulder. “I kept you from falling and breaking your skull, right?”
“Barely. I do remember falling back into the bath and knocking my elbow.”
“And soaking me with bathwater,” Jackson added. “It was like a wet T-shirt contest in there for a minute.”
Kyle snorted. “I wasn’t complaining.”
“Okay. Enough,” Joy said with a laugh. “I got it. Two boys horsing around in the bath. Apparently, no one has grown up around here.”
They both laughed and tilted closer to each other.
When they finally had themselves under control, Joy raised one eyebrow. “Was that it? You’re bi and you’re dating Jackson?”
“Mostly,” Kyle said, sobering.
“Okay,” Joy said. “So you’re bi. No big deal there. And you’re dating Jackson, a young man whom I already love. I don’t really see the need for a conversation about this, unless there’s something else I need to know.”
“Dad was a dick about it,” Kyle blurted.
“What?” Joy sat frozen, trying to process the fact that Kyle had told Paul and he’d reacted badly. “When? And what did he say?”
“Right before the accident. I went over there to visit and told him I’m dating Jackson. He just stared at me and then told me to find someone with higher ambitions than working at a café. Preferably a woman so it would be easier for me to start a family.”
Joy sat in stunned silence. None of that sounded like Paul. What had he become since they’d separated? “Please tell me you’re embellishing what he said.”
“Nope. If anything, I’m softening it because I don’t want Jackson to know what else he said.”
“Kyle,” Jackson growled. “You can tell me anything.”
“Not if it’s going to hurt you needlessly. He was being an elitist bigot. I told him to stick his flank steak up his ass and left.”
Joy snorted a laugh. “Did you really?”
He nodded, an amused smile on his lips. But the smile vanished quickly and was replaced with what looked an awful lot like bone-deep sadness. “I wasn’t expecting him to say any of that, Mom. He’s different now, and I don’t understand why.”
“I don’t either,” Joy said quietly as she did everything she could to keep herself under control. Rage coiled in her belly, and she wanted nothing more than to rant about her ex, call him every name in the book, and then eviscerate him for upsetting his son so much that he sideswiped a tree. She rose from her chair and walked over to the couch and sat next to him. “You know I love you… unconditionally, right?”
He smiled at her. “I do. And I’m sorry for being weird about telling you. I knew deep down you would be cool, I just let my nerves get the better of me.”
She slipped her arm around his shoulders and gave him a sideways hug. “I love you, K. And I’m sorry your father was such an asshat that it made you nervous to talk to me.”
“It’s not your fault,” he said, leaning into her just as he had when he was a little boy. The contact filled her heart and made her feel whole again.
“You’re right. It isn’t my fault,” she said. “It’s his. And I’m going to make sure he knows exactly how I feel about it.”
He pulled away and eyed her. “I don’t need you to fight my battles for me, Mom.”
“I know. But I’m your mom and he’s your dad. If it were anyone else, I’d butt out. But on this one, I can’t let it go. That’s not who we are as parents, and I’m going to remind him of that.”
Kyle shook his head but reached for her again, and he hugged her so tight that she could barely breathe. But she didn’t care. It was one of those moments she knew she’d remember for the rest of her life.
Chapter Ten
Joy’s head ached and her eyes were gritty when she came awake the next morning. She stretched and peered blearily at the clock on her bedside table. It was after nine, far later than she normally woke for the day. She contemplated getting up and finding breakfast, but instead closed her eyes again and rolled over, intending to grab a few more minutes of sleep.
“Oomph,” someone said from the other side of the bed.
Paul, she thought and then wondered why he wasn’t at work.