Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
HECTOR
“Hey, Rhett. How are you doing?” I said after clicking on the video call.
“Good! We’re in San Francisco this week, so it’s a little chilly tonight. I’m missing the Kither Springs winters,” he answered with a laugh.
I pushed my glasses higher up my nose. I didn’t wear them often, but I liked being able to see Rhett more clearly on the tiny screen during our calls.
Rhett smiled at the action. I smiled too and felt a little nostalgia.
It’d been a while since I’d last seen him in person.
Rhett was a kid from town who grew up in the foster system here.
I hadn’t had much interaction with him, or most kids in town for that matter, until I found him hanging around the diner late one night when he was sixteen.
He’d snuck out past curfew, wandering around and rubbing his stomach like he’d been starving.
He’d looked so sad and defeated that I wanted to do something for him, but I knew my reputation around town and didn’t want to spook him by offering to help.
Angelina had gone to bed early that night, so I couldn’t have her deliver him something to eat.
It just so happened that I hadn’t finished the dishes for that night, so I approached and asked if he wanted to wash the dishes for a meal. He’d accepted. He’d been shocked when I’d offered him a job as a part-time dishwasher at the diner, but he’d quickly agreed.
The foster home he’d been living in at the time had probably signed off on it, thinking he was better off at a job than wandering the streets late at night, or maybe they just wanted to wash their hands of him.
Angelina had been pissed when I’d made the decision without asking her, which I’d understood.
It wasn’t like the place had been doing especially well back then.
Since The Diner was one of the few sit-down eating establishments in town, we got enough customers to keep us afloat, but not enough to warrant an employee.
But even if I had to give myself a smaller paycheck and be on the other end of Angelina’s berating, I hadn’t regretted the decision to hire Rhett one bit. Even after just a few months of working with the boy, I saw a lot of myself in him.
We were both put in a world that had never cared for us, but I didn’t want his story to end up like mine. I wanted him to know that—even if it was just me—there was one person in this world who cared for him.
If Angelina hadn’t adamantly rejected it, I would have adopted him as my very own, even if he was going to be an adult in a couple years. I understood her reasoning for not wanting children. She had her own trauma she dealt with, and I knew what I’d signed up for when I’d agreed to be with her.
Even without the legal papers, I’d like to think Rhett knew I thought of him like a son. The years we had together, I tried teaching him everything he needed to know to survive. The first being how to feed himself.
It was out of my expectation that he would fall in love with cooking, much like I had when I was younger. And he was good at it too, always trying out fancy new recipes that I’d never heard of.
Now, he got to use his skills working for a traveling circus—Black Cat Circus was the name, if I’d remembered correctly—and I was so happy for him. He wasn’t stuck as I’d been. He got out, fell in love, and saw the world.
“You know…I was thinking…” Rhett started, suddenly sounding nervous. We usually had a call once a month, and I’d never seen him like this beside the time he told me about his boyfriend.
“Did something happen?” I asked, going on the alert.
He might have found his place in the world now, but that didn’t mean I would ever stop caring for him.
If he were in trouble, I’d drop everything and fly to him.
I’d take Atlas with me too, since with the stalker still on the loose, I didn’t feel safe with him being out of my sight.
“No, no. It’s nothing like that,” Rhett quickly answered. “Everything’s great. Amazing, in fact. Which is why I was thinking, maybe you’d like to join us?”
“Uh, what?”
“You can join us. I talked to our ringmaster, and he’d agreed to hire another chef. With how much these guys eat, having another hand on deck wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Rhett said with a laugh.
I was still processing his words and had stayed quiet. Rhett used that time to try to sell me on the idea.
“You told me you’d never really gotten to travel, so this would be a good chance. You can come see how beautiful the ocean is. Everyone here is really kind and accepting. You could have a fresh start here. And I miss you… There are so many more things I can share with you if you were here.”
My heart ached at his last reasoning. “I miss you too. So much,” I told him. For all intents and purposes, he was my son. We didn’t share any blood, but he was my family.
The first thing that came to mind was Atlas…
The thought of being separated from him was like tearing away the joy I’d only just found.
He’d moved here for a boyfriend and had the conviction to stay around when his asshole of an ex cheated on him.
And I wouldn’t put him in the position of deciding to uproot his life once again for some guy.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted by the chance to leave Kither Springs. This place hadn’t been the kindest to me, and getting a fresh start somewhere that rumors from my past couldn’t follow sounded appealing.
Moving would mean leaving all that behind, but it also meant closing my diner.
Scenes of earlier this afternoon popped into my mind.
The hubbub of the tables filled with people chatting and sipping coffee.
Of people staying long after their meals just because they wanted to.
A community that had somehow formed around my establishment… and maybe even included me.
Kither Springs might have dealt me a bad hand at the start, but despite that, it was home. And I found that I actually did consider this place my home.
“I kinda figured you’d say no,” Rhett said with a shake of his head.
“I didn’t say anything yet,” I grumbled.
“But you’re going to reject my offer, aren’t you?”
I grunted but nodded. Maybe I should have left town ages ago and started over? Maybe I should have left when Angelina had begged me to before she’d had enough and left on her own? But Kither Springs was soaked into my bones, and I was finally discovering a place I belonged inside of it.
“I was thinking of coming to visit in a few weeks,” Rhett said.
“You’re coming back?” I asked, and my expression had him chuckling.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”
“I just, um, didn’t think there was much reminiscing you wanted to do around these parts.”
“There isn’t, but you’re there, and that’s reason enough,” he said lightly, though the words felt anything but light. It was the validation that Rhett saw me as more than just his ex-employer. That maybe I was someone worth visiting, maybe even family.
“I’d like that,” I said, voice rough. Rhett beamed and rambled about how excited he was for me to finally meet Coal, his boyfriend.
The man in question was the firedancer with the Black Cat Circus.
I’d chatted with him a few times over video call, and he was quite the opposite of Rhett.
He was quiet and serious, and something about him made me want to keep my guard up, like a flame I couldn’t get too close to.
But he seemed like a decent enough man. And most importantly, he treated Rhett right and made him happy.
We talked about life for a little longer. I told him how Mondays were going to be a rest day for the diner, to which he sounded very pleased about and insisted taking breaks would be good for me.
He told me the newest gossip in circus life, like how his old roommate found a boyfriend ten years his senior. My ears perked up at that.
“You don’t think the age gap is inappropriate?” I found myself asking. Did I even want to know the answer to this? Not really. Because what if it was weird? And their age gap isn’t nearly as big as mine and Atlas’.
I was about to apologize and tell him never mind when Rhett shook his head.
“Why would it be weird?” he said, like the whole thing wasn’t a big deal. “Conall loves him and he’s happy. That’s all that really matters.”
I let the words sit with me inside the empty living room. Atlas had gone to his room to give me some privacy, but his door opened now to reveal him dressed in cozy blue-and-gray striped PJs. He pointed to the kitchen and brought his cupped hands to his lips like he was taking a sip from a cup.
My eyes tracked him across the room until he disappeared into the kitchen. Rhett’s soft chuckling had me looking back at him.
“Does your last question have something to do with your own situation?” he teased.
My face heated, but I kept my expression schooled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The smile was still on Rhett’s lips, but he looked a bit sad too. “You don’t seem as hopeless as you did before, you know?”
“I used to look hopeless?”
He shrugged. “Not in, like, a depressed kind of way, but more like you’d resigned yourself to your lot in life and couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Something changed this year, and it’s been more apparent recently.
I thought it was because you were finally free of Angelina, but maybe it’s something else entirely,” he said with a smirk.
“She’s not that bad,” I said automatically. Angelina was a hard woman created by an even harder world, but she wasn’t evil. She just did what she needed to survive.
Rhett didn’t look convinced, but he wasn’t the type of person to shit-talk anyone. “He makes you happy. I’ve seen the change ever since he came into your life.”
“He does.” I didn’t refute it this time because I didn’t want to minimize what Atlas did for me. “And I hope I make him happy too.”
Rhett smiled softly, and his hand twitched as if he wanted to reach through the phone. He was about a foot shorter than me, but he looked about ready to pull me into a bear hug.
“I’m sure you do, Hector. Don’t listen to what people say. They know jack shit. You’re the best person I know, and I’m so happy someone else finally realizes that now too.”
I wasn’t the type to get emotional over something like this. I definitely wasn’t the kind of guy to cry in another man’s arms because they voiced that they cared about me… But I guess I was doing a lot of things out of character recently.
Rhett and I said our goodbyes. He didn’t comment on my eyes that were sure to be glassy with tears and promised to text when he finalized the plans for his and Coal’s visit.
Atlas returned to the living room with two mugs. He smiled when he saw I’d ended my call.
“I was gonna drop off the hot chocolate and go, but since you’re free now…”
He came to sit beside me. It had almost become automatic for me to make space for him inside my arms so he could snuggle up close to me. Atlas was smiling as he did just that and passed me the warm mug.
“Have I mentioned just how sexy you look with those glasses on?” he commented and pressed a soft kiss to my nose.
The heat probably climbed up my cheeks, but Atlas just chuckled. He clinked his mug with mine before bringing it to his lips. He was smiling like we were sharing a secret.
I took a sip of the hot chocolate too. I didn’t usually go for something this sweet late at night, but the warmth of the drink spread through my body like a cozy hug.
It was soft and warm, and maybe that was the secret that Atlas and I shared. He made me feel like I could survive in this world even if I didn’t have to be strong all the time. That it was okay to be soft with the people I loved.
That was now two revelations that terrified me. But at the same time, it was like a weight had lifted off my shoulders.